3.1 : Astrologian "adjustments''

So, apparently, according to the live letter, 3.1 will bring some modifications to the astrologian, as well as bard, ninja and paladin.
Any thoughts about this? Maybe there will be changes to Noct sect or the spear, but what do you think about it?

I'm reeeaaally hoping they change the spear. It's a bit TOO situational. Trying to draw it when you really need it is a pain :c

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Originally Posted by Yawnie

I'm reeeaaally hoping they change the spear. It's a bit TOO situational. Trying to draw it when you really need it is a pain :c

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From the start, there have been many people wanting Spear to reduce the remaining time on abilities that are on cooldown - I think it's a solid idea, myself.
I'm almost worried they're planning on nerfing Synastry, as it's a buff so powerful most people figured it was bugged until they fixed the tooltip.

AST definitely needs a little more help, most high-end groups aren't a fan of RNG buffs and (slightly) weaker heals for progression. Hoping for 20y Aspected Helios and the ability to Shuffle every single time your Draw, possibly even being able to Shuffle infinitely with a 2s CD because there is nothing worse than getting Spire > Spire when the majority of fights don't need Spire, or one Spire won't actually fix the group's TP issues and the BRD/MCH has to play TP restorations anyway.

Basically, I think the support aspect should be far less RNG. Even if you drew Balance every. single. card, it wouldn't even be OP.

This and AST + WHM isn't as good as it should be in high-end raids.

Most JP conversations regarding AST that I've read are focusing on the RNG driven buffs and Nocturnal Sect so my guess is this is probably where it's heading.

*begs for nocturnal sect to be on par with scholars*

The only problem is that is the RNG nature of the buffs offsets the healing power, if they were to remove the RNG nature, the job would become too powerful since it can full heal and buff at will. My guess is that they are going to keep the current level of RNG and just alter the effects of the cards, extend the duration, or enhance the existing effect.

If they buff shielding, AST would easily replace SCH in almost every aspect of the game. If they buff healing, AST would replace WHM in almost every aspect of the game. The only changes they can make that would still be fair to the other 2 healers is in the card system.

Most likely they will receive some kind of MP buff.

I hope they don't touch synastry. It's like one of the astrologians few emergency skills.

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Originally Posted by Yawnie

I hope they don't touch synastry. It's like one of the astrologians few emergency skills.

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This.

I hope there won't be any nerfs to the ''actual'' astrologian due to those news ''adjustments''. That would be stupid but who knows :(

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Originally Posted by Averax

*begs for nocturnal sect to be on par with scholars*

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It IS on par with Scholar, or very close. Problem is, we don't have a fairy, and buffing the potency bonus to compensate for that would be insane.

Looking at some A3S experiences (not my thoughts how it could be. These are first hand experiences how it is) as AST: randomly drawn cards are useless.

Reduced cooldowns. Nearly every cooldown is used in a fixed rotation along the encounter mechanics. Spear reduce the the cooldown time. But it will not be used earlier than without the spear.

Skill speed. For a BLM its ok, most of the time. But he get in trouble when fire and ice are planned along some events. For a summoner its not really useful. But the other classes get in serious trouble, because they are running out of TP. Like before with the fixed cooldown rotation, TP regenration also happens on fixed parts of a fight.

Defesive buff sounds nice. But since its random, you have to be albe to survive without it. Result: you are already surviving without it and there is no benefit by it.

Increased damage. There were fights I got not a single balance from pull till kill. So you always have to play like you will never see a balance. Balance would be a nice buff for strict DPS checks, if it would be possible to haven them always ready at this moment.

TP reg. TP managment is strictly planned from pull till kill. Randomly TP reg buffs are no help at all.

MP reg. Only useful after recovering mistakes. Beside this, its like TP reg before. Shrout/Lightaether/ballad and so on are running at fixed points of a fight. No need for MP reg card.

Outside of savage like content cards are funny. But as long as they are random, they are crap in contents like savage, because everyone MUST play like they would be not there. When everyone has to play like they were not there, than there is no need at all for them the way they are working at moment.

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Originally Posted by Kietsu

It IS on par with Scholar, or very close. Problem is, we don't have a fairy, and buffing the potency bonus to compensate for that would be insane.

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The shielding itself is better than scholars and they have more raw heals of their own than scholars, but scholars have way more utility (the fairy) which makes them a clear choice over a nocturnal sect Astrologian. I have no idea how the loss of the fairy could be compensated for (aside from giving them an AoE HoT, but that could make them too powerful, or just add button bloat).

