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

[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.

[Happosai]

THM lol jk but really if you want to take healing seriously you will need swiftcast for those oops moments where you need to insta raise a downed member. Its not absolutely necessary for pug content (especially if you're so awesome no one dies but sometimes that is out of your control), but you may get some raised eyebrows if you admit to not having swiftcast. I lvled blm to 50 first and thought why not try healing on whm its the logical next step for me! What I learned is I am a gawd awful healer. I was told to find another job when I tried to heal ifirit my first time for the relic quest. Whm can be challenging as you have strong burst healing, very strong aoe dps and when combined can pose some serious mana issues to the inexperienced. If people see whm in party not spamming holy they might complain. If you spam holy and tank dies they will complain. If you spam holy, keep everyone alive and ask for a moment for mana people will complain. Of course through experience, you will learn to fix those things. I couldn't so I hung up my white robe for good and leveled up the tanks. Loved it! But then a rl friend got into the game and wanted to be pally, while my other friend refused to do anything but dps. Against my better judgement, I started leveling arcanist/scholar. Leveling 1-15 was mind numbingly boring. But once I got into my first dungeon everything changed. Although scholar doesnt have the burst and strong aoe healing of whm, I found scholar to be a far more forgiving healing class to learn than whm. Mostly due to your fairy handling like 80% of the healing (in early learning dungeons). It is far easier to switch on cleric stance (ugh so yea you DO need to lvl whm) as a scholar, throw on all your dots, bane em to all the mobs, switch back with plenty of time to heal. I cant tell you how many poor tanks I killed in stone vigil cleric dancing on my whm. As a bonus, once your done leveling scholar all you gotta do is a few class quests and now you have a leveled summoner.

Id like to add that I think youre on the right track by leveling each role. I had no idea how terrible I was as a blm dps until I learned healing and tanking. It has also given me a much needed slice of humble pie. I never rage on my healer or tanks as I know what its like to be learning. Im an "okay" tank and healer. I can reactively get through most content fulfilling those roles. But to be a great tank/healer its all about being proactive. Know when to pop cd/buff before it is needed. Healers and tanks are expected to have the script memorized while dps can quite often improvise with very lil negative side effects. I wish you luck in your endeavors!

[Causality]

AST lacks its own unique healing mechanics, and is therefore pigeon-holed into being a WHM Jr or SCH Jr; since it doesn't (or hasn't yet) created a new "meta" healing game, it's lagging behind the other two healers in terms of performance in endgame progression.

By all means, if you enjoy the class, play it. I'm sure more changes and adjustments will come to AST over the following months.

But they are no means nonviable for current endgame content. I saw this video thread a few minutes ago.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...strologian-PoV

[GideonHighmourn]

But they are no means nonviable for current endgame content. I saw this video thread a few minutes ago.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...strologian-PoV

Where did I claim it was non viable? In fact, I said it was lagging behind in performance compared to WHM/SCH in the current meta game, which has perhaps been the most common complaint about AST. Also, as stated by numerous others, the ability to clear content has nothing to do with balance or performance compared to SCH/WHM.

If you want a more detailed post about the previous meta game, and the problems AST has in fitting into it, there's a good read on reddit which can be found here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ed_from_party/

The biggest obstacle for AST at the moment, I'd say, is that the majority of their utility is tied to RNG, which makes it unreliable. On top of this, the card effects are a little underwhelming and don't make up for the randomness of the cards, lack of healing cool downs, and lower potency heals overall.

[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.

[WingsOfAzrael]

1. sch and whm
2.ast definitly
3. sch>ast>whm in public for fates and stuff,in raid groups/static raid groups? whm/sch>ast

most people want whm/sch cause scholar has the best shields and whm has the best aoe heals/raw healing power, ast is just a weaker version of each depending on the stance and cards don't make up for it, the healing difference between ast and the other two isn't evident in earlier content but it is in end game content, ast lacks utility compared to the other two and in my opinion nocturnal stance is crap unless you're running two asts or missing a sch, but even then its still weaker than sch
ast is weaker in both in terms of dps and cards don't make up for it

[Guilty_King]

Avoid AST, it is such a crappy healer.

Do you like burst healing/being the best healer? WHM

Do you like to judge damage before it happens and prevent some of it? SCH

Do you want to put in twice the effort and still only do 75%-80% of a WHM or SCH? Go AST!

[YuiSasaki]

Avoid AST, it is such a crappy healer.

Do you like burst healing/being the best healer? WHM

Do you like to judge damage before it happens and prevent some of it? SCH

Do you want to put in twice the effort and still only do 75%-80% of a WHM or SCH? Go AST!

Do you like to listen to lv51 ASTs who havnt even leveled to 60? Read the post above... oh wait..

[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.