Astro over whm ? I think not

You really need to have an idea of how healers actually heal at endgame to start talking about healer balance.

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Originally Posted by Kalise

Everything will always be about damage.

Even if they removed The Balance then it would just shift to The Arrow/The Spear being the next go-to card that would make other cards "useless".

If they removed all of these stat bonuses and gave cards just actual useless utility like raises, runspeed or teleports then it would all just be about getting Lord of Crowns.

As it is now, if you don't directly draw The Balance, you have the choice to just use what you got instead which might not be too much worse, or you risk redrawing to aim for The Balance but have a chance to whiff and get like The Spire or The Bole which are often just Minor Arcana fodder.

Really, I'm just curious as to what they're going to replace The Spire with in 5.0, as with the removal of TP it will need a new effect, which could add another interesting card to the pool (Or it could be something equally as lame as The Spire and thus continue to be Minor Arcana fodder)

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To be honest, I think I can agree with the original poster that it's not fun playing a buffing class in such a straightforward, binary way. AST as a whole is plagued with godawful design issues, both from buffs and from actual healing design, which devastates me because I love its theme, aesthetic, and accompanying gear/graphics.

I'm of the opinion that Balance should be changed to Direct Hit. I don't think any healers should have a straight up damage buff, it's way too valuable. And it makes sense anyway, AST has every other stat buff, Direct Hit would round it out.

Of course I wouldn't be surprised if they did something stupid like kept balance while also moving DH to Spire now that TP is gone. They're going to do this, aren't they?......

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Originally Posted by Exiled_Tonberry

I'm of the opinion that Balance should be changed to Direct Hit. I don't think any healers should have a straight up damage buff, it's way too valuable. And it makes sense anyway, AST has every other stat buff, Direct Hit would round it out.

Of course I wouldn't be surprised if they did something stupid like kept balance while also moving DH to Spire now that TP is gone. They're going to do this, aren't they?......

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Yes, and they'll give you Cure IV.
:)

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Originally Posted by Exiled_Tonberry

I'm of the opinion that Balance should be changed to Direct Hit. I don't think any healers should have a straight up damage buff, it's way too valuable. And it makes sense anyway, AST has every other stat buff, Direct Hit would round it out.

Of course I wouldn't be surprised if they did something stupid like kept balance while also moving DH to Spire now that TP is gone. They're going to do this, aren't they?......

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But Balance also increases heal potencies, while healing skills don't factor DH...

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

But Balance also increases heal potencies, while healing skills don't factor DH...

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Are you sure? It precisely says "Increase damage dealt" not "Determination, Critical Hit or Strength/Dext/Mind/Intelligence"

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

Why do we need to balance around the low-end/non-raider mindset?

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Technically, one shouldn't balance around them. However balance itself is an illusion - at least to high-end raiders. Because as you and others have said, it all boils down to DPS. The devs could come up with the most creative and amazingly fun-to-play skillset in the game, and the high-end raiders would just dissect it all over again, then simplify it to whatever mathematically results in the highest DPS. The complaints would then start all over again - that the system isn't fun or balanced because we only ever use X for Y and A for B.

I don't deny the math. Personally, I believe that the math isn't always right. Or at least, people don't always take everything into account when doing the calculations. The math is based on things that are quantifiable. My feeling is that the unquantifiable things, like positioning and relative travel time are significant enough that they may make a difference.

But then, ultimately my priorities aren't the same. I care about DPS, but place more value on patterns, routine, and engaging with raids like dances or musical performances, rather than as math problems.

Come to think of it, I think a better way to analyze the effectiveness of various rotations would be to do what drop rate guides do in games like RuneScape - use samples of kill numbers compared to drop numbers. People put in how many monsters they killed and what they got to create an average drop rate.

Obviously this doesn't work properly for FFXIV. In order for it to work, you'd need to sample people who are undeniably using the same rotation. Then look at the differences that appear between players based on factors other than that rotation. One could keep reducing what is included to find percentages of what makes how much difference.

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Originally Posted by Mansion

Are you sure? It precisely says "Increase damage dealt" not "Determination, Critical Hit or Strength/Dext/Mind/Intelligence"

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Huh... could've sworn it was potency of damaging and healing skills...
What am I thinking of then?

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Originally Posted by Seraphor

Huh... could've sworn it was potency of damaging and healing skills...
What am I thinking of then?

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Devotion from SMN does that :)