How's my AST so far?

[Lynesse]

Ever watched Aliens vs Predator? There's this scene where this gun nut girl is packing a gun and a mountain climber tells her that she's never seen a situation in which a gun actually helped... and the girl goes "It's better to have it and not need it... than to need it and not have it".

I rather like that philosophy.

But yeah should use the skills at least some lol.

On the subject of philosophy, I have some wisdom to share.

You're in an awkward position while leveling, where many players struggle to pull their weight, and not everyone is gear-synced. There's less margin for error, and we sometimes have to make judgment calls that run counter to conventional wisdom.

You know the rules, but you shouldn't be afraid to bend them. That's how you learn what you should and should not do.

Let yourself develop naturally. You decide what's best for a situation.

You seem like a thoughtful person, and it sounds like your biggest enemy is anxiety, not ability. Your ability is fine.

Wipes will happen, but when they do, it'll usually be because you were trying to save people from their own mistakes. And people will generally acknowledge that.

It's important to distinguish between mistakes you make because of poor fundamentals, and mistakes others have made that have caused you to make mistakes.

You don't have to worry much about the former. The latter is very forgivable.

[Maeka]

You seem like a thoughtful person, and it sounds like your biggest enemy is anxiety, not ability. Your ability is fine.

Thanks! hehe.

I'm not perfect by any means, but I do try to consider other people, esp when I'm in a group, especially when I've got abilities that could help them. I rather like playing healer, because it always feels nice to be the person who gets to help everybody else.

I suppose it could be somewhat anxiety.. but even when I'm comfortable, I'm a cautious person by nature in nearly anything. I'm usually playing defensive/careful, though I know that sometimes I overdo that aspect and end up missing opportunities that were just fine to push ahead. It's one of the reasons why I am not that great at PvP lol. I'm not one for outright chaos and risk-taking which is why I'd probably be terrible at war games and such.

[Lynesse]

It's good not to take risks in the beginning.

DF parties aren't our guinea pigs, so we have to spread the risk-taking out evenly across the learning experience.

This means it's okay to play a little sub-optimally for the sake of others -- within reason.

When I first started playing WHM, I posted a thread here asking about overhealing during DF Trials. The general consensus was, "Don't worry about overhealing, just keep everyone alive."

A year later, I'm playing How Low Can We Go with tanks' health.

Edit: Editing this post because I felt bad talking about the experience, so I'm just cutting it out.

I view CDs as preventative measures rather than safety nets.

But they can be both -- trust yourself. If you make a decision, it's likely the right one. C:

[Maeka]

MMh. You've got some fair points there. I have been throwing ED around a little more last couple dungeon runs, sometimes for convenience when I'm fairly certain that even if the tank did drop dead I could probably get a swift+raise out and have enough time left over to start pumping some Bene2s on whoever the hapless DPS is that ends up being the tank.

Hopefully it ain't me, because it seems like ASTs eat more spell interrupts than WHM lol. But then I could just be imagining wrong. I remember as WHM I used to tank the <Lv20 dungeons all the time due to newbies who have no idea how to tank whatsoever, even when it is explained to them and I rarely saw interrupts.

[Lynesse]

Fo' sho'. You got this.

I think WHM may feel that way because it has so many options that are oGCDs.

Someone once said to me: "AST trades safety for speed." I think I can agree with this -- when things are going well, AST is invaluable. When things aren't, WHM saves the day.

[TalithaSolarien]

Throw ED whenever you can, it's on a rather short CD and you don't have so many oGCDs as a AST. Also keep an eye out for Lightspeed, also on a rather short CD. Lightspeed+Benefic/Helios can be a real life safer.