My problems with AST buffs.

[Muahbec]

If you run your aery or whatever content you are running sure ET is useable, otherwise is just a waste , you will either a)overheal b)make your whm partner overheal / make their medica 2 ticks overheal, after raidwide dmg in this game there is a big pause before the next, if you use ET succor AFTER the raid dmg it will only make medica 2 ticks go to waste. You are far better off with a shield that cannot overheal and will stay on the target regardless if they are at 1k hp or full. There 0 reason to use ET , if you use it on adlo , god forbits it crits because 50-60% of that is just a huge overheal.

At the end of the day you are better off with the shield by far, or oh when you are duty finding some casual content and you get another sch as your partner which is irrelevant if you have a static.

Holy jesus... let me just pretend that i haven't read this.
omg.

[winsock]

Hello hello?

Is the plate stuck? I keep hearing the same nonsense over and over instead of actually arguing about the topic.

Lol you were the one questioning the definition to begin with. If you would have taken 3 seconds to look up the definition of a word before lecturing me about it none of this would have happened.

Back to the topic and the initial post you decided to lecture me on. I was saying it's a bit hypocritical for AST to have cried because WHM/SCH was preferred, then lash out at WHMs that feel the buffs could potentially make AST/SCH preferred. You'd think ASTs would show a little more understanding having been in that position.

[Noira]

We don't though because Whm is still the best healer overall..

Whm is NOT in the position Astro was not even close to even say so is very odd.

IT sounds like these tears are because Astro is now a decent option to take and it is making the other healers nervous.

[DawnSolaria]

Lol you were the one questioning the definition to begin with. If you would have taken 3 seconds to look up the definition of a word before lecturing me about it none of this would have happened.

Back to the topic and the initial post you decided to lecture me on. I was saying it's a bit hypocritical for AST to have cried because WHM/SCH was preferred, then lash out at WHMs that feel the buffs could potentially make AST/SCH preferred. You'd think ASTs would show a little more understanding having been in that position.

Because White Mage was NEVER in the situation AST was in. We COULD NOT heal as well and were being EXCLUDED in PF. Do you have proof that White Mage is in fact being EXCLUDED?

[Muahbec]

Because White Mage was NEVER in the situation AST was in. We COULD NOT heal as well and were being EXCLUDED in PF. Do you have proof that White Mage is in fact being EXCLUDED?

Exactly, these "MY WHM IS NOT UNIQUE AND THAT'S AST FAULT" threads are completely unecessary.

[Jerichai]

There's a lot of needlessly angry people of both side of this discussion. How about we take a few breathes and work this out like adults?

It seems like there are a few lines of thought running through this discussion:

1. Concerns that AST buffs went too far and will maybe sideline other healing classes on the basis that AST has 'more to offer'.
2. Concerns that the three healing classes are becoming too homogenized relative to one another. That none of them have a unique presence and create interesting choices for party composition.
3. Some healers (specifically SCHs and WHMs) hoping that SE will take a second pass at their abilities that don't feel particularly good in the current meta now that AST has had some time to develop.
4. Frustration from the AST due to a perception that the SCH and WHM population want to increase their power and keep AST on the bench.

I think if we cool our heads a bit, most can see that no one particularly wants to nerf/exclude anyone else from content. And I do think their are some opinions voiced in this thread that are worthwhile talking points. Specifically, the concern over homogenization. I myself am concerned what the healing meta is going to look like down the line. For instance, if there ever comes a point where we get a 4th healing job, is it going to feel as similar to the existing three as much of AST does to the general play style of SCH and WHM? Sadly it feels like the developers didn't take a lot of risks with AST. I do wonder if that was a result of trying to release 3 new jobs at the same time.

[TatoRazzino]

Well, people are having problems with the word "unique". As far as I'm concerned, FF XIV and other MMOs have lots of jobs that are very similar, but each of them has a small set of skills/mechanics that define them and make them different from other jobs. Just compare Monk, Dragoon and Ninja, and you'll see that they have basic sets of skills that are very similar (a self damage increasing debuff, DoTs, detrimental effects, combos/forms), but also have unique characteristics: Monks have Greased Lightning, which needs to be mantained; Dragoons have jumps and access to a four tier combo; and Ninjas have jutsus and support skills. Would you call them carbon copy of one another?

[Khyan]

Just level up AST/WHM & SCH to 60. Problem solved.

Still prefer my SCH than my AST because I find it better utility on savage raids. But AST is fun to play though.

[Greedalox]

Lol you were the one questioning the definition to begin with. If you would have taken 3 seconds to look up the definition of a word before lecturing me about it none of this would have happened.

Back to the topic and the initial post you decided to lecture me on. I was saying it's a bit hypocritical for AST to have cried because WHM/SCH was preferred, then lash out at WHMs that feel the buffs could potentially make AST/SCH preferred. You'd think ASTs would show a little more understanding having been in that position.

Here I am trying to read this discussion and it's constantly bombarded with you trying to argue video game LINGO with it's real world counterpart, essentially trying to sound like a know-it-all who's only true gift to this thread is mindless banter about how YOU'RE WRONG I'M RIGHT! Seriously, you need to pipe down. Viability in a VIDEO GAME (Video game), online ones in particular, often take words and adopt them into the video game community. They often times hold up most of their original meaning, an example of this would be "Viable". Go view any source in a video game where balance is considered the golden rule, and you will see that the word is flung around not as "able to be done" but rather "how does it shape up against its competition". That's the name of the game, my friend. Don't get mad at people calling a Paladin a tank when they aren't literally a tank, it's just adopted language.

On topic, how many people here think that this change to AST is fine enough to not complain until another balance patch, or if it needs to be taken back in a more immediate sense? I'm here to learn :3

[TatoRazzino]

Also, there's another matter I would like to address: the three healers work the same as any other job - they have spells that are similar or equal to one another with some unique mechanics/spells that make them unique. Instead of saying that AST is a copy, why don't you look at what they have that is NOT a copy? Also, why don't we compare WHM and SCH to see what they have in common? I mean, every healing job is supposed to have some basic healing tools, like a low tier single target healing (Cure/Physick/Benefic), a low burst AoE healing spell (Medica II/Aspected Helios/Succor - and I'm thinking about the burst, not the special effects), an instant cast off-GCD healing spell (Tetra/Lustrate/Essential Dignity) and a cleansing spell (Esuna/Leeches/Exalted Detriment). I believe that all future healing jobs will also have those tools, because they're basic; what makes each job interesting is how they have variations. For example, both WHM and AST have a mid burst AoE healing spell (Medica/Helios) and a high tier single target healing spell (Cure II/Benefic II), but SCH doesn't; to counter that, they added a cooldown (Emergency Tactics) that can turn other spells into that when needed. This is a feature that brings WHM and AST closer together, but allows the SCH to be unique: it requires more strategical thinking in this area, which is a lot of fun, in my opinion. The same exercise can be applied to other spells/skills, like Aspected Benefic, for example. In Diurnal, it works a lot like Regen, and in Nocturnal it works a lot like Adloquium, but it can have a different use: it's an on-GCD instant healing spell, which can't be said about Regen or Adloquium; that's uniqueness right there. If you take that into consideration along with other characteristics like the Enhanced Benefic trait (which turns Benefic II into an instant cast) and the Lightspeed cooldown, you'll see that AST has a lot of options to do instant healing, which is good for high movement fights, to use off-GCD card skills (Draw, Shuffle etc.), or to simply throw quick heals on multiple targets.