Astro in savage

[RudyEstheim]

Does someone know if a static has cleared some Alexander Savage floor with 2 Astros?

I do not know of any and the odds of 2 Ast in the a savage static is extremely low.

[Vlady]

Even I know savage is not kind to double astro. I don't think se had it in mind to support double astro by design until we can stance dance again. Scholar and white mage seems destined to be one of the healers astrologian are paired with.

[Parawill]

Even I know savage is not kind to double astro. I don't think se had it in mind to support double astro by design until we can stance dance again. Scholar and white mage seems destined to be one of the healers astrologian are paired with.

I actually can see A1S being able to completed by double Astro (like double WHM and double SCH can already). It's just a bit trickier since both Astrologians will have to coordinate very well to not kick buffs off specific targets.

> I can't say much about A2S, A3S and A4S since I've never been. Watching videos isn't the same as doing them live xP

[Alexia89]

Even I know savage is not kind to double astro. I don't think se had it in mind to support double astro by design until we can stance dance again. Scholar and white mage seems destined to be one of the healers astrologian are paired with.

Again? You never could.

[SuzakuCMX]

Again? You never could.

Sometimes, you just wonder if certain people on these forums even play the game or pay attention to their class. Especially THAT person.

[GideonHighmourn]

Again? You never could.

I was starting to wonder this, myself. I didn't jump into the AST train on day one after playing around with it for a bit, but I was almost certain their stances were always mutually exclusive once you were in combat. Heard him saying this a lot around the forums as being the "answer" for AST's issues. Guess it really was just more non-sense. I remember people speculating that you could Sect-Dance, as that was the impression many people had, but it was never an actuality, as far as I recall.

[Leiloni]

Again? You never could.

I've heard people say that in development you could stance dance and it was a very last minute change before the class was released to prevent that.

[Ghishlain]

I was starting to wonder this, myself. I didn't jump into the AST train on day one after playing around with it for a bit, but I was almost certain their stances were always mutually exclusive once you were in combat. Heard him saying this a lot around the forums as being the "answer" for AST's issues. Guess it really was just more non-sense. I remember people speculating that you could Sect-Dance, as that was the impression many people had, but it was never an actuality, as far as I recall.

I've heard people say that in development you could stance dance and it was a very last minute change before the class was released to prevent that.

I can't find it ATM but one of the initial interviews with Yoshi-P mentioned that AST would be able to "change their stance with a long cooldown" or something to that effect . This is probably where most of the information regarding "stance change would be cool!" comes from. Whether it's a last minute decision or not to change it, we'll never know.

Here are a couple of tidbits from random sources here or there.

Famitsu PAXEast translated interview (source 1)

Astrologists can switch between a heal stance or a barrier stance. It's actually a bit too strong so there'll be restrictions on how often you can switch stances, a delay of some kind. Spells remain the same, their affects just change dependong on stance so it's not like you'll need to juggle 2x more skills than other classes.

Famitsu PAXEast translated interview (source 2)

Tell us a bit more about the two styles of astrologian.

Y: The best way to put it simply is that you'll be able to switch between stances of a pure healer type and a barrier type. One way to think of it is that the healer type would be kind of like white mage, while the shield type would be closer to scholar. However, it would be too strong if you could switch frequently during combat, so there will be restrictions on how often you can change.

Official Translated Live Letter XXI

There are two stances, Diurnal Sect and Nocturnal Sect, which you can switch between. One of them is simply a healing stance much like white mage, while the other uses barriers much like scholar.

Depending on which stance you are in the effects of each ability and spell will largely vary, so first it would be best to get used to one stance and then try and master the next.

So, there was a lot of implied comments about being able to Sect dance.

[GideonHighmourn]

snip

I wonder if that's why they implied that CO might change to include a way to switch between sects? Maybe that was the "long cool down" he mentioned originally. I still don't see that changing the much in terms of how the class performs in healing, since you still wouldn't really swap with a SCH in the group (shield stacking), or be able to do it often enough to really matter.

[RaeyFonzur]

So after finishing A1S with AST/SCH, I feel like AST needs a new skill, a number of small buffs and a single very large buff. (A complete rework into a spell speed healer would be nice too, but I'd prefer not waiting for the next expansion to be on par with WHM/SCH...)

Our party composition was PLD, WAR, SCH, AST, DRG, MNK, BLM, BRD. The SCH used Selene for the entire fight.
I was the main healer, but we split the party after 0.5 came out and I mainly focused on the WAR, DRG, BRD and myself.
For double prey, I change tactics depending on who is targeted:
DPS/Anyone except me or the WAR - I Synastry one of the DPS (If time permits, I Aspected Benefic them too) and Benefic 2 spam the WAR the entire time, I use Essential Dignity on the PLD if nobody else needs it.
WAR/Anyone except me - I Synastry the other target and Benefic 2 spam the WAR the entire time, then I use Essential Dignity to top the PLD off, allowing the SCH to DPS.
Me/Anyone except the WAR - I Synastry the other target (So the SCH can heal the target once and then focus both tanks) and Benefic 2 spam myself, I use Essential Dignity and possibly Benefic 2 on the WAR to top him off before Hypercompressed Plasma.
Me/WAR - Synastry sucks and I probably die unless the SCH helps (I could probably fix this by using Synastry on the PLD and having the SCH heal me).
For the jumps, BRD uses ballad (I'm always at about 2-4k mp at this point), SCH uses Deployment Tactics, PLD uses Divine Veil (Assuming its up) and I use Aspected Helios to top everyone off while we are busy placing resin along the walls.
The SCH already has up Sacred Soil in the corner by the time we get there and is already in Cleric Stance to put DOTs on both bosses as soon as possible. When the bosses land, I use Helios once to top people off (only if Divine Veil wasn't up) and Aspected Benefic on both tanks.
Then we repeat.
For the enrage double preys, I solo heal them UNLESS its on both healers, in which case I just dps instead and let us die.

