Is there any reason to take White Mage over Astrologer?

[Ashley]

Hey there so i've been playing healer mostly and i've hit level 62 on white mage. Then the balance change hit. White mage seemed really weak suddenly compred to before the update.

I decided to play Astrologer now and i noticed there doesn't seem to be any reason at all to play White Mage. The healing abilities seem to be generally able to heal exactly the same amounts of health. Astrologer can pick between regeneration and damage mitigation unlike White Mage and also has the bonus of being able to use cards to buff players. Especially useful for groups of 8 or more.

Is there any advantage to going White Mage now after the update?

[Narcoleptic Marshmallow]

I have leveled WHM and SCH to 70, now working towards AST. Granted, I'm still missing two key spells from their kit (Minor Arcana and Sleeve Draw), but I don't really feel like AST is better.

Most of the content anyone save a small group of players is going to do is 4-man dungeons and WHM absolutely steamrolls the other two in every way. Big heals, big AoEs, free shield, great MP management, great oGCD heals, basically everything goes 300% faster and smoother.

AST cards are rng, no matter how many redraw spells they add, Earthly Star is anything but a oGCD AoE heal, you have to give up regens for shields and vice versa, shields/regens are expensive MP wise, and Malefic/Gravity doesn't compare to Stone/Holy.

Also worth noting that Cure/Cure II are stronger by 50 potency than Benefic/Benefic II. So a WHM's spam heals are stronger than AST's, on top of having Cure III and more oGCD heals.

Surely, a highly skilled AST in an upcoming savage raid, after having learned the fights inside and out, playing with a group of people they know very well, is going to be a better asset to the group than a WHM in the same position.

In every other case e.g. anything duty finder/party finder I wouldn't pick AST over WHM unless I really just wanted to play AST.

But I still prefer playing SCH even after all the nerfs because Excogitation and Fey Union let me keep the tank alive while I die of boredom from spamming my one DPS spell.

[Ashley]

Hm okay what you guys are saying isn't what i've been personally experiencing. I'll give what mage a go again and see if it does have better healing. Generally i just want to be the most effective healer possible, simple as.

[Bloodhawk]

WHM does more damage and has better mana management. AST has shields and better utility. They are the top two healers right now.

[Sephrax]

This is old video and I don't know if damage of holy has gone down over the years but this is just hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otqzdv7OU0c

[Alien Behind The Door]

Dr, Prof Sir Carmen の投稿を引用：

Most of the idea that AST is somehow better then the other healers is the hot gas that is the Balance card. People give this buff waaaaay too much credit, especially when its raidwide version is half power.

WHM has: Better single target and group healing, MP managment not based on chance, damage in both AoE and single target, plenty of personel buffs and OGCD panic buttons like Tetra, Assize, and Bene as well as a better but non-spammable mitigation in Divine Benison.

Theres also the fact that only playing one healer job is incredibly boring.

Mp management not based on chance ? Yeah....You must be bad at managing MP on astro.

[Gabby]

He's comparing your two options, the Refresh (which is a role ability) and a randomized MP gain card with WHM's Refresh, 48-60 second MP regain spell with combined AoE healing / damage and ability to get 10 seconds of free casting every 2 minutes.