Astrologians specialize in ability-based healing, being able to cast numerous heals in between casted spells, in contrast with white mage's healing style being powerful, but spell-based. Astrologians also possess more proactive healing and mitigation tools compared to white mages, allowing them to pre-emptively mitigate for, or recover from damage.
Arcanum, also known as "cards", are astrologian's unique main mechanic. Each and every card has completely different effects, which can be placed on any party member or oneself. Astrologians may prepare a deck of arcanum with Astral Draw and Umbral Draw, which grants three fixed cards, or four at level 70, unique to the deck and available for play. Each cards' effects can range from granting a barrier, reducing damage taken, or even increasing damage dealt. The latter-most effect, along with astrologian's raid buff, Divination which increases damage dealt by every party member, greatly helps off-set the low personal damage output of the job, being the lowest amongst every job.
Despite having the lowest personal damage of every job, astrologians should still contribute to doing damage, as should every other healer.
Malefic and its upgraded variants are astrologian's single-target damage spell. When no healing is needed, astrologians should always be casting this spell to deal damage.
Combust and its upgraded variants are astrologian's damage over-time spell. It is also instantly casted. Whenever on the move following the tank in dungeons, apply Combust to every enemy, since you will not be able to stop and cast Malefic. Refresh the duration of Combust by casting it again on the same enemy if its duration is about to expire. If an enemy is about to be defeated, continue using Malefic instead.
Gravity and its upgraded variant are astrologian's AoE damage spell. Whenever there are a group of two or more enemies, cast Gravity instead of casting Malefic; it will deal its full potency to every enemy hit!
To offset how weak astrologians are, they depend on buffing the amount of damage their teammates deal. This is done through two methods:
At level 50, astrologians learn Divination. It boosts everyone's damage dealt by 6%. Make sure to use it while fighting trash mobs in dungeons! At higher levels, Divination also grants a hard-hitting AoEability, making it especially imperative that you use it to deal high damage to a ton of enemies. Remember, you do more damage when hitting multiple enemies, and not just one!
The Balance will increase a melee DPS's or tank's damage by 6%. Similarly, The Spear will increase a physical ranged DPS, magical ranged DPS, or healer's damage dealt by 6%.
If you place a card on the wrong role, the strength of the damage boosting effect will be reduced to 3%.
At level 70, you will additionally gain Lord of Crowns from Astral Draw. You want to pair this card with Divination, or at any time in trash pulls in dungeons, because it does 400 potency worth of damage to all nearby enemies.
Healing
For information on how to heal, read the Healer Guide! It is highly advised that you read that page after reading this section.
Helios is astrologian's basic AoE heal. When numerous players, or even everyone in your party has taken damage, cast this spell once instead of healing everyone individually with Benefic.
Aspected Benefic is astrologian's single-target regeneration spell, healing allies overtime. This spell will heal more than Benefic in total, but it may only be applied once (subsequent applications refresh the duration), and needs its full duration to heal overtime. Consider casting this spell on the tank to supplement your uses of Benefic II! If player needs healing immediately however, cast Benefic II instead, as they may be KO'd by the time you begin casting this spell after Aspected Benefic!
Aspected Helios is astrologian's basic AoE heal supplemented with a regeneration, similar to Aspected Benefic. If multiple players, or even everyone has taken a lot of damage, use this spell instead of Helios, as its total healing potency will equate to one use of Benefic II on every player. If more healing is needed, cast Heliosin conjunction with this spell, as it heals more immediately. Do not cast this spell again if the regeneration duration has not expired yet! As stated before, this spell will heal an equivalent amount to Benefic II; it is not worth casting this spell on only the tank, consider casting Benefic II, instead.
Healing Abilities
A good healer is one that maximizes the use of all of their healing abilities: actions that are typically free of cost, but have a cooldown instead, and can be casted in between spells. As stated earlier, astrologians specialize in using their wide array of healing abilities; do not be afraid to use your abilities liberally; saving your abilities only for "emergencies" will only harm your learning progress as a healer!
Despite some abilities having AoE utility, they may be used as forms of single-target healing for the tank, in contrast with healing spells!
Utility Cards
Almost all of your arcanum possess a healing or mitigation effect. Make sure to always use these cards whenever you can and keep both Astral Draw and Umbral Draw on cooldown; one of the cards even allows you to buff a party member's damage done! Refer to the cards that have utility, below:
Essential Dignity has incredible potency on targets at lower HP levels. Before even casting Beneficat all, use this action instead, as its short cooldown means you can use it at least once every mob pull in dungeons. It also works as an instant recovery tool when someone, even yourself, takes a significant amount of damage due to failing mechanics.
Synastry can be applied to party members. It does not do any healing on its own.
Whenever you cast a healing spell (meaning abilities such as Essential Dignity do not benefit from Synastry), an additional 40% of the healing spell's power is further applied to the target who has this effect. You do not have to heal the target who you placed Synastry on, meaning you are able to to heal two people at once.
You may still heal the target who you placed Synastry on, allowing for your healing spells to be 40% stronger on them. This is a very strong effect for if you run out of healing abilities, but the tank is still taking a ton of damage quickly.
