Learning how to properly play AST

[AzureFlare]

Ewer: Either a healer or BRD if you absolutely don't need it at all and RR would be a waste/bait. You can use it on SMN as well in some cases. Other jobs generally can't do anything with it.

Spear: Any job pre-pull, either yourself (if you plan to use big cooldowns soon and you can work around it), any job you think will use cooldowns soon (and again, can work around it). SMN for Aetherflow, NIN for Ninjutsu/Ogcds, BRD for ogcds and DRG for ogcds. It is a card that is hard to determine which person will benefit most, sometimes the best use could be giving it to a BLM so they can Enochian sooner and avoid awkward downtime between phases.

Bole: Tank or a target you're afraid won't survive a mechanic. AoE Bole is a possibility in case you do end up having it, but don't rely on it.

Spire: Any job that has low TP or can use the TP to AoE better. Generally RR fodder.

Balance: Highest DPS at that moment. Also check who just used burst cds if it is a blank or enhanced Balance, a good bursting DPS will benefit more than a slightly better, non-bursting DPS if the duration is just 30s.

Arrow: Same as Balance, but a bit more constrained since not all jobs make the same use of attackspeed. Would generally put it on a BLM first, otherwise a MNK, then just pick the DPS you think is performing best (generally DRG would be next in line). Be careful since Arrow will cause any TP users to drain TP faster, which is easy to forget. You can also use Arrow to boost your own healing or you co-partner's healing, making it the only card to increase HPS.

[TatoRazzino]

I haven't posted here in a while, but this thread caught my attention and I actually have some doubts about AST's DPS numbers. I apologize in advance for the (really) long post, but I think it will be useful for AST players or someone that is wondering if they should play AST.

It would be pointless to compare both WHM and AST with SCH, since SCHs branch from a DPS class and they also have more MP control, which allows them to continue DPSing for longer than the other two healers; what I'm really curious about is the comparison between WHM and AST, because I haven't seen any actual numbers that show that AST has a noticeable lower output when compared to WHM.

It is a known that there is a shortage of skilled AST players in end game content due to the fact that the job was considered to be weaker than WHM and SCH, which made all the professional groups choose the 2.x healing meta; the community followed the trend and the AST is still the healer that is used the least, even though its healing output is now much higher than it used to be. My point is: is there any actual data from AST DPS output to support the claim that they do less DPS than WHMs in actual content?

Looking at the DPS toolkit both jobs have may be misleading. I'll post here the math I did, and I would like to see some comments on that. Keep in mind that I'm not willing to start a war, I'm actually asking for data to work with. If anyone finds any problems with my math, please comment.

If we start with the WHM toolkit, we have the following DPS skills:

- Stone (140 potency, heavy effect)
- Aero (200 combined potency)
- Fluid Aura (150 potency, off-GCD, short range)
- Stone II (170 potency)
- Aero II (250 combined potency)
- Holy (200-100 potency, AoE around the caster)
- Stone III (210 potency)
- Assize (300 potency, off-GCD, AoE around the caster, restores 10% MP)
- Aero III (370 combined potency, AoE) [Edit: I made a mistake when calculating Aero III's potency in the first version of this post, but AzureFlare corrected me. I'm going to adjust the values in the whole post]

Now let's look at the AST toolkit, which is far more simple:

- Malefic (150 potency)
- Combust (240 combined potency)
- Stella (100 potency, heavy)
- Combust II (450 combined potency)
- Gravity (200-100 potency, AoE)
- Malefic II (200 potency)


In a single target situation, if we take a sample of a 2 minutes fight with a 2.5 GCD (I'm considering the default timer, which is obviously reduced by spell speed or Presence of Mind or Diurnal Sect), we'll have a total of 48 GCDs.

For WHMs:

Using Stone I and II seems pointless since they're weaker than Stone III, and using Aero seems like a DPS loss unless you're trying to weave your off-GCDs, so the skills I'm considering are:

Aero III: since it lasts for 24 seconds, you'll use that 5 times in a 2 minutes fight (120/24). The total potency will be: 1850. Aero III has a 3s cast time, so I'm considering that it not only uses 5 GCDs but also delays the entire GCD (even if we use Swiftcast, we can only use it twice in 2 minutes so we still have 1.5s of delay). For that reason, I'm counting the 5 times you use Aero III as 6 GCDs.

Aero II: it lasts for 12 seconds, so you'll be able to use it 10 times in 2 minutes. Total potency: 2500

Fluid Aura: we can use it 4 times in a 2 minute fight, so the total potency is 600.

Assize: we can use it 2 times in a 2 minute fight, so the total potency is also 600.

Unless we want to delay the GCD even more, we'll need 6 windows to use all of our off-GCD skills. Since we can use Swiftcast 2 times, we'll only have o use Aero four times to keep the GCD running. The total potency for Aero would be 800.
The total amount of GCDs used were 20 (10 for Aero II, 6 for Aero III and 4 for Aero). That leaves 28 GCDs open for Stone III. The total potency for Stone III would be 5880.

