Why is Astrologian so misunderstood, even sometimes by other healers?

[Brandedblade]

As I like to joke, if they didnt see the star they dont deserve to live.

[Kummies]

Nah AST is good pugs are bad. If i give you all the utilities to survive damage. ES/CO/CU and you didnt stand in the star or bubble that's not my problem. I cant tell you how many times I've had people say things like "AST can you heal?" and I reply with "Can you stand in the star?"

[Teraluna]

“Ranged dps standing way out of healing range” - not exactly an exclusive Ast issue :-)

[Miziliti]

There are a few things AST players need to understand about Earthly Stars. I hate to use it to heal when I was still playing the job. It is a worse and manual version of WHM assize basically. It is one of the lesser reliable healing option. Just like horro(ble)scope works like a worse and manual WHM PI (that only heals once) for god knows why the dev's reason was. Yes, it is very pretty when nothing is around, but it is one of the aoes in this game that have shitty visibility on top of all other battle effects.

Sure, when you put it down, you can see the huge orange circle for it's location, but others don't. The tiny sparkling dot circles are often hard to notice especially if the boss is crazy about AoE. Even though the center gradually brightens, it is often being covered by boss's giant ass. The powered up healing potency is otherwise good, but for me it is often detonate right away or waste it. I usually detonate right away for reliable healing because I know everyone is gonna move away the next second or wait it out and use it as dps cooldown.

[QooEr]

just rescue whoever keeps standing out of earthly star so they learn to stand in it, simple

[Rasikko]

Working with a healer you don't know is never gonna be easy.

I like dropping star down and the tank wants to go run off elsewhere, so I gotta hurry up and detonate it before the mobs run out of the circle >_>, so at least the damage is not wasted.

[Bsrking5]

just rescue whoever keeps standing out of earthly star so they learn to stand in it, simple

Hard to do when there's more than one. Ast just not in a good place for pug groups and thats just how the pug mindset works mostly. It doesn't even have to be Savage/ ex level content either. Have plenty of out range dps in normal ruby too.

[SamRF]

just rescue whoever keeps standing out of earthly star so they learn to stand in it, simple

Sometimes this works, but more often they immedietly move out again, as if salty that I rescued them or something (not black mages). Not just for earthly star but other area aoe heals from other healers as well, and those those look much more obvious (earthly star looks kinda faint).

[Saefinn]

Sometimes this works, but more often they immedietly move out again, as if salty that I rescued them or something (not black mages). Not just for earthly star but other area aoe heals from other healers as well, and those those look much more obvious (earthly star looks kinda faint).

Thinking on my tank the other day who seemed to struggle with bigger pulls because his health would keep diving. He'd be kind enough to tank it so all of the enemies would be in my Earthly Star but stand on the outside of it. It's like, dude, you're missing out on a free heal.

But I don't think AST is the only misunderstood one, I think people are often oblivious to how jobs they don't play work. EG. when I've queued as MNK and the tank loves messing with my positionals and you're like "for the love of god stop turning the enemy" And the people standing away from AoE heals is one that affects all, I'm sure WHM's would get more use out of Cure III if people were closer together.

There are a few things AST players need to understand about Earthly Stars. I hate to use it to heal when I was still playing the job. It is a worse and manual version of WHM assize basically. It is one of the lesser reliable healing option. Just like horro(ble)scope works like a worse and manual WHM PI (that only heals once) for god knows why the dev's reason was. Yes, it is very pretty when nothing is around, but it is one of the aoes in this game that have shitty visibility on top of all other battle effects.

I think the problem here is that you think of it as AST's equivalent of Assize. The general idea is to set it whenever you get the opportunity, because it'll aid your DPS, but you can also use it when you're pre-emptively expecting damage. Not all healing is purely reactive, sometimes it's planned ahead and AST is more of a planned healer than WHM. As fights in FFXIV are scripted, being a pre-emptive healer can be a reliable approach. Coming from a 2.0 SCH background, this is an approach I love as a healer.

The same with Horoscope. If you're /just/ using it like PI, then it's clunkier because you need an extra button press. But Horoscope has a good 30 seconds on it once triggered, meaning it's more of a free oGCD heal, whereas PI works like an enhancement to your next heal. Horoscope is good if you know you're going to take damage again, especially in mechanics where you're taking consecutive hits. So in effect Horoscope is a cross between PI and Fey Blessing. Yes you can use it like you might use PI because a situation may call for it, but by making it an oGCD that's available for 30 seconds, makes it a little more versatile than PI.

And I rarely see Assize used for its healing benefit, because it's better DPS to use it as burst damage and when it's available so if people are full health when it comes off cooldown, then it's not getting its healing benefit, but WHM has plenty else in its toolkit to not rely on Assize's heal in most cases. Some fights/mechanics, maybe they're more inclined to reserve them where the extra healing from Assize will be useful, but as I understand it, Assize is better valued for its damage?

Fortunately due to how Earthly Star works, it matters less when the damage is delivered because as soon as you set it, your recast is already counting down. So you could argue that you're more likely to get a useful heal out of Earthly Star than Assize if you're playing to also maximise your green DPS.

I feel the end result to these 2 differing approaches it means that WHM is a little more fluid, but AST is a little more versatile.

[Limonia]

Earthly Star reduced to nothing because the other healer used their cooldowns just before

Just like my co-healers start spamming their AoE GCD button whenever I put down Asylum.

What I want to say with that is that it's not only an AST problem but a general problem with healers not properly reacting on what their co-healers do.

(And how is Asylum not wasted by this? If I put it down for the regen to do its job and my co-healer spams Helios whenever the groups takes a little damage it's wasted. The healing-up buff doesn't keep him from mindlessly spamming his AoE heal between standing around idle...)