AST changes for 5.1+ feedback

This is personal opinion and I will only be speaking for the 99% of SCH / WHM / AST.
additionally this is just based on having perfect OGCD and GCD planning while dps and possible into the future of ultimates.

Using FFlogs metric

current standings @ 99% healing

healing scores AST 109, WHM 105 , SCH 96 - Since the buffs when played properly AST is actually a healing powerhouse without actually clipping much into its healing resource however it still has its nocturnal sect issues

healer DPS - which a good metric since that means they are only OGCD healing and

WHM 8,224
SCH 8,104
AST 7,774
Average across all 4 fights, HOWEVER this is skewed because of E1s so lets look at per turn

E1s
https://i.imgur.com/EqRFl2b.png

E2s
https://i.imgur.com/CZxFwuq.png

E3s
https://i.imgur.com/CZeNmDn.png

E4s
https://i.imgur.com/bjyNczJ.png

Feedback suggestion
As you can see all the healers are close WHM is still very ahead but brings less utility, however for the amount of work and planning AST puts out it should be rewarded quite higher at 99 but not to the point it becomes super meta because it is unhealthy for the game it is a hard spot to balance this type of job. my suggestion is

Malefic changes
change cast to 1 sec (maybe to help with the abundance of clipping), 250 potency or 260

OR

Card Changes
all cards now give 1% more. and malefic remains the same.


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Side suggestions that are just I wish and less about actual balance and more about thematic

Celestial Intersection in diurnal I wish was 15sec and in nocturnal an aoe regen with 60sec cooldown, however I do not know how difficult that would be hard to code but it would solve a lot of weird ticking issues with nocturnal/diurnal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doctor-

This is personal opinion and I will only be speaking for the 99% of SCH / WHM / AST.

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Nice contradiction.

well the feedback of changes is personal opinion -- It makes sense but im not a developer they can change to get more dps in any # of ways. they can do whatever they want.

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Originally Posted by Doctor-

Malefic changes
change cast to 1 sec (maybe to help with the abundance of clipping), 250 potency or 260

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This one is confusing me. Ast doesn't have clipping issues?! :confused: That's like literally the only thing Ast has no issue with at all. lol

I do agree Malefic potency is p low tho compared to Broil and Glare.

Malefic is not a problem with Ast, Card/divination buffs would be appreciated given that we are going to be using this system for awhile but neither of them will fix this:

https://i.imgflip.com/3a5j15.jpg

This is the start of week 7, that is a huge disparity between the healers and it is not due to Ast being slightly weaker than the other two(it don't help but that isn't the core issue), People just don't want to play Ast anywhere nearly as much as they used to, it is worse disparity than Whm was throughout SB which was considered inferior throughout.

The Devs messed with the gameplay of Ast too much and players just are not liking it but for whatever reason(I am personally of the opinion they just couldn't handle trying to balance the old card system based on their responses) they are adamant in this is how Ast is despite all of its problems like Nocturnal, Collective Unconsiousness, being controller unfriendly, new card system being unrewarding and not something Ast itself can utilize properly

Astro has massive clipping issues even at 1.5 gcd, the worse one is the animation twirl lock of star dropping.

I'd like another bandaid fix for Sleeve Draw, something that alleviates pressure from the opener. Something like, "When used out of combat, grants Divination Wheel. DW. 15 sec duration. Allows the execution of Divination at full potency and consumes all seals upon use."

Is that a stupid, clunky, awkward fix? Yep. But in my mind it would go pretty far because AST could get Divination out at the proper raid buff window and then start focusing on getting cards out, there'd be a little less pressure to build up Divination in the span of 4 GCDs, since it could go up first, and then cards going out are played to buff players to support their openers instead of fish for seals to finish mine.

Fishing ahead isn't so bad, when there's time to do it. Fishing "backward" to get Divination out NOW is not fun. Not after a death, not at the beginning of a fight.

I don't think this would force a meta. At best an AST can use this ability to turn a couple of cards that would have been seals into Minor Arcana, so a slight buff.

The cards are a hot mess but I think the best compromise I can hope for is that we bring Dhit, Crit, and Speed to the cards. Keep the melee/ranged dichotomy but give the cards 3 different effects. Minor Arcana is still there for the guaranteed balance.

And to get away from the "Bad card" mindset, a couple of abilities that grant seals and use cards outside of Play. Something like a simplified Royal Road, where the current card is burned for a buff that enhances the next Major Arcana played. And another ability that "reinterprets the card in reversed position," turning it into one of two defensive raid buffs--defense or healing received, 2 minute cooldown (only usable in combat). I think having 2 ways to use cards that aren't Play would go a long way toward feeling like I own my deck.

The other fix I really need is to Nocturnal. The problem with the Regen/Shield dichotomy is that AST was meant to flex sects and play nicely with cohealers, Noct for WHM and Diurnal for SCH. Neither of those things actually happened, and they can't, so long as AST has 4 different shields or 4 different regens. It's overkill of all the wrong things and not enough of the right things.

The design goal should not be "two sects that do opposite things" but "two sects that allow the AST to fluidly choose a burst/recovery playstyle when paired with SCH, and mitigate/prevent when paired with WHM."

The sects don't need to mirror each other. They will always be broken unless we take a serious look at what those abilities should be doing, to give AST the tools to complement their partner and make the team feel complete. I would like the sects to be balanced not ability for ability, but total package.

Quick ugly fixes for a class that was broken in the quickest, most ugly way possible. I'm to the point where I'd be grateful for any QoL upgrade.

It's good to look at each healer personal Rdps, but it's not the only data that needs to be looked into.
You can always kind of "cheat" the rdps by going with a healer that does all the healing, and the other one all the dps, which is why its always better to take into consideration the "combined healers damage", and with this you can see that the dps depends a lot on the fight and the intensity of the healing.

On E1S, which requires very little healing, the best healing comp is double WHM, whereas on E2s and E3s, the best comp is AST+SCH, and on E4S it is WHM+SCH.

If you take the combined 4 fights, you see that WHM+SCH and AST+SCH does respectively 98.85 score and 98.27 score, which is the closest you can actualy get in term of balance.
What actualy need a good chunck of balance is the Noct AST to be competitive with the SCH, so the combo AST+WHM could finaly get out of the hole its stuck in since forever...

Are they adjusting ast in 5.1? I thought it was suppose to be the ninja revamp patch.

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Originally Posted by vtndll

Are they adjusting ast in 5.1? I thought it was suppose to be the ninja revamp patch.

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