Is AST recognized as a viable healer yet?

[Jijifli]

snip

Nocturnal stance is kind of crap, but at least when I get double AST in Duty Finder queue's there's an option to keep our things seperate. That was one fault with SCH SCH actually.

[Kemas]

Nocturnal stance is kind of crap, but at least when I get double AST in Duty Finder queue's there's an option to keep our things seperate. That was one fault with SCH SCH actually.

If you think nocturnal sect is crap you're largely under utilizing the jobs potential. For all current 4 man content it's the superior sect. I'm able to toss a 1.8k shield up on the tank, swap over to cleric stance and dps to my hearts content, only dropping it to refresh the shield and if needed an essential dignity to top him/her off. Diurnal can sustain the tank but you get a direct result from nocturnal sect that is hard to rival once you overgear content.

[Nalien]

For all current 4 man content it's the superior sect. I'm able to toss a 1.8k shield up on the tank, swap over to cleric stance and dps to my hearts content, only dropping it to refresh the shield and if needed an essential dignity to top him/her off. Diurnal can sustain the tank but you get a direct result from nocturnal sect that is hard to rival once you overgear content.

That honestly doesn't seem like much of a boast... With Diurnal I'm doing exactly the same thing, the only difference is I can extend my nuking time with Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition. Not to mention Diurnal is actual beneficial to nuking, where as Nocturnal does nothing. I mean... My Astrologian is gimp (i180) and I'm providing 1.2k/tic currently... Not seeing much allure in a 1.8k shield compared to that... I really can't see that shield lasting for anywhere near the duration of my Regens... Granted I'm throwing in an extra spell with Aspected Helios to maintain that 1.2k/tic, but... Well, is there ever a situation where DPS don't manage to eat unneeded damage? I'm letting Aspected Helios do all the work there and continuing to nuke.

Nocturnal Sect died for me the moment I got Time Dilation, the synergy between that and Diurnal is just too nice, it's effectively an extra 6k HP healed for nothing. Nocturnal basically just exists for pre-pull buffing at this point...

[Hayward]

I've never cared much for these imaginary "Hardcore Raider Seals of Approval" in XI or XIV. For the most part, these "viability" labels are based on intellectual laziness, misleading or outright dishonest stats, and a little bit of uneasiness that someone playing the new job will find it's potential and knock them out of a raid spot.

If Astrologian weren't viable for 3.0 content, I really believe SE would never have released the job. As things stand now, AST is very much even with SCH and WHM.

[Miiu]

The last patch did help with the viability of AST but it certainly does need 2-3 more tweaks/changes to be really on par with the other two healing jobs.

[Daralii]

The last patch did help with the viability of AST but it certainly does need 2-3 more tweaks/changes to be really on par with the other two healing jobs.

My assumption is that it was mainly a band aid fix to make sure it's at least not terrible. Hopefully there'll be some larger reworks before the end of HW.

Yoshida mentioned a CO change before Alex came out, but I dunno if that's still in the pipeline or if it got scrapped.

[Nihility]

so having access to all 3 at 60 and fairly equally geared

it is a fair statement to say astrologian is completely competent and usable at 60
but

first hand experience with both will quickly make it apparent that white mage healing capability is way beyond what astro can do. Astro honestly feels like white mage-lite to me. The new Collective unconcious and synastry are quite nice and useful but by no means cover the gap.

and compared to a scholar, there just really is no comparison. A nocturnal astro isn't even scholar-lite it's not even close to an acceptable replacement in a raid

also astro dps is just terrible to the point that the card buffs don't even cover the gap between a white mage or especially scholar simply dps'ing
In 4-man content especially a scholar can very nearly just be a full time dps while the fairy covers healing speeding up runs significaly

the cards can be really cool but at the same time 4 of the 6 are undesirable most of the time
especially the refresh ones, in 4-man content i have never seen a situation where i needed one and in 8-man content the bard or machinist does so much more, so much more reliably and party-wide negating any usefulness random little single target ones might have provided

[adn]

first hand experience with both will quickly make it apparent that white mage healing capability is way beyond what astro can do. Astro honestly feels like white mage-lite to me. The new Collective unconcious and synastry are quite nice and useful but by no means cover the gap.

That is exactly what it is. Take away the card buffs and AST is just a second-rate WHM. They need to re-evaluate the core of the class, which probably will not happen until 4.0 since they seem to like doing drastic class changes during expansions rather than during the patch cycle. Still, they've brought it up to the level where AST can do A4S so it should be OK for now.

[Ksenia]

The only skill in the Astro group I see as interesting is the Synastry skill. I could picture an 8 man, the 2 healers linking each other, then designating to their tanks. Healing each other 40% as they heal tanks. If someone is a healer through and through, they will level it as a precaution but people who simply want to farm dungeons on any role, Whm is still first choice.

[Twilite]

Maybe it's me, but I think all the healer classes are viable.