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

[Cleftobismal]

Synastry should be treated like divine seal and used as frequently as possible while planning it's availability for healing intensive mechanic damaging abilities.

*Whistles

Depends. If you know you can use it a few times before a boss, it doesn't hurt. It's also nice to use if you have another target that keeps getting pelted.

*Blows on Tissue

I mostly use it though in one of Four situations:

Burst heal a tank from rapid Tank busting damage.

Where burst aoe heal is required. (Sophia EX Aoe spamming 4 times on party members who are affected by vulnerability stacks)

Popping it on a tank while I save a healer trying to dodge so the tank won't miss out on needed hps.

Making the regen ticks stronger on Dirunal regens and Collective unconscious when it's needed.

*Wipes Nose

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.

Not sure if were on the same page.

[randysquirrel]

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.

Guess we have to agree to disagree. Every floor of raid our ast always has aoe balance and uses it a few seconds before the pull. Not really sure what you mean about downtime, how can there be any downtime setting this up before the fight has even started

[Cleftobismal]

Every floor of raid our ast always has aoe balance and uses it a few seconds before the pull.

how can there be any downtime setting this up before the fight has even started

Royal road and spread is saved if you enter a duty that doesn't synch your job level. It's typical for an ast to play with RNG before they que in. We can't draw 2 cards unless you guys are taking forever to start. Even then you are still at the mercy of RNG. (Random Number Generator for a better clarification)

And thanks to:



It is possible to try to get balance and place it in the spread or royal road a ewer/spire for your lovely aoe balance during your progression in the dungeon/raid. But its not a good idea to always aim for it because you will create some downtime on yourself. (See Bellow regarding the next subject)

Not really sure what you mean about downtime

Downtime = Clicking off the card you don't want after using Redraw. Anymore questions? :>

[randysquirrel]

We do sometimes have to wait a few draws for the ast to get the set up, but would rather that than and be able to push through phases and ignore mechs

[Thrivaios]

I think my biggest piece of advice to a new AST is: get a feel for your party. If you're like me and you do a lot of PUG groups via DF, you'll run the gamut on different players and as a result you'll have to change your play style. There is some really great advice in here I won't duplicate but my tip is this: just keep practicing and learn who you're running with. Sometimes you'll need to adjust your buffs/debuffs depending on player skill, speed of the run and of course luck of the draw.

For example, maybe you've got a really bad group so you throw an arrow on yourself for faster casts instead of the DPS, to save your Lightspeed CD for a boss. Or perhaps your cohealer is blasting through their MP for some reason, so instead of laying it down on royal road, you give it to them. Playing an AST to me is learning to play smartly to the group you're given. And that comes with continued regular practice, which includes mistakes.

Good luck!