There's also the issue of MP, Diurnal sect uses much less MP than nocturnal sect, because in nocturnal set you're always putting shields back up.

They could revamp AST a little bit so Nocturnal and Diurnal are completely different playstyles with different functions, and not just a glorified amalgam of a few WHM and SCH utilities.

AST would be better if they could sect dance between Diurnal and Nocturnal sect during battle even with weaker potencies.

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Originally Posted by lulunami

AST would be better if they could sect dance between Diurnal and Nocturnal sect during battle even with weaker potencies.

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I don't really want to stance dance and it'd be two more buttons of clutter, but I don't think it'd work anyway. It doesn't fix nocts problems(That your baseline/diurnal moves are better 95% of the time) and if that weren't the case trying to use both shields and regens would cost a ridiculous amount of mana.

Please no nerfs. The job doesn't need any nerfs. I would like to see the adjustment to Celestial Opp they promised a while back (where they said it would get an added effect).

Well, there's always the possibility of a nerf on synastry (please, no)

But I would really like:
- Gravity (adding heavy) at lv46 and Combust II at lv52
- Shuffle doesn't give the same card

What I would love but is not likely to happen:
- Stella being instant (since Gravity will have heavy, Stella could have slow)
- Lightspeed reducing a percentage of the casttime instead of a fixed value, so it would be useful with Ascend. If swiftcast is not mandatory, AST could cross-class from ACN instead of THM. (yay Virus and E4aE)
- Celestial opposition being added to the GCD. (it would cost a lot of mp, but it would be worth it)
- If AST had acces to Virus, Disable could apply silence and pacification

All these changes would make AST a God in PvP (if they aren't yet), so I guess it would ruin balance between classes... but I can dream...

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Originally Posted by Velox

If they buff shielding, AST would easily replace SCH in almost every aspect of the game.

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No class is replaced.

Can fey wind act like the spear please as well as the arrow, I'd be so in love. :c

Yeah love everything about AST pretty much, but prefer my little fairy buddies.

The only thing I think AST "need" is sect switching mid battle. That's it really. Asts would still be in Diurnal most of the time, but access to noct during the need for burst shields, with hots still ticking. Hello time dilation and celestial opposition. Extending the recast times to something like 10 seconds.

Maybe they could add a trait that when Diurnal aspected benefic ticks and crits, there would be a 50% chance that noctunal benific will cost no or half mana, similar to bards river of blood trait. In reverse, casting noct would give a solid 25% chance that after each cast, the next diurnal aspected benefic would have its duration increased by 6 seconds. (24 total). The buffs would last a reasonable amount of time before expiring.

Something like that. More RNG I know I know, yell at me now.

I just hope for spear....and maybe Nocturnal fixes.

But, not increase the potency of shields...'cause they're finde as they are atm. (and strong enough as well....we have an instant shield!!! that's very powerful!!)
I really like the AST but I don't hope that he'll do a step from UP over to OP.

Actually noct shield are stronger than SCH shield...
But they do not have crit bonus

And SCH have access to both virus and E4aE which are great skill

What i would like...
Diurnal helios aspect than can be stack with 2 AST... Instead of refresh
Because Whm can stack their medica 2

I hope they will give a sense to Celestial Opposition.
I would love to see it with an AOE healing effect like the other healers have.
And Luminiferous Aether should be adjusted imho.

I actually hope for a adjustment to Spear as well, but mostly with shuffle..

It's bad enough we have RNG on Draw, it's worse when shuffling can repeatedly get you the exact same card back..

Having 2 AST's in a party is annoying because your buffs replace each others. I get why they do but i wish there was some way to fix it.

nobody is saying this so I guess it's just me but .. what about AST's spell speed? IMO, I think they are way slower than SCH and WHM (every time I switch from SCH or WHM to AST I feel this), especially if in Noct stance (still, I think diurnal is quite slow too).
Lightspeed is really helpful, but I'm not sure it is enough to compensate .. I'd just like to read your opinion on this .. :P

If there changes should be planned, the should not lose the focus what class AST is meant to be.

Whitemage brings the stronges straight healing abilities and burst damage.

Scholar brings the best migitation and over time damage.

AST is in my eyes a class that is meant to use buffs on others to bring that balance on the table. But as long these buffs are completely random, it is broken.

They should not make healing-, migitation- or damageskills stronger. To make the AST an individual class and not a secont whitemage or scholar, they should rework the whole card system, so that the buffs bring the balance for healing, migitation and damage. And it should be planable.

no the cards should be random as that is the lore of the class. being able to pick the cards is also boring. i think changes to spread and shuffle would help.

