3.1 : Astrologian "adjustments''

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Originally Posted by LegoTechnic

Cleric was more or less removed to prevent a healer from dishing out competitive DPS from full-dotting and presence of mind burst and then just sort of riding it out with healing while 3 people chased them around like ineffectual wet noodles. In a team they were just too effective as a support, so their overall DPS was nerfed to further distinguish their contributions away from the actual DPS classes.

I want to say it was a terrible mistake, but honestly we were maybe just a little, tiny bit OP in Frontlines. Probably. By a tiny, miniscule amount. >_>

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WHM and SCH were OP enough with it when it got nerfed. An AST with it...

Astrologian Royal Road The effect of Royal Road is no longer lost when leaving an area.

So this is the "Adjustment" They were talking about?....

Why does everyone feel we need some kind of insane adjustments? I thought AST was broken until 3.07, but making the base spells the same as WHM, making Disable work when an enemy is already casting, Synastry cast time went down, Collective Unconscious does regen in both stances etc. I love playing AST and other than getting the same card twice, I don't feel that there's any major issues with it. I LOVE Collective Unconscious, it feels so badass popping that, then a Celestial Opposition to extend it a bit longer. Pre 3.07 I was having issues with MP and staying alive, but now that I've actually hit 60 and am ilvl 190, I have no challenges playing it over WHM.

'cause Nocturnal is still miles behind a SCH. When there are ways to buff it without touching either Diurnal or affect PvP in a major way.
And being baited by RNG to Spread/RR cards isn't a lot of fun either considering the cooldown on Draw.

I agree Draw could be reduced, but I don't have many major issues in Noc. I don't do savage, but I've never had any big issues in any of the regular alex floors while playing with a WHM or another AST with me in Noc. They seem to compliment each other. In 4 man though I prefer the regen. Either way I don't feel that it's particularly broken, where people should be expecting major changes. Never know though!

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Originally Posted by 416to305

I don't do savage

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And that's where the complaints come into play.

In A3s, a single cure III will heal the group back to full during the major AOE hits (splash, shared group cleaves...etc) , cure III has a 500 potency @ 1680mp, 2 sec cast (not to mention Divine Seal heals 30% more @ 60sec cooldown); while we AST have to double Helios (potency 300 @ 1061, 2.5 sec cast *2) and also the loss of MND from party buffs.

On another note, does anyone have any strategy for a WHM/AST combo for this turn?

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Originally Posted by AzureFlare

And that's where the complaints come into play.

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Whether or not regardless of his progression it does not devalue his argument any. Astrologian job is on par with the white mage right now and asking for even more buffs is something will not happen. The astro job needs no improvements in the healing department right now.

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Originally Posted by Vlady

Whether or not regardless of his progression it does not devalue his argument any. Astrologian job is on par with the white mage right now and asking for even more buffs is something will not happen. The astro job needs no improvements in the healing department right now.

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"In the HEALING department" yes
but in the "Card department" no.
Cards are messy and the long cooldowns even more.
And looking at these patch notes it seems that SE just does not care ._.

Does AST honestly even need a buff?

If they buff their shields, won't they completely phase out Scholars? Like... Entirely?

You guys might be asking for a little bit too much, at this point. I mean you have stances to switch between WHM and SCH and you want to be on par with both of them? That kind of undermines all of the people who leveled White Mage and Scholar so they could have those options.

I'm terrified of posting opinions here but I'll take the chance. Disclaimer: I main AST, I don't DPS as I'd rather play it as a Buffer class (I think that's what Square intended too.) and I'm i189 overall currently. Also I don't do savage, so that may void my opinion in some senses but I feel what I'm saying here has relation outside savage. I also joined the forum soley to post this and have very little idea how a Forum even works, so sorry if I messed up somewhere.

I think AST is perfectly fine in the heals department. Noct Stance is the "Multi-pull" Stance and Diurnal is the "Normal" stance in my experience. Keeping a tank alive in large pulls is suicide without the shields, and I say this with an i200 globe. However I want to know: WHY IN THE NAME OF THE MOTHER CRYSTAL DO I KEEP DRAWING THE SAME CARD WHEN I SHUFFLE? That isn't useful, that has literally zero point considering the ENTIRE REASON you would use Shuffle is to get a different card. And yet it happens so much I could make an honest drinking game out of it!

