So Tried to Heal Sohm Al as an Astrologian...

[Ashquar]

No, I completely forgot about that.

[technole]

Save any Ewers you get for yourself as well as Spears before you use LA. Pairing Lightspeed with Ewer can help a bit, but keep in mind Lightspeed will make your heals even weaker. Use your Regen-like skill as well as your Medica II-like skill, the extra HoTs will help a lot. AST does not have any mitigation (like how SCH's have Soil or Shadowflare and WHM's have Holy and Asylum), so you have no way to really reduce the damage the mobs do (Shadowflare has a slow, Holy stuns, Soil mitigates, and Asylum is another HoT). You're really at the mercy of the tank's CDs and your healing output.

Yet using Ewers or any cards constantly on yourself is just killing the utility of AST. So that is something to consider if it's constantly being an issue, gear, the party make-up. This shouldn't be a long-term solution.

But yes, AST DPS skills are the weakest of the three healers. No practical mitigation effects aside from Stella and the Heavy debuff. You can buy some time before the tank gets hit just like if SCH uses Miasma II on a mob during the pull (which I wish more SCHs would use). Although Stella has a pretty long cast time for such low potency and the AST could be trying to catch-up so it's much harder to use this utility.

But I can get pretty frustrated doing a dungeon as AST with DPS being so slow to kill anything whereas if I went as WHM/SCH we'd make it up with healer DPS mitigation, be well ahead, and using way less MP.

[Ashquar]

Be my guest. As for heals not really sure as I was trying to keep the tank alive so wasn't focused on the amount I was healing for. As for the gear, I have full poetics gear save for the head which is the Demon Hat from WoD and the legs which is the HQ Ramie slops of healing. I have a couple of Accessories from quests that are HQ as well. As for my Weapon, its the lvl 50 ilvl 115 weapon. I have a dungeon drop for a lvl 54 weapon just was trying to get to lvl 54 when I ran the dungeon.

[Werhusky]

The jump from Dusk Vigil to Sohm Al is healing wise on AST a huge step... atleast it felt like it.
I had leveled my scholar before so I knew the healing well but I agree that I got during leveling AST some selfconfident newbie tanks pulling all first room or another one not poping any cooldown during the whole run.
I can imagine that if you dont know the healing needed you might get overwhelmed. First few pulls if your tank goes big are a pure bene 2 spam and keep regen up.
Worry about cards after the healing and also check if you don't accidentally heal in CS (I do that quite often when zoning in ) also a level sync could have caused your stance (Diurnal/Nocturnal) to fall off. I make at start of every dungeon the whole stoneskinning and buffing and check my stance along the way. Also I pop a card expecting the tankjust to run off so you can pop the card on a partymember while you see what tankingstyle you have to expect. It gives you that downtime so you can really just use your heals and can forget the card distration while you adjust.
And dont worry a fair tank would have talked about you what the issue is. I tank aswell and I know for some people I can do the full pulls and for others just be patient and do pack by pack.

[RichardButte]

AST healing is definitely weaker, but it's not THAT much weaker.

If a tank pulls too many mobs or gets a few damage increasing debuffs on them, however, AST will suffer horribly because of it.

[Selli]

Yet using Ewers or any cards constantly on yourself is just killing the utility of AST. So that is something to consider if it's constantly being an issue, gear, the party make-up. This shouldn't be a long-term solution.

I never said they were a long term solution, OP said they're having trouble, using the cards on yourself is one way to help with that. Obviously they aren't going to start throwing Enhanced Balances on themselves. Spear cards generally go to the Royal Road anyway 'cause they're hard to co-ordinate with DF parties (unless its right before a boss), so there is no harm on using it on yourself. As for Ewers, you probably won't use them on yourself in a dungeon if you don't need to, but in a raid 9/10 you'll use Ewer on yourself because AST has the biggest MP issues out of all the healers right now.

And AST is a healer, their main job is to heal. If they're having trouble with that, maximizing their utility becomes second and keeping everyone (or at least the tank) alive becomes first. "Why did we die healer?" "Well, I got an Ewer and none of you are casters so I Shuffled it and got Balance for you, since that's more useful, but then I ran out of MP 'cause I was Bene II spamming."

[technole]

Basically what I'm saying is keep the utility up while healing. Rather than fish for self-use cards or letting any draw slide. Getting damage buffs could be enough to get back to healing normalcy. Playing a healer without healing potency buffs means you really have to use your card RNG to your advantage, if it's possible and really the only frustration with the job if the cards and stars never line up. If Ewer is drawn, it's up to the player to determine if they need for themselves it now or soon. Which could be a deciding factor.

I'm not saying never use it on yourself, just don't get into a situation where you are looking for cards only for yourself or forgetting your utility could soothe the pain.

I haven't really ran into deep AST MP issues even when stuff hits the fan. But I'm pretty aggressive on using aether just as much as WHM Shroud on cooldown. Although I always had highest ilvl gear for each level having leveled WHM and SCH already so it is very possible my perspective isn't the same result as someone with an i115 weapon. Only one time I said we were going to die due my MP because the NIN was lagging so bad on a big pull, the WAR, and BRD themselves were taking forever and nothing was dying. That was expected.

[Risvertasashi]

Your tank had crap gear.

Conversely...

Ashquar, what was your gear like? AST has much much less room for lagging behind.

Other possibilities: Was the tank in DPS stance? Standing in things? etc etc.

[Nadirah]

Sounds to me like the deep was standing in those pollen thingies. That poison sucks.

[Tashim]

Alot of tanks also get used to the idea that healers will use cooldowns to save them.
Divine Seal, Presence of Mind, or sacred soil/lustrate, eye for an eye, even shadow flare to slow mobs, etc.

These are tools that healers have had to help with spike damage on a tank. AST do not get any tools to handle burst damage well. The only options are a Benefic2 proc, Essential Dignity, and using an Arrow Card on yourself. These don't even come close to the effectiveness of what real healers get.

Tanks need to learn to be more self-sufficient with cooldowns. AST are fun to play, but their healing throughput does feel very hard-capped, and if a tank exceeds that... well, you've seen it already.