About AST and why their healing is weaker

[SuzakuCMX]

You reading my post wrong

No I'm not. I was talking about how even if AST had heals near equal with SCH/WHM without the CDs to boost them, AST would still not be able to replace WHM/SCH totally, contrary to what you think would happen.

[Yhisa]

I mean no matter what type of new healer u come up with... SCH and WHM will always be dominate not matter what the only way to fix AST would to also look @ the current healers And make it so that u can play with any set up like WHM /AST or SCH/AST or WHM / SCH in order for this to work is by looking at the old healers and there utility then Rework AST to make up for that Weakness... Currently WHM and SCH combo have 0 weakness because they are soo insync with each other that making a new healer is pointless due to how strong these 2 healers are together

[Yhisa]

So in all they would need to Redo all the healers and there utility .. Yes that means nerfing WHM and SCH to not have soo much utility so that AST can be brought to the party and have fun with Either healer we need all the healers to be in sync with each other and currently AST do not sync with WHM or SCH but becomes more of a burden to these healers instead

[Yhisa]

Omg I'm an idiot..... Why not make it so AST is a pure buffing job that boost the other 2 healers and party for example they could empower WHM to have Shields for % of there base heals... And empower SCH to have powerful HOT's to there Shields.... This way we are brought for utility only whilst providing average DPS to the table...so we be the enchantress for the party ...

[GideonHighmourn]

SE's design decision to make AST's healing kit based on SCH/WHM's healing kit really puts a hamper on properly balancing it without making it too powerful or too underpowered. With balancing, you either get too close to WHM/SCH to make a noticeable difference between them, or too underpowered to where there's really no reason to bring AST. I understand the concept, but I can't for the life of me understand why they didn't give AST a more unique healing mechanism of it's own. Currently, Synastry is the only unique healing mechanic AST has.

Locked into Dirunal/Nocturnal really limits them to just being a WHM/SCH Jr, but there's really not much perceivable benefit to being able to swap between them, especially on a long cool down as was originally discussed. I'd much rather see AST be able to compete with (unique) healing and it's own utility, rather than borrowing their entire toolkit from SCH/WHM; however, I don't think it's likely they will revamp the entire class from the ground up.

[Yhisa]

or just remove the Healing buffs WHM and SCH have? since shields / regen/ raw healing is too good together even without increase healing cooldowns... so maybe remove there + Healing buffs and make the AST provide the + Healing buff so in theory it should work like this in terms of set up

WHM / SCH - Raw healing + Mitigation + Damage
AST / SCH - Buffs + Mitigation + Hots
WHM/ AST - Raw healing + Buffs + Hots

so far the SCH and WHM litterally feeds of each other and is an unbeatable combo with 0 weakness so in order to have the trinity between the 3 healers u would have to Take away utility from the current healers and allow AST to be the supporting healing so in theory this is how the healers would look with there own identity

WHM = Raw Healing Power + Raw Damage
SCH = Mitigation control + Damage over time
AST = Healing over time + Buffing Control

this way they all help with each other weakness so think of it like a triangle AST can support and buff both WHM and SCH..... SCH can reduce damage for Group and dps so WHM and AST can heal,,,,,,, WHM can provide PURE healing to AST and SCH allowing them to deal dps ... see the triangle now.... but currently WHM/SCH are far to strong and have all utility which makes them Far to powerful

Or take away the HOTS WHM and SCH can provide and turn AST into a Full time Healing over time Job with buffs attached to it

This is the problem that WHM and SCH have got far far far too much ... No matter how much u buff AST in healing or there cards.... WHM and SCH will still be kings and Queens in the healing/ damage department..... the only way to Fix AST would to be looking at WHM and SCH and make a triangle effect with the 3 healers so they Cover each other weaknesses and not have WHM/SCH cover all at once.... this is the reason why AST is kicked the the curb XD

[Ghishlain]

I'd actually prefer this route as it makes them more unique. Maybe if AST kept their current "worse healing" and instead had a CD they could use on their partner that increased the target's healing output by a %? That way AST would still be worse at solo healing content, but wouldn't have to worry as much about forcing the other healer to use their CDs since their baseline healing is now increased by AST, and they would have more time to DPS and use card buffs.

Switch Noct and Di stance benefits (Di now gives +5% potency per heal and Noct gets +5% cast speed) but also make it so Noct improves card effects by 50% (Permanent enhanced!). Noct Stance is now for support healing and large card buffs, while Di is for when you need more healing done.

