WHM Main trying AST for static. Help?

[Kethic]

The transition wasn't difficult, but the class feels so flimsy and unsatisfying. I assume I'm doing something wrong. Any tips on how to use AST optimally, and/or feel powerful again?

[Furious]

Probably start by giving us literally any specific information whatsoever about what leads you to feel that is the case.

[Sebazy]

Is this in savage?

Start looking for spots to use Earthly Star in, record your gameplay and watch it back if you can. That ability is immense and can do a huge amount of your heavy aoe lifting if you place it right.

Otherwise, cooldowns cooldowns cooldowns, aligning CO with an expanded card, a tank regen and shroud pays dividends. You can't just brute force mechanics like you can with WHM (We realised we were doing the O2S leap utterly wrong today, with WHM we could just brute force through that 33k aoe hit np). Rather you need to be shrewder with cooldowns.

[Lyrai_Celestine]

(We realised we were doing the O2S leap utterly wrong today, with WHM we could just brute force through that 33k aoe hit np).

Let me guess. The 4 players tagged by Unstable Gravity moved away from the stack, and then got hit by some huge damage on both ways; barely surviving and WHM being able to top everyone off with raw healing before another raid wide damage? Nice one~

Nonetheless, thank you for this guide. I too, have been asking myself about playing as an AST, but these patch changes have given me the thought to come back and play AST again because finally the cards are not so "Balance-centric" anymore.

[Kethic]

Sebazy sorta hit the nail on the head. With WHM, you can brute force through a lot of situations, and even recover from some really deep deficits. That feels good. With AST, you can Lightspeed for a modest recovery, and stack a bunch of abilities under a CO extension, drop EA precisely, and pray for good cards, but I must be missing the part that makes the class fun. However, I need to be AST for my static, since our other healer is a better WHM than I am.

I realize this is entirely subjective, which is why I was asking for tips, suggestions, personal playstyles, and things people like about AST.

[loreleidiangelo]

Sebazy sorta hit the nail on the head. With WHM, you can brute force through a lot of situations, and even recover from some really deep deficits. That feels good. With AST, you can Lightspeed for a modest recovery, and stack a bunch of abilities under a CO extension, drop EA precisely, and pray for good cards, but I must be missing the part that makes the class fun. However, I need to be AST for my static, since our other healer is a better WHM than I am.

I realize this is entirely subjective, which is why I was asking for tips, suggestions, personal playstyles, and things people like about AST.

Hmmm...things I like about AST. Well, now that the Balance card has been brought in line, to be honest there's a lot less "praying for good cards" than you might think, since none of them except Spire/Ewer and maybe Bole are worth shuffling or discarding under most situations now. Dropping good Earthly Stars before certain mechanics (Charybdis in O1S, the big gravity AOE thing in O2S etc) and detonating it right after the damage goes out is really satisfying, and it basically means that outside of maybe a Medica (Medica II for the O1S scenario since Roar hits after fairly hard) your WHM co-healer won't have to help heal up after that at all. Collective Unconscious works as both Asylum AND a damage reduction, so if you don't have Star up for whatever reason in O2S you can just stand in the right spot during Antilight and put your bubble up to reduce the damage of the gravity AOE and get a good regen going on everyone to heal up afterward.

AST isn't as "brute force" as WHM, you're right, but I guess that's kinda why I like it. You can misuse cooldowns, you can blow through your mana if you're not careful, and in Nocturnal Sect at least you really have to understand the fight patterns, because you need to shield up for them ahead of time - you can't just wait until after and Cure III/Plenary chaser your way through whatever comes out. (yes, good WHMs will precast but so far in the first two fights of Savage it's not necessary - admittedly, shields don't seem to be either lol but I like to optimize myself) Cards are still plenty useful after the Balance nerf, and even though your personal DPS isn't as high as WHM it's not exactly like you can't DPS at all, either. Make sure you are always hitting Draw off cooldown - even if you don't get any immediately useful cards, Minor Arcana is a really powerful tool that gets underutilized a lot. It's almost a free instant Benefic II if you get Lady, and a more powerful mana-free instant-cast Malefic III if you get Lord.

AST is super "busy", and tbh that's why I swapped to it over WHM when it came out in HW. Even when things are begging my healing attention, that Draw button and the things I can do with it are still there nagging me to be pressed, and with the slight mana recovery nerf we got with HW using Lightspeed to save MP during certain movement-heavy or damage/spam-heavy phases is almost necessary. Earthly Star and Minor Arcana lose a ton of value if you're not using them near off CD (imagine only pushing Assize when you're at like half MP, or never using Asylum on tanks to keep them topped up so you can DPS more!), and even I honestly wish I could remember to use Synastry more to heal up after tank busters, especially "double" ones like the Twin Bolt that hits both tanks in O1S (Syn the OT, Bene/Bene II the MT to easily recover the HP of both).

Sorry for the wall of text, but I hope it was helpful. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask, though admittedly I've only done O1S and O2S thus far.

[Feidam]

If you are playing with a whm then you will be in noct stance most likely. So you will need to shift your thinking a tad and learn when to apply shields. This is the largest change I find people struggle with when they switch from regen healing to shield healing.

[HPDelron]

Good timings on Earthly Star are satisfying, drop them well ahead of the big damage watch the numbers shoot back up. Time everything juust right and you don't need to hit the activation button.

However generally speaking AST is kind of no frills "Back to Basics" kind of healing. If what you find satisfying is having enough power to correct for large mistakes on the part of others, and 3 answers to every problem AST will never feel good. It just can't do that.

You put your shields in the right place at the right time, mind your mana and put out your buffs. It's all about solid fundamentals out there (and not clown fundamentals!)

[Ghishlain]

In terms of playstyle, take care in your GCD usage. Unlike WHM, AST has a heavy reliance on their GCD heals to patch people up. This makes it a bit more difficult to correct oopsies when they occur because you have to complete GCD heals to fix those players and you might not the opportunity to stand still and cast completely depending on what fight mechanics are going out.

AST heals aren't flimsy in the slightest but will require you to turret out some heals when things start to go south which may be what you're feeling.

[xNewbx]

Earthly star laughs at any other heal in the game if used correctly.
Make sure you're using Draw on cooldown.
Lightspeed is amazing during mechanics. ED now reduces lightspeed's CD, so make sure to use that very often.

I'm not sure how people say brute force your way through mechanics though on WHM. AST does this better if played correctly, as currently on O3S you have to have 32k+ health to survive the 32k hits (obviously), but we've been surviving on 30k health thanks to the AST shields.

I did run O1S-O3S on my WHM, but swapped over to AST now, and once you get used to it, it does feel very satisfying.