You generate a bubble around yourself for up to 18 seconds. Party members who enter this bubble receive a small regeneration effect for 10 seconds. Performing any action at all while you are channeling the bubble will cancel its effect; it is almost never recommended to channel the bubble because the regeneration effect is small, and you could be casting other attack or healing spells, instead.
When you generate the bubble, you also create a "pulse". This has a greater range than the bubble, and reduces the damage all party members and yourself take by 10%. Unlike the bubble you create, this pulse only happens once. This acts as another reason to never channel this ability.
All effects from this ability are applied immediately when you use it, even if the bubble is not visible, allowing you to simply use it and resume casting spells. This is known as "blinking", and is a common tactic everyone does.
Celestial Opposition is an ability-version of Aspected Helios, and unlike Aspected Helios, can be executed liberally for healing on one target.
Whenever you need to cast Aspected Helios to heal everyone, cast Celestial Opposition, first.
Its HP regeneration stacks with any other HP regeneration effect; if it is needed, both Helios and Aspected Helios may be casted to supplement this action.
Using a ground-target, you can place the earthly star anywhere on the ground, which creates a bubble, similar to Collective Unconscious, and is outlined by stars. It has a very wide radius, typically enough to cover an entire arena if placed in the middle.
When you place it, the star will be small. You may still choose to detonate the star, which will heal all party members and deal damage to enemies within the radius.
However, if you wait 10 seconds after placing the star, it will grow into a giant star, and its healing and damage effect will be much greater. If you wait an additional 10 seconds after the star has grown, it will automatically detonate.
Unlike other healing abilities or spells you possess, it is best to simply place one down whenever you can so it can begin growing as soon as possible, while also getting its cooldown active. The best-case scenario would be to hold it for a heal if possible. Try to only ever detonate the star whenever it is large, even if it means waiting a little longer for the star to grow after taking damage.
You replenish a small amount of HP, and grant a barrier worth 200% of the HP restored. Given its very short cooldown, it can, and should be used liberally.
This equates to 600 potency of healing. Since barriers can exceed maximum HP, you can top-up any party member and give them a bit of extra protection.
You can grant this shield to tanks at any time during trash pulls without much worry of overhealing. Alternatively for a tankbuster, you can top-up the tank for a little bit of HP, and grant them a barrier that will mitigate some of the damage they take from it. In the case that you are too late and tha tankbuster has already done its damage, you can still apply Celestial Intersection to heal the tank a little, while the barrier will provide extra mitigation against any further mechanics, or auto-attacks from the boss.
You can also grant this shield to any party memver who has taken, or will take a bit more damage. This include if a DPS, or yourself, have taken extra damage due to failing mechanics and have received a Vulnerability Up. In contrast with Essential Dignity, this is best used as an extra bit of healing and shielding against further mechanics, or upcoming raid-wides where party members with vulnerability up will take a bit of extra damage.
You apply Horoscope to every party member in range. If you activate Horoscope again, or wait for its duration of 10 seconds to expire, it will heal 200 potency.
However, if you use either Helios or Aspected Helios, party members who are healed with it will change their Horoscope buff to Horoscope Helios, which will heal for a much greater 400 potency, while increasing the duration to 30 seconds.
If you ever plan to use Helios or Aspected Helios, use Horoscope first for a bit of extra healing - the long duration of Horoscope Helios means that any further raid-wide damage or further damage can be healed without using Helios again.
Because Horocope requires you to cast Helios, which are spells on the global cooldown, it is recommended that you use it as a second option after Celestial Opposition, since that skill is an ability with the same strength as Aspected Helios.
You grant a party member Exaltation, reducing damage they take by 10% for a very short duration. When Exaltation expires, it heals them for 500 potency.
You can use this ability for any situation you would with Celestial Intersection, as it provides healing and mitigation. Keep in mind however, that it does not heal until its duration expires, which means if someone's HP is low before a mechanic comes, heal them first.
Unlike Celestial Intersection, Exaltation excells more in mitigating larger amounts of damage in a short time-span. Using this on the tank on cooldown in trash-pulls is recommended, but not against one or two boss auto-attacks.
Not an ability, Macrocosmos is an instant-cast AoE spell that grants all nearby party members Macrocosmos.
When under the effect of Macrocosmos, 25% of all damage taken (excluding damage taken to barriers) is recorded. When Macrocosmos expires, or upon execution of Microcosmos, the recorded damage is healed.
This is especially useful for raid-wide damage and or when a lot of damage will be taken, either due to failing or future mechanics. It is important to continue healing, as the more damage you take, the more healing you will receive.
Macrocosmos is a gain in AoE! It will also heal the tank for a lot of damage. Remember to heal them for a bit before letting the tank get low on HP and executing Microcosmos.
Neutral Sect is upgraded, and now also grants you Suntouched, which allows you to execute Sun Sign. Sun Sign will damage taken by you and nearby party members for a long duration.
You can choose to use Neutral Sect in dungeon trash pulls more liberally. When running with the tank, grant them a barrier with Aspected Benefic. When they stop running, you can then use Sun Sign to grant them additional damage reduction.
