AST's weakness in end game

[Zaj_Quilos]

This is all wrong and makes it sound like you just picked the class up yesterday.

[TatoRazzino]

Jesus Christ, another one of those threads? "Oh, I'm playing a new job and I can't do things the exact same way I did with the other jobs I played. Job is broken!!11!1". I can main heal, DPS, buff with cards and do everything the other healers do in Savage. Since before 3.07 and the buffs. Learn how the job works instead of crying about how it doesn't. It looks similar to WHM, but it isn't the same; the way the spells interact with each other makes it unique (as it happens with the three melee DPS, for example, which all have a similar base toolkit, but also have different interactions that make each of them unique). The curse of AST began when people labeled Diurnal the WHM stance and Nocturna, the SCH stance; it simply doesn't work like that. I've seen people clearing Savage with Noct/SCH, and I've done Diurnal/WHM many times when the duty doesn't require any shielding. The purpose of having another healer job is to break the two healer mindset. They even gave WHM three damage spells to make it work like an off-healer, for crying out loud. Get used to it, because every new job they add will change the meta.

[Risvertasashi]

1. The trick here is to get in the habit of not waiting for card actions to complete before taking your next healing/DPS action.

In other words, by the time you see which card you drew, you should already be halfway into your next spellcast.

2. You can still do a pretty good amount of stance dancing in savage. AST has awesome DoTs with no accuracy check; there's no excuse for pittance DPS (or at least, no excuse you can blame on job shortcomings)

3. It's plenty useful, actually. The HoT alone is stupidly potent, and there are plenty of instance in both savage and thordan EX where you can make use of the damage reduction too.

As for its size... it's easy enough to hit the tank. Tell your group to stack up like they should.

4. Take a look at other MMOs. Stacking shields is OP. Galvanize and noct field shouldn't stack.

5. I do think nocturnal stance could use a little more love.

[HopeEstheim]

You don't have to be so mean ^^"
I think he is right about N. Stance, while Diurnal allow to replace a WHM easily when you are paired with a SCH ; Nocturnal makes you work extra hard in your mana management, stance dancing etc... to reach SCH level when you are paired with a WHM.

Seriously, in my static, my co healer is a WHM and she doesn't want to dps, so I take the role of SCH and I know I'm making her work harder because I don't have a fairy if I want to go N. Stance. Plus, my dps is worse and the cards not always make up for the loss of a SCH. The only time I'm happy with N. Stance is in A2S, where she is DPSing while I'm healing because this way, we don't use HoTs and tanks are happy .

So, imo, keeping AB on the tank/AH on the party in Diurnal, and +5% attack speed is way better when you take the role of an "off-healer" or "DPSing-healer", making Noct a bit... "not bad, but not good".

But please don't take this post as a complaint, I think AST is fine too, I enjoy my AST a LOT and every healer comp can clear savage... I just think Noct need help in terms of DPS.

[Risvertasashi]

I just think Noct need help in terms of DPS.

What would you propose?

AST has very powerful DoTs with no accuracy check, and a direct nuke that is more powerful than anything SCH has.

The only way it will fully be on par with SCH, however, is if you give it a healing pet.

[HopeEstheim]

What would you propose?

AST has very powerful DoTs with no accuracy check, and a direct nuke that is more powerful than anything SCH has.

The only way it will fully be on par with SCH, however, is if you give it a healing pet.

I don't know, giving a damage reflector to nocturnal field will help AST in terms of dps/healing cause you do both at the same time, like SCH. ^^ ( Plus it will make it unique ! )
I don't want to make posts about balance, sorry.
Of course AST have cools DoTs that cannot miss, but... when you look how much mana it burns compared to SCH...

[Risvertasashi]

Fair enough!

[AzureFlare]

The only way it will fully be on par with SCH, however, is if you give it a healing pet.

A little floating moon that orbits around you and heals any person it collides with on an internal cooldown?
..yes, that may have been more for style points than a practical purpose.

[Rashammel]

AST's weakness in end game is the guy behind the screen.

[Pomelo]

AST's weakness in end game is the guy behind the screen.

I usually stay out of stuff like this, but I 100% agree with you.
AST is fine, a few tweaks here and there would be nice (they would be nice for every job) but we can do everything fine. I love this job, and I feel skilled at it to be honest, the way everyone is screaming for changes. I pray nothing radical happens, don't destroy the job that some of us are paying our subs for SE.

Some of us like how AST currently plays <3