I don't think I'll ever go back to healer at this rate

[MOZZYSTAR]

I've been playing healer since 2.x (WHM was my original healer), no other class type. In 3.0, I switched to AST and had been playing it as my only class until 5.0.

I levelled AST to 80 fairly quickly but I haven't touched it since. It's been 15 months(?) since SHB's release, and I'm at the point where I honestly don't think I'll ever go back to healing at this point. I pretty much only liked healing because I liked the juggling/versatility of AST's original gameplay. I can only see getting back into it with either the release of a new healer (because at least it's a clean slate with no previous experience and expectations) or if my class was reverted (which, let's be honest, probably isn't happening).

It's a bit pathetic, but I feel a little sad over the "loss." I guess that comes with the territory of playing a single class for like.. what? 4-5 years? XD

That's all I wanted to say. I see a lot more ASTs now than when SHB originally came out so I'm guessing healers are "adjusting." I'm not one of them XDDD

[Sauteed]

I hadn't quite gotten to 70 ast when shb came out but I did get used to cards and the way the job played.. when SHB came out it really changed everything.. I veered totally away from healing for a while and got back around to ast to give it a fair run down and while I do enjoy it for the piddly stuff I do with it I don't like it as much as before the change. The new combat system I really don't enjoy in it's current incarnation. I don't want to level all tanks or even all healers for instance because they are pretty much the same thing with different flavor text and symbol. Healers have more variation than tanks in my probably unpopular opinion but I like tanking too. I wish they would diversify them a bit more than what we got, or at least give us some kind of system that let's us individualize them to some degree. I realize there will be cookie cutter but give us something to shake it up with at least.

[EmpyreanHelios]

It’s so sad, but healing is so boring now even though I main it. I’ve resorted to swapping between the three so I’m just not bored out of my mind. I wasn’t around during the old ast card system, but I would totally be in support of that. I love giving small “balance” 24/7 and fish for 3 seals.

[Shahi]

Looking at the random healers at roulettes every day i don't think we should go back to the old AST card system or anything more complex because it is easy to play now but new/lazy people still have no idea what to do with cards or how things work. And there's SCH which is even easier than AST but i run into the worst SCHs every day. The ones that doesn't use fairy skills or just spam psyhic and succor. I left 2 leveling roulette yesterday because the healers were so damn bad.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

Looking at the random healers at roulettes every day i don't think we should go back to the old AST card system or anything more complex because it is easy to play now but new/lazy people still have no idea what to do with cards or how things work.

To be fair, that's what made the cards so interesting to me in the first place. With exception of The Bole*, there was rarely a dud card given proper usage and team composition. The problem was that people are, indeed, lazy. Majority tend to just fish for The Balance, considering it had guaranteed value regardless of the situation. Otherwise, if laziness wasn't such a big factor, it would involve so much more for Astrologian. Such as resource tracking, time tracking, and extremely diverse decision making.

* Still good Royal Road fodder

[glamazon]

This game needs training quests within each class job every ten or 29 levels that puts the player in a scenario where savers in skills must be used and they learn why.
I’ve learned what all my skills do and now that I know that I can do what I like best and what’s good for keeping my group alive.

Here’s a story . I was playing my ast and during my run a dps keep saying o was playing wrong by putting aspected Benefic on each player in the group.

Mind you i and the other healer were keeping them alive and dps ing. He told me that some of my shields went unused and dispersed and we all know why he knew this. He kept harping on it and I just had to block him.

I play how I like and once I use neurtral sect I am going to get my maximum use out of it by putting asp ben on everyone. Anyway he didn’t have all his facts and yes I know that some of those shields went unused but they had the potential of being useful. Better a neutral sect asp Ben than not having it.

[darcstar62]

I've been playing healer since 2.x (WHM was my original healer), no other class type. In 3.0, I switched to AST and had been playing it as my only class until 5.0.

I levelled AST to 80 fairly quickly but I haven't touched it since. It's been 15 months(?) since SHB's release, and I'm at the point where I honestly don't think I'll ever go back to healing at this point. I pretty much only liked healing because I liked the juggling/versatility of AST's original gameplay. I can only see getting back into it with either the release of a new healer (because at least it's a clean slate with no previous experience and expectations) or if my class was reverted (which, let's be honest, probably isn't happening).

It's a bit pathetic, but I feel a little sad over the "loss." I guess that comes with the territory of playing a single class for like.. what? 4-5 years? XD

That's all I wanted to say. I see a lot more ASTs now than when SHB originally came out so I'm guessing healers are "adjusting." I'm not one of them XDDD

Wow, I feel like I could have wrote this. And in addition to FFXIV, I've always healed in every MMORPG I've played -- I was one of the hard-core "healer for life!" people. But I only do it now when I'm helping FC members.

AST is still the prettiest job and the one I love the story/fantasy of the most, but the gameplay has just sucked all the fun out of it for me.

[Eclipse12187]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the new AST card system is better. More boring for sure, but better. When half of your cards are far too situational you have an issue.

Balance: the card everyone wanted
Bole: too situational to make proper use of
Arrow: most jobs don’t want speed, throws off rotations/timing
Spear: Cooldown reduction was useless due to throwing off timing for reopeners, also wasn’t significant enough (see old whm lilies) change to crit was good but the duration was never put in line with other buff cards
Spire: only useful on a phys dps that died, royal road fodder. Also needed some degree of change when tp got removed
Ewer: semi useful if a healer died or had poor mp management, also royal road fodder

To reiterate, I do miss the lore and class fantasy behind old ast, I do not want the old card system back though. Not saying that we don’t have issues still (sleeve draw change was a nerf, shouldn’t be a 3 minute cooldown for what it does) but the card system is better now. Much more boring, but better due to every card always being useful in some capacity.

[Veis_Alveare]

This game needs training quests within each class job every ten or 29 levels that puts the player in a scenario where savers in skills must be used and they learn why.
I’ve learned what all my skills do and now that I know that I can do what I like best and what’s good for keeping my group alive.

Here’s a story . I was playing my ast and during my run a dps keep saying o was playing wrong by putting aspected Benefic on each player in the group.

Mind you i and the other healer were keeping them alive and dps ing. He told me that some of my shields went unused and dispersed and we all know why he knew this. He kept harping on it and I just had to block him.

I play how I like and once I use neurtral sect I am going to get my maximum use out of it by putting asp ben on everyone. Anyway he didn’t have all his facts and yes I know that some of those shields went unused but they had the potential of being useful. Better a neutral sect asp Ben than not having it.

I mean this is basically a story about you ignoring useful advice. You should have just cast Aspected Helios if you needed big shields, asp benefic as a single target on non-tanks is rare as heck. I used to during HW2 when we were learning it I guess? But that was a whole xpac ago.

[Liam_Harper]

Here’s a story . I was playing my ast and during my run a dps keep saying o was playing wrong by putting aspected Benefic on each player in the group.

Basically, someone gave you correct advice so you blocked them, continued to play badly and plan to do so in the future. If you prefer playing the wrong way that's up to you, but I wouldn't be proud of it.

Better a neutral sect asp Ben than not having it.

False, better a Malefic or Gravity than a wasted Neutral AspBen.