Of course I could have done this way easier on WHM and allowed the SCH to DPS more (he did 224 dps, but can maintain 500+ during the first phase) and even probably pulled the same 73 DPS as I did on AST.

I drew 4 Balances (Used on everyone), 2 Boles (Used one on each tank), 2 Ewers (Both used for Royal Road) and 1 Spire (Royal Road). I ended up using Expanded Balance a total of 4 times (I had Expanded prepared and drew The Balance the moment the fight began) during the fight. So I would say I increased the group DPS by about 30.

My thoughts on current balancing:

Mind party bonus - Too much healing is lost without this. AST is definitely bringing the party down because of this alone.

Healing - O.K., doesn't really shine and is JUST enough to keep people alive (Which is horrifying).
Benefic/Helios - These are fine.
Benefic 2 - The trait for this needs to reduce mana cost to be lower or something because theres no reason to use it unless you need a psuedo emergency heal or just can't keep up with the damage output.

Diurnal - The 5% bonuses are completely backwards, 5% haste just kills your mana faster and doesn't really shine unless you aren't the main healer and are DPSing. This stance could compare to WHM if it gave the mind party bonus or if we had some sort of potency buff.
Aspected Benefic (Diurnal) - Doesn't even compare to Regen, this HOT is laughable for its mana cost. I'd prefer the HOT be the same potency but less duration than Regens HOT, even if this meant losing its instant heal.
Aspected Helios (Diurnal) - The less range is super annoying and really hurts in this fight, forcing SCH to deal with party damage too.

Nocturnal - 5% healing bonus... why on Nocturnal? This stance doesn't even compare to SCH.
Aspected Benefic (Nocturnal) - Can't see a reason to use it unless you absolutely need it's shield/instant cast or else someone will die. SCH can at least use Adloquium as a psuedo Cure 2 if Physick isn't cutting it.
Aspected Helios (Nocturnal) - Worse than Succor in every possible way, also no reason to use it unless the AoE damage is too much without mitigation. Also, that 3 second cast time...

Its like they took Regen and destroyed the best part about it (mana efficiency), or took Adloquium and made it instant at the cost of the crit double, which would be fine, but we already have Benefic 2 which is more mana efficient and its awful too...
Then to make it worse they took everything awful from Medica 2 (Cast time) and Succor (Range) and put it into a single skill that ends up being slightly behind Medica 2 and way behind Succor.

Damage - Pretty mediocre for the mana costs when we don't really have much mana to spare.

Utility - Compared to the other 2 healers? Non-existent.
Essential Dignity - Pretty borderline overpowered if it was on any other healer, but as our only emergency heal we can't really waste it every 40 seconds.
Luminiferous Aether - Would be nice if this was a unique skill instead of a copy-paste of Shroud. No complaints though because of its beautiful animation.
Lightspeed - More likely to put you into an emergency since you will (almost) always get stuck in a 4.5 second delay between the next heal at the end of it's duration (Which is why I never used it during A1S). Also, this is as much of an emergency skill as Swiftcast is.
Disable - Wish it didn't work on auto attacks. Also, its not very clear if this only works on the first hit of multi-hit skills or all of them.
Synastry - Only really shines in situations where a second target is only taking half of the damage of whoever you are healing, or if half of the healing would actually be enough to keep up a second target for the amount of time needed (A1S). Also, what is the point of making this unable to be used on myself, or making it where healing myself doesn't heal the other person? And, why is this skill called Synastry when it doesn't even work with over half of my heals?
Time Dilation - Should double durations. Also, why can't I cast this on myself? Just make it only extend cards or something and make this skill actually powerful (No, a 750 potency Regen on a 90 second cooldown isn't powerful when you have to spend 2000 mana to set it up).
Collective Unconscious - You have to be desperate to use this skill outside of Nocturnal. (I don't use it in A1S)
Celestial Opposition - I don't even know if this thing deserves a 30 second cooldown, let alone 150 seconds. I just extend Luminiferous Aether with it if I don't manage to get an expanded card in time.

We really need some sort of other emergency healing skill.

Cards - The RNG or this whole system has to be removed. EXTREMELY lackluster for wasting 4 of our skills on.
Draw - We should really be able to have 100% uptime on at least one card...
Shuffle - Pretty sure this skill has a hardcoded 60% chance to draw the same card.
Spread - Only a few cards are worth using this on.
The Balance - One of our only balanced cards.
The Bole - Another one of our only balanced cards.
The Arrow - Worse than The Balance unless you use it to heal. Needs to be 12-15%.
The Spear - Interesting concept, but putting this on someone can really mess with their sense of time if they map out a fight with their skills.
The Ewer - Actually balanced now.
The Spire - Royal Road fodder every time since nobody in my group runs out of TP anymore unless they are AoEing.
Royal Road - Puts RNG inside of RNG and makes you stop using cards if you get awful combos (Expanded Bole/Ewer/Spire).
Enhanced - Why isn't this 200%? Its only better than Extended if the card is 15 seconds normally and you use both Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition to extend it.
Extended - You're better off just using the card twice than trying to play with the RNG again.
Expanded - Halved potency makes this feel a lot weaker than it should be for the gamble you have to take (Can't really use some cards when you have this up or else they become too weak to be noticeable).

I can post the parse of the fight if anyone wants it.