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

[Cleftobismal]

Some of you guys forget Swiftcast exists, and guess what? It's a 60s cooldown. That is why I mention turning off lightspeed instead of wasting the recast and dps loss. Swiftcast a Gravity. Be bold. You have options that don't involve wasting resources.

i'm not turning off light speed to cast one instant gravity when I can cast more than that if the fight requires me to be on my feet. Ghishlain pretty much explained the optimal and not so optimal use of it above. ^ I also would never use swift cast at a boss in case someone died.

[Ghishlain]

I actually did not really do anything to that effect of stating when is optimal usage of Lightspeed.

I just stated why any DPS spell with Lightspeed up is a sub-optimal maneuver and also stated that if I happened to have Lightspeed up at a time where I need to do a movement mechanic, I'll probably just keep it up and fire a DPS spell out for the sake of simplicity, even knowing it was sub-optimal. However, the better maneuver in this case is to cancel Lightspeed, use Swiftcast, and fire your spell.

To be honest, in any serious tier fight, Healer's should be mapping out their CDs for optimal usage which would include for times where you're optimally using Lightspeed to get past heal checks then moving back into a position to DPS without Lightspeed up to maintain optimal use of the CDs and DPS up times.

[Cleftobismal]

TLDR: To OP. Everything is situational if you're understanding our debates. Bwahahahaahahaha

Fun class isn't it? :>

[randysquirrel]

Is that what we're supposed to do now? Just pitch every card that isn't balance?

Yes, imo anyway, seems everyone disagrees. Pre-pull I'll always set up an aoe balance. Obv thru the fight you have to work more with what you get.

Actually rather surprised people are advocating an aoe bole on pull, I genuinely don't know of any fights where the outgoing damage so early in the fight justifies bole.

[Cleftobismal]

Yes, imo anyway, seems everyone disagrees. Pre-pull I'll always set up an aoe balance. Obv thru the fight you have to work more with what you get.

Actually rather surprised people are advocating an aoe bole on pull, I genuinely don't know of any fights where the outgoing damage so early in the fight justifies bole.

Because of RNG, it's best to utilize the best combos you can do.

Royal Road Balanced/Bole Cards used with time dilation and/or Celestial opposition

Royal Road Arrow/Spear cards when time dilation and/or celestial opposition is on CD

Royal Road Spire/Ewer cards if you don't have an "Ace" in the party.

Otherwise if you just try to stick to balance you're creating a lot of downtime on the buffs for your party when you could use the cards you skipped for your party while you're still waiting for a balance.

Sometimes I draw a lot of balances, sometimes I don't draw any until I reach the boss. Surrender to the RNG ~ Don't fight against it.

[Mikaeus_The_Lunarch]

exactly. im not gonna intentionally dig for an aoe bole pre pull, but sometimes it's what you're dealt. quite a few cards have more uses than i previously gave credit for. like i've been recently giving ewers to SMNs to continue their ruin III spam.

the only inherently detrimental combo imo is aoe ewer/spire. not only will people straight up not feel any effect, it's a waste of a combo. i say it's a waste since you have to wait at least a full minute for another combo

[Cynfael]

The unfortunate and perhaps unavoidable issue with abilities that mitigate damage like Expanded Bole is that they are actually useless in the wrong context, and some players don't understand this.

It's kind of like the SCHs who run around dumping Sacred Soil because the buff looks good on paper; they don't imagine how a 10% damage mitigation can be a waste of a stack unless they stop to ask themselves if it actually helped them use fewer healing actions and realize that the answer is usually no.

[Cleftobismal]

The unfortunate and perhaps unavoidable issue with abilities that mitigate damage like Expanded Bole is that they are actually useless in the wrong context, and some players don't understand this.

It's kind of like the SCHs who run around dumping Sacred Soil because the buff looks good on paper; they don't imagine how a 10% damage mitigation can be a waste of a stack unless they stop to ask themselves if it actually helped them use fewer healing actions and realize that the answer is usually no.

Depends, I may use sacred soil when aetherflow is off CD so I don't waste what I had before. But that's another class to discuss /o/.


Bole is pretty damn useful, especially if the tank is being hit by more than one target. Because what it literally does for you is reduce the HPS requirement so you can DPS more. I don't use it for this situation on purpose. I only do it when i meet the inevitable after I royal road a bole, then placing the next consecutive bole I get in the spread and then I'll get a third bole after a redraw. zZZzZzZz


It's also wonderful to use on a DPS that is about to get hit by a boss tethered/marked mechanic. Especially if they have a vulnerability debuff.



Otherwise if the tank hp lost is not that quick, yes it would be useless to use it, even if the point is to dps longer.

[Cynfael]

Depends, I may use sacred soil when aetherflow is off CD so I don't waste what I had before. But that's another class to discuss /o/.


Bole is pretty damn useful, especially if the tank is being hit by more than one target. Because what it literally does for you is reduce the HPS requirement so you can DPS more. I don't use it for this situation on purpose. I only do it when i meet the inevitable after I royal road a bole, then placing the next consecutive bole I get in the spread and then I'll get a third bole after a redraw. zZZzZzZz


It's also wonderful to use on a DPS that is about to get hit by a boss tethered/marked mechanic. Especially if they have a vulnerability debuff.



Otherwise if the tank hp lost is not that quick, yes it would be useless to use it, even if the point is to dps longer.

Yes, there are uses for Bole; when I talk about unnecessary mitigation, I'm mainly talking about Expanded Bole since some ASTs (and SCHs) seem to forget that these buffs constitute a situational use of resources.

Just as I would sooner throw another Energy Drain than cast an unnecessary Sacred Soil, I'll redraw, RR, or click away a Bole that won't help in a meaningful way. Hell, there are fights and phases of fights where even a Bole thrown directly on the tank makes no noticeable difference in healing requirement since my shields and/or regens are enough to handle it.

[ChiiSoSeriouz]

If you are confident you can heal mechanics like nidhogg ex and a12 swithout synastry then do so. It's wise to save it during a "Oh Sh-" than using it all the time. I grind my teeth when I make that mistake and know I could of saved the party if I saved Synastry for something I really needed it for. lol


Keeping up with the HPS requirement is fine and all. But do remember we are playing with fellow humans behind the screen. It's amazing to have a healer that can keep their party members alive after their mistake has been made.

Synastry should be treated like divine seal and used as frequently as possible while planning it's availability for healing intensive mechanic damaging abilities. Since having an ast in the party typically means an absence of a white mage it can also be used when a dark knight activates living dead and the debuff is proc'd, or when wanting to heal two targets simultaneously since cure 3 is absent as well.