AST QoL Changes

[Velox]

AST MP management is actually better than WHM. If anyone has a right to complain about MP issues, it's the WHMs.


Let's look at some MP math.

All of AST's primary healing toolkit is a copy+paste of WHM healing toolkit, including all the same potency.
Let's use Cure/Benefic in our example.

To simplify the math, let's ignore spell speed and natural MP regen, as well as SoS and LA MP regeneration (since it will be the same for both jobs and cancel out). Let's also assume both the WHM and AST have 10000 MP each to work with (for easy %-based calculations).
Since we are comparing MP regeneration rates, let's make it a 90s test since WHM's Assize has a 90s cooldown on it and is tied to their MP regen.

Cure/Benefic have a 2.5 second recast time (otherwise known as the GCD). This is the limiting factor of how much you can spam them. In a 90s period, they can be spammed a total of 36 times assuming chain-casting. Their MP costs are different though, as most of AST's healing abilities cost less MP than both WHM and SCH even though they are the same strength.

Over a 90 second spamfest
---------------------------------------------------
Cure potency = 400 x 36 = 14,400 total heal potency
Cure MP cost = 442 x 36 = 15,912 MP spent
Assize MP regen = 10% x 10000 = 1000 MP recovered

Benefic potency = 400 x 36 = 14,400 total heal potency
Benefic MP cost = 354 x 36 = 12,744 MP spent
----------------------------------------------------

So what does this all mean? This means that the total MP spent for each job's primary heal spell is
12,744 for AST
14,912 for WHM

Now since Benefic II is the same as Cure II, and Helios is the same as Medica, etc etc. you're going to have the same results for all these spells too. AST will have better MP management than WHM. For the sake of argument, let's do some math for Regen and Aspected Benefic (diurnal) since they are part of the bread-n-butter kit of both jobs.

Regen lasts 21 seconds for a total potency of 1050 (since each HoT ticks in 3 second intervals).
Aspected Benefic lasts for 18 seconds for a total potency of 1030.

Over a 90 second spamfest
-----------------------------------------------------------------
4 Regens + 32 Cures (filler) = 17,000 total heal potency
4 Regens + 32 Cures = 15,420 MP spent
1 Assize = 1000 MP recovered

5 A.Benefics + 31 Benefics = 17,550 total heal potency
5 A.Benefics + 31 Benefics = 14,509 MP cost
----------------------------------------------------------

So in the end the AST is going to have spent 14,500 MP for 17.5k healing and the WHM will have spent 14,400 MP for 17k healing. This means that for 100 MP more, the AST is gaining 500 healing potency more. That's about an additional Benefic worth of healing for only 100 MP. Again, AST has better MP efficiency than WHM.


Now I'm not going to do this for every single spell because I don't have that kind of time, but the point I'm making is that AST MP managment is not bad. It's, in fact, better than WHM's in almost all aspects. Hell, I didn't even account for Ewer since it's RNG-based, but even in a worse-case scenario where not a single Ewer is drawn an entire fight, AST is going to be better off than WHM. Yes abilities like Divine Seal and Synestry mix things up a bit, but so do abilities like Lightspeed which reduces AST MP cost by 25% and Essential Dignity which is a free heal every 40 seconds learned at level 15 and is practically the same strength as Tetragrammaton, which is only every 60 seconds and a WHM has no access to it until level 60. But then you also have to account for Assize being a free Medica/Helios even if it's on a 90s timer. It gets complicated, but AST is not the shitty MP-hungry healer everyone makes it out to be. If anything, WHM will probably see buffs in the coming months since it offers no party utility and doesn't gain THAT much healing power in return.

[Cleftobismal]

Snip

Wonderful commitment.


But in the end this is no different than a AST purely healing with a piety build. If I had the time to do the math I would. But right now I'll simplify it for lazy sakes.


Ast has:

The Ewer


WHM has:

Shroud of saints



AST is on a RNG.


WHM is on a CD.


AST DPS skills are inefficiently high on potency.

WHM blasts out numbers and useful utility for high mana cost.


A.k.A for a AST to do anything as meaningful of a WHM. They will need to put in more MP because that's how WHM is more efficient.

[Velox]

Ast has:

The Ewer

You forgot this: Luminiferous Aether, which is not RNG-based. It has the same MP refresh as Shroud of Saints, and has the same cooldown timer.

AST DPS skills are inefficiently high on potency.

WHM blasts out numbers and useful utility for high mana cost.

AST DPS skills are also independent of Accuracy checks. This means in high-end content, WHM's end up wasting more MP on "missed" attacks than AST does.
AST also has the ability to boost the raid DPS via cards like The Balance and The Arrow. It would be broken if AST could pump out as much theoretical DPS as a WHM while still retaining the capacity of buffing the party, something that WHM can't do. Even RNG-based support is support. No ifs, ands, or buts.

I don't mean to nitpick here, but don't formulate an argument unless you're dealing with all the facts.
Healer balancing is done assuming 3 different aspects of the jobs. The ability to heal, the ability to damage, and the ability to support. The more points you put into one, the less you can spend for the others. For instance, let's say each healer uses a 10 point system of balance. That means each healer gets 10 points to spend in the three aspects I listed above. A current snapshot of the healers might be something like this...

WHM                           AST                      SCH
healing: 7pts                 healing: 6pts            healing: 5pts
damage: 3pts                  damage: 1pts             damage: 4pts
support: 0pts                 support: 3pts            support: 3pts

Things are not that bad, nor that complicated when balancing. The more you gain in one area, the more you have to give up other areas. You can't have your cake and eat it too in MMORPGs. It's a game of tradeoffs.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

1 Assize = 1000 MP recovered

How undergeared is this white mage to an MP pool of 10000?

[Velox]

How undergeared is this white mage to an MP pool of 10000?

Eh, I just rounded it off assuming a fresh 60 job. You can make it 15000 to see how i200 gear plays into effect, or 20000 if you want to estimate what the MP recovery will be around patch 3.5-3.6. I figured it's better to account for the lower iLevel of a fresh 60 than a higher one since everything in MMOs are balanced around the minimum effective cost. If things are balanced around the maximum effective cost, then developers are forced to design content solely around that and it creates huge gear progression cliffs for newer players. That's why math and balancing done tends to be conservative.