Possible AST rework idea?

Not sure at all if SE reads the forums.. why would they be hear if they don’t? I still don’t think they do though. Anyways.. I have some ideas for what I think might be a pretty good AST rework idea. But I wanted some feedback. We will probably never see this in-game but I think it’s fun to think stuff like this up, so here goes!

First, we need to reduce the MP costs of Benefic II to 800 and Aspected Helios to 900. I played AST in the new Nier raids this passed week and even with the changes to MP costs, I still think it could use some tweaking. Not to say I was constantly out of MP but it just didn’t seem to feel good still.

Next is Celestial Opposition. I think that it should in all keep the effect it has now, but give us back the stun. It was a good mitigation tool and that gave it some identity too. I think the heal potency should be increased a little as well. Not a lot but a little would truly help. I often find myself having to use this along with other abilities and when it’s useful, it’s really just so the tank has an extra shield/HOT. I feel like one of Astro’s main issues is that you have to pair a lot of their abilities together to make sure you are able to keep up with damage. But.. I will rest on that for now.

Next is Earthly Star. This is a good AOE cooldown but it isn’t like Assize or Indomitably that we can just heal on a whim. A lot of time, when this detonates, the 720 potency heal has gone to waste. I say make it a 650 potency heal on the second stage and make it a 300 potency damage ability.

I don’t want to touch on Collective Unconscious too much because I generally like the changes that were made, but it is too soon to tell I guess. I also think that Horoscope and Celestial Intersection are both really solid and they are okay to stay as they are.

Next is Neutral Sect. I think the only problem with Neutral sect is that I have never needed 20 seconds of 20% extra healing potency, a shield, and a regen and it only affects two spells. So I think this should be changed to a 60 second cooldown that gives you the neutral sect buff that turns the next aspected spell you use to apply a 30 seconds shield and an 18 second regen. The next aspected spell casted will also have no MP cost. Only for one spell every 60 seconds and it might make it feel more functional to use. Def keep the visual effect to show you have it active.. of course :p

Next are the cards and I know this tends to be kinda controversial but I think I have something to make it seem balanced and hopefully not too OP?

So I think draw should be reverted to how it was and we can use spread if we want to save a card, but I think having to put play on our hotbar feels EXTREMELY clunky. At least with spread it was something we could save until we were ready to use it. Also I think we should get rid of redraw completely or put it back down to one charge because that also feels clunky. I do though like how Sleeve Draw feels now. I like that we can just rapidly draw cards. The only problem is, especially when healing dungeons, I don’t really feel like I need it so this change would hopefully make it feel better to use.

So keep the Lunar, Solar, and Celestial seals but change them to this:

Lunar Seals: Ewer/Bole
-grants a defense buff(maybe 10%? What would be balanced?)
Ewer for magical damage incoming, Bole for physical damage incoming

Celestial Seals: Spire/Arrow
-grants haste buff(10% still?)
Spire for magical classes, Arrow for physical classes.

Solar Seals: Spear/Balance
-grants damage buff(10%)
Spear for magical classes, Balance for physical classes.

Lord of Crowns: 300 potency single target damage ability

Lady of Crowns: 500 potency single target heal

These are just reverted^ also please give us Minor Arcana animation back(it was one of the best)

Divination: can be activated only when having 1 of each type of seal. Grants 5% damage, haste, and defense buff to all nearby party members.

When drawing cards, if you use a card of the same seal that was already drawn and used, it just overwrites the seal meaning you don’t get duplicate seals. Put Divination on a 3 minute cooldown again. This should be the big work up. I’m not sure how balanced all of those percentages would be but I’m no pro at how the percentages would add up. I’m curious to see though if anyone might know!

Anyways I want to know how everyone feels about all these changes. Does it seem too powerful or do you think a lot of the current problems will remain the same? Sorry I had to make it two separate comments. I met the character limit but.. Maybe we will get lucky and the devs see this? And other’s ideas of course :D

Minor Arcana felt so good to use back in 5.0, where you have to take one "extra" step to convert whichever card to lady or Lord card, then execute. It was so impactful and feels good to do so. Now with that "extra" step been taken, most of the time I didn't even know which card I played and who did I gave the card to.
And that feels AWFUL!

Please bring back the 5.0 AST card draw system, it's just perfect and rewarding every time you draw and use a card, to be an Astrologian. Being able to convert the duplicate card to lady or lord and able to see the actual visual effect when doing so just added one extra layer to the gameplay. That one added layer, however, changes my whole game experience playing Astrologain.

I am begging you to have the 5.0 Minor Arcana back.
God bless.
Yours truly.

I like the idea of your card system as it would give back the diversity it had before Shadowbringers. I personally don't know about Lady and Lord of Crowns. I personally rarely used the Lady of Crowns heal.

Just what AST really needs is an ability that restores your mana, like SCH or WHM. Reducing MP is nice and all, but it wouldn't be needed if we could have an ability that restores mana. Since I personally still feel like Collective Unconscious isn't that good from what I've seen, maybe it could be used to restore mana, so basically be another Assize, but it's better than nothing IMO.

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Originally Posted by Marikya

I like the idea of your card system as it would give back the diversity it had before Shadowbringers. I personally don't know about Lady and Lord of Crowns. I personally rarely used the Lady of Crowns heal.

Just what AST really needs is an ability that restores your mana, like SCH or WHM. Reducing MP is nice and all, but it wouldn't be needed if we could have an ability that restores mana. Since I personally still feel like Collective Unconscious isn't that good from what I've seen, maybe it could be used to restore mana, so basically be another Assize, but it's better than nothing IMO.

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Thank you! I don’t know exactly how balanced all of those would be but the general idea is still there.. I feel you. I didn’t really feel like Lady of Crowns was that amazing but how AST is right now I think it would be a good follow up heal pee say. Honestly, I think we def need more mana help :(

The real major drain on Ast MP is Malefic. It’s the weakest single target dps spell amongst the healers yet is just as expensive. If they reduced the MP cost from 400 to 350 that would actually solve a lot of Ast MP problems. A majority of Ast abilities are on 60s cooldowns and don’t require any resources to use so they should make up the bulk of our healing. Shields aren’t meant to be spammed so lowering the cost doesn’t really solve anything.