Astrologian Discussion Thread: (Insert Yu-Gi-Oh! joke here)

[Snoctopus]

I napkin mathed it out a bit to come up the number based on the assumption that over the course of an encounter you would still have to cast Cure 2 without there being a free cure proc.

If you have a better way to calculate it out that'd be super helpful, but that number was the best shot I could come up with representating that there's a 15% chance cure 2 is free. If you were only casting cure 2 when free cure is up than obviously yeah, it is a much bigger gain.

EDIT: Maybe rather than looking at the MP as coming off of Cure II, it would be better to add roughly 1/7th of Cure II's potency to Cure I overall, to reflect the free cure II they'll get in about 1 in 7 casts.

That has me at Cure I having a potency of 640.714 when I factor in the free cure ii chance, or .691 MP per Potency.

There are obviously advantages of WHM that are unquantifiable through just looking at MP weights, too. The game has a lot of pretty bursty damage right now in Savage, and AST just doesn't answer it well.

[Arthars]

I've been noticing this a lot leveling AST mid-40's. I've been able to heal through the craziest of pulls in Stone Vigil and Dzemael Darkhold and barely scratch my MP pool... AST's MP conservation factor is frigging ridiculous. It feels like you can go forever.

Lowest I went was a pull with like 8-9 mobs in Stone Vigil, took me down to about 60%~ so I popped Luminiferous Aether(although I probably didn't have to).

Between Lightspeed > Benefic spam, Essential Dignity, and the occasional Benefic II instacast procs AST has some really nice emergency heals.

I haven't actually even looked into what they get post-50 yet. But they it seems to be off to a good start from my perspective atm.

this is why most AST are delusioned

try savage soon and you will take those alllll back

[BadKarma]

I mean savage has been done with AST.

Even floor 3. So that argument is hugely invalid.


That's not to say that I think the job is great. It's serviceable. But there's a reason i leveled white Mage in a week.

[Sylvrdragon]

I was doing a Bismark EX run the other day on WHM, and I kept having to interrupt my heals to dodge stuff, and nearly let DPS/Tanks die because of it. I kept thinking that AST would have a definite edge in highly mobile fights where the luxury of standing still to spam heals isn't guaranteed. Between instant-cure procs, 40s CD on Essential Dignity, and Light Speed for emergencies, it seems like you'll rarely lack for opportunities to heal due to having to dodge too much (not to mention the free 5% speed in Diurnal)

It's a minor consolation, but it may be one case where AST might be the preferred healer. I just recently started leveling the class, so I haven't felt their weaknesses first-hand yet. By the time I hit 60 and look to raid with them, they might be fixed, or my WHM might out-gear it by too much to be worth bringing it to anything.

[sundriedrainbow]

In Savage Cuff, do you go hateless between waves the same way you do in normal mode? Because you can change Sects like a motherfucker in Normal.

[Snoctopus]

I was doing a Bismark EX run the other day on WHM, and I kept having to interrupt my heals to dodge stuff, and nearly let DPS/Tanks die because of it. I kept thinking that AST would have a definite edge in highly mobile fights where the luxury of standing still to spam heals isn't guaranteed. Between instant-cure procs, 40s CD on Essential Dignity, and Light Speed for emergencies, it seems like you'll rarely lack for opportunities to heal due to having to dodge too much (not to mention the free 5% speed in Diurnal)

It's a minor consolation, but it may be one case where AST might be the preferred healer. I just recently started leveling the class, so I haven't felt their weaknesses first-hand yet. By the time I hit 60 and look to raid with them, they might be fixed, or my WHM might out-gear it by too much to be worth bringing it to anything.

SCH is still better at this. Selene/eos don't care if you're moving, and lustrate still exists.

If you're having trouble keeping people alive on WHM, the same people would be dead if you had been playing AST.

[Arthars]

our static leader just tendered his resignation as leader...

AST caused this

[Kipling]

our static leader just tendered his resignation as leader...

AST caused this

LOL

[shukudai]

our static leader just tendered his resignation as leader...

AST caused this

I haven't posted in years, but I wanted to let you know I'm enjoying this! AST is the devil right now! Sorry

[l'meow]

our static leader just tendered his resignation as leader...

AST caused this

the Yu gi oh cards not in favor?

[Snoctopus]

the Yu gi oh cards not in favor?

[Arthars]

hahaha nice one!

[Pebe]

Warning: Incoming wall-o-text XD!

