Scholar vs Astrologian Mitigation

[Eloah]

The easiest answer is SCH overall has better mitigation, AST's mitigation is only better when viewed on the surface. The main reason the shields on an AST feel so OP compared to SCH is because they needed an adjustment to compete with SCH since Diurnal AST ruled throughout HW; you'd never see a Noct AST outside of a full party setup.

the unique sole purpose of a sch isn't mitigation, it's their combination of pet + ogcd heal abilities

Also I don't know what to think of this. It's not inaccurate but it's not accurate either.

[Ametrine]

Ewer also exists, but since holding the card results in a DPS loss elsewhere, it's rarely considered for it's MP regen utility.

[HyoMinPark]

I kept hearing people say that astrologian nocturnal sec is better than a scholars galvanize because it was instant, more potent and costed less. Is this true? Why should an astrologians ability to mitigate damage ever be stronger than a scholar? That is what makes a scholar unique their sole purpose and playstyle is mitigation. If this is true I am really discouraged to keep playing scholar if another job is besting what I am supposed to be known for. Leave inputs and advices please

With regards to AOE shielding, AST typically comes out ahead with their Noctural Sect A.Helios versus a SCH’s AOE Succor. However, SCH comes out ahead in individual shields (Adlo), especially if they crit on a target. Deploying said Critlo is automatically better than an AST’s Aspected Benefic or Aspected Helios.

SCH also pulls ahead in terms of MP management, what with Lucid Dreaming every 2 minutes, Aetherflow every minute, and Energy Drain to use up any unused stacks between Aetherflows. AST’s MP management is the weakest of all three healers, so it’s not efficient for them to spam single-target shields on party members, where as a SCH has better and more skills to manage their MP, so they do not suffer as much. SCH also has a fairy for additional healing/support, and their personal DPS is stronger than an AST’s. It all balances out, I feel. Personally, the healers are the only 3 jobs in this game that are adequately balanced within their role (maybe physical ranged DPS as well, since BRD/MCH seem relatively balanced compared to one another).

AST's Aspected Benefic spell is oGCD but it also has the least amount of oGCD Healing abilities.

Aspected Benefic is a GCD skill; it’s on the global cooldown, just insta-cast.
AST only has Essential Dignity and Lady of Crowns (RNG-gated) for oGCD heals. Well, and Earthly Star, though there is a lag between when you manually detonate it, and when it actually goes off. But WHM and SCH both have more options for oGCD heals (Assize, Tetra, Bene; Lustrate—3 per Aetherflow ideally—, Indom).

[Maltothoris]

However, SCH comes out ahead in individual shields (Adlo), especially if they crit on a target. Deploying said Critlo is automatically better than an AST’s Aspected Benefic or Aspected Helios.

Actually Noct Astro aspected benefic's total potency is 805 compared to normal adlo's 600 puts it again but again like you said, its that flexibility that an scholar can deploy the adlo it was puts it ahead and the crit, you can cheese mechanics and generate lb.

Ultimately, it's that the noct astro's overall average shields are better than the sch but its strength to make up for the lack of variety compared to the sch. The Sch has aldo, succor, deploy tactics, emergency tactics(arguable in usefulness) sacred soil, indom, excog, and take into account eos' abilities with whispering dawn, rouse, fey covenant and fey illumination plus the fairy itself. Compared to say Noct Astro's aspected benefic, aspected Helios, collective unconscious, earthly star and Bole.

[Estelle9lives]

AST's shield are only stronger if you only look at raw potency numbers, but Noct AST is much, MUCH weaker than a SCH as a shield healer. Here are some reasons why:

- In practical situations, the critical hit property on Galvanize already makes their Succor better than Aspected Helios overall, let alone Adloquium.
- Critical Adlo deploy straight up lets you cheese mechanics and/or ignore AOE healing for extended periods of time.
- Eos. Eos is actually a huge part of why SCH is so strong, Fey Union, Rouse Whispering Dawn, Fey Illumination and Fey Covenant (which adds up to SCH's individual mitigation) are all incredibly strong skills. Embrace by itself is like a permanent passive regen that costs nothing.
- Much higher individual DPS output.
- Sacred Soil is on a 30 second CD and is much more readily available than CU.

This is without considering the much stronger OGCD healing options like Indom or Lustrate and vastly superior MP management. The single advantage a Noct Astro has over SCH is the fact Asp. Benefic is insta cast compared to Adlo, which makes it better for emergencies, but otherwise SCH is always a better option.

