Astrologian: Mimi's Guide to the Stars

[IceSpear]

Great guide since I've recently got Astrologain to 60 I've been trying to find how to play it just a two questions though... 1. Synastry... I've seen that using this on a party member then healing said party member gives 100% + the 40% of the spell, but say I was to use the ability on the target then proceed to Helios... Would it only apply the 40% from one party member once or would it work like 40% times the number of party members if that makes any sense and 2. Essential Dignity, I assume this works like any other healing spell in which if you were in Cleric Stance the heal would be weaker compared to not being in Cleric Stance.

[Mimilu]

Snip

...With Combust II, I meant a potency of 45. My finger must have slipped. Correcting >w>()
...Collective Unconscious has a radius of 6 yalms. Again, my finger must have slipped. Correcting
...When I said it works "exactly" like Shroud, I meant in terms of its MP-Refreshing ability, not as a whole, hence the other paragraph explaining the Enmity Control difference.
...With Diurnal Aspected Helios, I am stating you use it "exactly" like you would use Medica II.
...If we are focusing on wording, I said "Not You [as in AST] or other casters". I just wanted to point out that using Spire on a Caster would be a waste of a card.
...Mikoko and LDR have both pointed this out and I have revised accordingly.

I'll be sure to revise these marks so there is no confusion. ;-D

Now for our disagreements:
Ewer and Spear: The "Who Likes Them" lists aren't prioritized, I just listed them in the order I thought of them (minus any important tidbit I think needed to be said).
As for the Ewer Priority list, I'll admit, I do put my MP above the other healers'. I did forget to put the "Use only if at 70-80%" rule I stated in the MP Management paragraph in the #1 slot. I'll be sure to add that. >w>
I'll be sure to add your other uses of cards into the list. ;-D
Even with it not effecting recast, I still think Lightspeed's ability to make Benefic (II) and Helios's cast instant and Aspected Helios's cast only 0.5s, I still think Lightspeed is a viable speed tool.

For stat weight, what you you suggest then?
Det >= Crit > SS?

[Mimilu]

Great guide since I've recently got Astrologain to 60 I've been trying to find how to play it just a two questions though... 1. Synastry... I've seen that using this on a party member then healing said party member gives 100% + the 40% of the spell, but say I was to use the ability on the target then proceed to Helios... Would it only apply the 40% from one party member once or would it work like 40% times the number of party members if that makes any sense and 2. Essential Dignity, I assume this works like any other healing spell in which if you were in Cleric Stance the heal would be weaker compared to not being in Cleric Stance.

1. Synastry only works on single-target spells (not abilities), so the one effected would receive nothing from Helios.
2. Correct, Essential Dignity is based off of Mind, so Cleric Stance will weaken it. However, Essential Dignity is an Ability, not a Spell.

[VolAnari]

Thordan Extreme, Ultimate End. If you had multiple deaths before you might need every cooldown in the book to survive it due to high LB and/or given weaknesses. Spread Bole, Tank Convo, Mantra, PLD Divine Veil, Eos buffs (if SCH available usually Adlo spread the tank with the cooldowns up). If you are the Noct AST in that situation, Synastry buff with the usual shields and CU. 5% mitigation can be a life saver in this fight if you've ever done it, or healed through a phase 9.

Can work on A3S Splash/Cascade, along with Disable. Usually AoE DPS buffs as much as possible because of DPS checks but it's another situation if that is what you got. With 210 gear now this mechanic isn't so much heartburn with mitigation.

Good to know thank you. I think you are right that Thordan calls for a different style than ASavage

[Pomelo]

Great guide since I've recently got Astrologain to 60 I've been trying to find how to play it just a two questions though... 1. Synastry... I've seen that using this on a party member then healing said party member gives 100% + the 40% of the spell, but say I was to use the ability on the target then proceed to Helios... Would it only apply the 40% from one party member once or would it work like 40% times the number of party members if that makes any sense and 2. Essential Dignity, I assume this works like any other healing spell in which if you were in Cleric Stance the heal would be weaker compared to not being in Cleric Stance.

The synastry effect of healing the bonded target would not take place with aoe heals, the healing up effect which is also added to you when you use Synastry would be, that's why its also good to pair with your HoT's and then extend them.

