Astrologian Healing

[Seeri]

Why should we consider it fine that AST only really works when party is playing properly and are unable to cope when things go south?

We shouldn't, it's a horrible argument to make.
The only way that a penalty like that is fine is when there's a significant upside when things are going smoothly and there isn't.

[Huneidu]

I only have Conj to lvl 15 so I cannot speak to the whole breadth of the healing classes. With Scholar and AST both at level 60, I feel the AST has enough strengths to be viable. From my own experiences, Scholar has better global cool-down ability with their pet picking up heals, a much stronger mana refresh ability, and better single target dps. Placing your faerie in boss fights really makes a difference, and overall, the class allows you to pull through some would be wipe situations. The strengths of the AST is it has greater access to the stronger heals, you can spam your 680 heal and both of your aoe heals if need be without waiting for cool-downs. AST is also a lot more mobile than Scholar, I can run around quite a bit and still not worry much. I think that overall Scholar is the better class to bring into a fight for healing, and that AST functions better as Diurnal Sect with a Scholar versus going Noc with a WHM or fellow AST.

[Arcana]

I only have Conj to lvl 15 so I cannot speak to the whole breadth of the healing classes. With Scholar and AST both at level 60, I feel the AST has enough strengths to be viable.

I think its time to get Stoneskin... omg man... level your conj to 34 xD

[Huneidu]

I think its time to get Stoneskin... omg man... level your conj to 34 xD

I had nothing to lvl 50 but SMN all of 2.0. I went into Scholar because AST got to 60 halfway through the MSQ and I did not want to waste XP. I am really bad at leveling up classes. I got Bard and BLM to 35 for the SMN stuff and that was it > >

[Fricca]

As of now I feel like AST is designed towards speed healing. Im really looking forward to the changes they will make with Lightspeed, Collective Unconscious, and Celestial Opposition.. I'm thinking they would probably decrease gcd along with cast time for Lightspeed to make casts way smoother, this should make up for the 'weaker heals' ASTs have as they would be able to cast more stuff during a short period of time. As for Collective Unconscious, I feel like they should put some other kind of benefit to it considering the restriction: being unable to move/do anything while keeping it up, preferably mana regeneration over time for Duirnal Sect, and regain 10% of maximum mp or something for Nocturnal Sect.. because as of now I use this skill to take a break from healing too much on Duirnal Sect (HoTs + Collective Unconscious regen) and obviously mitigate damage for a short period of time for Nocturnal Sect. Either way, you'd be bound while the skill is active so mp regeneration sounds fitting. I'd be pretty happy with these fix along with whatever they would think of adding to Celestial Opposition and out-of-combat Spread.

tldr; Im content with where AST stands right now, but I do agree they need a bit of tweaking.

[AsakuraVN]

I just wish AST had 1 more skill to recover MP. Currently SCH has Aetherflow & Energy Drain (not to mention a bunch of free MP healing), and WHM has SoS + Assize. Both of them are self-managable, while AST only has 1 single MP recover skill that is slightly better than SoS if RNGesus is ever shine upon us, & we have to devote 2 other skills to support it (spear on spread).

I would be much happier if Ewer & Sprite recover some MP/TP (even just a tiny bit) instead of only decreasing the cost for a short time (since no one is gonna extend them), they would be much less situational & make AST more useful to the whole pt as a support role.

[Yumi_umi]

Imo asts have no middle ground.
Ur either really good or really bad lol
Asts r imo stronger than the other 2 healers if the party is top notch and executes everything perfectly. This will allow them to not have to heal stupid ( really tough cuz they r not bursty) & this allows their buffs to shine as it is just pure gravy on top of the already amazing team.

But on the other hand there will be derp parties tht will be too much for asts and their buffs will be wasted on themselves etc cuz the failed mechanics etc r too much for their healing potency.

[EZ5902]

I would prefer that Luminiferous Aether works like Shroud of Saints rather than Quelling Strikes.

Because you pop it right away like quelling strikes to reduce emnity, but then that's the mp regen effect pretty much wasted since the mp regenerated is more than you use and was used while having full mp.

[RickiFake02]

I would prefer that Luminiferous Aether works like Shroud of Saints rather than Quelling Strikes.

Because you pop it right away like quelling strikes to reduce emnity, but then that's the mp regen effect pretty much wasted since the mp regenerated is more than you use and was used while having full mp.

Why would you pop it right away? Shroud also reduces enmity, but you never really need to use it for that if things are going the way they should be anyway. I don't see why you'd ever use the AST equivalent for the enmity dump either.

[Lorielle]

Snippy!

Err..Yes, if there's not much healing going on, then Astrologian will be excellent in their buffing role. But the flop can be said when it comes to DPS. ASTs fail horridly on the Single Target DPS and AoE DPS compared to the other two. And with the bad MP Regen AST has, it begs to question why you would bother doing that. However, even if the party does execute mechanics perfectly, there will still be damage done. Depending on the content in question, it may or may not be a little more for AST to handle by themselves.

I don't see why you'd ever use the AST equivalent for the enmity dump either.

The same reason why you'd use Shroud of Saints? There are situations where the sudden dump would be helpful.