DPSing as AST

[MoroMurasaki]

I felt exactly the same way when I started AST as I had also just leveled WHM in SB after maining SCH in HW so both major in the personal damage department.

I do think Tsuki/Baka Games is a great reference point.

For me personally I had to focus really hard on prioritizing my cards over my own personal DPS. A lot of the time on AST I don't even see the chunk that my Malefic is taking out of the enemy health bar which is frustrating coming from WHM where I was always doing more than at least the tank.

Funnily enough playing BRD has helped me on AST. The mentality of focusing on the needs of others and making their own damage potential increase is a nice feeling now. I still much prefer destroying things myself on WHM but there is clearly a time and place to play AST.

[Kabzy]

For me, it is the single worst decision they have made for any of their classes. To have performance linked to a roll of the electronic dice - completely and utterly wrong.

In theory, yes. But with the nerf to Balance and the Spear change, not really. That's 3 cards out of 6 that are beneficial to use, as opposed to before when only the Balance was wanted.

As with anything gated by RNG, yeah you could go through an entire duty without getting a single Balance/Arrow/Spear, but in reality that's never going to happen. Especially when you factor in that the first card pre-pull can be a spread Balance guaranteed, even if it does take up time. Having that up while the entire party is doing their openers is a significant boost to raid DPS already. More than a WHM will be bringing themselves.

[Rawrz]

In theory, yes. But with the nerf to Balance and the Spear change, not really. That's 3 cards out of 6 that are beneficial to use, as opposed to before when only the Balance was wanted.

As with anything gated by RNG, yeah you could go through an entire duty without getting a single Balance/Arrow/Spear, but in reality that's never going to happen. Especially when you factor in that the first card pre-pull can be a spread Balance guaranteed, even if it does take up time. Having that up while the entire party is doing their openers is a significant boost to raid DPS already. More than a WHM will be bringing themselves.

Was too lazy to type this up on lunch.

I think they did a great job at curbing the identity issue between AST and WHM this expac. WHM, powerful and independent. AST a proverbial Genie in its support.

[era1Ne]

Thanks, I'll go check those out, so it is better to use a combust over a malefic during single target? Also how about gravity vs combust multiple mobs? how many mobs do you need for gravity to be better than combust?

The calculation is more complicated with the stats in mind, but lets do the simple version. Basically you take the 3 seconds server tick and the dot dmg to calculate, how much an dot has to tick to be better than the hard cast (in this case malefic). The formular is this...

Dot dmg * duration = A
A/3= actual potency

For combust you got 500 potency if you get the full duration. malefic III has an potency of 220. gravity has an potency of 200. This means you need 14+ seconds for combust to be worth it. But keep in mind that combust is an instant cast and you can weave ofcd like cards in, which is awesome. gravity is worth it, if you got at least 3 enemys compared to combust. 2 enemys (400p) compared to malefic III (220p).

3x 200potency = 600
2x200p = 400

Besides instant vs cast, you have also to keep in mind the mana those skills need and shouldn't spam 100 gravitys for example, even if it would be a gain. That said, you can work on your mana management to get a lot of gravity out during big pulls and still be able to heal them. This just takes a good amount of experience and work. I can only advice every healer to re-read their tooltips and think about ways to utilize the skills in different ways. For instance you can use Collective Unconscious for the strong hot during big pulls aswell, then add another reggen with AB (+other buffs if available) on the tank and extend all of them with time dilation + celes. Of course not all of this is necessary in every situation, but this is just an example to show that skills, which are usually used for healing aoe dmg like CO can be used differently and create big windows to do dmg

By the way, celes is imo the best skill astro has, since it can literally extrend any buff you do on the group (including yourself!). This works with light speed, largesse, hots, cleric, lucid ... just everything, including Pots (!). In dungeons it can stun enemys and help you to heal the tank or do more dmg, because the tank doesn't get any dmg for a few seconds. Thinking about different combinations and using them makes ast really fun imo

