Introduction

This guide is intended to help you level Astrologian to level 100 from any given starting point, while also beginning to slowly suggest fundamental strategies and techniques. Habits develop early, and practice makes permanent.

This guide is not intended to be a complete guide on how to heal in dungeons, trials, or any other content. However, the following section is intended to give some strategies to the mindset of a healer in XIV, and I recommend you read it if you have never been a healer in specifically XIV-related max-level content before. If you feel confident in healing in XIV, please feel free to skip to the relevant level section for you.

Gear

You will continually gain gear doing role quests and in dungeons as you level, as well as gain access to various other sources of gear depending on what you are doing. If you are fresh leveling through a Main Scenario Quest (MSQ), you will be rewarded with gear, or coffers that give you access to High Quality-grade gear for your level. Additionally, as you do roulettes to gain exp you will also gain access to Tomestones of Poetics, which can be exchanged for gear of high item level (ilvl, as demarcated in-game) at levels 50, 60, 70, and 80. 

Gear is important on healers to ensure your spells do enough healing and enough damage from pull to pull. Please make some concerted effort to ensure your gear is relatively close to your own. It’s okay for it to be a few levels below, but once you start hitting dungeons with gear level 10 levels or lower than your own current level, it will start to get difficult.

Know Your Role

You will hear this over and over in guides and resources in XIV, and this guide is no exception. Contrary to basically any other MMO and most RPGs:

Your primary job in XIV as a healer is not to heal, it is to do damage. You will only heal when necessary to prevent death, as opposed to only doing damage when there is no more healing to be done.

This does not mean play so risky that someone does, in fact, die. People will incur damage either by mechanics or mistakes, and it is our primary role to mend those. Please push yourself however you feel most comfortable.

A note on job quests

Job quests have not been re-introduced for Astrologian since Shadowbringers, but still exist up to level 70. Lots of key actions are locked behind doing these job quests. Make sure to go to the Aethenium Astrologicum in Foundation (Ishgard), see if you have any to do, and stay up to date on them at all points. Do these as you level up the job normally.

Dungeons

• The most important job for us is to ensure the tank of the party stays alive. It should be self-evident, but they are the ones who are best suited to hold mobs’ attention/aggro. Other party members will quickly die when incurring damage from trash mobs in pulls.
• All healers have very strong Area of Effect (AoE) abilities that will damage multiple enemies. These are usually announced in tooltips with phrasing like “delivers an attack with a potency of 130 to target and all enemies around it”. These are your primary damage tools in dungeons. Ours is called Gravity.
• For bosses, you want to put your Damage over Time (DoT) spell on the boss to start and keep that up as often as possible, refreshing when it falls below three seconds. Ours is called Combust.
• Your best usage of abilities to keep a player healthy will be to use your Healing over Time (HoT) effects. On trash pulls, this will be your Aspected Benefic on the tank. During bosses, if the whole party takes damage, this will be Aspected Helios. These spells are often better uses of your time than Benefic and Helios unless the heal is needed immediately.
• Weaving moves that are known as off-Global Cooldowns (oGCDs) will be the best way to start feeling in control of a dungeon. At higher level dungeons and higher levels of play, these will be your primary form of healing. We get more of these as we gain levels.

Trials and Raids

• In Full Party content, Astrologian will often be the main Regen Healer of the group. Like with dungeons, your primary job is to keep the main tank and party alive. Use HoTs.

• Try not to overheal your co-healer too much! This is very difficult to coordinate, and it is better to assume you will be the main source of healing. Try your best to see what they are doing and act accordingly, but:

  • Minimize your time spent doing nothing. Every second lost on your Global Cooldown (GCD) will add up and lead to last Malefics in the fight, or might make you feel more ‘behind the damage upkeep’. Playing safe and reactionary to damage often is actually more dangerous than keeping high uptime on your GCD.
  • Some higher level content will have healer-specific mechanics. These vary from fight to fight. Otherwise, play the fight as if you were a caster DPS job.

• There is a healer mechanic that does rarely show up to be mindful of, known as “Doom”, eponymous with the debuff’s name that the mechanic revolves around. Not all “Doom” debuffs are the same, but if you see “Doom” ever, it is possibly a mechanic that requires the person to be healed to 100% max HP or the effect removed with Esuna. This is very rare and you may never see it, but be mindful of it.

Levels 15-50

While you can only access Astrologian at level 30, you can sync as low as level 15 (Sastasha). You want to be following the basic priority system as outlined above: using HoTs before Benefic and Helios if you have access to them, weave as many oGCDs between GCDs while your GCD itself is still on cooldown, and doing damage as much as possible. If the mob in question will live for at least 15 seconds, use Combust before Malefic. 

Essential Dignity is a very powerful ability you will always have access to, since it is unlocked at level 15. This ability is an oGCD heal that gives a strong burst of healing based on the target’s missing HP, capped at 30% total remaining HP. Try to hold off using this ability until the tank is somewhere between 30-50% remaining HP to feel its true effect.

