The positive Astrologian thread!

[Gabrielleblanc]

I'm really enjoying the mechanics of this class, I was dead set on tanking for my group of friends when we actually get up to start raiding, but now I want to heal.

[AlexanderThorolund]

I did Pharos yesterday and the first boss brought everyone to their knees and thanks to light speed and Helios I managed to drag everyone from death. It feels so much tighter as a emergency heal than anything Scholar offered me up to level 50.

I just love this class. I desperately want to level another class but I can't pull myself away from Astrologian long enough. It's addictive.

[AnMex]

I cleared A1S yesterday and got to last wave on A2S today!

I REALLY hope they give good viable buffs to ast sooner rather than later

[Evanoel]

What I do like about AST's card system is it's like dealing with things in life. We always hope for the best to happen in our life yet most often you only get disappointment. So you use what life gives you to achieve the best you can make out of it. You wish to always draw The Balance or Arrow every time, but most likely you only get what, The Spire? The Ewer? The Bole? An AST must learn to adapt and make use of the card drawn for the best possible outcome at that particular situation. See? It's just the same with how we're dealing with things that happen in our real life.

[AlexanderThorolund]

Did fractal continuum yesterday for the first time. Was amazing as Astrologian.

[Galadrium]

I cleared A1S yesterday and got to last wave on A2S today!

I REALLY hope they give good viable buffs to ast sooner rather than later

Congratulations! I just reached i190 on my AST. Maybe I'll give it a try now myself.

Congrats again on the clear.

[AlexanderThorolund]

Does anyone know where to get Astrometer of the white griffin? I can't find a location for the drop.

[NorthernLadMSP]

It requires you to be a rank 50 PVPer and is purchased at the PVP vendor.

[RichardButte]

Exactly this. I'll happily eat my foot if someone can detail a new, effective strategy exclusive to or simply optimal for AST that allows it to shine as well as the other two healers do.

I did that months ago, but please, don't go marinating your foot in BBQ sauce because you're still not WRONG at all...

The "new AST meta" would've revolved around a simple principle: the job of a healer is to keep the party alive until the end of the encounter. WHMs and SCHs do this by healing or shielding incoming damage.

AST, hypothetically, could've done this by bringing about the end of the encounter more quickly. Weaker healing and fewer emergency buttons are fine as tradeoffs if the AST is genuinely capable of increasing the party's DPS to the point that phases end more quickly, and everyone would take less damage because the boss/adds aren't alive long enough to DO that damage.

THAT would've been the new AST meta. However, the card buffs aren't even strong enough that they beat out a single Selene firing off it's 3% buff every minute for 30 seconds, in terms of adding any significant increase to the overall party DPS.

I expected AST to be a weaker healer out of the gate. Out of the three jobs, they were the most scared about someone finding an exploit with AST and facerolling savage content and I don't blame them. In hindsight, ASTs were going to have to sit this one out one way or another.

I actually support Yoshi-P in not wanting to repeat Blizzard's Death Knight debacle, what with the class launching stupidly overpowered (all three specs could tank AND DPS, and did it stupidly well, too...).

ASTs will have their day soon, and I'd rather be unique in being an AST player than one member of a horde of people playing an OP class.

[Cynfael]

I did that months ago, but please, don't go marinating your foot in BBQ sauce because you're still not WRONG at all...

The "new AST meta" would've revolved around a simple principle: the job of a healer is to keep the party alive until the end of the encounter. WHMs and SCHs do this by healing or shielding incoming damage.

AST, hypothetically, could've done this by bringing about the end of the encounter more quickly. Weaker healing and fewer emergency buttons are fine as tradeoffs if the AST is genuinely capable of increasing the party's DPS to the point that phases end more quickly, and everyone would take less damage because the boss/adds aren't alive long enough to DO that damage.

This is rather what I imagined for AST, too. Who knows what the upcoming changes will bring, though. If the patch delivers what it sounds like it might based on what Yoshi was talking about, with more impactful card buffs and some improvements to AST's healing game, AST might more effectively fill the "support caster" niche while closing the healing utility gap with WHM and SCH just enough to allow them to hold their own.

Even if it takes more skill and more effort, that would be an acceptable tradeoff and a welcome challenge if the reward were there.