Please help me be a wannabe SHB Astro and understand the class

[PaulH]

Hi,

I know there are ALOT of threads about healers states in 5.0 and i am unhappy with SCH and WHM isn't my play style. I think we have a ton of threads that are capturing the issues, suggesting improvements and understandable woes so please can we please park that for a change.

I am a new Astro but didn't level play it Much pre SHB and having a quick go I dont get the new skills and cards it all confusing. Is there any guides, suggestions. Tanks take alot of damage in dungeons and how do I Astro either in one of the stances to keep tanks topped up and taking alot of damage. What do people suggest to help with big heals and panic aoe healing?

Are there issued with MP and only having lucid? though i think there is lightspeed or something similar.

Any explanations, guides on seals and cards and how i should be doing stuff would be welcome. All this intersection and other stuff ahaha i dont get it and yes I can read tooltips but these forums are more than just feedback they're player supportive too.

I dont want to quit healing yet without trying AST at least its utility add on may make me feel busier and happier.

[Misutoraru]

I have not fully level up my AST yet, so I could only give you some explanation on new Card system
so new card are boost DPS, depend on the nature of the card, it either have bonus melee DPS and tank or it give bonus to range DPS and healer.
The basic buff is 3%, and 6% if given to right class or self.
There is a easy way to see if the card bonus is melee/tank or range/healer

melee/tank card will have blue outline



range/healer card will have a purple outline



Each card you use will give you a seal, total 3 seals can be stack up and there are 3 different type of seals. What type of seal can be see on the card
on top of the card you will see either a sun, or eclipse moon and the universe? (cant really tell what is that representing celestial)
you can only hold 3 seals max at a time, new seals will replace the oldest one.
Lining up 3 different seal will give the max buff for Divination, a AOE buff, the dmg buff is 4,5,6% depending how many different type of seals there are

when your Divination in CD and seals line up. Card can be use for Minor Arcana
this will turn your card into either lord of Crowns or lady of Crowns, give dps buff and have melee or range bonus like the normal card but they dont give seals. However, they give higher buff, 4% and 8% instead of 3% and 6%

[Marc-Vigar]

The way to keep tanks alive in dungeons is simply aplying shields with Nocturnal Sect between pulls, swap to Diurnal Sect before getting into combat, put regen on the tank, pray he uses his cooldowns and spam Benefic II.

Mana is a bit problematic sometimes if you spam Benefic II or Helios too much but you''ll get used to it. My advice is that you trust your heals, if you have a regen ticking, let it run out to exploit it's strenght.

I won't explain the job mechanics because that's something you should learn yourself by reading and experimenting. The descriptions are generally self explanatory, read them as mant times as needed and come back if you have a specific doubt.

[Saefinn]

I tried out AST for a similar reason. Coming from a SCH background I might find myself most at home with learning the job from the perspective of Nocturnal Sect, because it's basically a SCH mode and plays in a similar fashion. If coming from WHM then Diurnal. I guess a good way to translate your approaches would be to think of your skills in a similar light to the below:

Nocturnal Sect (SCH mode):

Aspected Benefic -> Adloquium
Aspected Helios -> Succor
Collective Unconscious -> Sacred Soil
Celestial Opposition -> Indom (but with added shield)

Diurnal Sect (WHM mode):

Aspected Benefic -> Regen
Aspected Helios -> Medica II
Collective Unconscious -> Asylum/Sacred Soil
Celestial Opposition -> Assize (without damage/MP boost, but adds a Regen instead)


For more other spells. You have to think of Celestial Intersection as the opposite of what your sect normally does, but I guess an easy way is:
Nocturnal (SCH stance) -> Regen
Diurnal (WHM stance) -> Adloquium

Then:
Benefic -> Cure/Physic
Benefic II -> Cure II
Helios -> Medica


Finally Earthly Star doesn't have a SCH/WHM equivalent as such, but you can think of it as a planned Assize or Indom (but with damage). You drop it, you let it charge (it will visually light up more once it is charged) then you detonate it. It will do AoE damage + AoE heal (like Assize does). If you detonate it early, it'll still heal/damage but for less.


DPS abilities are quite straight forward.

Malefic -> Broil or Glare
Combust -> Biolysys or Dia
Gravity -> Art of War or Holy

So if you're already used to SCH and WHM, I think the above should help translate how you might use the AST equivalents, given on the healing side AST was designed to be hybrid of the two, once you get the hang over them, of course you can start to figure out the nuances, as it's not necessarily 100% straight up SCH/WHM merged into one, but I think it's a good way to get started if you're familiar with the other healers but not AST. Then of course you have the card system as already explained.

Though with learning any healer, my advice is usually to try and start smaller and work your way up so you've got used to each component that makes up the job.

[Maeka]

melee/tank card will have blue outline

range/healer card will have a purple outline

Came here precisely for that (a way to tell which card to give who), thanks!

[Dnc]

Celestial Intersection is very simple in the end. If you are using Diurnal Sect, it will give a shield akin to addloquium. And if you are using Nocturnal Sect, it will give a regen akin to... regen. Because it costs no MP I would recommend using it off cooldown during fights. Or you might want to save it for tank busters if using diurnal sect.

For panic aoe healing Celestial Opposition is great. It's an instant cast and does the same exact thing as Aspected Helios. You can also stack its effect with aspected helios'. And yes, nocturnal sect shields also stack, meaning you can give pretty powerful shields for your whole team if needed. You might also want to save Lightspeed for panic healing as it reduces the cast time of skills by 2.5 sec, which is basically means to 0 and also reduces MP costs by 50%.

Also, don't be afraid to use your Earthly Star. That one is quite the loaded ability, but it offers nice burst aoe healing. So, start using it!

[Brandedblade]

One of your biggest strengths on AST is the 1.5 sec cast times on your Malefic and Gravity spells. This gives you enough time to use one ogcd skill before the gcd ends. If you get comfortable with quickly targeting back and forth between your enemy and your allies this allows you to keep your aggression and damage with minimal loss.

For example you can do something like Malefic -> Draw -> Malefic -> Essential Dignity -> Malefic -> Play. Whereas whm and sch would have to take a potency loss to create weave space unless they hold off on using their ogcds on refreshing their dot or clip their gcd and risk losing gcds over an extended fight.

If you're still at the point you arent too comfortable dpsing as a healer you can achieve similar results with Benefic I since it too has the 1.5 sec cast time. But when you're trying to optimize your damage and healing output you want to use Benefic I as little as possible.

[PaulH]

Thanks all for your help and i have levelled to 73 now and getting it, thanks for all the time and effort you have given in contributing.

[Evanoel]

One of the skills that make AST shines compared to other healers is Lightspeed. You can literally use AoE Shield/Regen with no cast time in its duration and that could be three times Aspected Helios with -50% mp cost no less. Even when there's still GCD but casting skill instantly is very invaluable in healing.

[Roxas_Andrade]

Also for not running out of mana in dungeons, you should alternate between Benefic and Benefic II. Sometimes it will proc Bene II making it a guaranteed Crit...