[MoroMurasaki]

By the way, celes is imo the best skill astro has, since it can literally extrend any buff you do on the group (including yourself!). This works with light speed, largesse, hots, cleric, lucid ... just everything, including Pots (!). In dungeons it can stun enemys and help you to heal the tank or do more dmg, because the tank doesn't get any dmg for a few seconds. Thinking about different combinations and using them makes ast really fun imo

This is a great point. I've said several times if there was one thing I wish I knew as a new AST it would be how useful an ability this is. It adds a layer of timing to gameplay that I'm actually missing on WHM sometimes.

[Teraluna]

In theory, yes. But with the nerf to Balance and the Spear change, not really. That's 3 cards out of 6 that are beneficial to use, as opposed to before when only the Balance was wanted.

As with anything gated by RNG, yeah you could go through an entire duty without getting a single Balance/Arrow/Spear, but in reality that's never going to happen. Especially when you factor in that the first card pre-pull can be a spread Balance guaranteed, even if it does take up time. Having that up while the entire party is doing their openers is a significant boost to raid DPS already. More than a WHM will be bringing themselves.

The issue for me is not whether you are going to pull x or y card so many/few times during a run, it is the fact that the randomness is there in the first place.

Playing a healing class that is at the mercy of ability rng should never have been introduced. To me it's a gimmicky mechanic that has been put there purely in an attempt to pad out the Ast.

What it's ended up with is:
Let's introduce randomness -> No don't do that -> Let's mitigate randomness

It's open to luck, is messy, cumbersome, and goes away from playing a class purely based on skill - not an out of your control electronic roll of a dice that decides what skill you are going to get when you press the button.

Remove the rng and let players pick which card to use - and of course some would never be picked - which just underlines the impact of this misplaced rng in the current set up.

[Trunks]

For me, it is the single worst decision they have made for any of their classes. To have performance linked to a roll of the electronic dice - completely and utterly wrong.

So... remove crits from the game, then?

I agree with you in that I hate RNG mechanics like this; cards should have been handled similar to how Mudras work. But AST is far from struggling, and even with poor RNG it's still egregiously OP. Besides, while the card mechanic can sometimes be frustrating, it won't put you to sleep like one-button wonder WHM will.

[Rawrz]

The issue for me is not whether you are going to pull x or y card so many/few times during a run, it is the fact that the randomness is there in the first place.

Playing a healing class that is at the mercy of ability rng should never have been introduced. To me it's a gimmicky mechanic that has been put there purely in an attempt to pad out the Ast.

What it's ended up with is:
Let's introduce randomness -> No don't do that -> Let's mitigate randomness

It's open to luck, is messy, cumbersome, and goes away from playing a class purely based on skill - not an out of your control electronic roll of a dice that decides what skill you are going to get when you press the button.

Remove the rng and let players pick which card to use - and of course some would never be picked - which just underlines the impact of this misplaced rng in the current set up.

I think you're confusing support and healing. Healing should never be reliant on RNG, ergo why content doesnt force an SCH to critlo spread for every mechanic or wipe. They could have stuck this SUPPORT system of RNG on any of the Trinity. They gave it to a Healer, creating RNG cards, to create a less DPS oriented, but busy healer.. For those Healers who play to augment, not destroy, or you know, sit still and do nothing.

[Jollyy5]

...

What he said, AST's healing itself is not behind RNG, only the cards which are strictly for support.

(Unless you count in Lady of Crowns, which I would personally consider as mana savings/more time to DPS.)

[Kabzy]

Basically what Rawrz said. They tried to add RNG to WHMs Lily gauge that does effect their oGCD heals and we all saw how that ended up. AST is already a clone of WHM, so it's nice that they have something to differentiate themselves. And if it's not something you like, then there's the option of WHM or SCH. Different styles for different tastes, it's nice having options.