Good morning, I thought I would just jump in here and say hello. I am the AST named Aeternus Nihilim and I thought I should join this discussion, since apparently I was "sch carried" ! To be honest, there was not a single time in A3s that I thought, man I wish I was whm right now. I have all 3 healers leveled and can switch between all 3 of the fly with ease, but even so I still prefer AST over WHM for A3s. There was a comment earlier in this thread that said something along the lines of, "If he had played whm, they would have cleared a few days earlier" which I personally believe isn't true, as we weren't wiping to lack of healing, but simply mechanics being messed up. The final phase of that as actually not too difficult to heal and he just tosses mechanics at you over and over again. I should also mention that my raid group only runs a max of 4 hours per night since everyone has full-time jobs/schooling to do. Considering that, and also considering our main sch couldn't make it for the entire first raid week, I think our clear time of A3s was pretty decent. I'm going to go over what my rotation is for A3s and then i'll talk a bit about A4s and my thoughts on AST there.

First phase of A3s is pretty simple, you want to try and open with an Area of effect royal road with arrow or balance, I personally prefer AoE arrow as it lets people get past their opening faster. Before the pull you want to make sure you have either a balance/arrow/or spear at least in your spread slot, and any form of buff in your royal road slot. Trust me, do not make your raid group wait for you get the perfect card combo, as long as you have arrow,spear or balance in your spread slot you are fine. As you sch begins his prebuff draw another card, now you should have 3 cards, I spread, 1 in royal road, and 1 in your hand. Your goal for your drawn card is to get an ewer, spire or bole (do not shuffle for it). What you do is during the tanks pull macro you: Give tank regen > pop cleric stance > use your spread buff > royal road your drawn card > precast combust 2. If you happened to draw a balance/spear/arrow as you third card, you would use that instead of your spread card, you will understand why in a moment. Card priority order for opening card: AoE: everyone (obvious), Boosted: Balance - MCH > DRG > MNK > NIN, Arrow - BLM > MNK, Spear - not sure about this one, I've been experimenting giving it to our drg/mnk/mch with mixed results, our smn says he doesn't like it. We don't have a ninja but i would probably use it on them for faster mudra recast. Extened: Balance - DRG > MNK > NIN,
Arrow - BLM > MNK> DRG/NIN/SMN > WAR (our war likes when I give him this because it helps him get an extra skill in for berserk, just for shits and giggles XD)

Boss is pulled: With regen on the tank and eos/selence spot embracing you can get off the following before the first protean wave: Combust II, combust, Aero, Malefix II x3 (or 4 if you got and Arrow opening). Drop clerics > Dodge protean, regen the tank as you are dodging > run forward in your protean part 2 spot and begin casting Aspected helios > light speed > tank cleave > essential dignity > boss auto attack > helios > lumiferous aether > helios > benefic tank > draw card. If your first drawn card before the pull was a bole/ewer/spire that you royal roaded you are hoping for arrow or balance, if your first card was arrow/balance you are hoping for bole/ewer/spire. At this point, any buff over 15 seconds will be wasted by the phase change. Continuing on: Draw card > tank cleave > aspected benefic > use card > cleric stance > combust > move into sluice position > combust II > malefic II > Aero as you are dodging ground AoE > drops clerics > quickcast aspected helios as you are moving into position. Ok this is where it gets slightly sketchy if you optimizing your dps. If your sch is using eos then its just wispering dawn > quickcast aspected helios > helios > benefic II tank (if their hp is still pretty decent use benefic one) > tank cleave > benefic > regen tank and just ride wispering dawn + aspected helios to full hp. If however your sch is using selene, I recommend not using Aero and running in to do aspected helios earlier, and then you need to do helios x2 + benefic II on tank before tank cleave. And then phase change.

Phase 2: Card priority changes. At this point in time and for the rest of the fight spire is no longer just a royal road buff. You should make a spire rotation and everytime you draw it, give it to your dps/tanks. I do something like this: MNK > DRG > DRK > MCH > WAR. I usually never go through the full rotation and I reset the rotation on phase changes as the MNK and DRG are the most important. Giving the mnk and spires allows him to do extra dps during the hand of pain with rockbreakers. You may ask, why are you doing AoE damage when its about bursting single target damage on one hand. As long as your overall single target dps is high enough, using AoE abilities on both hands is a really good way to push dps. Exercise caution, because we wiped a few times with too many AoE abilities critting one hand and not the one we needed to lower XD!

Quick aside: Spire in my opinion, is one of the greatest assets an AST brings to a fight. We were able to go an entire A3s run without a single mch paeon (whatever its called) being used and we don't have a ninja.

I'm not going to go over my entire rotation for the rest of the fight, because then I would be typing this post for 2 hours >.> but I will say a few tips regarding the rest of the fight.

Cards:
-Ewer - you shouldn't actually needs to use this in the first two phases or even the add phase unless you are running extremely low. We use the add phase as our recovery phase and our mechanist plays a ballad until me and sch are full/close to full mana. However, in the third phase, ewer is your lifeblood! Every ewer you get, drink that shit likes its soda XD!

