It has begun!

[shadowrell_d-_-b]

As many have stated this isn't just wild speculation and assumption. There really is a trend building where the (obviously powerful) ast is being pushed to the forefront of preference in fights, which tbh is completely understandable just disheartening for other heal classes. The white robes and book bois are being pushed aside and the rise of the card bois has begun!

[Dement]

I will absolutely agree that AST is unbalanced in comparison with WHM/SCH and won't argue that point in anyway, shape or form. The only thing I will comment on is that the groups who do this kind of thing are more often than not groups that a good player would rather not be a part of anyway. From my experience, groups that role lock based on a meta and not on general party balance are often so incompetent and have failed so many times that they're trying to up their odds through party composition rather than actual skill.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

You'll never have to "be forced" to level a certain healer.
Tbh, the only content where it could be a problem is savage content.
Like, if sch can't handle the heal or if healing requirement is very high.

But on every other content, healer should be just fine, even if they are not balance.

There has been NO content except savage at their release (or the next weeks) that needs a certain class more than another because they basically all can do it.

I don't think that's what they meant by being forced.
In 3.0, I stopped playing WHM in raids because it felt like I was purposely handicapping my party. AST could (and still can) do everything I could do, but offer more. So why am I playing WHM? That's the feeling you have when the power gap is so huge as it is now.

No one's going to be forced into different roles, but you'll feel so weak and unwanted that you will eventually fall into something you don't have as much fun playing.

[Sebazy]

I don't think that's what they meant by being forced.
In 3.0, I stopped playing WHM in raids because it felt like I was purposely handicapping my party. AST could (and still can) do everything I could do, but offer more. So why am I playing WHM? That's the feeling you have when the power gap is so huge as it is now.

Are you for real? AST was a train wreck for early 3.0 progression. If you were holding your raid back in Gordias as a WHM then it was your playing ability that was at fault, not your choice of job.

As far as things stand at the moment, personally I'm seeing the best results with WHM/AST, but I suspect that's as much to do with me being much more comfortable playing WHM over the 4.0 changes to AST as anything else. As much as I love padding and pocketing my DPSers, WHM's brute force gameplay just works for me.

Logs aren't far off, that'll help clarify the current state of play.

[KDSilver]

I don't think that's what they meant by being forced.
In 3.0, I stopped playing WHM in raids because it felt like I was purposely handicapping my party. AST could (and still can) do everything I could do, but offer more. So why am I playing WHM? That's the feeling you have when the power gap is so huge as it is now.

No one's going to be forced into different roles, but you'll feel so weak and unwanted that you will eventually fall into something you don't have as much fun playing.

I was scholar until now and tbh, with the changes they made on the already existing skills of WHM, I have now more fun with WHM and am planning to raid with it, even if WHM have no party bonus or buff.
My static is okay with it as long as I play what I like.

And actually, with WHM mana now, he has a really good recovery for progress.
So I don't think any healer could feel unwanted.

[Velox]

I benefit of running AST/AST is that you have double the odds of getting Balance with every draw. Any kind of coordination between them so they don't override each other and AST/AST becomes the supreme heal combo from Balance alone.

[ToasterMan]

Good. I didn't think this would happen but this shows just how badly SE has failed to balance the healers.

Remember, this is why we didn't get any new tanks or healers this expansion.

SE needs to rework this job BADLY

[Donaria]

This post is pure win if you read it in a Kentucky accent. I think I'll respond in kind.

I fer one agree witchu, Verdan. Them cardbois are right powerful. Gotta kick like a mule. O' course, you wouldna felt it cuz the cardboi woulda healt chu before ya hit the ground. Hee hee.

Now, witthat said, noones gonna kick no white robe or bookboi outta na instance. That's jus' crazy talk an' enny one that tries sit will get tan earful from me!

(I mean the above in fun. True story, when I moved to Ohio from Louisiana no one could understand me. Stupid yankees. Now, I am one. Go fig.)

This made me laugh so much.

[BlastHardcheese]

I agree with the above.

AST is a beautifully designed and versatile job but WHM is literally so simple it's hard to mess it up, it's an absolute animal built from the ground up to not let people die. If they tweak that stupid lily mechanic to work with skills that actually matter: It'll be even better.

SCH on the other hand...

[loreleidiangelo]

I agree with the above.

AST is a beautifully designed and versatile job but WHM is literally so simple it's hard to mess it up, it's an absolute animal built from the ground up to not let people die. If they tweak that stupid lily mechanic to work with skills that actually matter: It'll be even better.

SCH on the other hand...

I'll respectfully disagree here; I do not think AST is a well-designed job at all. I think it's the product of developers so afraid of designing a healer that might be off-meta or compete with one of the two existing healers that they in their infinite wisdom created a healer who by its nature will compete with both...forever.

At the risk of being off-topic, in my ideal world...

1.) AST would be the pre-eminent HoT/sustain healer; a kit entirely focused around stacking multiple HoTs, increasing their power, increasing their duration, frontloading their HoTs for a burst of healing when they need it. Hugely efficient mana costs but outside of a few cooldowns lack burst healing when it might be needed. They wouldn't be completely helpless against back-to-back damage, but it would be their weakness and they'd have a clearly defined niche.

2.) Subsequently, WHM would have a decent (not all) portion of its HoTs removed to prevent role overlap. They would be the ultimate burst healers instead, with relatively higher mana costs to reflect their power but a whole kit of awesome healing cooldowns that could drag parties back from the brink. In drawn-out fights where they're forced to spam they might struggle, but there needs to be some penalty for being the gods of HPS lol.

3.) SCH shields would see hefty reductions in mana cost in return for losing some of their redonkulous reactive healing. Shields should BE how they "heal" people; by preventing the damage done in the first place. If they lose a lot of their reactive healing though, I really think shields should stack - even if just partially (ie the second shield only adds 50% of its value if the target already has Galvanize). Double SCH comps DO happen in DF and no one wants a return to double SCH Titan HM lol. I just think the bulk of their power should be in shielding and manipulating those shields, not in spamming Lustrate and Indom. This is probably the most controversial of my wish list. No, I do not want to remove the fairy: I think she'd work well as SCH's only real form of reactive healing. I'd like Selene to have more value, but I'm not exactly sure how in regards to the changes I've posted here.



To be honest, there's a lot more that would need to go into that, like making HPS have a more equivalent value to eHPS (right now you want eHPS since preventing damage lets you DPS more and damage isn't frequent enough to put a lot of stake in quickly recovering health bars - just let Eos and AOE regens do the work), and adjusting mana costs and cooldowns and all that jazz, but that's my rough ideal. I'd love for all three healers to have their own strengths and weaknesses, even if that means some healers may have to work harder on certain fights than others (and vice-versa).

An easier fix would just be to scrap Noct AST and have now-Diurnal-only AST be WHM's competition for another expac, then introduce a new shielding healer with DPS in 5.0 that's meant to match SCH. I think that boxing healers into archetypes like that is systemically poor class design overall, though, and lends itself to more kit homogenization that I already think we have too much of.

Sorry for text wall; it's 6 AM and I'm stuck at work. Boredom is a scary thing.