[AzureFlare]

We have two OGCD heals, but only one direct heal. Even if CU can require a 3 seconds of channeling minimum and is a HoT (Wheel of Fortune), it is still OGCD and more importantly, an ability.

Don't just use Essential Dignity to 'heal anyone under 50% in a hurry'. Work around it: Essential Dignity heals a lot on low %HP targets, especially on crits, which will net you more mana to spare. You don't even need to think about the crit since as long as you can let a target go lower safely with the plan of using it (and it isn't happening at a sluggish rate), you pretty much always should. I can't stress this enough: using ED liberally makes a huge difference in mana spent healing tanks/single target and sets apart good ASTs from great ASTs.

Bonus healing from regens and increased damage on DoT from spellspeed is pretty lackluster. Besides, we have two OGCD healing abilities which can both crit fully as opposed to spellspeed and in terms of HPS, regens benefit very nicely from crits. Feels like spellspeed is very oversold while underselling crit.

Aero after your first Malefic 2? Sounds like you got a large DPS section for that to be beneficial. Also, no mention that Aero is useful for weaving OGCDs without clipping, since it has the same potency as Malefic 2 anyway (though you will lose out on mana holding Aero too long).

CU is also great just for the healing. Personally, I find it a bit sad you're not advocating people to find more opportunities to use it since it is a really undervalued ability and a cooldown of 90 seconds is fairly lenient when you look at most encounters. Most of all: Don't just use this ability on 60-75% if you want the damage taken decrease buff before the hit. The servertick will screw you over. Also funny: CU actually continues channeling if you aren't being moved, regardless of crowd control, for whatever that is worth.

Your explanation on Synastry has a lot of faults. You can extend the Synastry buff with Time Dilation, but unless I missed a very important patch note, it will drop anyway because your own Synastry buff forces both to drop. Likewise, CU will only work if you hit both yourself and your Synastry target, while the potency buff will stay regardless. Also would've been nice if you mentioned that only direct healing triggers the Synastry buff for whoever reads this and finds it a little vague.

Using Lightspeed to get someone back up is fine. 25% manacost reduction is powerful though and it is hardly a speed tool for anything except Aspected Helios, Stoneskin and Ascend (and Gravity but you know, let's not go there) unless you really need that one heal frontloaded. Using it as a mobility tool is viable (and probably was the main intention anyway) but there are very few times you can't just use Swiftcast instead (tell your party to stop licking the floor, Swiftcast isn't just to give you a second chance to dodge the super-obvious-orange under you). Don't underestimate using this just for the MP when you are in a situation you need to go Aspected Helios -> Helios/Benefic2/Aspected Benefic -> Benefic2/Aspected Benefic -> whatever.

No mention that unless you can live without the mana, LA + CO is a near-essential combo because you lose out on a ridiculous amount of mana and they have similar cooldowns, making it hard for them to sync up if you use them separately once and intend to use both often (which you should, anyway).

No mention that TD on a tank after CU, Bole and Aspected Benefic is bonkers if you get the chance. Also, using Aspected Helios just to extend it onto the tank (or cause a lot of overhealing) is generally a waste of effort and mana.


Nothing otherwise. There are some good things and covers stuff for beginners, but was hoping some more advocating of using abilities liberally over the conservative approach a lot of beginners use.

[Apeiron]

Don't just use Essential Dignity to 'heal anyone under 50% in a hurry'. Work around it: Essential Dignity heals a lot on low %HP targets, especially on crits, which will net you more mana to spare. You don't even need to think about the crit since as long as you can let a target go lower safely with the plan of using it (and it isn't happening at a sluggish rate), you pretty much always should. I can't stress this enough: using ED liberally makes a huge difference in mana spent healing tanks/single target and sets apart good ASTs from great ASTs.

This.

When your target's health is at 90%, ED has a 460 potency, making it better than your standard heal. At 60% it becomes a 640 potency heal which is only slightly less than your Benefic II, and at 30% its 820 giving it the highest potency single target heal among the all healers (ignoring Benediction due to it not being potency based, though it wins by default function).


This is assuming the scaling hasn't changed since https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/3apj24/scaling_of_asts_essential_dignity/cseze6d