Level 50 will also unlock Synastry. Synastry will grant a given target a buff that any time you heal any target with a single-target spell (this is currently in Endwalker limited to Benefic and the initial heal of Aspected Benefic, NOT the HoT portion), they will receive an additional 40% heal of the value of that spell. The buffed target does not have to be the target of the healing spell. This is a very strong buff for dungeon pulls, and is phenomenal at helping heal a Dark Knight out of Walking Dead.

Additionally, you unlock Divination. This is a generic teamwide damage buff, and is one of the strongest buffs in the game, albeit slightly weaker in dungeon content (since there are only 4 people getting buffed, instead of a full party of 8). Use this action on CD unless the enemy/ies in front of you are about to die. This includes trash pulls.

Lastly, at level 30, you unlock the card system…

Level 30 - Cards

At level 30, you will begin having access to the core internal mechanic to Astrologian, known colloquially as the “card system”, in-game known as the arcana system. As you begin to play, you can work best to just use your two “Draws”, Astral Draw and Umbral Draw, on CD relatively as often as possible. Use The Balance on strong melee targets (if no melee in the party, then the tank), and The Spear on strong ranged targets (if no ranged in the party, then yourself). There are details and some non-complex minutia about optimal usages of these actions, even in dungeon content, but for now do not stress them. Just use them at all.

The rest of your cards are all different ways to handle tank upkeep. All 4 (The Bole, The Arrow, The Ewer, The Spire) are pretty good for helping the tank out. The Ewer and The Bole are substantially stronger than the other two in general. However, the rest of our kit of oGCDs as you unlock them are generally *even stronger* than the cards themselves. For example, Exaltation is quite literally just The Bole except better, stronger, more accessible.

Weave your cards between GCDs, prioritizing more important oGCDs (including non-cards) higher. Make sure you do not clip your GCD just to use cards. Upkeeping your GCD is still the highest priority, tied with ensure the tank does not die.

Levels 51-70

Level 58: Collective Unconscious

At this level you will unlock Collective Unconscious (CUnc, or CU). CUnc is an ability (meaning it is an oGCD) that has two key effects. The first will give everyone inside the effective radius a buff that reduces their damage taken by 10%. This buff is interesting in the following ways:

• This buff is applied instantly when the button is pressed.
• The buff will disappear after the first server tick it recognizes you are no longer holding the bubble. This means, if you use the ability and let go immediately, everyone will get the buff and it is guaranteed to last at least three seconds, usually longer.

Additionally, this ability will also give everyone in its radius a potent HoT that will total 500 potency over 15 seconds. You do not have to hold the bubble down for a long period of time to catch one instance of damage, and please do not try to maximize holding this ability down to continue refreshing the HoT. You are better off continuing to do damage after you have weaved it in briefly.

This ability is great for catching raidwide damage, and for helping with tank upkeep in dungeon pulls. 10% mitigation and a 500 potency HoT is a lot of effective survivability!

Level 60: Celestial Opposition

Compared to CUnc, Celestial Opposition (COpp, or CO) is a very simple ability, however it is quite powerful. Every 60 seconds this ability will heal everyone for 200 potency, then give them a 500 potency HoT over 15 seconds, much like half of CUnc’s effects. This is also an oGCD, great for raidwides, and when stacked with the other oGCDs, you can see how Astrologian quickly is becoming a job with many powerful tools to keep the party alive without having to press Benefic or Helios.

Level 62: Earthly Star

Ah, Earthly Star. One of the most iconic abilities for Astrologian. This ability got a tremendous radius increase in Endwalker, so even one of its core weaknesses in the past has been mostly eradicated. Here is how Star works:

You place down the ability. It is a ground-targeted one, which will make sense when you try to use it. If used immediately, it will then have:

• A healing potency of 540 and a damage potency of 205

If you wait 10 seconds, the Earthly Star will become a Giant Star, and Stellar Burst will now become Stellar Detonation. It will now have:

• A healing potency of 710, and a damage potency of 310

In essence, you want to place this ability down ahead of time, before the healing needs to be done. Use this ability often! 310 potency is a lot of damage. Do not hold this ability just for the heal, even as potent as it is. Start using it right as the tank starts setting their feet in dungeons, and a bit before you would want to use the heal in the first place in Full Party content.

Level 70: Minor Arcana

Minor Arcana is an ability that is essentially an upgrade to your Draws. Now, when executing either ability, you will additionally acquire either a Lord of Crowns or a Lady of Crowns. These are static and dependent on the type of Draw (Astral -> Lord; Umbral -> Lady). These are simple AoE damage and heal buttons. Good abilities, use as you see fit.

