3.1 : Astrologian "adjustments''

The Gravity should have some debuff like Holy's Stun or something that makes slow or heavy :/

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Originally Posted by Greven

What I feel could be reasonable adjustments are:

- Stronger effect for Luminiferous Aether, The Ewer, The Spire and The Spear (AST drinks MP if you push it while those card buffs feel so less useful than the others);

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What do you feel Ewer, Spire, and Spear should have in strength? Honestly even if Spire restored 100 TP (extreme example) a tick, or Spear was 30% CDR, they'd still mostly be worthless in raids. I think they have to change at their core, or just be much less likely to end up as your final card, with a Shuffle buff(s) or a condensed card pool.

Seems like most people believe it will be a buff in some form.
I actually worry that it's the opposite, so I hope you guys end up being right..xD

Buff DPS potency and reduce mana cost

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Originally Posted by Atoli

Seems like most people believe it will be a buff in some form.
I actually worry that it's the opposite, so I hope you guys end up being right..xD

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I don't think they'd have bothered mentioning it in the same line as NIN, PLD and BRD if that was the case!

I don't quite know what they are going to adjust. I feel AST is in a very good spot right now. Perhaps Noct Sect because its still under utilized and underwhelming compared to Diurnal.

I'm probably in the vast minority but I'm hoping they return Benefic, Benefic II, and Helios back to its original potencies. It was an adjustment that I never felt was necessary.

Sorry the n00bie question, but... What's RNG? I play AST as my main (190) and every time that I read about it or see some youtube videos about AST, they always talk about this 'RNG'. For what I've understood so far, by the context, it means some related to 'randon'blablabla. I even tried to use the glossary on ffxiv gamerescape, but it's not there.

RNG = random number generator. But in gaming terms its most often used to describe something left to chance as opposed to something you can control. It gets tossed around with respect to AST because the buffs are random. You Draw 1 of 6 cards randomly - you can't control what you get and it may not be what you want to use in the current situation.

So when you are 2 seconds into a fight, and you draw a useless spire - RNG screwed you (the random number generator in the background that resulted in the spire being drawn when you would have much preferred and Arrow or Balance)

My Dream changes. Goal being that taking any 2 healing classes works well enough.

Diurnal -> Gives party MND Buff. Possibly slight nerf to healing potency to compensate

Noct - >

Lightspeed - While in Noct it makes next cast instant and off GCD(works same as now in Diurnal), This is to compensate for lack of o gcds vs sch, and has dps potential to bridge that gap. Could be used for aoe, st, or dps as such. Also reduce the CD on it a bit in noct.

Essential Dignity - While in noct restores mana based on % of healing done, rather than heals more. This is to compensate for mana free healing from fairy, and able to shield more often, use more mana intensive heals to compensate vs fairy.

Collective Unconscious - No regen in noct, instead is deploy-able or persists on target cast on for duration.

Synastry - Should copy applied shields to synastry target.

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

I'm probably in the vast minority but I'm hoping they return Benefic, Benefic II, and Helios back to its original potencies. It was an adjustment that I never felt was necessary.

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Horrible suggestion. Yeah, let's return AST to their former "glory" where no one wanted them in their parties and people dreaded getting an AST in their dungeons. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

Horrible suggestion. Yeah, let's return AST to their former "glory" where no one wanted them in their parties. :rolleyes:

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The other changes given to AST outside of the potency buff was more than sufficient to put them in line with the healers. Potency change was unneeded as AST already have equivalent baseline heals when you compensate for Sect bonuses.

I'm not saying revert the entire kit - just that aspect of the kit that I personally felt was entirely unneeded.

Alternatively, adjust Sect bonus to be more unique and keep competencies the same.

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

The other changes given to AST outside of the potency buff was more than sufficient to put them in line with the healers. Potency change was unneeded as AST already have equivalent baseline heals when you compensate for Sect bonuses.

I'm not saying revert the entire kit - just that aspect of the kit that I personally felt was entirely unneeded.

Alternatively, adjust Sect bonus to be more unique and keep competencies the same.

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I partly agree but it may have been to compensate for the lack of MND buff in a SCH/Astro party. So adding a mnd buff before reverting would be ideal.

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Originally Posted by Staris

I partly agree but it may have been to compensate for the lack of MND buff in a SCH/Astro party. So adding a mnd buff before reverting would be ideal.