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Originally Posted by Andres_Lonegrief

nobody is saying this so I guess it's just me but .. what about AST's spell speed? IMO, I think they are way slower than SCH and WHM (every time I switch from SCH or WHM to AST I feel this), especially if in Noct stance (still, I think diurnal is quite slow too).
Lightspeed is really helpful, but I'm not sure it is enough to compensate .. I'd just like to read your opinion on this .. :P

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Your spell speed is entirely gear based, not class based. Besides AF2 gear and weapons, healer gear is shared.

If you want more of it, you equip more gear that has it. But you don't need a whole ton of it anyway.

My WHM currently has 661 and I think that's too much.

AST should be cross-classed with BLM. seriously, my BLM wants that lightspeed

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Originally Posted by randysquirrel

AST should be cross-classed with BLM. seriously, my BLM wants that lightspeed

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No, your BLM doesn't want an ability that gimps your offensive spells by 25%.

Thinking of cross skill...
White mage would kill for synastry XD

And i wish AST could get arcanist spell...

If there's one thing they could change, it'd be the instant procs. I had some issues with this in A3S: Benefic to top off the tank from one auto attack -> pre-cast a Benefic II for the slap that's coming after. Benefic procs the instant Benefic II, Benefic II becomes instant cast and becomes 90-100% overheal and I'm a GCD behind.

I'm very happy with all the changes astrologian has received.

However, I must agree with a lot of others here. The change I've always wanted and would love to see would be, at the very least, some way to "control" the RNG of our card draws. I often draw Spire or Ewer and Royal Road them so that I can prepare for Balance or Bole, depending on what the situation is. But too often do I draw Spire, Royal Road it, draw it again, shuffle it, draw it [i]again[/i[, and then end up drawing Ewer three times in a row.

I've now put most, if not all, of my card abilities on cooldown with no payoff. If I shuffle something, that means I do not want it.

Would it be possible for us to receive an ability, or perhaps a trait, that decreases the likelihood of drawing a card that was shuffled by at least 30%? I ask this because I don't see it as likely that we'll get the ability to nullify any part of the RNG completely, but at least decreasing our chance of getting something we clearly do not want (especially while in a pinch) would be greatly appreciated.

You know, I would be happy if I only got the same discarded card 1/6 of the time. However, that is very much not the case. I get the same discarded card about 80% of the time.

It's actually so frequent, that I have considered keeping an actual tally sheet of how many times I shuffle and how many of those times it gives me the same card back.

What if the draw card had an exact order. Balance -> Arrow -> Bole -> Spear -> Spire -> Ewer and shuffle was on a 15 second cooldown that would choose any random card (even the same one in this case). So you may want to hold onto your balance or arrow knowing a few draw cooldowns from now you'll get an AoE RR effect. Or would you want to reroll to get it faster? Or to get a different card that you need? Draw has a 30 sec cooldown, so if you hold onto balance it'll be 2 minutes 30 seconds until your AoE RR. However, it's still a certain thing like the SCH fey wind. Shuffle would have a low cooldown so it's always up when you draw should you want to play the cards to get whatever effect sooner.

Lore-wise, life is on a set path, but you yourself can change it.

remove spear and combine mp / tp (keep same odds to draw mp/tp)

I'm hoping that AST will be able to switch between noct and diurnal in the middle of a battle. Otherwise, I think noct will have more mp efficiency on its heals (offset Eos' free healing).

Not sure how cards would reduce rng except giving each card its own ability or group them differently to somehow to reduce the variability of the draw, such as shuffle not drawing the same card.

I keep wondering why the ewer is not an mp AND tp regen card while spire could give a crit chance bonus or something like that, this way any card would have it's use in any situation... ( or not, i'm looking at you, spear card )

I would really like an MP reduction of DPS spells while in Noct as well as the 5% healing potency added to the dps spells. The Shielding and healing is fine. The problem is, if you have a WHM in they party, you need to dps - and dpsing on AST is just way too hard on mana.

What I feel could be reasonable adjustments are:

- Shorter CD for Shuffle and to not draw the same shuffled card (reducing the RNG indirectly);

- Stronger effect for Luminiferous Aether, The Ewer, The Spire and The Spear (AST drinks MP if you push it while those card buffs feel so less useful than the others);

- Celestial Opposition: wider AoE, stronger effect and should "refill" 50% of the Nocturnal Fields other than stopping their timer too.