What I think the celestial opposition buff is going to be...

[lordparanoia]

I don't think that Collective Unconscious will lose it's SacredSoil/Asylum Effect >.<
it makes no sense.

[GideonHighmourn]

Saying I'm wrong doesn't make what you're trying to write into their words correct. If they intended to add two new stances or toggles, they would have stated just that. You're literally trying to interpret their statement into meaning something entirely different.

I DO think switching between Diurnal and Nocturnal WAS intended from the beginning, as their healing potency is quantifiably lower than SCH or WHM. It would have given them flavor and versatility, rather than being a poor replacement for either.

[lordparanoia]

Now it's going to be the most difficoult healer to play in this game and I could really love it.

[Krixus]

God could you imagine the skillcap of astro if you could stance swap at any moment?

[Lycinder]

Saying I'm wrong doesn't make what you're trying to write into their words correct.

Well no I corrected myself in my earlier post "I hope your wrong" it would be terrible it doesn't work and I am pretty sure they stated from early class previews that you couldn't switch between stances.

Making it into a homogenised healer with support tacked onto it kind of kills the whole support part, we shouldn't compete against healers with healing we should be competing and topping healers in the support, its the same for support dps hybrids, do they compete with dps or the utility they bring?

[GideonHighmourn]

AST is a healer first, support second; there are two healer spots, and much like MCH/BRD, they need to contribute more than just support. They should be able to sustain a group on their own if needed, and compete with SCH/WHM; otherwise, there's no reason to bring one over WHM/SCH. Adding versatility to the class wouldn't "homogenize" it, it would diversify it. Right now, Dirunal Sect is what 90% of AST's play in, due to the weak nature of Nocturnal Sect, making them a poor WHM replacement. The ability to switch to Nocturnal when mechanics call for it, and then back to Diurnal to recover afterwards, would make them far more viable and versatile.

Combined with card changes, their support portion is going to be more competitive as well.

[Lycinder]

...

Yes nocturnal needs changes to weigh up against diurnal that I concede but I am of the group margin which says "Our healing is fine, we need our support buffed." our healing works, it has been shown Astro can solo heal Ravana EX so our healing is viable in the same way that MCH and Bard (with their new buff) dps is totally viable.

We don't need to compete with SCH and WHM in raw heals if our support is diverse and good enough we can bring in our own flavour which makes it so that people can effectively weigh us up. "Do I want safety of heals if people take more damage or would I want sustained buffs from Astrologian."
If our healing is buffed up to the same level as SCH and WHM and our cards are buffed it becomes a situation of "Always bring an Astro."

[GideonHighmourn]

I'm not saying AST needs to be equivalent to SCH/WHM at all; don't put words in my mouth.

The ability to switch between stances is powerful, and diverse enough and competitive against SCH/WHM. Combined with changes to cards, AST will become an actual contender for progression, rather than "passable" in an ideal encounter with perfectly executed mechanics (Ravana EX solo heal).

[Krixus]

What people don't realize is you can have a strong healer, and then a support healer. If anyone here played ffxi think about the pt's there. You would have a whm, and then a rdm. Rdm couldn't heal as well as whm, but was useful to have for refresh and haste.

[Lycinder]

...

But I am repeating what you are saying, competing with SCH and WHM, to compete means you need to be at the same level...So point has been made.

The relationship between Warrior, Paladin and Dark Knight says "Hi! " Paladin was generally preferred for progression as MT because of their mitigation making it easier on the load to heal but as things were on farm on some encounters it was a dps net gain with warrior MT when everyone learned the ropes.
Also in progression SCH's would heal way less than WHM because they were trying to hit dps checks which were hard to hit at progression level, my suggestion is like cleric stance but its own support flavour to help hit those dps checks with sustained buffs.

I don't think we should be theorycrafting progression raiding until we understand how progression raiding is going to work, tbh, but looking back in previous progression raiding like I just did Astro would still have a nice spot to sit.