Astrologian misconceptions

[TatoRazzino]

I played WoW during the Burning Crusade era and each healer type felt unique enough and different enough, for example:

Holy Priest - Massive power heals
Disc Priest - Shield-based mitigation healing
Resto Shamen - AoE Heals
Holy Paladin - Fast and quick heals
Resto Druid - Healing over time

Go back to WoW now, or just the website or a guide, and you'll see how the healers got more spells to close the gap between the different styles. Every healer in there has a healing cooldown, an AoE button, a single target healing spell, some sort of HoT and so on. The differences between them are in the overall style or the predominance of one kind of healing spell.
This is also true for the healers in FF XIV. WHM is the one with the strongest AoE burst, AST is the one with more single target options and with more instant cast possibilities, SCH has more emergency buttons and the strongest shields.

AST has more similarities with WHM because it's the only healer that fills that role from the start, so it's supposed to have a similar basic toolkit just like the melee DPS. If you take a look at the things that you pointed out, almost all the differences come from their job skills, not their class. Pugilist, Lancer and Rogue are very similar, with two basic 1, 2, 3 combos, one to apply a debuff and a DoT, and the other one more bursty. What makes them unique is their set of job skills, the exact same amount of card/buff skills AST gets. SCH is the most different because it stems from a DPS class. What's going on with the healers is the same thing that's going on with the other jobs.

Further expansions will add more unique characteristics and the gaps will be enlarged, since all healers have basic tools to deal with basically every kind of damage.

[Sidra]

In general, this Dev team favors balance over creativity. It's easier for them to balance by near-mirroing skills. Look at MCH and Bard. And they really did it with WHM and AST. Cure 1/2. Regen. AOE1/2. OGCD instant (Essential Dignity/Tetra). The are some flavor differences, and a few small thing that differentiate them. But from a high level they are remarkably similar. Can't really blame the payer base for pigeon-holing them a bit.

And the dude yelling at you for not using Noct in Cape Westwind was just a bonehead. That's not an example of community-mind.

[TatoRazzino]

And the dude yelling at you for not using Noct in Cape Westwind was just a bonehead. That's not an example of community-mind.

I wish that was true, honestly.

But I agree with you that the devs are favoring balance over creativity, at least for now. Since we have only 8 spots in a raid team, if they get too creative they'd have a big problem designing fights to not favor one specific style over the other. I believe we'll see more variety in the next expansion.

[Roxas_Andrade]

What could SE do to make AST less hated?

IMHO, I think SE could make things better by letting AST use Time Dilation and Synastry on themselves(No reason to do this on raids, but we could use it for soloing). Also Nocturnal sect has no synergy with TD and Celestial Opposition, so I think it's worth mentioning. SE could also switch the levels that we acquire Gravity and Combust II. The lack of AoE in Lv 50 dungeons hurt...

Besides that, I guess SE will get more love towards AST as the Level cap rises and they get new spells. They need an spammable instant attack spell (I think it should be Stella). Example: the bombs in Brayflox Hard's last boss and the Keeper of the Lake's first boss. Combust is the only instant spell AST has and it won't push the bombs away because it doesn't have an initial hit. Aero has, and itcould be used for this, but if you Cross Class Blizzard II due to the lack of AoE, you can't do anything to help...

[Zaj_Quilos]

An Astrologian that barely ever draws card should stop being an Astrologian.

[Dayala]

IMHO, I think SE could make things better by letting AST use Time Dilation and Synastry on themselves(No reason to do this on raids, but we could use it for soloing). [...] SE could also switch the levels that we acquire Gravity and Combust II. The lack of AoE in Lv 50 dungeons hurt...

I could see using time dilation on ourselves but not Synastry. The whole point of that ability is to heal the target of synastry by healing other people in the party so that makes little to no sense in a solo situation. If you mean the healing boost you get from using it then I can see why but still not needed since Light Speed would basically be better to top yourself off in a soloing kinda thing.

I agree with the lack of AOE in lvl 50 dungeons. I never take AST in the 50 roulettes because of no gravity access ;A;

[Roxas_Andrade]

The whole point of that ability is to heal the target of synastry by healing other people in the party so that makes little to no sense in a solo situation. If you mean the healing boost you get from using it then I can see why but still not needed since Light Speed would basically be better to top yourself off in a soloing kinda thing.

Considering your priority as heal MT>Yourself>Everyone else, you could cast that synastry on yourself and get healed as you heal other people ensuring your survival. For soloing, the boost in healing is really what i had in mind - Not necessarilly to top yourself, but you could Synastry->Asp.Bene yourself and DPS longer.

[Ghishlain]

Go back to WoW now, or just the website or a guide, and you'll see how the healers got more spells to close the gap between the different styles. Every healer in there has a healing cooldown, an AoE button, a single target healing spell, some sort of HoT and so on. The differences between them are in the overall style or the predominance of one kind of healing spell.
This is also true for the healers in FF XIV. WHM is the one with the strongest AoE burst, AST is the one with more single target options and with more instant cast possibilities, SCH has more emergency buttons and the strongest shields.

AST has more similarities with WHM because it's the only healer that fills that role from the start, so it's supposed to have a similar basic toolkit just like the melee DPS. If you take a look at the things that you pointed out, almost all the differences come from their job skills, not their class. Pugilist, Lancer and Rogue are very similar, with two basic 1, 2, 3 combos, one to apply a debuff and a DoT, and the other one more bursty. What makes them unique is their set of job skills, the exact same amount of card/buff skills AST gets. SCH is the most different because it stems from a DPS class. What's going on with the healers is the same thing that's going on with the other jobs.

Further expansions will add more unique characteristics and the gaps will be enlarged, since all healers have basic tools to deal with basically every kind of damage.

I can see where you're going with your post. I guess it just doesn't satisfy me but I won't disagree with your statement either. Perhaps I'm just jaded at the very moment and can't look at it as objectively as I would like to be able to. I still appreciate the comment though. It's probably best I drop the topic for now, lol.

[AlexanderThorolund]

Most of it comes from when the job was introduced, first impressions are hard to shake.

[Lunafreya]

Most of it comes from when the job was introduced, first impressions are hard to shake.

I definitely agree with this but Astrologian is a completely new potent job now. The main problem people have with AST is that it is the middle ground between whm and sch. They want AST to be a unique class that does things differently than the previous two. I don't think there is a problem. Evidence already shows that AST can hold their ground in extreme content like Alex Savage. I'm a good AST... really good. I have seen bad Astrologians and there is a clear skill gap between us that keeps one doing great in savage and one flunking.