Final Fantasy 14: Heavensward – How to Play Astrologian

Three new jobs were added to Final Fantasy 14 with the Heavensward expansion. Astrologian is the healing job of the group and plays almost like a hybrid of White Mage and Scholar from A Realm Reborn. While Astrologian can inflict damage, just like White Mage and Scholar, their primary purpose is to heal. If you’re looking for a job that can dish out damage, Astrologian should not be your first choice. This also goes for White Mage players who would rather spam Holy than cast a healing spell. If that’s how you play White Mage, Astrologian is not the job for you.

How to Unlock Astrologian

Once you’ve completed all of the story quests for A Realm Reborn and unlocked the ability to access Heavensward content, head to the Pillars in Athenaeum Astrologicum. Head inside and speak to Jannequinard to begin the Astrologian quest (Stairway to the Heavens). The quest is fairly straightforward and doesn’t involve a lot of traveling around, so you will have the new job unlocked very quickly. The job starts at level 30.

Stances

White Mage has Cleric Stance, which cuts its cure potency but swapped their intelligence and mind stats to give them a significant damage boost. You can do this at any time through a battle, and good White Mage players will turn Cleric Stance on and off numerous times through a fight. Astrologian has two stances, but they don’t work in the same way a White Mage uses Cleric Stance.

First and foremost, an Astrologian cannot change stances during battle. You have to select your desired stance before a battle begins. Astrologians can use the Diurnal Sect stance at level 30, then gain access to the Nocturnal Sect stance at level 50. Diurnal Sect cuts your casting time by five percent and adds a healing over time effect to all of the Astrologian’s Aspected (healing) spells. The Nocturnal Sect gives your cure potency a five percent boost and adds a shield to all Aspected spells. You should have one of these stances active at all times.

Astrologian was designed to be able to take over the role of White Mage or Scholar. The development team wanted Astrologian players to enter an eight man party, see who the other healer is, and determine their stance selection based on the other healer. For example, if you’re running with a White Mage, in general you should be in Nocturnal Sect so you have shielding abilities similar to those of a Scholar. Likewise, if you’re in a party with a Scholar you should have Diurnal Sect active for the cure potency and healing over time that’s similar to a White Mage. It’s not quite as cut and dry as that, but that was how the development team designed Astrologian.

Cards

In addition to the Astrologian’s ability to switch between two stances, they can also use cards. An Astrologian can draw a new card every 30 seconds, then play it, drop it or save it for later use. There are six cards you can draw: Nophica’s Bole (Earth), Azeyma’s Balance (Fire), Byregot’s Spire (Lightning), Oschon’s Arrow (Wind), Thaliak’s Ewer (Water) and Halone’s Spear (Ice).

Nophica’s Bole is a reduces the damage a party member takes. This is best used on your tank, but it can also work well if you have a squishy DPS class that likes to take the hate from the tank. Azeyma’s Balance increases the damage output of a party member. This should be used on a DPS class to boost their overall damage. Byregot’s Spire lowers the amount of TP used for skills and comes in handy during longer battles. While this should generally be used on a DPS job, it can also be beneficial if you see a Warrior using Overpower a lot, or some other similar situation.

Oschon’s Arrow increases attack speed and lowers the global cool down and cast time of spells. This should almost exclusively be used on DPS classes, but if you have a Warrior or Dark Knight off tank it can also help them as well. Thaliak’s Ewer cuts the MP cost of spells for a party member. While this should generally be reserved for a Black Mage, it also benefits a Paladin or Dark Knight depending on how they’re playing the job. Halone’s Spear lowers the cool down time of any ability that wasn’t already active when the card was used. It also doesn’t impact the Astrologian’s own Draw ability.

Once you have drawn a card, you have 15 seconds to determine how you wish to use it. If a card is not used during that time, it expires and the Draw ability cool down begins. You cannot choose which card you draw, it’s completely random. However, you can use the Spread to save a card for use at a later time or the Shuffle ability to return a card to your deck and draw another one.

Astrologian also has the Royal Road ability which essentially throws away a card while simultaneously giving the Astrologian a buff. The buff you get is determined by the card you burn. If you burn Nophica’s Bole or Azeyma’s Balance the next card you play will gain a 150 percent potency boost. Byregot’s Spire and Thaliak’s Ewer double the duration of the next card played. Oschon’s Arrow and Halone’s Spear change the effects of the next card played to cover all party members within a small radius around the target party member.

As you can see, there’s a lot to playing Astrologian, but it’s one of the more unique healing jobs in the game. If you’d like more information on the other healing jobs, check out our coverage of White Mage and Scholar.