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Someone made a suggestion in another thread where party bonus would be dependent on the number of healers you had. So, in a single healer party (4-man dungeons), your team gets a MND bonus. If you have two healers, the second healer would provide a PIE bonus.

I like this idea and it gets around the conundrum of giving any future healer a MND or PIE bonus and "force" some combinations that have MND bonus.

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

Someone made a suggestion in another thread where party bonus would be dependent on the number of healers you had. So, in a single healer party (4-man dungeons), your team gets a MND bonus. If you have two healers, the second healer would provide a PIE bonus.

I like this idea and it gets around the conundrum of giving any future healer a MND or PIE bonus and "force" some combinations that have MND bonus.

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Or just make Diurnal do mnd and Noct do PIE

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Originally Posted by Staris

Or just make Diurnal do mnd and Noct do PIE

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I have heard that argument before and I do I agree with it. However, this measure to me it's only a stop-gap measure for a much more future impacting scenario when S-E continues to release more healers and have to decide between PIE / MND.

I'm really hoping for changes that put the sects on par with each other, and improves the diversity between AST and WHM skills.

If there was any adjustment I still want to see it would be with CO. It isn't much to look forward to at 60 compared to other jobs. Extending to 10 seconds would be great for the 2 minute cooldown.

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Originally Posted by Staris

Or just make Diurnal do mnd and Noct do PIE

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Yeah, I feel they compensated for this with the last potency increases when AST is replacing a WHM in a raid. Plus since party buffs is tied to class/job (probably that way in-coding) and planning for a future healer jobs to have either MND or PIE.

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Originally Posted by Eul

The Gravity should have some debuff like Holy's Stun or something that makes slow or heavy :/

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i agree with this. A healer AoE should have some sort of special effect, and heavy works well with gravity. it is annoying that we dont get an AoE ability until 52 though. i mean we can cross class blizzard 2 but does any one even use it in PvE that much.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

i agree with this. A healer AoE should have some sort of special effect, and heavy works well with gravity. it is annoying that we dont get an AoE ability until 52 though. i mean we can cross class blizzard 2 but does any one even use it in PvE that much.

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Then we'd have another copy-and-paste skill, and having gravity being slightly better because of cast distance and we don't need anymore of that. AST stun is level 60, and that is fine.

Sorry, do not agree that a piddly 5-second buff duration and a 2 second stun is acceptable for a level 60 ability.

That is why I mentioned earlier that I believe CO needs a buff improvement aside from the stun, like 10 seconds. The stun duration is fine (4s, 2s pvp).

Can we please stop promoting this "Gravity with Heavy" idea? What would that provide exactly? So what, enemies can't move as fast. Newsflash - if you're using Gravity, they're already grouped together. This would provide no damage mitigation whatsoever. If you want a real improvement to Gravity, at least request something useful, like Slow (which would still be line with the 'Gravity lore').

Oh, gotcha. Sorry, I didn't scroll up high enough to see your previous comment. Yeah, it needs something. An increase to 10-seconds instead of 5 would be amazing.

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Originally Posted by RajaVamberaux

Can we please stop promoting this "Gravity with Heavy" idea? What would that provide exactly? So what, enemies can't move as fast. Newsflash - if you're using Gravity, they're already grouped together. This would provide no damage mitigation whatsoever. If you want a real improvement to Gravity, at least request something useful, like Slow (which would still be line with the 'Gravity lore').

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Wow finally someone that is making sense.
Why exactly would a heavy on gravity make it better? I want an actual explanation from someone because it makes no sense.

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Originally Posted by VitalSuit

Wow finally someone that is making sense.
Why exactly would a heavy on gravity make it better? I want an actual explanation from someone because it makes no sense.

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I think people are just throwing it out there as a suggestion to make it better than it is so that it's at least similar to Holy. I don't mind it not having stun, my issue is I hate that it's from level 52 or whatever. I feel so useless on hard mode, trials, or lower level stuff not having any AoE. There's so many times where Holy is handy in them to wipe out groups of mobs.

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Originally Posted by VitalSuit

Wow finally someone that is making sense.
Why exactly would a heavy on gravity make it better? I want an actual explanation from someone because it makes no sense.

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I think most players seem to forget that Gravity costs 20% less MP than Holy. I'd prefer the cheaper MP cost as the "additional effect" versus any frivolous benefit Heavy may have and bumping the MP cost of Gravity to match Holy.

