Thread: 5.3 AST Changes

Originally Posted by Liam_Harper

You say WhM having a fraction the mobility of a BLM and so few weave windows it has some mandatory clipping is good class design and intentional weakness, yet AST having MP management as it's only weakness is an "issue" that needs to be fixed?.

I'm gently asking (just in case you might think it could be an aggresive question). Did you truly experienced yourself AST and its mana managment on different content?

Currently, AST mana is not just a weakness, it's a chore, an issue and it needeed some help.
It's fine that AST is a bit behind somewhere, I'll agree with you on that point, it doesn't have to be the best on every level.
However consider this. Despite its awesome healing toolkit with a lot of free heals, it still struggle with its mana.
The main draining ressources here are Malefic with the same MP cost as the other healer while having less mana recovery tools but casting it more often than the other thanks to the 1,5s cast time.
It's even worse on nocturnal with Aspected Helios if you have to mitigate damage since you lack of regen.

Once a battle starts, except if there are transition, you have to realise that your mana will keep sinking and lightspeed and lucid just push the moment you'll end up dry, instead of being a real mana refresh.
Cause that's the reality of it, even with some piety. Sure, there's a lot of optimisation that comes with it to prevent this.
I didn't even mention raising. Raising is the ultimate ennemy of AST mp regen. It's such a huge gap and you'll mostly never going to close it.

I'm not entirely talking about savage experience alone because, except Ramuh and Shiva's second part which kinda long and more healing demanding, there are a lot of transition (thankfully).
But for progging, pugging, EX trial, r24, its a chore really. And having to stack up load of piety doesn't always feels..right.

I think it's more a nocturnal problem than a diurnal which performs better, but overall, long fights and pug/prog scenario already put a pressure on your mp managment even if you achieve to master it with an excellent oGCD usage.
(assuming your party agrees to help on the mitigation part of course)

Personnaly, I don't really like that I'll have to "stop casting" and watch the fight, hoping that i'll regen enough for the next set of mechanic, or being "afraid" of casting some unpredicted spell because of that.

And here, I mostly talked about AST experience if you managed to have a great or excellent oGCD usage. This is indeed one of AST strengh to master, but for average player, it could feel really worse.

AST mana managment doesn't have to be like WHM, but currently, it really need a bit of help because of that constent drought fear. It sure is interesting from an optimizagin point of view, indeed, but a bit less pressure on my MP would be great.
Its efficiency also vary with players experience in the party. Less mitigation might mean more healing, so eventually some mp in spell...
Having to rely on your own knowledge and experience is something you can work on, but depending on your party is another, and AST really suffers from that, and since as healers, that's what we're also here fo well.

There's not always the perfect scenario with the very best player in an encounter.

I guarantee you, this choice is probably for the best.