Noct Benefic now is a 100 potency heal that gives an 8% max health shield to the target and it stacks with SCH shields.

And then there you have it; AST is now the DPS/Support healer who makes everyone else in the party more efficient rather than just being a copy of WHM or SCH depending on the stance.

I can go for this, to be frank. Maybe tweak things here or there but it doesn't seem any bit OP on paper.

SE's design decision to make AST's healing kit based on SCH/WHM's healing kit really puts a hamper on properly balancing it without making it too powerful or too underpowered. With balancing, you either get too close to WHM/SCH to make a noticeable difference between them, or too underpowered to where there's really no reason to bring AST. I understand the concept, but I can't for the life of me understand why they didn't give AST a more unique healing mechanism of it's own. Currently, Synastry is the only unique healing mechanic AST has.

Locked into Dirunal/Nocturnal really limits them to just being a WHM/SCH Jr, but there's really not much perceivable benefit to being able to swap between them, especially on a long cool down as was originally discussed. I'd much rather see AST be able to compete with (unique) healing and it's own utility, rather than borrowing their entire toolkit from SCH/WHM; however, I don't think it's likely they will revamp the entire class from the ground up.

Indeed, we should try to make the AST kit more unique and powerful without stepping onto the toes of their healing counterparts.

Thoughts I had in mind to add uniqueness to the healing kit (not much thought had really gone into balancing these, just thoughts I'm putting out there for fun factor):

Diurnal Sect Changes
Enhanced Benefic: Make it an oGCD ability similar to Lustrate
Time Dilation: Reduces cooldown to 60s

Nocturnal Sect Changes
Enhanced Benefic: 25% more Potency
Time Dilation: Increases card effects by 50%
Collective Unconciousness: 20% Damage Reduction

(In General) Celestial Opposition Change: Turns on both sects for a 15 second duration.

or just remove the Healing buffs WHM and SCH have? since shields / regen/ raw healing is too good together even without increase healing cooldowns... so maybe remove there + Healing buffs and make the AST provide the + Healing buff so in theory it should work like this in terms of set up

WHM / SCH - Raw healing + Mitigation + Damage
AST / SCH - Buffs + Mitigation + Hots
WHM/ AST - Raw healing + Buffs + Hots

so far the SCH and WHM litterally feeds of each other and is an unbeatable combo with 0 weakness so in order to have the trinity between the 3 healers u would have to Take away utility from the current healers and allow AST to be the supporting healing so in theory this is how the healers would look with there own identity

WHM = Raw Healing Power + Raw Damage
SCH = Mitigation control + Damage over time
AST = Healing over time + Buffing Control

this way they all help with each other weakness so think of it like a triangle AST can support and buff both WHM and SCH..... SCH can reduce damage for Group and dps so WHM and AST can heal,,,,,,, WHM can provide PURE healing to AST and SCH allowing them to deal dps ... see the triangle now.... but currently WHM/SCH are far to strong and have all utility which makes them Far to powerful

Or take away the HOTS WHM and SCH can provide and turn AST into a Full time Healing over time Job with buffs attached to it

This is the problem that WHM and SCH have got far far far too much ... No matter how much u buff AST in healing or there cards.... WHM and SCH will still be kings and Queens in the healing/ damage department..... the only way to Fix AST would to be looking at WHM and SCH and make a triangle effect with the 3 healers so they Cover each other weaknesses and not have WHM/SCH cover all at once.... this is the reason why AST is kicked the the curb XD

I would be highly against removing tools from the other two jobs. There's no better way to infuriate pretty much 95% of the healer community short of saying "Hey, these two healers are too powerful, so we're going to nerf them to meet the same power level as the third". This would only please a very small minority of players.

[Galdous]

That would be one way to buff astrologian indirectly I guess by nerfing white mage and scholar...

[Vlady]

Oo I like your idea of turning both stances on for 15 seconds.

[Roxas_Andrade]

I was here, thinking...
Collective Unconscious could work like AST's personal Assize Bubble...
Independent of the sect, you should create a bubble(slightly bigger than the one we have now) and everyone inside the bubble should Regen for 200 potency and it should cause damage for 200 potency on enemies. Scarecrow-Syndrome would still be there, though.
I know that 200pot damage seems too much, but we have to consider that AST wouldn't be in Cleric Stance in the most cases. For the cases they are in Cleric Stance (easy content or dps checks), 200pot is just what AST would need to shine, since AoE Damage isn't AST's strong side.

What do you guys think?