First time playing Astrologian... need some advice/tips

[Arielyanna]

I solo'd my AST to 35, then moved on to other classes... that was awhile ago. Now, as it's my only class left under 50, I've decided to work on it and I was after some general advice/tips as to how to play as AST in a party situation (I leveled it to 35 solo via levequests...).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Elysaine]

I solo'd my AST to 35, then moved on to other classes... that was awhile ago. Now, as it's my only class left under 50, I've decided to work on it and I was after some general advice/tips as to how to play as AST in a party situation (I leveled it to 35 solo via levequests...).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Well the AST has 2 healing stances, of which at your level only one is available. Diurnal you get at level 30, Nocturnal at 50.

Apart from the sekt (stances name) own bonus (5% spell speed for diurnal, 10% healing for nocturnal). The sekts only affect 2 spells. Your other spells work as they normally would.

Aspected Benific works like the White Mage's Regen in Diurnal. Aspected Helios acts like the White Mage's Medica 2.
When going Nocturnal Aspected Benific mimics the Scholar's Adloquium, while Aspected Helios acts like the Scholar's Succor.
Only real difference is that Aspected Benific "Adloquium" is an instant cast spell, while the Scholar has a cast time for it. And it doesn't give a "double" shield when it crits.

If you have healed with White Mage and Scholar before you'll generally find the other healing spells of the Astrologian to be very familiar.

The other thing you need to keep in mind are the cards. You'll learn them along the way while leveling up. How to use them (Royal Road, Spread) etc. And when to use each of the 6 different cards.

Spread is a skill which allows you to use a card for later on. So if you for example draw a Balance card (which increases DPS) and don't need it right now, you can Spread it for later use.

Royal Road destroys the drawn card, but the card destroyed gives a card specific buff to the next card you'll draw and use. 3 different options there. More power, longer duration or an AOE version cast on all party members in range.

When playing solo (or when casting DPS spells) in groups. The Astrologian plays very similar to the White Mage.

Hope this helps a bit

Aurora

[Cleftobismal]

Just little stuff:


Extended Cards work better in the long run than a boosted card until you obtain time dilation and celestial opposition to boost the duration.

If you have a party member that is putting in the deeps a lot more than the others. It's sometimes best to focus extended/boosted balances on them alone.

AST can't aoe before the 50's. It's best to spread your balance card and place Combust II + I dots on many mobs as you can while you weave in spells.

Bole can be used to lessen the requirement to heal your tank. Giving you more time to do other things.

Disable should always be used on a tank buster skill. You may also use it on a boss charging an aoe.

Light speed is your bread and butter when it comes to quick dpsing and massive aoe heal spams. The mana cost reduction will prevent you from dying out on mana. And if you get the trait to reduce the damage penalty. Eventually you can use Gravity to help clear mobs or Malefic 2's on the run.

When you obtain Celestial opposition, you can use this skill offensively (to prevent mobs from touching your tank for a while) and increase all the buffs you not only casted on your party members but yourself. (Mana Recovery, Light speed, Synastry) *Personally I use this a lot with Light speed and Synastry to burst aoe heal when it calls for it.

For tips on cards:

Monks and Ninjas typically love the Arrow over Balance. But sometimes It's a good idea to use on a BLM if the fight is starting to get mobile.

Everyone else loves the Balance for obvious reasons.

Extended Ewer on Bard while they sing foes requiem is not a bad idea. You get a longer magic debuff effect.

Extended Spire has its uses on dragoons and Bards that spam aoes.

The spear is kind of useless imo, I only see it for one use and that's to reduce a tanks GCD. (If its a boosted Spear, it does make a huge difference)


Collective Unconscious:

Aside from the damage reduction effect, I actually love to use this skill to stack regens on a big pull. You'll be amazed in how much healing would be covered if you used synastry + this + Aspected Helios (Regen Stance) + Aspected Benefict (Regen stance) time dilation + celestial opposition.



AST is a fun class. And while people do complain that the class has some potency nearing WHM's. It's only because we don't have a Fairy to heal for us. (I can't imagine being able to heal heavy damage with just benefict I) And because of that fact and the way the class works, it requires a lot of focus and thinking to execute this class pretty well.

[Rennies]

Side note for you: Don't take AST in Level 50 Roulette, you and your team will hate the job for its inability to contribute to AoE damage until level 52. White Mage is the best option there.

[Elysaine]

Side note for you: Don't take AST in Level 50 Roulette, you and your team will hate the job for its inability to contribute to AoE damage until level 52. White Mage is the best option there.

May not be perfect, but pretty sure we can cross class Blizzard 2.

[Seoulstar]

Side note for you: Don't take AST in Level 50 Roulette, you and your team will hate the job for its inability to contribute to AoE damage until level 52. White Mage is the best option there.

I've done tons of 50 roulettes and neither me nor any of my party members have hated the job. If they did, they did a really good job at hiding it.

[Arale]

Side note for you: Don't take AST in Level 50 Roulette, you and your team will hate the job for its inability to contribute to AoE damage until level 52. White Mage is the best option there.

I'll take my buffs+disable over diminishing return Holy anyday of the week. If I give balance to literally any DPS, let alone the whole party, I'm pretty sure it will outpace the now very nerfed Holy. And that's not counting any of the other benefits that the cards can bring. This is coming from someone who has both classes at 50. Now if it was prenerf Holy, I might agree with you.

[ChiiSoSeriouz]

I'll take my buffs+disable over diminishing return Holy anyday of the week. If I give balance to literally any DPS, let alone the whole party, I'm pretty sure it will outpace the now very nerfed Holy. And that's not counting any of the other benefits that the cards can bring. This is coming from someone who has both classes at 50. Now if it was prenerf Holy, I might agree with you.

Highly doubtful. Ast at 50 is garbage in dungeons, whm holy contributes more then buffing party members with cards you may or may not even draw, let alone set up an expanded royal road every trash pull. Shroud+ holy and i'm going to out damage melee dps, add PoM and i'm probably going to out dps the casters too.

[basketofseals]

I'll take my buffs+disable over diminishing return Holy anyday of the week. If I give balance to literally any DPS, let alone the whole party, I'm pretty sure it will outpace the now very nerfed Holy. And that's not counting any of the other benefits that the cards can bring. This is coming from someone who has both classes at 50. Now if it was prenerf Holy, I might agree with you.

I highly doubt it. With six mobs, a single holy is 1050 potency. It's virtually impossible for balance to out pace that. Not to mention while you're chain-casting holy, you don't need to do any healing for the first 10 seconds or so, and the fact that you can't consistently draw balance.

[Arale]

I highly doubt it. With six mobs, a single holy is 1050 potency. It's virtually impossible for balance to out pace that. Not to mention while you're chain-casting holy, you don't need to do any healing for the first 10 seconds or so, and the fact that you can't consistently draw balance.

Postnerf Holy is pretty trash in my opinion. I'll still take AST over WHM any day for any content though. I've never seen anyone complain about AST in 50 dungeons either until this thread.