Actually, AST being a version of a Time Mage makes sense, since the word astro relates to the the stars and space. Plus the only skill they lost that was "Time Mage-esque" was Time Dilation, and that was taken away more because of the revised card system, not to remove the identity, although...Quote:
Originally Posted by Haxaan
Time Mage (TIM) Job Concept
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10-21-2019, 12:57 AMEloah
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10-22-2019, 06:42 AMKuwagoYup, Time Dilation is the only Time Mage-esque skill that was removed, Celestial Opposition, Lightspeed, Aspected Helios and Aspected Benefic and Diurnal Sect are still the Time Aspect of AST.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eloah
Diurnal makes it so that A!Benefic and A!Helios become a Regen Heal, lore-wise it says that those two heals turns back time and that's how it restores health to the target. Celestial Opposition effects both old and new also ties in to the lore behind it, where Celestial Opposition stops time for a bit then returns it to it's regular flow. Lightspeed basically just increases AST's time being able to instacast all spells and GCD actions.
AST is still THE Time Mage of the Game. -
10-22-2019, 10:35 AMHaxaan
I know I know, I'm just still salty that CO's time extension was taken away along with TD. But it doesn't make sense for either of those abilities if the cards are all the same. Those abilities just really helped to make AST feel like a time mage and less of a "cleverly worded" whm.
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10-23-2019, 02:59 AMKuwagoI feel you there. Til this day I see no point in taking them out since they gutted card durations as well as regen durations. I thought that they were going to compensate for taking them out in a way that its going to be absorbed by other skills but nothing. They gave nothing else. If anything I'd ask for those effects to come back especially CO's time extension for the whole partyQuote:
Originally Posted by Haxaan
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10-23-2019, 06:17 PMArchwizard
So... couple problems.
First, let's start with the obvious: AST covers the Time Mage theme in many ways. Time Mage is known for manipulating both time and space (including spells like Gravity and Shell), which is an area of magic that AST still delves into. Aside from debuffs like Slow and Stop (crowd control which would largely be worthless in many encounters due to 14's balance), its notable use of Time manipulation was in Regen effects like Diurnal AST provides, and in providing attack buffs like Haste. Lightspeed can still be seen as a personal Haste effect that AST is already balanced around.
So when we get down to it, the viable mechanics of Time Mage are damage buffs, supportive/defensive effects, and using time/space spells to attack... which are already covered by AST, just not purely limited by the "time" theme. "Demi" is even just an alternate name for Gravity, which already exists. All AST's really missing is Meteor, which BLM already has, and more buff duration effects (which, while lost for now, may hopefully return).
People keep saying that AST is losing Time Mage elements, which would be a valid criticism (if it wasn't only applied to duration effects on two skills), but they also ignore that AST is building on its own personal thematic base so it doesn't have to just recycle upgrades on the same 7 "classic" spells.
Now, I will say that as someone in support of having Geomancer available as a caster DPS job in spite of the overlap with CNJ, I would be willing to accept some thematic overlap provided the two jobs could use it in different ways, not unlike GNB and MCH with guns/tech, DNC and BRD with musical support, DRG and SMN with dragon powers, WHM and PLD with holy magic, and so on.
Which brings me to my second point: The concept itself, which is rather... light. Dare I even say weak. Not just because you specifically wrote 20 levels as a DPS with only 3 attacks, one of which is the AoE.
Even ignoring the overlap with AST, as I said above there is a reason a lot of classical Time Mage elements aren't represented. A job focused around inflicting CCs like Slow, Immobilize, Stop, Confusion and Old (which is an actual debuff in 14, turns you into an old woman, see Shisui of Violet Tides) would have little effectiveness against a boss, and having a number of CC effects within the same kit is not only redundant but rather a waste of bar space, since even BLM doesn't get much mileage from Sleep outside of solo encounters. There is a reason AST no longer provides Skill/Spell Speed buffs, which is largely because nobody wanted those anyway due to their impact on weaving abilities between GCDs (and even if it increased cast times without affecting the GCD, it would be an effect only other casters could benefit from, and only a damage increase for BLMs); as for alternatives, Yoshi-P has stated a movement speed buff is something we will probably never see available since it would make the game too easy.
Your version of Warp as a group-wide Aetherial Manipulation could also very easily be used to troll; Rescue already is, and it can only affect one person every 2.5 minutes. I can't count the number of encounters where players are forced to stack, or where positioning is so airtight that moving a couple inches to the left would spell instant death.
All that really leaves is the emphasis on "delayed damage" effects like Countdown, and manipulation effects like Quicken. It's promising, but while I'm sure many SMNs would be happy to be reworked away from being a DoT job in favor of more pet emphasis, there's only so far you can take having several DoTs active at once (even Bio and Miasma have very little difference if you use them optimally, since they're applied and refreshed by the same sources), especially since DoTs in 14 can't have ticks sped up like you might see in WoW. Even the effects presented aren't necessarily original, as you can see similar principles in Earthly Star (for Countdown) or Thundercloud (for Quicken).