Learning how to properly play AST

[TatoRazzino]

And here I thought I was missing a secret to making my stars hit more. Well, got baited into that one, but at least I don't feel like a dumb now. Hope I didn't sound cynical, was legitimately curious whether I was missing out.

You are right though. A lot of the issues of WHM vs AST are not number issues, unlike what some keep shouting. Plus it was a funny eye-opener once I saw how powerful Spear and Ewer are looking at the mana debate. The real, social issue is getting people to stop thinking WHM is the de facto healer while AST is some clumsy healer that plays with cards and just a bad copy. A good AST can and will perform better than an average WHM.

Sorry for baiting you into that one! Since I hit 60, I don't hit normal enemies or dummies with AST. It was an honest mistake haha

About the numbers, I've always said that they were hardly a problem. Even before the changes in AST, the differences in actual numbers were low for most of the spells. Adding 20 potency to Benefic, 30 potency to Benefic II and 10 potency to Helios didn't change that much; there was even an HPS nerf for Diurnal Aspected Helios, which lost 40 overall combined potency. Did anyone get hurt by that in an actual encounter? I don't think so, because the fact that we had an increase of 60 in the burst part of the spell is more important than the fact that in overall healing the spell lost 40 potency. I don't know what's happening in this expansion, but people are obsessed with numbers. This is what motivated me in writing that long post. I don't care much about DPS output, to be honest, because I don't like DPSing as a healer and this is one of the things that made me switch to main healing (I started the game as SCH), instead of off-healing. But that doesn't mean I'm not capable of doing it if it's necessary.

Anyway, I agree with people in here (I think it's Vlady who said it) when they say that WHM has to be stronger than AST in some healing/DPS aspects. If ASTs could pull as much DPS as a WHM or SCH, and if they could heal the same, then AST would become mandatory and the game would be broken. The same is valid for the RNG aspect of the cards: adding a Balance is like having an extra Blood for Blood active, but with no downside; could you imagine how ridiculous it would be for an AST to be able to, let's say, throw an Extended Balance on a MNK every minute? That would mean having a Blood for Blood damage increase 100% of any encounter. Now imagine a BLM/SMN in A2S with that. It would defeat the purpose of having multiple jobs in the game.

Having said that, I think the main difference about WHM and AST is in healing style. There are lots of things I can do while playing AST that I can't when I play WHM (and vice-versa). I'll give an example from A2S (which may help some new players):

In the transition from wave 6 (remaining spider from wave 5, Jagd Doll, Boomtype and the Hardhelm/mind, idk which one) into wave 7 (four Jagd Dolls), my group's tanks move to the middle to pick them up (2 each) and then they move near the entrance (south) so they can stay positioned for phase 8. For phase 6, we tank the mobs in the north which means that the whole group is basically crossing the room. The Jagd Dolls throw some AoEs, which mean that from time to time people have to move to dodge them. What I do in that part is: I use Synastry on our WAR (which is being healed by the SCH) and focus healing our DRK; that gives me a healing buff and allows me to help the SCH with his job, letting him save Aetherflow stacks (he may even use them all in the previous phase and have the time to wait for Aetherflow to be out of cooldown). At the same time, I use Lightspeed, which allows me to cast single target heals while moving and also helps me conserve MP, so I can spam some Benefic IIs. This allows the group to reposition safely and gives my SCH time to position his fairy without letting the WAR die. While all that shit is going on, I can buff my party members with cards; all of them are useful in that phase: Balances and Arrows help my group burn all the enemies faster, TP and MP are always being drained in A2S, Boles are welcome due to high damage and everyone is rotating cooldowns which means that the Spear is valuable. This is something I wouldn't be able to do as a WHM; if I changed jobs, I would have to adjust a lot of things to this strategy which is actually very smooth for AST. Anyway, that's just one example of how useful an AST can be when compared to the other healers. Maybe if we all posted more strategies like this, we could change how people view the AST in raid encounters.