And for that matter... Cards are already useless to the point of AST being laughed at. Ewer cards screw up Black Mage's rotation, Summoner/Scholar don't need MP when played right, playing it on a Bard is highly situational to the point of never happening, Dark Knight can't take it while in Darkside (And if he's not in Darkside, you have a terrible DRK in my experience) and it leaves it down to playing it on the White Mage, the Paladin, or yourself. Most of the time I burn the darn things because it isn't even that much of a boost. TP cards are finally decently handy with the party's TP bars being viewable (Remind me why that wasn't in there long before 3.0? Honest question, seems like such an obvious thing especially when Ninja came around.) and Spear... Oh Spear. You're good for nothing but burning. Seriously, what duty finder group is going to be organized enough to put Spear to good use when it works like it does currently? Sure maybe if you were in a raid group over TeamSpeak or something, but why bring AST to a raid right now? That seems to be the general consensus. I've no beef with Arrow, Bole, or Balance. All of those are excellent right now in my opinion.

I do agree Celestial Opposition needs some sort of a rework, even a shorter cooldown would do it. I also think giving Gravity a second effect would be kind of neat, but it isn't something that is making or breaking the class. If I had any input to give to Square, it would be this, and for all I know this could be a horrible idea, but it is my suggestion. Allow draw to store 3-5 charges, with a charge being generated every 30s. This would allow AST to play more cards, have more utility with buffing their cards, and fix this whole mess with quite a bit of ease. Maybe allow Shuffle to do the same or shorten the cooldown on it one.

I will say this, a minor Royal Road 'adjustment' for 3.1? That's it? What a slap in the face.

Sincerely, A guy who loves Time Mages, Astronomy, and Knights. And just wants to main Astrologian and Paladin, but the current state of the game causes everybody to hate their guts.

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Originally Posted by RedHerb

Does AST honestly even need a buff?

If they buff their shields, won't they completely phase out Scholars? Like... Entirely?

You guys might be asking for a little bit too much, at this point. I mean you have stances to switch between WHM and SCH and you want to be on par with both of them? That kind of undermines all of the people who leveled White Mage and Scholar so they could have those options.

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Scholar is for now brought on more for its damage dealing abilities. Even if the astro shields are buffed we will still be used more for white mage fill ins as long as the scholar has such incredible offensive abilities. It is a damned healers conundrum where you are damned if you buff astros and damned if you nerf scholars.

Only way I can see nocturnal getting use for astros is to once more let us stance dance to utilize shields and regens. Alot of changes would have to be made but some people suggest that nocturnal be more of our offensive stance. Remove our cleric stance and let noc be our offensive stance with a unique reverse shield that reflect some damage back to those shielded would be a decent way for us to supply some damage indirectly.

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Originally Posted by Vlady

Scholar is for now brought on more for its damage dealing abilities. Even if the astro shields are buffed we will still be used more for white mage fill ins as long as the scholar has such incredible offensive abilities. It is a damned healers conundrum where you are damned if you buff astros and damned if you nerf scholars.

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Ah I see. I was unsure if AST even HAD DPS capability, I haven't fully leveled it myself since I enjoy WHM and SCH more for the playstyle than AST so far. A curious situation indeed.

I think they shine more through others, with the AOE balance.

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Originally Posted by ZAZX

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If you draw Ewer or Spire then Royal Road them unless someone needs mana/TP. They add the spread effect which is nice.

Balance is always good. Give it to a DPS or save it for later.

If you draw Arrow and there's a BLM in your party give it to them for great justice. Arrow isn't as good as Balance but it's still a positive effect for most classes (though BLM get the most out of it typically unless you're are about to spam some Gravity).

If you pull Bole and your tank isn't paper, Shuffle or Road it. Otherwise toss on tank with a regen and DPS a round.

Spear is probably best used before a boss pull. Give it to a DPS about to use Raging Strikes or similar buffs before the tank moves in. It's also nice for a SMN as it shortens Aetherflow's cooldown, and Aetherflow is used fairly constantly so there's a good chance it will actually apply. Otherwise Shuffle or Road it because it is the worst card to draw.

