Quote Originally Posted by Mclyde View Post
But there are as many bad astros as other dps/tank/healers in the game.
I believe that's statistically impossible...



That's the first source of problem the Astrologian job know actually. Look how many players don't manage to correctly use a healing class as easy as the whm. Do you expect them to be able to carry a crappy party as an Astro ?
There's a colossal difference between the sustained healing output of AST and the other two healers. I played both AST and SCH at 60 with the same ilevel for a while: SCH can blow its mana on DPSing all it wants and it barely matters because they get 20% of it back every minute anyway, and with Bane, SCH DPS is actually pretty damn good.

AST, on the other hand, must conserve mana in case any emergency situations arise, and due to the weaker mana regen, the sustained healing just isn't anywhere near as potent.

I've tested this at length and these were my findings. Both classes are fine if the party is excellent, but SCH just has far more leeway with mana and emergency buttons in case something goes wrong.

Really, there's 0 reason to ever play AST instead of SCH or WHM right now.