Astrologer, only in name?

[GoofballRat]

This is more about the lore and immersion and what astrologer actually is. I know astrology IRL, both chinese and western, more than just looking quickly at the rules and doing a few readings. And this is not it.

Even if you could do readings purely instinctually, which I believe you can when you reach that point, and yes this is a fantasy game, but still... the core idea of both western and chinese astrology is to align your actions and thoughts with the sky in a way that serves you and those around you. It allows you to recognize patterns before they happen, not being exact vision in future but the "oh, something's not right" feeling's more refined version.

What I'm not happy with, is the lack of seeing the future in any way. I know it might not be easy to program any idea like that, and developers of course have the right to make the game exactly as they see fit. But still...

So I think astrologers could use a new skill called "future sense" or something, which allows them to warn others of boss manouvers before they happen, and with a combo skill "heightened sense" which allows to predict the exact AoE patterns that are going to happen, with an increased mana cost and cooldown.

These skills arguably do nothing to a well-tuned raiding machine of players, but I'd argue that even in that case you'd be left with more IRL focus to perform better in other areas and make certain contents more doable, for more people. More accessible.

You could have other skills synergize with them, for example, have an AoE buff skill that increases the movement speed of everyone in range for a while in combat, and has extra speed bonus when cast soon after "future sense" or "heightened sense". You could call this skill "sense of urgency". Also you could have a similiar AoE buff skill with almost the same mechanics, but it'd increase attack and cast speed instead: "timely fervor". To offset the possible power balance of these skills you could make cards unusable for a while after casting these skills, and maybe have you exhaust too by having to move and cast a bit slower for the duration of those skills.

I just feel that astrologer should have something to do with seeing the future, and you have pre-programmed behavior models for encounters, so why not make use of it if you can?

[Seraphor]

That would be incredibly overpowered and ensure every party had an AST. It's basically what they just prevented people doing via third party programs.
AST cards, in the lore, improve your future, allowing you to strike harder and more accurately.

[MOZZYSTAR]

Uhmmm... I think we kind of already have a "future sense," but we as in every character and not just a specific class. It's called AoEs. They show you where the next hit will land so you can dodge.

They used to have more synergistic skills. It used to be that Arrow = Haste, Balance = +DPS, Bole = +Defence, Spear = +Critical Hit, Spire = reduced the costs of TP skills, and Ewer = reduced the costs of MP skills. There was also Time Dilation which extended the length of our card skills, Royal Road which allowed us to enhance them either length or potency wise or spread them out over an entire group with just the click of a button. We also had a stun, and a skill called "Disable" (that was removed either by SB or before SB I think) that decreased the next hit of the target's attack by a certain percentage, and... stuff.

But SE has decided that synergy and saboteur elements are too much of a pain to deal with, so they homogenised the healer classes into one big identity-less lump.

[kujoestars]

Lore-explicitly states that the cards simply give a general idea of what needs to be done in a fight and AST has the power to utilize them to change any poor outcomes.

Of course, it’s harder to see it gameplay wise now that the cards all more or less do the same thing. It would be nice if SE would take the time to figure out how to give each cards a unique flavor again while also not making rng overtly punishing. I only started playing after the rework, alas, so I can’t comment on the pros and cons of the old system personally, but I can say while the current system ensures all cards have some use, they all practically do the same thing.

[Rasikko]

We are retired fortune tellers that just play poker to pass time now.

[Connor]

It’s a stretch but arguably the card system does involve ‘seeing the future’, but mostly in that you’re the one with the power to influence that future.

So like, you pull a Ewer, and thus foresee that someone needs more MP, then guiding them to a different path by using the card (like one where they don’t run out of MP).

In 5.0, I guess you could say that you’re seeing a ‘DPS’ future and trying to influence the end result (e.g which dps gets all the cards, minor/major arcana use etc).

Not saying this is like a ‘justification’ for how vaguely the job relates to its real world counterpart, but that’s how I imagine an Astrologian ‘sees the future’, and I think that’s kind of what the developers are going for.

I guess it’s more like, ‘seeking guidance from the stars’ than ‘drawing upon celestial bodies to foretell future events’.

Honestly I feel like they came up with the idea of an Astrologian, then were like ‘wait it needs a job mechanic’, and since Astrology = Stars, somehow Stars = tarot I guess?

[Brandedblade]

It’s a stretch but arguably the card system does involve ‘seeing the future’, but mostly in that you’re the one with the power to influence that future.

So like, you pull a Ewer, and thus foresee that someone needs more MP, then guiding them to a different path by using the card (like one where they don’t run out of MP).

In 5.0, I guess you could say that you’re seeing a ‘DPS’ future and trying to influence the end result (e.g which dps gets all the cards, minor/major arcana use etc).

Not saying this is like a ‘justification’ for how vaguely the job relates to its real world counterpart, but that’s how I imagine an Astrologian ‘sees the future’, and I think that’s kind of what the developers are going for.

I guess it’s more like, ‘seeking guidance from the stars’ than ‘drawing upon celestial bodies to foretell future events’.

Honestly I feel like they came up with the idea of an Astrologian, then were like ‘wait it needs a job mechanic’, and since Astrology = Stars, somehow Stars = tarot I guess?

Well tarot cards and astrology are both forms of divination so there's that. Besides the cards I would argue that horoscope and Earthly Star are also "fortune telling" type skills in the sense that you must place them preemptively, or "predict" the damage coming in the future, to get the most mileage out of it. If you want to stretch it, the fate that increased damage is trying to bring into fruition is a vague "We will win this battle" prediction. Because you have to hit the thing hard to make it fall down

[Seoulstar]

That would be incredibly overpowered and ensure every party had an AST. It's basically what they just prevented people doing via third party programs.
AST cards, in the lore, improve your future, allowing you to strike harder and more accurately.

They used to be soooo much more though..I still dislike the retcon.