AST change

[Gemina]

AST doesn't need more of anything. What it does need is an identity of its own. It basically stole WHMs identity and added a card gimmick to it. Both of those jobs as far as their heals go basically play identically to each other and Yoshi has came out and said that healing has been a problem since AST's introduction into the game.

Healers in general need their identity back, because all they are right now is a green DPS. The focus is to heal as little as possible so you can focus on adding damage. While this is not something I have a problem with per se, my issue is the amount of downtime they have that allows for their DPS time to be around 90% of the encounter. Game mechanics focus too much on you fail you die, or become so weak as we gear up that they can be outright ignored. There is no middle ground and it is a huge problem.

It has been mentioned that healing basically comes in two forms: barriers and direct heals. You can toss HoTs and ogcds in there, but these healing methods are used to sustain DPS uptime, so I personally do not include them. Barriers and Direct heals are on the GCD. This is where I get stumped because I don't really know another way a healer that can use GCDs that are not barrier or direct heals. It can't really be HoTs because this type of GCD won't save a player who is at critical damage if an unavoidable comes raining down that finishes them off. Timed/explosive heals won't work because they would just be used to upkeep high DPS output much like Excog does now, and Excog is ogcd anyway.

What I have thought of is instead of having the MH/OH like you suggested similar to how tanks have a MT/OT, we have a Direct Heals (DH), and Barrier Healer (BH) dynamic. With this in mind AST would have to lose one of its secs, or its secs would have to work differently. A suggestion I have seen tossed around is that the two secs affect what AST cards do. We would then need a fourth healer to balance out the ratio of 2:1 DH or BH type healers the game would have at that point.

Right now, having two DHs isn't that big of a deal. Having two BHs though is a problem because shields do not stack. Barriers would need to be nerfed a bit so that they can stack with each other, and I feel shields providing more than 100% of HP restored to the barrier to be OP and just ridiculous. This can instead be achieved by another BH adding HP to the shield with their own GCDs. DH/BH would still be the ideal set up, but two BHs or two DHs can work because of the diverse utility they bring.

This then leads to healer utility, which needs to be spread out not only in order to establish diversity amongst the healers, but also grant balance through strengths and weaknesses amongst them that would allow the DH/BH dynamic to work.

[Seraphor]

AST doesn't need more of anything. What it does need is an identity of its own. It basically stole WHMs identity and added a card gimmick to it.

People keep saying this, but what exactly did AST steal from WHM?

GCD heals?
A DoT and a DPS spell and an AoE DPS spell? So it’s only different from SCH in that it only has one DoT rather than two?
A oGCD cooldown AoE regen? That actually functions differently?
Benefic and Benefic II? So it’s just the fact that SCH doesn’t have a Physick II that makes it “stolen from WHM”?

These seem like healer basics to me.
The Aspected spells don’t work the same, Diurnal Benefic/Helios have a heal plus a HoT so it’s not the same as Regen/Medica II.
If anything it takes this from SCH, as Noct Benefic/Helios are basically Adloquium/Succor.

What else could AST have used?
Seems to me the problem isn’t that AST stole from WHM, but that WHM doesn’t have anything to it besides the most basic healer toolkit.
Fix WHM, give it an actual identity and a unique mechanic that isn’t 100% passive and inconsequential, don’t strip stuff from AST in order to bring it down to WHM’s level.


The problem with shields is they’re not an efficient form of healing unless they’re timed absolutely perfectly. A pure shield healer wouldn’t work very well in difficult single healer content. SCH has HoTs via it’s fairy, and Diurnal is almost unanimously favoured over Nocturnal.
I don’t think this dichotomy like MT/OT would work, and they’ve specifically said they’re trying to balance three healers before they add a fourth.
If anything, they need to give all healers options to shield or regen, but have unique applications of those.
WHM needs shields in some form. Give it Protect back as an exclusive ability, add Shell to that, and have some kind of unique interaction with lilies.

[Gemina]

People keep saying this, but what exactly did AST steal from WHM?

GCD heals?
A DoT and a DPS spell and an AoE DPS spell? So it’s only different from SCH in that it only has one DoT rather than two?
A oGCD cooldown AoE regen? That actually functions differently?
Benefic and Benefic II? So it’s just the fact that SCH doesn’t have a Physick II that makes it “stolen from WHM”?

These seem like healer basics to me.
The Aspected spells don’t work the same, Diurnal Benefic/Helios have a heal plus a HoT so it’s not the same as Regen/Medica II.
If anything it takes this from SCH, as Noct Benefic/Helios are basically Adloquium/Succor.

We can sit here and compare Benefic to Cure 1, and Benefict 2 to Cure 2, etc. etc. All that's doing is rearranging furniture on the Titanic. You are not seeing the issue as it exists today. They keep saying it because AST failed to bring a new form of healing into the game. It isn't called a SCH with cards because the majority of the time they a paired with SCHs which forces them into diurnal sect. There is not much reason for an AST to be paired with a WHM so they can be in noct because WHM brings absolutely nothing to a raid set up, which makes the whole 'fill the role that is necessary' dynamic a complete and total ruse.

Upon AST introduction in 3.0, it was useless. The devs couldn't figure out what to do with it so the buffed the schite out of it and in doing so, they shoved WHM into the dirt. Actually, that's an understatement: They buried WHM underneath the feet of AST. Some players such as myself still enjoy playing WHM. It's an AoE machine that shines on large trash pulls when the utility that SCH and AST bring isn't needed. In single target scenarios such as trials and 8-man raids, it's reduced to throwing rocks. SCH and AST spend a fair amount of time spamming Broil and Malefic respectively, but at least they can also provide utility, and have to monitor those CDs.

What else could AST have used?
Seems to me the problem isn’t that AST stole from WHM, but that WHM doesn’t have anything to it besides the most basic healer toolkit.
Fix WHM, give it an actual identity and a unique mechanic that isn’t 100% passive and inconsequential, don’t strip stuff from AST in order to bring it down to WHM’s level.

Again, healing kits are not the issue and hasn't been for a long time. The issue is AST is saturated with utility. Not only can it provide raid utility, but it also has it's own such as Lightspeed, Synastry, and Minor Arcana making them more effective than they are already. The job is ridiculously OP to the point of being broken. Having them in your group is akin to using a gameshark.

The problem with shields is they’re not an efficient form of healing unless they’re timed absolutely perfectly. A pure shield healer wouldn’t work very well in difficult single healer content.

Not true at all. I don't do savage, but I have solo healed EX primals and the chaos of 24-man with my SCH. Because DPS uptime for healers is around 90% of the encounter, I am quite confident SCH can solo heal savage without much issue. Shields are also OP in the game. Even though the shield restores HP at a low potency, the shield itself has more HP than what is restored to the player. Over-healing with shields also isn't an issue because they effectively increase the HP pool of the player it is casted on.

I don’t think this dichotomy like MT/OT would work, and they’ve specifically said they’re trying to balance three healers before they add a fourth.
If anything, they need to give all healers options to shield or regen, but have unique applications of those.
WHM needs shields in some form. Give it Protect back as an exclusive ability, add Shell to that, and have some kind of unique interaction with lilies.

I agree with you here. Giving all healers direct heals, HoTs, and shields as base kits is one way to handle them with diversity obtained through their DPS and utility kits. However, what they currently have with 2 of 3 healers being able to increase raid damage, speed, and defense cannot continue.