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You guys might be asking for a little bit too much, at this point. I mean you have stances to switch between WHM and SCH and you want to be on par with both of them? That kind of undermines all of the people who leveled White Mage and Scholar so they could have those options.

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It is supposed to be on par in terms of capabilities, that\\'s the design. It has two stances so that all of the healing classes can fit into the same number of healing compositions effectively, which is two.

In terms of progression, difficult content, the stance swapping isn\\'t meant for versatility, its locked by encounter and because any static team is going to have a dedicated other healer, your role is going to be set.

If AST were noticeably weaker than both WHM and SCH in stances, it would be dead weight on difficult content. Arguably you can see this with nocturnal stance right now.

Yeah but in the same vein, you can just switch to SCH if you want barriers and you can switch to WHM if you want Regen. Why even have the two opposite classes if there's a middle-ground class that's Equal in every single way?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want AST to be weak specifically. I just think it's poor design to allow something that can effectively do both sides of the spectrum as well as a class that specializes in one single aspect. That's literally pointless. If you want BOTH, go level SCH AND WHM, don't pick a middle-ground and expect it to perform as well (if not better due to less work and versatility). That's simply lazy, in my opinion. I say just buff their cards so they bring something entirely different to the table and delegate them to back-up healer who is more focused on support than out-right raw numbers or barriers.

TL;DR: Give them something new (AND GOOD/USEFUL), don't phase out the old classes. Buff cards, not their heals.

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Originally Posted by Vlady

Scholar is for now brought on more for its damage dealing abilities. Even if the astro shields are buffed we will still be used more for white mage fill ins as long as the scholar has such incredible offensive abilities. It is a damned healers conundrum where you are damned if you buff astros and damned if you nerf scholars.

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OK, let's nip this in the bud. AST Combust and Combust II are the equivalent of SCH's Bio and Bio II and never miss (which is good). AST lacks Miasma and Shadowflare, but can still miss with Aero like a pro SCH. Malefic II is 30 potency stronger than Broil though, with the same cast time, and only 10 potency shy of WHM's Stone III. If you are taking a SCH for its "overwhelming DPS", then you are kidding yourself. You are taking the SCH for reliability. Ostensibly Noct abilities are all very similar--they have a Succor (same potency, .5s longer cast), a bubble (which must be channeled, as movement breaks it), and an instant adlo (which lacks the crit effect). However when comparing the card buffs and the fairies, especially Eos, then you see the reason. The fairy can on demand give party-wide magic defense, increased healing, and regen with Eos or haste with Selene depending on the need, and Deployment Tactics is the strongest shield effect in-game currently for predictable damage spikes on the party. You pop what you need to when you need it and there is no random factor involved. This is very, very useful for fights like A3S and A4S where there's a lot of predictable AoE damage to defend against. And this says nothing of the fairies free, constant healing every three to five seconds. As powerful as AST cards are, it's their very RNG nature that is probably their biggest detriment to planned raiding, even if it happens to be part of the charm of the class.

Additionally AST mana regen is pretty garbage, and this is a problem if they're expected to spam DPS like a SCH when not healing, especially if you're in A4S and letting Whirblewind go off for more DPS time. WHM have Assize to supplement Shroud and SCH can easily save an Aetherflow, but AST get only their single refresh skill which is bad, especially if they're called on to res later.

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Originally Posted by LegoTechnic

OK, let's nip this in the bud. AST Combust and Combust II are the equivalent of SCH's Bio and Bio II and never miss (which is good). AST lacks Miasma and Shadowflare, but can still miss with Aero like a pro SCH. Malefic II is 30 potency stronger than Broil though, with the same cast time, and only 10 potency shy of WHM's Stone III. If you are taking a SCH for its "overwhelming DPS", then you are kidding yourself. You are taking the SCH for reliability. Ostensibly Noct abilities are all very similar--they have a Succor (same potency, .5s longer cast), a bubble (which must be channeled, as movement breaks it), and an instant adlo (which lacks the crit effect). However when comparing the card buffs and the fairies, especially Eos, then you see the reason. The fairy can on demand give party-wide magic defense, increased healing, and regen with Eos or haste with Selene depending on the need, and Deployment Tactics is the strongest shield effect in-game currently for predictable damage spikes on the party. You pop what you need to when you need it and there is no random factor involved. This is very, very useful for fights like A3S and A4S where there's a lot of predictable AoE damage to defend against.