Levels 71-80

Level 74: Celestial Intersection

Celestial Intersection is an ability which heals the target for a small amount (200 potency) and then gives them a nice shield totaling 400 potency, for a total of an effective 600 potency oGCD. Use this liberally on the tank, regardless of whether it is a dungeon or Full Party content. Using this before the tank pulls mobs in dungeons is nice too, as the shield gives a nice buffer for picking up the full pull.

Level 76: Horoscope

Horoscope is a fascinating oGCD which might be more confusing in the tooltip than it is in practice. Horoscope is an oGCD buff on all targets within 20 yalms of you. You can reactivate this ability immediately to again lightly heal all targets with the Horoscope buff within 20 yalms within 10 seconds. 

If you heal a target with the Horoscope buff with either Helios or Aspected Helios, it is upgraded to the Horoscope Helios buff. This will refresh the buff timer and increase its duration to 30 seconds, and upgrade the heal from 200 potency to 400 potency.

If either Horoscope or Horoscope Helios’ buff falls off, the target will be automatically healed for its corresponding amount.

In dungeons, this is your lowest priority weave during pulls. In Full Party content, this is a nice buff to try and apply before using a Helios to give yourself a free 400 potency in additional healing within the next 30 seconds.

Level 80: Neutral Sect

Neutral Sect is nigh-unequal in its power. It is a 20-second oGCD buff for you that increases your healing magic potency by 20%: meaning only your GCDs - like Aspected Helios - will be buffed in healing. Your oGCDs - like COpp -  will not be buffed.

Additionally, this will grant all your Aspected Helios and Aspected Benefic casts while under the buff and additional effect of granting the healed target a potent shield in addition to its already potent HoT. This starts making a singular cast of these spells reach astronomically high numbers of healing.

During very intensive healing sections, this buff will be the party’s best bet at survival. At this point, your dungeon pulls will mostly be alternating from pull-to-pull: using Neutral Sect in one pull, and Synastry in the other. These will be the strongest boons to keeping your tank alive.

Levels 81-90

At level 86 you will unlock Exaltation. Very strong single-target upkeep ability. 10% reduced damage taken, followed by a fairly potent 500p heal as the mitigation expires. Definitely use this as much as you can at the start or in the middle of pulls.

At level 90, you unlock the other significant Astrologian capstone action: Macrocosmos. The action is a little confusing to read about, so I will break down the tooltip into digestible participles:

Macrocosmos is a GCD. This GCD is damage neutral on single target, and a gain in AoE situations (it is exactly the same amount of damage as Malefic). This does damage to enemies in a radius. In the same radius, it applies a buff to all allies with the same name, “Macrocosmos” : I will refer to the buff entitled “Macrocosmos” as “BuffMacro” for the rest of this section for clarity’s sake.

BuffMacro compiles all damage done directly to the HP of the units it is applied to. This means it does not compile damage done to shields. At the end of the buff’s duration, 15s, BuffMacro will expire, and heal the buffed target it was on. This heal is equal to 200p + half of all compiled damage. If someone with BuffMacro takes 10,000 damage to their HP, they will be healed for 200p + 5,000 flat HP.

The 200p part of this heal can crit, which is why you will sometimes see the ! marker signifying a critical heal. Be aware, the compiled damage CANNOT crit.

You can also choose to resolve the heal early with Microcosmos. Microcosmos is the button that replaces Macrocosmos after it is used, and is available as long as you, the Astrologian who cast the skill, have BuffMacro applied to you. When pressing Microcosmos, all entities within a radius of you will have their BuffMacro expired early, and the heal will resolve as normal. This CAN miss people who are out of range. Do not worry too much, they will still heal when BuffMacro expires from them as normal.

Levels 91-100

All dungeons in Dawntrail are relatively palatable without too much trouble. I recommend falling into a rhythm of rotating the following:

Use a Macrocosmos at the start of the first pull alongside your buffs (Divination, Balance, Spear). Weave other oGCDs as necessary to help keep the tank alive, but remember that Macrocosmos will be a huge and potent heal that will essentially fully heal the tank’s HP if they have taken enough damage.

The next pull, use Neutral Sect and apply Synastry on the tank. A Neutral Sect-buffed Aspected Benefic on the tank in these conditions will likely do most of the work to keep them alive through the pull. Reapply if needed. Do this setup pre-pull if you can.

From here on, you will want to cycle between these two phases for trash pulls. Macrocosmos under Divination, Neutral Sect for the other. Since all dungeons in XIV are relatively similar, you should be able to upkeep this without much issue.

At level 92, you will learn Oracle. This is an ability that you can use after casting Divination. It is an extremely potent AoE oGCD. This is very good for helping clear trash mobs.

At level 100, you unlock Sun Sign. This is an ability whose animation has a very pretty flourish, but whose effect is a bit milquetoast. If you are still in the lv99 dungeon when you unlock this action, it is also a button that is a unlocked to be used after casting Neutral Sect. It is a simple 10% mitigation buff to all party members within range after being used. Use as you see fit.