So, basically, the total potency for a full WHM rotation, keeping all the DoTs up and weaving all off-GCD skills without delaying the GCD so much is: 12230. We have to keep in mind that we were assuming a 100% hit rate, and we're using Assize for DPS, which burns a healing cooldown, and we're having to move close to the enemy to be able to use Fluid Aura.

For ASTs:

We can also cross-class Aero, but since it has the same potency as Malefic II, I'm not considering that here. We're also not using Malefic or Stella, since they do less DPS than Malefic II. Considering the same amount of GCDs, we have the following:

Combust II: we can use it 4 times. Total potency: 1800

Combust: we can use it 6 times. Total potency: 1440

Malefic II: we can use it 38 times. Total potency: 7600

Since all the ASTs skills only take 2.5, there's no GCD to delay and by using both Combust and Aero, you have more than enough time to Draw/Use cards. The total potency for the AST toolkit would be: 10840.

That's 12230 (WHM) versus 10840 (AST); a difference of 1390 potency in favor of the WHM. At the moment (ilvl 207, eso weapon, Foe Requiem), my Malefic IIs hit for around 2K (average), so I'm gonna use 10:1 as a damage : potency ratio to make the calculations easier. That leaves us with:
122300 damage for WHM and 108400 for AST. If we do a damage/time calculation we have: 1019.17 DPS for WHM and 903.33 for AST. A difference of 115.84 DPS.

AoE numbers are harder to calculate in this level of abstraction since they depend on a lot of variables (number of targets, for example), but it seems clear that a WHM will have the upper hand since Aero III and Assize hit multiple targets. Holy and Gravity are pretty much the same, but Gravity has the advantage of keeping the caster in a safe spot.

Nevertheless, if we're considering only the numbers, we can assume that a WHM will do more DPS than an AST in this abstract, ideal situation (which we would have in a dummy). If we add Presence of Mind to the equation, the WHM numbers will go up, but I chose not to do that because (to avoid creating numbers that are even more biased) I would have to consider the difference between Diurnal/Nocturnal cast times for AST and the fact that it is possible for ASTs to buff themselves with Balances or Arrows.

[TatoRazzino]

Now let's consider some things:

To reach these values in this specific situation you have to DPS for 2 minutes non-stop and 100% of the spells have to hit. In an actual healing situation, this probably won't happen. Considering that both AST and WHM usually act as main healers (since it's a general consensus that SCH is mandatory in a raid group), the chance of a situation like this happening is very low. So we have to consider stance dancing, healing context and also positioning. So let's think about some points:

- If the WHM is far away from the target, it will not be possible to use Fluid Aura (that is also the case if the enemy can be knocked back, which usually irritates tanks and DPS players); that alone reduces the WHM's potency by 600. AST's DPS wouldn't be affected;
- In a healing intense fight, a WHM may want to save Assize for healing. That alone will reduce WHM's DPS output. ASTs wouldn't be affected by this, since they don't have any spells/skills that work like Assize;
- If we consider the way that Cleric Stance works, we know that it's easier to activate/deactivate it when the GCD is running. WHMs only have one spell that keeps the GCD running, while ASTs may have two spells if they cross class Aero. In my opinion, if the AST knows how to do a proper rotation it is easier for ASTs to stance dance efficiently. This, however, is a personal opinion;
- If the targets do many ground AoEs and can't be stunned, using Holy is very dangerous and that may reduce the WHM's ability to do AoE DPS. ASTs can do it safely from afar;
- In a healing intensive fight, sometimes the main healer only has the time to put up DoTs every now and then. The total combined potency of DoTs for WHM is 820 [Edit: look at the previous post edit info], while the AST's DoTs have a combined potency of 890 (considering Aero). Also, all the DoT's from the WHM toolkit have an initial hit, which means they can miss; Combust and Combust II bypass the accuracy requirements, which allows the AST to land 690 combined potency DoTs with 100% hit chance. That's a big advantage if we're considering a situation in which the main healer can only add some DoTs;
- Finally, we have to consider the fact that ASTs can buff other party members and this can make up for the lower DPS numbers when compared to WHM in an ideal situation (just like BRDs and MCHs make up for lower DPS output). Even if you not Draw many Balances or Arrows, the utility in itself helps in overall DPS increase (e.g.: in A2S, drawing many TP/MP cards may allow your BRD/MCH to do more DPS since they may not need to play songs/set up turrets and also add more DPS from Foe/Overcharge). WHM’s can only contribute to DPS by adding it directly.

After this (very very very very) long (and boring) reasoning, I’m inclined to believe that in an actual PvE situation, the DPS output difference between WHM/AST becomes irrelevant (if not nullified). WHMs have a stronger toolkit, but it’s more complicated to use and it also involves some compromising (like burning Swiftcast, Presence of Mind and Assize for DPS instead of healing); AST’s toolkit is less strong, but it is also more flexible and easier to use. On top of that, they can increase the group's overall DPS even if they don't use any kind of DPS skill; that is not the case for WHM.
If any of you guys have any evidence that blows my reasoning, please say so. I’m really interested in this discussion