Additionally AST mana regen is pretty garbage, and this is a problem if their expected to spam DPS like a SCH when not healing, especially if you're in A4S and letting Whirblewind go off for more DPS time. WHM have Assize to supplement Shroud and SCH can easily save an Aetherflow, but AST get only their single refresh skill which is bad, especially if they're called on to res later.

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This right here I can agree with, fix their mana regen and maybe make their cards more reliable, much like how I can rely on my fairy. Hell, just remove the RNG factor from the cards, the class might actually be FUN then.

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Originally Posted by RedHerb

TL;DR: Give them something new (AND GOOD/USEFUL), don't phase out the old classes. Buff cards, not their heals.

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See I agree with your overall point. But being able to swap to either diurnal or nocturnal isn't a benefit. It's a necessity with how square designed the class. Otherwise either the WHM or Sch healing spot would be over-saturated. If they're gonna stick with this design they gotta fix it.

No one is really asking for a healing buff. The vast majority want some form of extra damage or utility in Nocturnal to match/approach Scholar.

RIght now it cant even fulfill a SCH role feasibly. It's worse than WHM in Diurnal, but almost everyone agrees it's to a fair degree atm once some adjustment to cards are taken into account.

I agree I'd love for it to be a more buff oriented class too, but at the end of the day it also has to be able to fulfill the healing requirements of a given encounter.

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Originally Posted by LegoTechnic

OK, let's nip this in the bud. AST Combust and Combust II are the equivalent of SCH's Bio and Bio II and never miss (which is good). AST lacks Miasma and Shadowflare, but can still miss with Aero like a pro SCH. Malefic II is 30 potency stronger than Broil though, with the same cast time, and only 10 potency shy of WHM's Stone III. If you are taking a SCH for its "overwhelming DPS", then you are kidding yourself. You are taking the SCH for reliability. Ostensibly Noct abilities are all very similar--they have a Succor (same potency, .5s longer cast), a bubble (which must be channeled, as movement breaks it), and an instant adlo (which lacks the crit effect). However when comparing the card buffs and the fairies, especially Eos, then you see the reason. The fairy can on demand give party-wide magic defense, increased healing, and regen with Eos or haste with Selene depending on the need, and Deployment Tactics is the strongest shield effect in-game currently for predictable damage spikes on the party. You pop what you need to when you need it and there is no random factor involved. This is very, very useful for fights like A3S and A4S where there's a lot of predictable AoE damage to defend against. And this says nothing of the fairies free, constant healing every three to five seconds. As powerful as AST cards are, it's their very RNG nature that is probably their biggest detriment to planned raiding, even if it happens to be part of the charm of the class.

Additionally AST mana regen is pretty garbage, and this is a problem if they're expected to spam DPS like a SCH when not healing, especially if you're in A4S and letting Whirblewind go off for more DPS time. WHM have Assize to supplement Shroud and SCH can easily save an Aetherflow, but AST get only their single refresh skill which is bad, especially if they're called on to res later.

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You first disagree with me then in essence agree with me. Scholar dps is not because its potency is similiar or broil is less then mal 2 it is because its dps is mana neutral for a healer and can sustain 800+ dps quite well compared to an astrologian which yes its offensive abilities are greater because of that fact alone. Not to mention you yourself also pointed out that the fairy is one hella of an ace that lets the scholar sustain its offensive abilities more easily then an astrologian ever could at this stage of the game. You have ruin 2 for times of required movement and are able to stay in cleric stance for longer periods of time because of the abilities you mentioned before.

Or are you saying that raids do not bring scholar for its ability to push strong dps without crippling the jobs ability to heal during phases that require both healers?

I'd honestly even be okay with them being able to swap stances in combat. That'd add a whole extra layer of skill and meaning to "stance dancing."

Could you imagine swapping between those two and cleric stance in combat? Now that's a class I'd love to master.