- Spire - As I said, spire is extremely powerful so make sure you are giving this to your dps. If you get Boosted spire, make sure you time dilation it. ( I rarely use the Area royal road in the final phase unless its the very beginning of the final phase and I have it prepped while its casting cascade.

- Bole - royal road this

-Arrow/balance/spear - same old same old, give it your dps that benefits most

Abilities:
Synastry - This is AST's mini divine seal. I say mini because it only works on 2 targets but since there are two tanks and there are a lot of times when both are taking a lot of damage, its actually quite useful. Examples: Faust, double prey, 4 jagd dolls/final phase in A2s, Hand of pain A3s etc. Lets quickly touch on hand of pain. Its is very simple to solo heal the hand of pain vulnerability + stacks with AST. When the hands are casting dignitas, make sure both tanks are full hp with regen, when dignitas concludes, immediately synastry a tank. If you have a warrior you probably should synastry the other tank as war gets healed for more. At this point its easy, just use benefic/benefic II and essential diginity as appropriate depending on what cooldowns your tank pops. If you used luminferous Aerther when I stated in phase 1, it should be coming up right here, so you should not have any mana problems and your sch should be full dps.

Collective Unconsciousness - This ability is so weird, but I love when I find awesome niche uses for it. I use it for about 2 ticks in phase 2 of A3s but its best use is in the final phase of A3s. When you get targeted by rape hand after cascade(if you been there you know what I mean ), you should do Aspected helios > helios > get into your spot > Collective Uncon. Your bubble will stay where you placed it regardless of the fact that the hand is pushing you. So you have both your aspected helios going as well as a 1500+ a tick CU going for the splashes, your other healer barely has to do anything besides watch the tank.

Hrmm I'm going to end there about A3s, there is a few other things i could talk about but its best if you and your other healer get a feel for how you want to heal the final phase if you try AST there and don't just rely one what I tell you. The final phases is just quick bursts of damage +mechanics, it is really not too bad once you get all the mechanics down and know when all the damage is coming. Just takes practice.

Thoughts on A4:
-I currently do not see any portion of A4 that will be hard for me to heal on AST. I have not gotten to the final phase yet as we couldn't enter much do to real life issues. We will be doing 2 more 4 hr raid sessions tonight and tomorrow and we may get into the final phase so I will keep you posted.

Conclusion:
-Thanks for listening to me spill my thoughts onto the page. If you have any suggestions as to what I could be doing better or any tips you guys found out by playing AST, I would be happy to hear them. If you have any questions for me on how I heal certain parts of savage then be sure to ask. Oh, and i guess I will end with I prefer WHM for A1s because aspected helios range is too damn short for that huge arena ! See I'm not biased! XD

Edit: Spelling errors etc

[Jahaudant]

I am the AST named Aeternus Nihilim

Who?

[Lokus]

He's the AST from the group that cleared in week 3 (but not week 2! so garbage job, carried, etc.)

[Jahaudant]

When I started reading that post there was a moment where I was deeply hoping it was Arthars AST come to find that 70% of his post history is calling him complete shit.

[Elcura]

That'd be amazing, unfortunately it's 2015 and we don't get silly drama like that anymore.

[Lokus]

When I started reading that post there was a moment where I was deeply hoping it was Arthars AST come to find that 70% of his post history is calling him complete shit.

I thought the same thing too lol.

[haroldsaxon]

Arthars, you should totally recruit the WHM that just ragequit our group. You'll enjoy him.

[Kimchi]

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...7aff5b99d9fb32

Them AST buffs:
Potency buffs for general heals: Benefic I/II, Aspected Benefic/Helios
Aspected Helios is the only one that's not a complete potency increase

Cure potency when not using Nocturnal Sect has been increased from 140 to 200.
Cure potency when using Nocturnal Sect has been increased from 140 to 150.
Potency of the regen effect from Diurnal Sect has been reduced from 50 to 40.

Synastry
An effect has been added that increases the caster's healing potency by 20% for 20 seconds.
The party member under the effect of Synastry will now recover HP when any other party member is targeted with a healing spell. Furthermore, the amount of HP recovered has been reduced from 50% to 40%.
Recast time has been reduced from 120 to 90 seconds.

Disable
The effect has been changed reduce the potency of all the target's offensive actions for the duration.
Duration has been reduced from 10 to 6 seconds.

Collective Unconscious
Will now grant Regen and 10% damage reduction to party members when using either Diurnal Sect or Nocturnal Sect.
Auto-attack will now be canceled upon execution.
Regen potency has been reduced from 200 to 150.
Duration of regen has been reduced from 18 to 15 seconds.

The Balance/ Bole/ Arrow

Duration has been increased from 15 to 30 seconds, regardless of single target or area-of-effect.

Synastry is just ridiculous now.