Starting out as AST30... for the first time

[GeekMatt]

This advice is meant for low level + building good habits.

In the first couple levels when you draw cards you have no options other than to click it off or use it, and this is a good thing because it helps teach you which cards help which party members in different situations—every card can be beneficial if applied to the right person in the right circumstances, but it's hard to learn that later on when your mostly following a simple watered down priority system (namely The Balance > everything else), so you'll want to know when to change up priorities in any given situation. The first few levels are the best time to learn when a card is beneficial to a player. The advice above is good, however it's important to keep in mind that a cards value varies situationally. You'll also want to learn to keep Draw on Cooldown and to use your cards as quickly as possible so that the Cooldown timer can begin asap. This gets easier with experience. If you Rez a physical DPS/tank, they could use TP, so Spire is good if you have. A revived Magic DPS/healer can probably use mp, so Ewer if you have it.

In the early levels it doesn't matter as much, but later on you'll want to be aware that certain cards can actually hurt DPS. For example a BLMs rotation is based on efficient use of MP, and giving them a bunch of MP unexpectedly can confuse that. Similarly increasing a MNKs attack speed can make managing his rotation harder. This isn't just a matter of knowing each specific job though, my GF is a badass MNK > BLM who loves the increased attack speed on both, even with lei lines active so long as she isn't caught completely off guard.

If you've played WHM then you should be comfortable with the healing, if not then that's ok but you will want to acquire the crossclass skills at your convenience. Keep Diurnal Sect on always and be careful with your Aspected abilities (Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios) because they apply Heal Over Times to your targets and if your tank encounters new enemies while the HoT is active on him, the enemies will run straight to you before he can get aggro. I apply Aspected Benefic as soon as the tank has stopped moving and established some aggro, and don't apply it again if I think it'll last longer than the enemies do. You'll find hectic moments when everyone is at low hp, possibly as early as Brayflox and the damage is made more straining by the poisons. In these cases use LightSpeed with Helios to pick up the party quickly at low MP cost, and if a player's near death don't hesitate to pick them up with Essential Dignity, the Cooldown time on these two abilities aren't so bad that you should regret using them in any bind.

Lastly if your DRK has this buff active then you won't be able to replenish his mp, so don't try.