Do that and fix the cards and we'd have something on our hands, especially in 4-man content.

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Originally Posted by Vlady

You first disagree with me then in essence agree with me. Scholar dps is not because its potency is similiar or broil is less then mal 2 it is because its dps is mana neutral for a healer and can sustain 800+ dps quite well compared to an astrologian which yes its offensive abilities are greater because of that fact alone. Not to mention you yourself also pointed out that the fairy is one hella of an ace that lets the scholar sustain its offensive abilities more easily then an astrologian ever could at this stage of the game. You have ruin 2 for times of required movement and are able to stay in cleric stance for longer periods of time because of the abilities you mentioned before.

Or are you saying that raids do not bring scholar for its ability to push strong dps without crippling the jobs ability to heal during phases that require both healers?

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Well, yes. Even at its best, unless the fight is add intensive like A2 where Bane can do some serious work then a SCH doing their best to DPS is only going to amount to half an actual DPS class these days. I am not belittling healer DPS here, as pretty much all our first clears are more or less at the enrage timer with me DPSing my little heart out, but the difference between a SCH and an AST in primary DPS mode is going to be slight, especially if the AST is lucky with Balance draws in which case their party contribution may actually end up more overall. We ran AST/SCH for A3S and those card buffs definately helped out in making the DPS requirement for the first few weeks before the AST switched back to WHM.

Now if you're comparing WHM to SCH then there's a very real difference, as WHM lacks any DPS moves that don't rely on accuracy, so they're very susceptible to the poor state of healer hit rates that savage currently hits us with. Even as a SCH Miasma, Aero, and Broil will miss quite often, so having Bio/Bio II/Shadowflare always land is a huge benefit that AST shares with Combust/Combust II. Not to say WHM isn't considerable DPS for a healer when they need to be, as their burst is easily superior to SCH during parts like A3S's pudding phase, and Aero III/Stone III is absolutely nothing to sneeze at comparitively. But again, SCH has that reliability with the never-miss dots, and when coupled with WHM's regens and overall easier time AoE healing they tend to push the heal-DPS role onto SCH when it's just boss single target or adds beefy enough to bane. Partly because they're good at it, but also partly because WHM has an easier time keeping the raid topped off after damage.

Back on point, I will agree that a SCH being safer than an AST with regards to fairy heal is a DPS advantage between the two, but again I feel this is the reason that SCH is currently preferred, and not because their DPS results are somehow amazingly higher than other healer classes. The cards are supposed to offset the fairy, and while card abilities can prove very useful a SCH's role is primarily mitigating big damage spikes over all else, be they AoE or tank buster, and while AST can handle tank buster shielding just fine a SCH does it just a little easier. For one thing they can do other things while in Sacred Soil, and with Eos they can both shield and regen at the same time. >_>

The only reason this class is having serious balance issues is because it can easily over step WHM/SCH.

Remove stances and make them a HoT healer like Druid from WoW. BAM! All time magey. They're their own healer now.

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Originally Posted by LegoTechnic

Back on point, I will agree that a SCH being safer than an AST with regards to fairy heal is a DPS advantage between the two, but again I feel this is the reason that SCH is currently preferred, and not because their DPS results are somehow amazingly higher than other healer classes.

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You don't agree SCH is being brought for DPS reasons.. in savage Alexander?
SCH is being preferred due to near mana-neutral DPS capabilities which are still high even factoring misses, and fairy healing. The other differences are icing on the cake. SCH simply is stronger than N. AST once a WHM/D. AST takes care of the heavy lifting in AoE healing, in nearly every aspect bar two. And those two aspects only matter in PvP, where everyone says the except opposite and complains N. AST is insane.

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Originally Posted by LegoTechnic

Well, yes. Even at its best, unless the fight is add intensive like A2 where Bane can do some serious work then a SCH doing their best to DPS is only going to amount to half an actual DPS class these days. I am not belittling healer DPS here, as pretty much all our first clears are more or less at the enrage timer with me DPSing my little heart out, but the difference between a SCH and an AST in primary DPS mode is going to be slight, especially if the AST is lucky with Balance draws in which case their party contribution may actually end up more overall. We ran AST/SCH for A3S and those card buffs definately helped out in making the DPS requirement for the first few weeks before the AST switched back to WHM.

