I want to heal! ...but first...

[zipzo]

Can anybody give me a decent elaboration as to what is currently the issue with AST? The reason I ask is because of the 3 healers, this is the one that actually sort of piqued my curiousity, but that's why I'm asking these questions above!

So what are AST's current issues/obstacles?

[Eudyptes]

Can anybody give me a decent elaboration as to what is currently the issue with AST? The reason I ask is because of the 3 healers, this is the one that actually sort of piqued my curiousity, but that's why I'm asking these questions above!

So what are AST's current issues/obstacles?

In short, it underperforms in every aspect compared to the other two. It suffers from "jack of all trades" syndrome, while the other two combine to make a perfect pair.

You can get content done with AST, so if you want to play it and have fun, play it. However if being an optimal class is important to you and you want less worry/struggle in progression content, I'd pass on it.

[MXMoondoggie]

Can anybody give me a decent elaboration as to what is currently the issue with AST? The reason I ask is because of the 3 healers, this is the one that actually sort of piqued my curiousity, but that's why I'm asking these questions above!

So what are AST's current issues/obstacles?

Just suffering from being a new class mostly. They had some interesting ideas with it but didn't implement them very well. It doesn't play so well in endgame content in 4 man dungeons not so bad but 8 man full party content AST feels more like a passenger than a useful part of the team. It's hard to explain unless you have played with an AST or played as one. In a party with a SCH I can feel them there I know what they are doing and it's like riding a wave between healing and DPS and SCH's tend to feel the same with WHM they know the WHM can cope with any big hits so they can let their fairy heal while they do DPS and mitigate the hard hits. What the SCH does directly is helping what I'm doing. With an AST I feel like I'm having to over compensate a lot for it's lack of tools it's support skills are okay but need to be made more useful and they need better healing ability so the other healing class doesn't have to patch up the holes it leaves.

[Muahbec]

WHM: Healing power, you can easily top the whole raid with some potent AOE heals and also has one of the most potent DPS among the healers (if not THE most potent).
SCH: Damage mitigation, you can decrease the amount of damage the whole raid receive and you have your fellow fairy to help you with your heals or with DPS.
AST: A weaker version of both, with cards that are not exactly THAT useful or significant in the battlefield. Surely it will receive some rework/changes/whatever lol but for now, WHM and SCH are the preferences.

[Zaj_Quilos]

So what are AST's current issues/obstacles?

90% of the first page of the healer board is bashing Astrologians so.....!

I love AST - been 60 a while and much prefer it to WHM which got very stale for me.

[TonberiScholar]

So what are AST's current issues/obstacles?

RNG on its primary mechanic (the buffs from Cards).

That's the biggest problem.

It's penalized as a healer due to having the potential to buff, but given that what buff you can apply is completely random and the buffs themselves are not very impactful unless you're getting a perfect string of Royal Road buffs on good Cards, it ends up being lackluster.

The cards need to be either less tied to RNG or a lot stronger to make up for it, and right now they're the worst of both worlds.

You'd need to cut the deck in half (let's say Balance, a combined Ewer/Spire and a combined Spear/Bole) and make it automatically apply to the entire party with no potency cuts in order to start beating out the DPS buff of just the uptime on Fey Wind from Scholar's Selene pet. Not counting that WHM and Scholar can both outdamage AST on their own, and can heal harder for longer.