Astrologian Guide

See also: Healer Guide and Guides

This is a guider covering basic mechanics for Astrologians, updated for Shadowbringers.

Offense

• Your basic damage spell is   Malefic and your DoT spell is   Combust.
  • Keep your DoT ticking on the enemy; reapply it when it is about to fall off.
  • Like all healers, keep spamming your basic damage spell when you don't need to use a healing GCD; optimize your healing so that you can deal as much damage as possible.
• Your AoE damage spell is   Gravity. Spam it on all mob pulls.
  • Note that it's a targeted spell and doesn't explode from yourself, unlike WHM and SCH.
• Since ASTs have more to do between GCDs (more oGCDs), your basic damage spell is unique among healers in that its cast time isn't the full GCD. You can use that extra time to position, dodge, use an oGCD such as drawing/playing a card, and so on.
• AST has mana management issues.   Lightspeed can help with that and can also help you maximize uptime during movement-heavy mechanics.
  • Remember to keep using   Lucid Dreaming as well.

Healing and Sects

Sects

You need to choose to use either   Diurnal Sect or   Nocturnal Sect. This cannot be changed for the duration of one fight.

• Generally, Diurnal Sect is for regen (healing over time), and Nocturnal Sect is for shielding.   Celestial Opposition (Lv. 74) is the exception to this rule.
• Diurnal Sect gives more total healing potency and stacks with a WHM/SCH's regen.
• Nocturnal Sect gives shields which are useful for creating more "space" to maneuver your healing, but your GCD shields do not stack with SCH's GCD shields (Galvanize). Other shields can stack.
•   Neutral Sect (Lv. 80) is a 20s buff that improves healing potency and lets you benefit from both Sects for both of your GCD healing spells (not oGCD abilities) in its duration.

Healing GCDs

• Your small single-target heal is   Benefic.
• Your large single-target heal is   Benefic II.
  • Unless you mismanaged your mana or had it drained by being forced to revive repeatedly, you should always prefer to cast Benefic II, and do so without wasting its potent heal (i.e. when your target is low enough).
• Your AoE heal is   Helios.
• Your single-target regen/shield (depending on Sect) is   Aspected Benefic (Lv. 34).
• Your AoE regen/shield (depending on Sect) is   Aspected Helios (Lv. 42).
• Generally, you should use oGCDs first to heal, and use GCDs only when you run out of oGCDs.

Healing oGCDs

A good healer is one that maximizes the use of all of their oGCD healing: "free" healing abilities that have no cast and recast time, allowing you to spend more time dealing damage or using GCD healing. ASTs have many oGCD healing options:

•   Essential Dignity has incredible potency on low-HP targets (up to 1100).
•   Collective Unconscious (Lv. 58) has two effects:
  • The "bubble effect", which applies while your bubble is up and around them (you must stay still and take no action).
    • Under Diurnal Sect, the bubble effect is reduced damage taken.
    • Under Nocturnal Sect, the bubble effect is regen.
  • The "status effect", which is applied upon anyone that enters your bubble, and continues after they leave and even if you cancel the bubble.
    • Under Diurnal Sect, the status effect is regen.
    • Under Nocturnal Sect, the status effect is reduced damage taken.
  • For example, if you trigger Collective Unconscious near the tank and cancel it quickly, they will still benefit from the status effect, which means you can give them a free regen/tank cooldown.
•   Celestial Opposition (Lv. 60) is a powerful AoE heal under   Diurnal Sect and a good AoE shield under   Nocturnal Sect.
•   Earthly Star (Lv. 62) has great AoE healing potency and does damage too, but it can be difficult to maximize its healing and its damage on fights your party has not planned out. Nevertheless, you should use it as much as possible, triggering it with   Stellar Detonation after 10 seconds.
•   Celestial Intersection (Lv. 74) is a short cooldown single-target shield/regen, but does the opposite of what your Sect usually gives.
•   Horoscope (Lv. 76) is a small free AoE heal by itself, but you can double its heal effect if you also use an AoE heal in its 10s duration. Don't forget to trigger it.
•   Synastry (Lv. 50) heals its target for 40% of your heal whenever you use a single-target GCD heal.
  • That means it only works on Benefic and Benefic II.
  • It still works if the person you heal is the same person you used Synastry on, giving you 140% to Benefic or Benefic II.
  • This can be useful for large mob pulls when you anticipate being forced to cast Benefic II.

Cards

•   Playing a card grants you a Seal, and having three Seals lets you use   Divination (Lv. 50), which buffs party members within your AoE heal range (15y).
  • Divination is stronger the more different Seals you had when triggering it.
  • You can see which three Seals you have accumulated on top of your Job Gauge (the same thing that shows your cards).
• Your six cards give three possible Seals: Red, Yellow, and Blue, and can possibly best be played on two different types of party members: Ranged or Melee.
  • When you have drawn a card, a little symbol on top of each card shows what Seal it would grant you.
  • A symbol on the edge, as well as its color, shows whether it is best for Melee (blue cross) or Ranged (purple circle).
  • Another way to see if it would best for Melee or Ranged is to check which action icon   Minor Arcana turned into - Sword (  Lord of Crowns) for Melee, Wings (  Lady of Crowns) for Ranged.
•   Minor Arcana (Lv. 50) lets you Play a card for a stronger buff effect without obtaining a Seal.
  • This is a benefit when you have already collected 3 Seals but you're waiting for Divination's cooldown - that is a good time to use Minor Arcana.
• You can use up to three stacks of   Redraw (Lv. 40) to get yourself a better card.
  • It is not worth delaying Divination or your GCDs, though.
•   Sleeve Draw (Lv. 70) lets you draw three free cards. It automatically draws a card for you when you've used the last one.
  • It does not delay the cooldown of   Draw.
• Undraw is useless and can be safely taken off your hotbar.

Older guides:

• Astrologian Guide/Heavensward
• Astrologian Guide/Stormblood