Now if you're comparing WHM to SCH then there's a very real difference, as WHM lacks any DPS moves that don't rely on accuracy, so they're very susceptible to the poor state of healer hit rates that savage currently hits us with. Even as a SCH Miasma, Aero, and Broil will miss quite often, so having Bio/Bio II/Shadowflare always land is a huge benefit that AST shares with Combust/Combust II. Not to say WHM isn't considerable DPS for a healer when they need to be, as their burst is easily superior to SCH during parts like A3S's pudding phase, and Aero III/Stone III is absolutely nothing to sneeze at comparitively. But again, SCH has that reliability with the never-miss dots, and when coupled with WHM's regens and overall easier time AoE healing they tend to push the heal-DPS role onto SCH when it's just boss single target or adds beefy enough to bane. Partly because they're good at it, but also partly because WHM has an easier time keeping the raid topped off after damage.

Back on point, I will agree that a SCH being safer than an AST with regards to fairy heal is a DPS advantage between the two, but again I feel this is the reason that SCH is currently preferred, and not because their DPS results are somehow amazingly higher than other healer classes. The cards are supposed to offset the fairy, and while card abilities can prove very useful a SCH's role is primarily mitigating big damage spikes over all else, be they AoE or tank buster, and while AST can handle tank buster shielding just fine a SCH does it just a little easier. For one thing they can do other things while in Sacred Soil, and with Eos they can both shield and regen at the same time. >_>

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If the astro attempts to even half way put out the numbers the scholar does they will be out of mana very quickly. It is not just a safe bet for the scholar to be the dps of the healers it is imperative basically. The astro is near worthless if they attempt to put out the damage of a scholar. I am comparing both healers dpsing in raids compared to the scholar. Itleast the white mage has some decent mana regen abilities if they are expected to dps during burst phases. You are trying to muddy the waters telling a new healer that the astrologian is on par with the scholar offensively when the last 5 months tell us different.

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Originally Posted by AzureFlare

'cause Nocturnal is still miles behind a SCH. When there are ways to buff it without touching either Diurnal or affect PvP in a major way.
And being baited by RNG to Spread/RR cards isn't a lot of fun either considering the cooldown on Draw.

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I am starting to think that turning nocturnal into a unique version of cleric stance with a shield that mitigates a % of damage done til the shield's hp buffer hits would be a decent compromise without totally screwing scholars. Maybe reduce some of our mana costs while in nocturnal stance and prevent cleric stance from working while in nocturnal.

So does Lightspeed reduce magic attack potency now?

Can confirm Lightspeed is the same, just a change of description.

Yep. The description used to incorrectly state it reduced attack magic potency by 25%. It now says it reduces attack magic damage by 25%.

Thanks, SE.

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Originally Posted by Kietsu

Yep. The description used to incorrectly state it reduced attack magic potency by 25%. It now says it reduces attack magic damage by 25%.

Thanks, SE.

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What's the difference? Like not better not worse I think right? Just want to make sure, as I never use Lightspeed for attacks. It's one of my fav tools though when things get bad, being able to spam Helios or whatever a few times in a row can usually bring the entire party back from 20% HP to full and save the day. :)

What AST really needs is some kind of adjustment to Luminiferous Aether for their Aggro generation or some kind of Aggro generation adjustment. The amount of Aggro an AST generates trying to keep the party alive in A3S and A4S is way too high and Luminiferous Aether as it is currently does a poor job of alleviating that stress. This just puts unnecessary pressure on the main tank and drops raid wide dps that can only be remedied by somehow pulling out extended balance every minute. This is the only problem I've been having with AST, due to lack of Over Cure and Cure III I have to put out more healing actions to compensate for the lack of AoE potency compared to WHM, yet I don't have a very effective enmity reducing skill or any other means to reduce my enmity.

Also Collective Unconsciousness is a very niche skill, It would be nice if it was a deployment type action like Sacred Soil and Asylum.

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Originally Posted by RedHerb

I'd honestly even be okay with them being able to swap stances in combat. That'd add a whole extra layer of skill and meaning to "stance dancing."

