Astro or White Mage ?

[NamoNanamo]

Over compensated ? Explain, I don't see why you would think that. Whm are still the strongest.
Ast still need buff, especially the noct sect.

[Lastelli]

Well the issue is now that astrologians have been over compensated so a few nerfs is inevitable. White mage should retain its dominance as the strongest of the healers and if you yourself now claim that astrologian is equal to the white mage that is an issue.

False. Synstry is on a 120 seconds CD, it's the only CD an AST has to increase its healing throughput, it must be strong. But only because AST has a single strong CD that doesn't make it stronger than WHM. In fact, WHM is still the most powerful healer. Divine Seal (60 seconds CD) and PoM are terrific. And the proof to my claim is there, on the leaderboard, where all the top statics raid with the WHM+SCH combo. There was no "overcompensation" whatsoever.

[Anova]

Well the issue is now that astrologians have been over compensated so a few nerfs is inevitable. White mage should retain its dominance as the strongest of the healers and if you yourself now claim that astrologian is equal to the white mage that is an issue. With Synastry and our buffs from a few months back then it tips it back in favor of the astrologian. And do not be worried I am always serious so thank you for the concern.

Over compensated ? Explain, I don't see why you would think that. Whm are still the strongest.
Ast still need buff, especially the noct sect.

Patch notes are coming in 10 days or less. Just wait and see what happens (likely to be some buffs and some nerfs, as usual for any content patch). This is not the thread to talk about it.

[NorthernLadMSP]

There is nothing about AST that had been overcompensated. They have one strong CD where the other jobs have many. If they nerf AST, I'm done with the class.

[Rawrz]

False. Synstry is on a 120 seconds CD, it's the only CD an AST has to increase its healing throughput, it must be strong. But only because AST has a single strong CD that doesn't make it stronger than WHM. In fact, WHM is still the most powerful healer. Divine Seal (60 seconds CD) and PoM are terrific. And the proof to my claim is there, on the leaderboard, where all the top statics raid with the WHM+SCH combo. There was no "overcompensation" whatsoever.

Synastry is on a 90 second cool down thanks to the last buff. Just pointing that out. The only buffs I could see would be the interaction of Nocturnal shields and Time Dilation/Celestial opposition. That and lowering the recast time of shuffle to 30 seconds/removing the card you shuffled from the shuffle. xD I really wouldn't want Synastry nerfed, since its yes, probably the most powerful healing CD in game, but it also exactly what AST needed to feel more in control. Light Speed is also pretty kick ass with a healing focus. Any other buffs are just fantasy to change the class into something different. (Like allowing sect switching mid battle, yes pls. ;-; <3)

[Ghishlain]

@OP's thoughts

You probably have enough input to make a decision here on what you'd like to do. As some others have suggested, I also suggest leveling all three healers as this will allow you to understand the nuances of each job and see what tools your co-healer can bring to the table. Also, variety is the spice of life and if you enjoy healing a lot, sometimes it's a nice change to change healing styles on more casual content to keep things interesting.

@AST Topic

If you look at absolute raw MAXIMIZE no holds barred MP-isn't-an-isuse healing, AST has something like 3% higher healing output than WHM in a six minute duration.

On a more normalized but constant and no-mp-issue healing, WHM wins by about 9% because of Freecure.

Because of Essential Dignitiy and Synastry, AST has a higher single target burst than WHM (even when you include for Tetra / Bene / Divine Seal)

Overall, I feel AST needs a change to Noct, however they didn't need to get the potency increase they got at 3.07 as your sect bonus already compensated for that.

[Lastelli]

Synastry is on a 90 second cool down thanks to the last buff.

My bad, I forgot about that.
Honestly, the only thing that AST needs now is more control over their cards in my opinion. Not total control of course, that wouldn't fit well within the lore of the job, but still there's too much rng to make cards relevant for end game content.
Also...CO needs some love...really. As a healer it's pretty good now, even though Noct still fells underwhelming.

[NamoNanamo]

@OP's thoughts

@AST Topic

If you look at absolute raw MAXIMIZE no holds barred MP-isn't-an-isuse healing, AST has something like 3% higher healing output than WHM in a six minute duration.

On a more normalized but constant and no-mp-issue healing, WHM wins by about 9% because of Freecure.

Because of Essential Dignitiy and Synastry, AST has a higher single target burst than WHM (even when you include for Tetra / Bene / Divine Seal)

Give more detail, more in-depth. Please.
Why do you chose 6min duration, why Freecure gives the win to WHM ? etc etc etc

[Vlady]

My bad, I forgot about that.
Honestly, the only thing that AST needs now is more control over their cards in my opinion. Not total control of course, that wouldn't fit well within the lore of the job, but still there's too much rng to make cards relevant for end game content.
Also...CO needs some love...really. As a healer it's pretty good now, even though Noct still fells underwhelming.

Card system is still a problem yes. We will see what the patch notes will say. As I put in another post Aspected noc should not be a heal+shield but a shield with a secondary unique effect of a reverse shield that heals a % of damage done to the target for x seconds. If the astrologian is out performing white mage with pure heals then SE will scale us back on the Duirnal side since that is not the buffs the job even needed.

[enthauptet]

It may be trivial but I like Scholar and Ast spell sound more than Whm ones so if you really can't decide you can always use a stupid reason like me. Also Ast eso gear is the nicest looking among the healers iMO lol.