[KDSilver]

Succor is never better than Aspected Helios.
The crit Galvanize only affect Adlo.

Besides, Nocturnal Sect has a passive +15% healing bonus.
So they both are 150/225, but Ast has the healing bonus.

[Vyriah]

There's two thing that those AST vs SCH always overlook :

- Aspect benefic isn't that much lower than a crit addlo. And you can rely on it. The fact that it's instant cast makes it really valuable when there's a lot of movement, wich is why NocAST was the job to solo O4S really early. You can shield people through black hole while doing the mechanic and use earthly start after the holy stack without resking someone to die, you can shield the alagan field during GCA/GCO or the stack marker in GCD and you can achieve that without having to do more than use a skill. Pretty sure it's also really good against O7S.

- The base potency of everything you have as AST is higher. It's les signifiant since succor buff, but every single OGCD AST have is extremly strong and your rarely need more than one of them to handle a mechanic. GCD heals are also still stronger, wich isn't the case with AST vs WHM HoT game. SCH in the other hand have a lot of underwhelming option, such as sacred soil, emergency tactics or fairy union. In terms of OGCD AST both have the least and the best, with high efficiency and low cooldown.

The only reason why SCH is preferred is chain stratagem. But if mitigation was a matter, AST have the best single target shield, the best AoE GCD shield and the best AoE damage mitigation (wich is also better than asylum, as its HoT only require to get in the Aoe once, not to stay in it for the whole duration).
Deployement is a strong team gimmick and critlo a prepull meme in comparison.

[NobleWinter]

Ast has really strong tools but they can't mutli-task. A Sch can place Sacred Soil and shield the party with Galvanized Barriers while their fairy cast Fey Covenant, Fey Illumination, and Whispering Dawn. These five abilities used together make the Sch more powerful and can be tuned to be even stronger with Rouse to boost the fairy and Largesse to boost the spell power of the Sch. It really is incredible what a Sch can pull off while a AST is really limited to one ability at a time. They cant even move during Collective Unconcious without dropping the Damage Shield. They both have their benefits but one doesn't really shine over the other in any special way to me.

[Vyriah]

So, you're telling me that using one eather flow, 2k+ mana, 2 OGCD, 1 GCD, 3 "the fairy will use it in 5 seconds" spells every two minute is better than doing the same every minute with no mana cost because you lose arround one GCD worth of cast on the lowest personal DPS job of the 3 healer ?

It's not a matter that you can't move while doing this, because it allow your co-healer to not have use 7 different skills on one mechanic.
AST OGCD are just plain better. There's no way arround it. Earthly star is better than assize/indo, collective unconcious is better than sacred soil/assylum and essential dignity is better than tetragram/revification. And let's not even talk about how stupidly good celestial opposition is. That's all you have because that's all you need.

A most importantly, there's no point in stacking everything single SCH spells to get something. It takes ages, it's clunky as hell, it cost too much, it uses way too much ressources for what it gives. Why would you ever want to do all of this ? Most of those cooldown are wasted, they would be better somewhere else, like fey covenant on a magical tank buster, fey illumination before aspect helios/medica II is applied or using the eatherflow stack for the much more potent indo, leaving mitigation to shield that would mitigate more and build LB if they ever save anyone from dying.

[KDSilver]

Earthly Star is one of the most powerful heal in the game, everyone definitly agree with this.
But Indom is still better.

That's not a just a 500 VS 720 potency.
Earthly is a 60s CD, needs 10s to have its full potency and people need to be on it.

Indom is a 30s CD, 500 potency with no other restriction.

Don't get me wrong, Earthly star is awesome and well designed.
But Indom has less restriction than Earthly Star and come back more often.

Besides, what makes Ast oGCD be so strong is that he has less of them.
They couldn't balance Astrologian and give the exact same potencies as some WHM or SCH with that in mind.

What I'm saying is. Ast is awesome, yes. Their spells are too.
But the logic behind its design can't just be a "this spell from whm/sch vs this spell from ast"

We have no analyze the whole toolkit to see why he has that like this.
Essentialy Dignty is a response to Benediction/Tetra, merged onto one unique skill that come back more with a variable potency.
Earthly Star is a response to Assize&Plenary Indulgence - Whispering Dawn/Indom.

Ast does in one skill what other might need in 2. But because they had to free up some space for the card system, so he has less of them.
If you made a wrong choice and burned those oGCD badly, you'll be more GCD reliant. That's still efficient, but that's how it is.

However...
Having many oGCD, powerfull or not...
Both gameplay design work well and work together.