Could you imagine swapping between those two and cleric stance in combat? Now that's a class I'd love to master.

Do that and fix the cards and we'd have something on our hands, especially in 4-man content.

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Stance dancing between diurnal and noct would be completely pointless though. The only reason those stances are even there is so AST can fill in the role of throughput or mitigation, whichever isn't present. Switching over to the healing job you already have is just a silly thing to do.

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Originally Posted by Carlbuncle

What AST really needs is some kind of adjustment to Luminiferous Aether for their Aggro generation or some kind of Aggro generation adjustment. The amount of Aggro an AST generates trying to keep the party alive in A3S and A4S is way too high and Luminiferous Aether as it is currently does a poor job of alleviating that stress.

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I've seen this happen here and there, depending on how nasty it goes with the healing requirements of a given attempt and how much the MT tried to maximize their DPS. (And it also depends on if there's a NIN or not). If you have a good MT who does all of their tanky duties well but doesn't create an unnecessarily high aggro ceiling for the sake of it, but who focuses on DPS maximization - AST can creep pretty damn close on the hate at times. Nothing you can't remedy with some extra care, but the difference between Shroud ends up being pretty huge in practice.

As far as AST fixes go - barring some Noct fixes, I'd make Shuffle be on a 30s CD so it'd be up for every Draw (and maybe making it so you can't re-draw the same card), and would also give CO some other effect (5-10% MP restored?), and that would be it. A QoL fix would be making the CU HoT apply instantly, without having you wait on next tick, as is the case with stuff like Soil as well. Would just make casual use of the skill easier, so you could get the HoT up and resume DPSing better.

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Originally Posted by FoxyAreku

Stance dancing between diurnal and noct would be completely pointless though. The only reason those stances are even there is so AST can fill in the role of throughput or mitigation, whichever isn't present. Switching over to the healing job you already have is just a silly thing to do.

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This is not necessarily true. It would make AST+WHM a lot more valuable by eliminating Nocturnal Sect's main problem, which is HoTs being more desirable 90% of the time allowing for more healer DPS. Being able to switch over for when you do need the shields then switch back to more efficient healing would be the easiest fix as it has no consequence on AST+SCH (it's already fine) and AST+AST (devs want to avoid,that).

I was thinking today, ALL the cards need to be useful all the time instead of situationally. If they just changed spear to apply to current cooldown time, and combined spire/Ewer (while upping, slightly, the chance to draw that card to balance it out) that'd go a long way.

Spear would always be useful, and spire/Ewer would have a greater chance of being useful if it applies to both tp and mp.

Also, Noct is fantastic in Void Ark, but I find myself using far more mana for not as much healing capabilities. Maybe increase Noct healing to 7% instead of 5%. It's become far more obvious since I've been playing in Noct for Void Ark.

Duirnal will have to be nerfed or potencies to be nerfed if they allow stance swapping for astrologian.

I would have wanted Gravity to act like Holy in that you don't need to target anybody in order to use it. It takes getting used too and it can be quite annoying when the one you target dies and your cast time is interrupted because of it.

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Originally Posted by Vlady

Duirnal will have to be nerfed or potencies to be nerfed if they allow stance swapping for astrologian.

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Just put a high mana cost to change stances while putting them under GCD (like Shield/Sword oath) and you can balance things that way instead of reducing the overall potency of the job.
With this, you make the AST think quite hard as to when to switch and apply some shields.
It also rewards smart gameplay and good party synergy as well as push the AST to reduce his overhealing (MP saving). It also makes the AST think more about the value of the ewer and arrow to keep for himself.

No need for a blank hard nerf.

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Originally Posted by myahele

I would have wanted Gravity to act like Holy in that you don't need to target anybody in order to use it. It takes getting used too and it can be quite annoying when the one you target dies and your cast time is interrupted because of it.

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I hate that as well, never seems to fail I happen to target the one that dies first every time! I wish Lightspeed didn't decrease attack potency though, at least could spam a few shots.

Let lightspeed be used on offensive spells workout the potency decrease and the white mage loses one of its few advantages over the astro which is strong aoe. The astro would dump all over the white mage in heals and damage.