Astrologian impossible to balance as it is

I really don't see how stance dancing a kit would fix everything when the issue is the fact that nobody really uses Nocturnal for anything outside of PVP.... Now if both kits were utilized well or at least in a higher percentage then 80% : 20% (Diurnal : Nocturnal) I would say that making stance dance a thing would be beneficial, but it's pretty clear that the problem lies in that both stances are not equally beneficial. The Shield on Nocturnal needs augmenting whether it gives a different type of buff or a stronger shield, it needs SOMETHING. Diurnal's native is hardly noticeable and frankly given that it's mostly used for AoE spammy fights, it should be -MP Cost rather then this ridiculous Attack Speed +. The kits need to compliment one another, like how stupid it is that DRK gets a Parry + but when Dark Art'd it gets an Evasion + Making the idea of dodging what hits you to proc your parrying pretty much negating.

Diurn is fine, you don't need to change attack speed. 5% is noticeable in the long term and it's always welcome when you are dps'ing.
Noctunal would be funnier if its synergy with her skillset were higher. Time dilation/Co should be more usefull in Nocturnal.

Stance dancing would fix everything. Your in Diurnal till you need shields or you want to keep shields up. Get your regen up then swap to nocturnal for raw heals then back to refresh healing dot.

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Originally Posted by Milestailsprowe

Stance dancing would fix everything. Your in Diurnal till you need shields or you want to keep shields up. Get your regen up then swap to nocturnal for raw heals then back to refresh healing dot.

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While that would make AST the ultimate solo healer, I think it would create some major balance issues with the other healers.

I will admit that it would synergize much better with their Card Buffs since they can weave them while being a super healer and not having to stance swap at all, and being possible to solo heal progression content while bringing an extra DPS.

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Probably the simplest thing to start with would be to eliminate the useless card buffs that do not apply to the meta that the current healers follow.

Change:

- The Spire - TP Refresh (useless as an RNG party buff)
- The Bole - Reduce Damage taken by 10% (useless as an RNG Buff - does not fit the meta as people gear for unavoidable damage)
- The Spear - what is this? I don't even.


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WHM:
Pros: High AOE Burst - High Single Target Burst DPS - Strong AOE Heals - Strong Single Target Heals
Cons: Low Sustainability for DPS. Low active mitigation (shields/super virus) can't heal while in Clerics

SCH:
Pros - Very High Sustained AOE and Single Target DPS - Fairy - Party Utility - Shields - Decent AOE Heals with CD's - Burst Healing
Cons - High Skill Curve

AST
Pros - Strong AOE and Single Target Heals, Shielding, Disable, Party Buffs, RNG, can add party DPS while still healing.
Cons - Useless RNG Party Buffs, Lowest single target and AOE damage.

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Recommendations for AST

Lower MP in Noct/Increase Damage
Increase Healing in Diurnal
Combust II = AOE
Then make adjustments to the cards so AST isn't completely balanced around RNG and Party performance.

Assuming you are of the mind that AST is underpowered, I don't see how stance dancing fixes anything at all. It's not like when I am playing Diurnal I am thinking goddamn if only I had a shield right now I would be so much more useful. The faceroll 4man stuff doesn't need shields (and you can already stance dance between pulls to get a shield on for max dps), and for the hard content Disable and/or Collective Unconscious nearly always suffices, and if not you generally have a SCH with you. AST's issues:

Mana spend while healing and dpsing aggressively
Powerful CDs which need properly planned but are less useful, or power wasted to handle emergency situations (makes AST play much better in good statics, and less so in PF and pickup content)
AOE Dmg output in dungeons
Threat build in long healing intensive fights (A3)

Stance dancing doesn't really change any of it's core issues.

All they need to do is tinker for some minor QOL changes, like this new shuffle thing, and in 4.0 have the new healer more off-healer slot oriented instead of main slot to give SCH come competition. And tbh there is already so much stance dancing between in and out of Cleric, I dunno of I'd even want to add a second stance dance mechanic to the job.

Yet, Nocturnal Sect is still bad. SE really needs to figure out Sects because right now most AST just use Diurnal. I would stance dance just for access to the 5% healing buff when I need it, not the shields.

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Originally Posted by Dyvid

Yet, Nocturnal Sect is still bad. SE really needs to figure out Sects because right now most AST just use Diurnal. I would stance dance just for access to the 20% healing buff when I need it, not the shields.

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Huh? Noct does not have access to a 20% Healing buff that Diurnal does not also have.

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Originally Posted by Sidra

Huh? Noct does not have access to a 20% Healing buff that Diurnal does not also have.

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Sorry, meant 5% but my point still stands. If anything needs to be fixed first it's Sects.

Frankly I think they just need to bump up the shield strength or make it so it gives resistanc/armor + for as long as its in effect like how our bubble does that and regen. Then remove the AS+ for Diurnal and make it -MP% to make spells cheaper. Then make it so you can stance dance em, heck even give it a fairly long CD if you want, don't care, but making it so Diurnal is for AoE an Nocturnal is for maximum healing on a tank would make the class leaps and bounds better then what it is now.

If I could just ABC as Astro I'd be happy but in its current state minimizing overheals and maximizing DPS while properly using CDs leads to out of mana