The positive Astrologian thread!

[Ghishlain]

You are ignoring some important facts about that buff. First of all, haste doesn't affect every DPS job the same; some jobs do most damage with DoTs and Off-GCD spells, none of which are affected by haste. On top of that, the buff is not continuous and spells/weaponskills have to be used while it is on for it to be effective. If you target moves or starts doing anything else instead of casting, the buff gets less effective each second; that is true for both SCH and AST. However, the Arrow, even though it has an obvious RNG component, is concentrated and can be stored to be used in an optimal situation. Depending on the situation and if used properly, you can get more DPS output from it by using it on a single target than Selene will be able to get from an entire party. According to my testing in a dummy, Selene barely added 25-30 extra DPS output to a DRG, which is supposedly one of the best jobs to receive it; and that was in a dummy situation, with no moving and no mechanics.

Of course, Haste is one of those buffs where it's a bit hard to quantify how it actually affects the player. It'll do better for those jobs that already have haste or those that want to get through their rotation faster, so NIN / MNK / WAR / BLM all come to mind (though one could argue the use for BLM since their rotation is already really tuned, apparently). Likewise, any DoT style class like SMN and SCH won't be able to make it as useful and any seriously heavy oGCD class like DRG won't either. WHM / MCN / BRD / DRK / PLD all probably get okay mileage.

Admttidly, there are also exceptions too. A SMN getting Haste while in Dreadwyrm Trance and spamming that Ruin III button as hard as possible will get much more mileage than a SMN who's at the beginning of their DoT cycle. A DRG getting Haste while they're going through their burst cycle can make use of the additional attacks, etc.

While you mention 25-30 extra DPS on DRG, think of how that effects a party. If Selene adds an average of 25-30 DPS per person in the group and you're accounting for six people (four DPS and two tanks), that's another 150-180 DPS added to the group.

I don't think an AST can add that outside of getting perfect draws. If a DRG is doing 1,400 DPS and you're getting Balance every single time, your DRG is probably gaining about 70-100 DPS through their rotation.

I will admit it is exceedingly difficult to quantify how every single card and RR + buff permutation can affect a job/class/group, but I do believe AST is slightly underpowered compared to the reliability that Selene gives you, even when you take into account Haste isn't a great buff for specific DPS.

(if it crits it's amazing, but according to everyone RNG is bad, so you can't rely on it)

Just going to weigh in on this issue too.

If an Adlo crits, woohoo, more eHP! If it doesn't crit, it's still a heal and it's still beneficial for your tank.

If you're an AST and trying to setup a potent Enhanced Balance + Time Dilation for a DRG that's about to burst cycle and then end up drawing a Ewer and then shuffling into a Spire, then what do you do?

While they're both RNG in nature, an Adlo will be useful in any situation regardless of RNG while RNG buffs aren't. Of course that's the gamble you take when playing AST and sometimes it pays off big and other times it blows up in your face.