The positive Astrologian thread!

[Ghishlain]

Well might as well remove this thread since it turned into another criticism thread.

I've been an active participant in the discussion of this thread for the last few pages. I don't see a reason to close down the thread because it hasn't been "yay, AST is awesome!", but at the same time there hasn't been any raw negativity either. It's been a fairly civil discussion regarding specific facts and opinions of AST. Most people who are passionately discussing AST-buffs do in fact enjoy AST, but they see some flaws that could use some obvious changes to make AST more competitive. I know I personally enjoy the job as a whole - AST is extremely engaging, challenging, and fun. I just wish the reward ratio was better for the amount of work I have to do.

To use another fighting game example - there will always be low tier and high tier characters. But a mark of good balance is when those low tier characters, despite being low tier, are still competitive in nature.

While the AST kit is functional, it would be doing it a disservice to say its competitive when compared to the items WHM and SCH bring to the table. The goal is to not bring AST to God-like levels that some pro-AST players believe the intent is, but to bring it up enough so that any combination of healers will function for any progression group looking at high end play. At that point, you leave it to the players to decide how they want to shape their group.

At this juncture we have seen about five to six A3S clears (the current highest cleared content) and unfortunately, none of them have seen an AST as far as I can see (though every other job / class in the game has had representation). This is indicative of ASTs competitiveness in the high-end progression scene and should indicate to S-E that a few small changes are required for AST.

To use a more specific example, let's consider a post from everyone's favorite poster on the forum:

I do not understand your issue? I double astro heal A1-A4 without issue all the time. Also have enough mana to keep my 3 dots up along with the utility of our cards which from my own experiences is another 150-170 dps unless you get a unlucky spreak and pull nothing but bole. I easily contribute 200-300 dps from my dots and a malefic cast every now and then along with arrow/balance/spear on my brother who plays a machinist he normally clocks another 150-160 dps through an entire run which is on par with scholar personal dps.

On SCH
I've clocked 520 personal DPS on Oppressor with Selene out and an i180 weapon in A1
I've clocked 800+ personal DPS in A2 using Selene and an i180 weapon
I've clocked about 420 DPS in A3 using Eos w/ 52% Overheal (which basically means I can afford to use Selene and be YAY, more buffs!) and an i180 weapon
^ All examples with me paired with a DF'd healing partner

If the best AST can bring to the table is 460 DPS which includes their buffs (and we seriously don't know how accurate that 150-160 additional DPS via buffs may actually be) and I can basically do that as a SCH alone and still continue to buff my party with Selene (who, if you look back at the last few pages of discussion, we've theorized can be between 90-180 group DPS), what does that speak of the dichotomy between AST and SCH?

Again, I will re-iterate. The "please-buff"-AST isn't looking for buffs to make AST God-like, they're looking for buffs to make them competitive with their WHM and SCH counterparts. Bonus points to S-E if they can continue to make AST healing even more unique too.