Idea for Nocturnal Sect:

Add a trait that gives your Benefic and Benefic 2 a certain chance to erect a nocturnal barrier around the target as well for a percentage of the healing done (like in wow how disc priests crits used to apply a barrier to the target), and have it stack with nocturnal field. That way you're not wasting so much MP on refreshing shields with aspected benefic

Or

Have your benefic/benefic 2 refresh the shield slightly with each cast.

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Originally Posted by VitalSuit

Wow finally someone that is making sense.
Why exactly would a heavy on gravity make it better? I want an actual explanation from someone because it makes no sense.

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Well it would make AST even more hilarious in Frontlines.

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Originally Posted by Ghishlain

I think most players seem to forget that Gravity costs 20% less MP than Holy. I'd prefer the cheaper MP cost as the "additional effect" versus any frivolous benefit Heavy may have and bumping the MP cost of Gravity to match Holy.

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This I did not realize as I just got my AST to 60 last week so didn't get a chance yet to compare MP costs of spells. If that's the case then that's much better, although without PoM I find Gravity is still a bit weak compared to spamming Holy. Arrow helps but I don't think I've ever had it up while really needing Gravity.

Just spitballing as I've had a few ideas cross my kind reading through some of this.

Make Noct Sect a buff rather than a stance. Increase in heal potency and shields added to Aspected skills would be great if we could plan out its usage for a fight, rather than being decidedly a whm or a sch type healer.

Spear; reduces CD time of 1 skill by x Seconds. So Synestry is on CD, I use Spear on myself then click Synestry—it's now closer to being off its CD time. It doesn't have to be much time reduction for it to have a major impact on the abilities usefulness, in a worst case scenario you use spear on yourself and then speed up the cd time of Draw or Shuffle. The big issue I see of course would be other jobs not knowing what to do with it.

I have a bad feeling about this..

I just hope these adjustments puts us in a better place rather than a worst xD
But I don't think we should expect something huge, seriously ^^"

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Originally Posted by Seoulstar

I have a bad feeling about this..

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SE just gave AST a major adjustment, I don't think they are gonna go backwards.

I am all for showing Ast love..
Just please nerf Nocturnal Sect > Aspected Benefic in front lines.
AST should not be able to escape 4-12 people because the shield is broken in that game mode.
People who chase ASTs in seal rock make me want to cry inside.

That would be my suggestion for noct sect.

- nocturnal sect would increase damage and healing by 5%
- benefic 2 would do 300 potency and 120% as shield
- aspected benefic would be same for both stances (healing over time effect)

So you want even less of a reason to use Noct sect?

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

So you want even less of a reason to use Noct sect?

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Nvm I read that this morning before I'd had my coffee =)

Changes I would like to see:
1) Being able to Royal Road a card that is Spread, definitely would be nice in a lot of situations such as if you draw a Balance but have no Royal Road effect at the time and Spread is taken. Another way to do it that would be better for controlling the RNG nature of the cards is being able to swap your currently Drawn card with your Spread card.
2) Combine Ewer and Spire into one card
3) Balance should increase Healing output as well!
4) Being able to Time Dilation ourselves. What are we, Ninjas? (though it definitely shouldn't work with Luminiferous Aether lol)
5) Give Nocturnal Sect the 5% increase to attack speed effect as well

what I would love to see:

- Celestial Opposition reworked. Seriously, please. Ok, it is an aoe stun, but it's like an instant Holy without a damage. 5s of increased duration of the buffs is just something... poor. Give it an instant heal like Assize and Indo please.
- Luminiferous Aether. AST heal a lot and we have a Quelling-Strike Enmity management. I prefer how Shroud of Saints works.
- Shuffle and Spread: please reduce the cooldowns. Give us the choice to control our cards a bit more.
- Time Dilation: let us use it on ourselves

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Originally Posted by lordparanoia

what I would love to see:

- Celestial Opposition reworked. Seriously, please. Ok, it is an aoe stun, but it's like an instant Holy without a damage. 5s of increased duration of the buffs is just something... poor. Give it an instant heal like Assize and Indo please.
- Luminiferous Aether. AST heal a lot and we have a Quelling-Strike Enmity management. I prefer how Shroud of Saints works.
- Shuffle and Spread: please reduce the cooldowns. Give us the choice to control our cards a bit more.
- Time Dilation: let us use it on ourselves

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Really like your ideas.