Healing 'big' pulls on Astro

[Risvertasashi]

You need to be wary though when using HoT on big pulls though because if you "buff" them before they start pulling, all the mobs will rush to you because you technically healed the tank.

AST regens are front-loaded so it's not even a technicality. You cast aspected (diurnal) benefic, you heal for >1k hp and then the HoT starts.

I only did a small amount of testing but I quickly found HoTs to be more helpful than AST shields for stuff like this, or at least with how I was playing it. If someone gives Nocturnal Sect a more thorough test in these sort of near-wipe situations, please share your experiences.

[Dyvid]

AST regens are front-loaded so it's not even a technicality. You cast aspected (diurnal) benefic, you heal for >1k hp and then the HoT starts.

I only did a small amount of testing but I quickly found HoTs to be more helpful than AST shields for stuff like this, or at least with how I was playing it. If someone gives Nocturnal Sect a more thorough test in these sort of near-wipe situations, please share your experiences.

Well my experience in speed runs is if I use regen before the tanks starts pulling the mobs stop catching the tank and start attack me. I'm starting to use Noct for trash mobs now since I'm used to SCH and i'll let you know how it goes.

[Leiloni]

Well my experience in speed runs is if I use regen before the tanks starts pulling the mobs stop catching the tank and start attack me. I'm starting to use Noct for trash mobs now since I'm used to SCH and i'll let you know how it goes.

Well that's why you never use a Regen until after a tank is finished pulling. Wait until he's stopped and has aggro on everything, then pop the Regen and the extra healing is nice alongside Benefic spam. I usually just make sure they have a Stoneskin up before they pull and unless they over pull or are undergeared it should be fine.

But there's something about that one big pull near the start of AKHM that no matter what healer I'm playing on, I always get tanks that can't live through the entire thing. Even on my WHM with Divine Seal up. I think it has something to do with the fact that that 2nd pull is iffy if the tank isn't perfect and most end up pulling the entire hallway so keeping them alive through the start of it is very difficult. That paired with the fact that in Duty Finder, you're playing with ilevel 110, so you don't overgear that dungeon by all that much.

[Kelya]

As long as you have a tank that is poping CD on the packs of mobs, you should be alright. You have time to dps with Gravity, coming back full HP with Essential dignity and then coming back to dps again, then repeat. If you need to heal between 2 Essential dignity cooldown either the tank is not correct or the pull is too big, but in general that's how it goes.

[Eisenhower]

Healing big pulls can vary a lot between groups. That has been my experience of it at least.

When I'm healing my static's tank in big pulls as AST I rarely have any problems, even less so if we bring along our regular DPS players. It's entirely different when I'm healing in PUG groups, even when the content and pull size is the same. If the tank isn't using defensive cooldowns properly they'll eat a lot more damage than they should. Same goes for the HW content when party members are undergeared or used to being overgeared. If the DPS isn't up to par for whatever reason the enemies won't die fast enough and somewhere someone buckles under the pressure.

At 57 I tend to heal large pulls in Diurnal. Asp. Benefic + Asp. Helios + Time Dilation and then move on to spamming Benefic/Benefic II. I also tend to use Luminiferous Aether pretty early, around 85 or even 90%. The Essential Dignity is saved for when the tank goes low. I'll card if it's applicable, but it's not as reliable as using Eye for an Eye, Shadowflare or Divine Seal. If the mobs are weak or for some other reason doesn't deal that much damage I help out with Gravity.

Compared to healing big pulls on WHM or SCH, it definitely feels more stressful and it seems I burn through mana quicker since Benefic is a bit weaker than Cure/Physick. Though it might have something to do with gear right now. I'll probably try it out and experiment a little once I reach 60 and get the full toolset and better gear.

[Krixus]

Like others have said, most the time it is the tank at fault. What I do on pull is, as soon as the tank grabs hate put regen on him + a card on tank/dps. Don't use DoTs if there is 3+ mobs, just jump right into gravity spam. Let the tank get real low, just watch how fast his hp is dropping to determine when to leave clerics. Essential dignity, with real low hp has huge potency. I've healed close to 10k with a crit using this. Follow that with an instant aspected benefic, then jump back into gravity spam. Killing big groups faster saves a ton of mp, and gravity spam with no interruptions can outdmg even aoe dps jobs.

[YuiSasaki]

I wonder why people are using Nocturnal though, I mean the shields are without any synergy (like the scholar ones - and no I'm not qqing therefore, it's prolly better that SCH has the upper hand on that behalf) and are most of the time gone in 1-2 hits. Normally you can't spam AB to make it worth the GCD. Compared to that the HoTs are much more reliable.

Plus the fact that Nocturnal & Galvanize won't stack wheras Diurnal & WHM HoTs do stack.

I might be going off topic here, but what are your thoughts on Nocturnal? Are you using it? Why?

[Blueyes]

I might be going off topic here, but what are your thoughts on Nocturnal? Are you using it? Why?

In regard to dungeons specifically, there is a tactic that I often use which involves swapping to Nocturnal Sect to apply a shield buffer to the tank before they pull anything, then quickly switch back to Diurnal Sect. Sometimes it can be a little risky to do that if the tank is all "go go go" but even a small HP buffer will help with those large pulls.

[Leiloni]

In regard to dungeons specifically, there is a tactic that I often use which involves swapping to Nocturnal Sect to apply a shield buffer to the tank before they pull anything, then quickly switch back to Diurnal Sect. Sometimes it can be a little risky to do that if the tank is all "go go go" but even a small HP buffer will help with those large pulls.

Or you could just give them a Stoneskin and stay in Diurnal stance lol.

[Mirakell]

I'm playing catch up with my static so these were PUG groups I was healing So that may be an element of the issues I've been having.

Thank you all very much for the advice. I feel like healing with this class can be awfully more stressful but I am still determined to give it a go - though I shall be leveling my scholar asap after Astro hits 60, just incase I'm putting too much stress on my co-healer in my static. I do hope we get some tweaks as Astro is quite a nice class to play. Mana issues are cropping up more often too at this stage ^^; I was spoiled on my scholar xD