AST melds

[heynowjose]

I just got the sophic globe and im at a loss as to what to meld. This would be my first time melding anything to a class. I don't raid but i enjoy doing the raids as a (filthy) casual so anything that makes me more efficient works.

So should I add Accuracy, Crit, Spell Speed or Piety?

Thanks in advance

[Rennies]

Accuracy until you cap for whatever content you're doing, and no more. Crit gives the best overall returns on your spells, though it's RNG. Piety will give you more MP to work with meaning less punishment for overhealing/reviving.

[Jukebox12]

^^^^^^not 100% true. on the acc thing since you cannot get cap anymore. are you doing Main healer of off healer if you off healer Crit piety and SS unless you like Det then Crit piety Det it all depends on what you like as a healer piety is 100% better than anything less since is less punishment for overhealing/reviving but it depends on you as a healer

[Rawrz]

^^^^^^not 100% true. on the acc thing since you cannot get cap anymore. are you doing Main healer of off healer if you off healer Crit piety and SS unless you like Det then Crit piety Det it all depends on what you like as a healer piety is 100% better than anything less since is less punishment for overhealing/reviving but it depends on you as a healer

The accuracy cap for a12s is just above a8s. It's no more than 604 accuracy. If you don't plan on doing that, the caster accuracy cap for sophia is 540. 16 Tier V Accuracy will get you to 546. You may want to gear all 18 of your slots with Accuracy Vs to hit 570. A slight overmeld on a crafted ring (+9 accuracy from tier 4) and some food (pipira or marron Glaze for example) should get you through what will quickly become party finder content, a10s at 595+ accuracy.

I'll be sticking with my +120 accuracy relic and letting my Sophia weapon rot in retainer hell.

[Katlyna]

We had a huge discussion about this last patch. Roughly this is how folks viewed the skills in comparison to each other (and my personal priority):

Top pics are Critical, Piety and Spell speed. Between the three each have distinct advantages in comparison to each other (and practical game impacts). If you are in fights where many mistakes are made and you are running out of mana, then stacking Piety can be best. If are capable of adjusting to criticals and canceling uneeded spellcasts, Critical can both save mana and increase throughput. But excess criticals require some spell canceling to save mana (for unneeded heals), if you can properly spell cancel post criticals then critical stacking can be best. Spell speed increases your throughput directly increasing the number of spells you can cast per fight or grants extra time to move. If you can make optimal use of the extra movement, or translate the extra casts into damage (or life saving heals) then stacking spell speed can be best.

Between those three you can see stacking each results in behavior changes of combat itself. Personally I do NOT like spell canceling critcal heals, and find most of the extra throughput to be wasted on overhealing.

Consequently my personal playstyle priority is:

SpellSpeed > Piety > Critical > Det

[Watachy]

Consequently my personal playstyle priority is:

SpellSpeed > Piety > Critical > Det

Hum you're playing diurnal right ?

As a Noct Ast main since a few months im going for:

Crit > Piety > Det= SS, melding Acc and thinking to put +120 acc on my 240 relic

Turning around 1080 Crit 440 Acc 300 Det with ilvl 230/240 sutff.

Want to mention one more thing to those who prefer SS for the Benefic II crit proc: crit also improves the amount of healing of this proc. Mines are actually around 14k

[Taika]

Hum you're playing diurnal right ?

Crit is the better stat compared to Det and SpS for Diurnal AST as well. There has even been finally some testing on this: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...mulas_and_more

Want to mention one more thing to those who prefer SS for the Benefic II crit proc: crit also improves the amount of healing of this proc. Mines are actually around 14k

Yup, 3.4 just made Crit even more powerful than before for AST.

[Watachy]

Crit is the better stat compared to Det and SpS for Diurnal AST as well. There has even been finally some testing on this: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...mulas_and_more


Yup, 3.4 just made Crit even more powerful than before for AST.

Thanks fort he reddit analysis, will read it carefully when i will go back home.

To explain my opinion as a Noct AST, i've always played it like a SCH. Maximising crit for better shields and that fact improved with the 3.4 buff, getting some PIE because when i do have to DPS MP running out a lot faster than a SCH, even if i have some card and maximizing my luminous ether (the regen MP spell, forgot the english name).

Im paired with a WHM in my static and we're doing fine i guess, except that she prefer SS-CRIT/DET so she is basically casting faster than me, i just have to adapt and precast faster than her ^^

[Archvile78]

Being the main healer of my group i'm personally going Crit > Det > Piety. I DPS where/when needed (as often as possible) but for Extreme/Savage content i strictly stick to healing while tossing the occasional Combust/Combust II as those two skills can't miss.

To me, Accuracy melding is a waste but again, that's because i choose not to DPS in hardcore content.

EDIT: Though, i did consider melding Accuracy V on my accessories, at least, but i'm not sure if its a good idea. Considering i intend to play all 3 healers i know i'll be expected to DPS when it comes to SCH, but considering the gear i use is shared across all of them and i meld my gear with AST in mind i'm not certain what to do.

Thoughts?

[Katlyna]

Hum you're playing diurnal right ?

As a Noct Ast main since a few months im going for:

Crit > Piety > Det= SS, melding Acc and thinking to put +120 acc on my 240 relic

I play both Diurnal and Noct. After breaking into the patch more I've kind of flipped around some and prioritized SS = Piety > Crit > Det. Because lots of Piety allows for notable corrections. I know that statistically in a non stop damage world Critcal bonus is statistically the most powerful. The problem is Crits benefits are all too often lost to overheals, because damage is predictable and critcals heals aren't required to clear content. If critical heals aren't required to clear content then in my eyes you want the stats which provide the highest ability to error correct. And those two stats are SS and Piety.

This patch Piety is showing to be highly valuable for two reasons. One many players are new to Astro and not playing them super efficiently, so extra piety = golden to help preventing running out of mana. Second the content most folks are playing (early raiding to no raiding) allows for quite a few party deaths while still clearing, where again Piety excels at correcting. Piety is also fantastic for helping extend yourself as far as you can into savage runs while learning the content (again by correcting multiple deaths). So for all these reasons I'm finding myself promoting Piety fairly significantly (and most of the other astrologers are concurring in our large FC).

Spell speed vs Critical stacking as I've always said is personal taste. I've done the raw math and if you look at stacked Spell speed vs Critical bonus; you are comparing extra time for movement, faster heals, and throughput vs extra raw throughput. The question for a person personally do you want the highest raw throughput or utility + throughput.

Also I looked at that reddit thread and for Astros it is not accurate (for either stance). Stacking more spellspeed continues to provide incremental gains in healing throughput and damage. The thing that people often miss with spells speed is if you calculate the number of times you cast over your average 8 minute fight, and then subtract out the gains of stacking spell speed. If you do the math correctly you'll find you have somewhere around 8-10 seconds more time than someone without any extra Spellspeed. This translates to 4-5 extra heals, damage casts, or movement.

Again critical bonus will net more raw healing (unless its lost to overheals). Likewise critical bonus is fantastic if you are mostly doing raw damage. Players who only run dungeons may find this absolutely ideal. Likewise some raiders who are doing minimal healing will likely find critical bonus most powerful during the front end of savage raiding.

But those are my thoughts after getting into the patch more. At the end of the day the question you have to ask yourself is do you need more healing, utility or error correction in your current content. If you prioritize your stats by those thoughts, then you'll find yourself happy with how you stack up your materia