Unified AST Changes

I’ve been lurking through the forums for a while now and after going through the AST changes firsthand, I’ve decided to put in my opinion to the discussion.

First, I’ve only just gotten into the game around a little over a month ago. I’ve just reached the city of Kugane. I’ve played AST upon reaching Ishgard and have played most of the dungeons and content up to my point in the game. I haven’t had the longest time with the class but going through the forums, most of the problems with the jobs is similar.

Before I begin, I’d like to list all the problems I’ve read about here:
- Divination feels weak/underwhelming for the buff it gives and how long the cooldown is
- Heal potency are on the lower end
- Celestial Opposition (CO) heal is weak, for the 2-minute cooldown it has.
- Collective Unconscious (CU) potency being weak
- Seals only registering when in combat
- Seals having no use outside of group content
- Horoscope being forgettable, meaning it doesn’t act like Earthly Star and goes off once duration ends

I agree with all the problems stated above, I feel that AST could be improved with some tweaks here and there.

Divination

Divination is a 15 sec. party damage buff of 2%/4%/6% within a 180 second cooldown (3 Minutes) based on 1/2/3 different seals you have acquired by playing AST’s cards. Right now, the 3-minute cooldown doesn’t justify such a short duration and could use some tweaks here an there.

My suggestion is that while the potency increases with each seal, the effects also changes
1 Seal – Gives 2% Damage
2 Different Seals – Gives 4% Damage and 4% Defense
3 Different Seals – Gives 6% Damage, 6% Defense, and 6% Critical Rate
This, in turn, justifies the 3-minute cooldown that Divination have while also retaining the Old AST, moreso it's my "hopeful" changes to AST

Another suggestion I have for Divination is to bring back AST’s Buff Extension like how CO used to function. This time, the extension also increases with having different types of seals.
1 Seal – Gives 2% Damage and Extend buffs to self and party by 5 second
2 Different Seals – Gives 4% Damage and Extend buffs to self and party by 10 second
3 Different Seals – Gives 6% Damage and Extend buffs to self and party by 15 second

My favorite part of AST was that I could increase a person’s buff duration or the party’s durations. Being able to extend buff durations once again should justify the 180 cooldown of Divination as well as some of the HoT duration being reduced down.

Last suggestion for Divination would be nothing. Instead of Divination being the “Defining Class Skill” it feels as if there is a counter part to Divination that also uses the Seal Mechanic but was scrapped out last minute. At this time, AST cards can Draw cards ways faster than before and getting 3 different seals up for Divination is possible with 3 Redraws and Sleeve Draw resetting Draw’s cooldown.

Healing

With the changes to healing being of Pure Healing now. Most of the time you’re going to find yourself healing more that DPS or using cards as AST. The problem however lies within the healing potency given. AST’s healing potency is weaker than it was before with the removal of extra healing potency from Diurnal and Nocturnal Sects. While they did compensate with higher base potency for AST heals, it feels as if it wasn’t enough.

Mostly Celestial Opposition needs to have either an increase in potency or given its old Added effect back to compensate for the abysmal healing it has coupled with the 2-minute cooldown. It feels like a weaker clone of Helios and A!Helios albeit Instant and No MP Cost.

Collective Unconscious needs its old healing potency back, this skill was ok before, stacks on healing and that’s pretty much it other than the 10% damage mitigation. At least buff the potency to 100.

Horoscope is basically a free Helios or A!Helios on duration. I do believe that it should function and behave similarly to Earthly Star where you pop it and forget it and have the option to trigger it early or wait till the duration expires.

Cards/Seals

The card changes were disappointing for me, like most people, however, I do believe with some tweaks, it could be improved upon. First and Foremost, I believe that Lord and Lady should have an added effect on top of the damage buff it gives, right now its just the same cards as the rest of your deck with increased potency. So that AST could have some uniqueness when it comes to cards, Lord and Lady should be tweaked with added effects so that they feel like an “upgraded version” of the basic cards, I mean you do sacrifice the regular cards and turn them into Lord or Lady. That seems like an
upgrade, yet the upgrade is just a measly 2% increase over the other cards.

Most people are looking for the Cards to be more unique and not just be a flat DPS buff. I was thinking that They could have old card effects but minced around with the Melee and Range Cards:
Balance and Bole – 5% Damage and 5% Defense
Arrow and Ewer – 5% Damage and 5% MP Regen
Spear and Spire – 5% Damage and 5% Critical Rate

Just so that they feel unique amongst each other or Bring back the old effects of the card in exchange and be applicable only through Lord and Lady using Minor Arcana since you lose the seals:
Balance and Bole – Gives 5% Defense effect to Lord or Lady
Arrow and Ewer – Gives 5% MP Regen to Lord or Lady
Spear and Spire – Gives 5% Critical Rate to Lord or Lady

With the seals mechanic it’s an interesting addition to the cards. Like I previously stated, I wish there was another skill that can use the Seal mechanic and add more depth to the class. Right now there’s not much to say since they’ve only released it, hopefully they do more with it and play around with this mechanic.

So far, the changes they did with healers in which you are more inclined to heal is a very great change in my opinion. I love relying more on my heals and I feel great especially in those clutch moments that someone is about to die but you heal them on the right time and get them back up. Right now, I do believe that healing itself, is very rewarding with this expansion IF there is something to heal, during down times, not so much.

I don't think the changes should be made to the cards themselves, because then you're fishing not only for your divination seals, but also for specific cards. In your example, Spear or Spire would be far and away the best choice, and it would lead to this meh feeling when you're getting the other 2 seals filled out for divination.

I would like to see Divination itself changed. I like the new system but it is underwhelming IMO and it's because Divination is just another middling DPS buff. What I'd like to see is:

First of all, no more silliness with the scaling damage amounts based on number of seals.
All 3 seals - DPS buff (but bigger than it is now)
2 or more Lunar - Damage reduction
2 or more Celestial - Attack/Cast speed increase
2 or more Solar - Crit

Lord & Lady changed to Direct Hit buffs.

With this change I think it would give us a bit more choice and a bit more thought in how we handle or seals, as well as some flavor. Not being able to get all 3 won't result in you just hanging onto Divination until you have it or feeling like you wasted it. You just get a different effect. This also allows me to decide, for example, if I have a lot of casters I may prefer to go for more Celestial seals as opposed to getting all 3, or if I have groups that favor crit I can do that. I chose to preserve the damage reduction that originally came from Bole because it was the only one that was truly useful; if my party feels squishy I can choose to favor Lunar. Then, you still have all 3 seals kept in for your normal all-purpose buff. As for Lord & Lady, I changed them to Direct Hit more for flavor than anything; I don't suppose what they do really matters but I don't think resource regeneration should be involved.

Oh, I also kinda wonder if maybe there would still be a small damage increase along with the other effects? I'm not sure. The reason I like this change flavor-wise is because divination means to interpret the results of the signs you see, and if the results of our divinations are never different, what are we doing lol

The best thing they could do is revert all the changes and admit they screwed up