Thread: 3.3 AST adjustments

Originally Posted by Reinha

Using an oGCD (Lightspeed) to make every AoE heal to land 2.5 seconds earlier is a boost though. It increases healing rate in the moment it matters, even if the AST has to pay for it later by not landing any GCD heals for 5 seconds. If a WHM or a SCH uses swiftcast they only gain that burst for one heal, then they have to wait for the global cooldown + cast time of the next heal. AST can keep throwing instant heals until danger is over, essentially gaining one extra heal on top of the usual rate of heals. At the same time they are saving some MP. While Lightspeed may look like a Swiftcast, it's effect lasts longer and that's where the cooldown's strength lies.

Here's a demonstration of what I mean (and my amazing Paint skills ) using some example spells:



The red part is where SCH could use Succor over and over but I think most agree that Succor spam is not very efficient. The yellow part is on the left side for clarity but healers would likely start pre-casting the first heals so they land right after damage has been taken. For SCH Deployment would be used before the hit and the rest right after. For AST you could replace the A. Helios with CU if it's up, and then cast A. Helios in place of the first Helios.

EDIT: Changed pic a bit because I play SCH so rarely I forgot a few spells

I appreciate the depth you have gone in your response.

However, it still is not the same type of boost you get from swiftcast>medica/emergency succor + assize/indom, for the sole reason AST has nothing like assize/indom, so its physically impossible for AST to get that same burst aoe healing in one GCD that WHM and SCH can do. Lightspeed is an amazing cooldown, but its not the equivalent of assize/indom for an AST, soley because on how it interacts with the GCD.

You are correct in saying that AST can use lightspeed for a different style "burst" healing (i would be more inclined to call it spam healing rather than burst, as it doesnt compress the healing output over a shorter time like using an oGCD heal would do alongside a GCD one - and before anyone tries to argue against this, you usually get 4-5 abilities out under lightspeed, but then have to deal with triggered GCD>cast time> spell going off at the end, it frontloads the healing under lightspeed, but then once lightspeed ends, you are left with a period nearly equal to 2GCD's until your next spell goes off), but it still has a healing output during this time that is entirely GCD dependent, and becuase of its GCD dependency, the average healing done by the AST over this period doesnt change with or without lightspeed. On a technical level it changes when the heals land, which is perhaps more important to be talking about. But if we were to compare say 6GCDs of AST healing using Helios to 6GCDs of WHM using medica and then one use of assize during this, then the WHM has a higher healing throughput. Thats the kind if healing boost i am talking about .

The problem with this line of thought is there is almost no situation in the game that simply boils down to "just spam Helios some more" (which is where AST would shine over SCH anyway). By the time SCH runs out of CDs the AOE heavy hitters are done. If you need to spam AOE heals for a longer time it's usually because your co-healer is dead, and if your co-healer is dead during an AOE-heavy phase it's GG, especially on Nocturnal AST.

I personally find myself thinking that Lightspeed lasts too long more often than not. I'd prefer it to work like Rapid Fire (2.5s cast time reduction, decreased GCD, but limited number of uses) and it would easily fill that Assize/Indom niche.

Originally Posted by Katlyna

Part of the solution is really simple. Remove cleric stance, and buff base healer damage to match. Cleric stance only serves to increase the gap between scholars and other heals, and adds unnecessary complication to healers. In PvP you would have to nerf healer damage some. But that's PvP. They've all ready concluded PvP has to have separate skill balancing.

I think Cleric Stance is fine, as well as your point mentioned above. I'd argue that instead of removing Cleric Stance it should be modified so its effect extends to the Scholar's pet OR at least have Regen and Aspected spells' additional effects not be affected by Cleric Stance.

Originally Posted by Reinha

Quoting this as a response to Darkmoon, because you explain a part of my point quite well.

This is precisely why Lightspeed is a valid burst cooldown. A dangerous amount of raid damage never lasts 6 GCD (correct me if I'm wrong ). Higher AoE healing output over 6 GCD is irrelevant if it's going to be overhealing. I left my image to represent 3 GCD for this reason. It demonstrates how the weakness of SCH (lack of spammable AoE) is never an issue; damage never lasts long enough for it to matter. For this very same reason Lightspeed offers comparable burst healing in raid wide damage situations; the AoE healing demand ends before Lightspeed ends so that when the awkward moment where you wait out a GCD + cast time of the next heal (~5 seconds) happens, it is already safe and all you are losing is maybe a cure on the tank or some dps.

Within a short amount of time (3 GCD or less), AST does clearly lose in comparison to a SCH or WHM if those two use Swiftcast to gain the same advantage as Lightspeed gives. However that leaves the 2 healers with no way to instantly raise someone so it's a bit of a gamble. It also doesn't account for the unique advantage of AST that comes with Lightspeed: mobility (for longer than 1 GCD). A running WHM and SCH are wasting potential GCD heals whereas AST can use them as normal, bridging the gap between their AoE healing capabilities. It's not quite in the topic of burst healing but somewhat related. I think it's supposed to be a trade-of: mobility for a sacrifice in short term burst potential. What I'm not sure about is how many fights truly allow this advantage of AST to be any use.

6GCD was an arbitrary figure used as an example. What matters is that there are oGCD heals going on here as well. AST has no oGCD aoe heals that the other two healers have. 6GCD doesn't reflect reality, it doesnt reflect raids. It is used as a figure to show how oGCD heals effect the healing throughput. Lightspeed doesnt effect healing throughout the same way oGCD heals do. Lightspeed frontloads them. Another arbitrary figure: 20GCD heals. One uses lightspeed, the other doesnt. Both use the same heal. Neither will have any more healing done since Lightspeed frontloads healing, not negate the GCD.

To be honest, what you have bolded have no relevance to the fact that a WHM can medica+assize in one GCD, a SCH can succor(with or without Emergency Tactics)+Indomnibility in one GCD, whilst all an AST can do is Helios in one GCD. Lightspeed does not change the fact that Helio is all that is used in one GCD, all it does is frontload it.

Only equivalent skill combo I can see is NoctAst -> Light speed -> Aspected Helios into Disable/CU -> Helios

So just mitigating a large amount of the up front damage to reduce the need for the level of burst heals a WHM can do.