How is new AST feeling?

I'm at work and haven't been able to look at the new stuff, but I was kinda hyped for the new AST changes, even if it means losing Nocturnal Sect.

Anyone have a chance to poke at it?

I think it's too early to get a good opinion on anything "new," but I guess, if I had to say anything, it feels, oddly, faster (and not just because of Astrodyne).

Astrodyne's working exactly like I think it does (in that, I'll typically get the Haste, but not necessarily the Damage+, and I'm fine with that), Earthly Star's new radius is literally engulfing the Goblet, I still refuse to use Undraw, and I'm throwing out passive aggressive particle effect spirals everywhere.

The stat squish has also made the numbers kinda interesting, in that I think we might see Cure spammers see some success, so I guess the expansion was a triumph for Sylphies. (But like I said, it's probably too soon to tell)

If someone's somehow are out of Earthly Star's effective healing range, I'm no longer adjusting to heal them.

Feels good, though too many buttons for my liking. Maybe minor Arcana can be tweaked, and the healing/MP of Helios and Benefic tweaked so that Aspected Helios/Benefic II become uogrades on the same slot.

I am really enjoying the new Astro, I myself find forget to use the Minor Arcana, bur that will come in time, 1 shuffle is a bit low I think (I miss my 3 shuffles XD) and the new seal system is neat

Earthly Star is so large it looks like a Limit Break. I can't imagine why they thought it needed to be so huge.

While I think Minor Arcana's effects are okay, having it be two separate buttons feels awkward to me. I hope they make it one button again.

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Originally Posted by NobleWinter

Earthly Star is so large it looks like a Limit Break. I can't imagine why they thought it needed to be so huge.

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For ASTs to properly assert their Giant Dominance when the Start pops after 10 seconds. xD

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Originally Posted by NobleWinter

Earthly Star is so large it looks like a Limit Break. I can't imagine why they thought it needed to be so huge.

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Ah, but what will really perplex you is how tanks will still manage to find ways to pull all the trash mobs and themselves out of its range.

So far I'm actually enjoying it slightly better than SCH, but I'll make my true verdict when all healers reached lv90.

Oh yeah, so far I've seen at least 4 players managed to stand outside of the Earthly Star's supernova semi consistently. I guess I shouldn't be surprised? lmao.

I like it so far. My only complaint is that there are a few more buttons than I would normally like. The changes otherwise seem good. I’m missing Sleeve Draw less than I thought I would, I keep forgetting Divi no longer needs seals, and I like that Star now covers half the planets. Only level 82 so far, but having fun. :)

Card management is problematic. I feel like I came back to the beginning of ShB. We lost control of the RNG.
For example, if I need Lunar, but Draw + Redraw gives me Solar and Celestial, I either have to Undraw the card or lose an Astrodyne buff. Also, the RNG on the Minor Arcana and the loss of Sleeve Draw are problematic.

In terms of toolkit it's great, but it's button bloated and less fun than ShB imo. Astrodyne just doesn't really do anything. You're buffing yourself, the noodle AST with the weakest personal dps in the entire group, with 1-2 buffs that are slightly weaker than regular cards, maybe once every 90 sec. At least Divination was a big beefy group buff that was worth managing Seals for.

Minor Arcana is the same. Since it's a long 1 minute cooldown, if you get Lord 50% of the time that's one Lord every 2 minutes. So you proc a measly 250 potency every 2 minutes and we needed 2 extra buttons for that?

Heal toolkit is obviously amazing, Star is ludicrous, they just need to trim the fluff or condense it into a more meaningful button.

Still has the issue of throwing out your card too soon after you attack and not getting a seal; feels bad :[

1 shafle is the worst especcialy without sleeve draw, many times i fail to draw 3 signs and missing Harmony of Mind. It's just pure luck to draw 3 signs

Cant say, I toss my star globe into my glam dresser and moved on to sage which am enjoying with 0 complaints, same boring cards with only lady/crown being changed back to stormblood effects with aoe instead is alright but that was not enough + removal of noct which idc for no more cause sage such a better noct ast . Maybe if the cards get some flavor again like old stormblood one maybe one day ill pick up ast again.

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Originally Posted by Vukimukinukiduki

1 shafle is the worst especcialy without sleeve draw, many times i fail to draw 3 signs and missing Harmony of Mind.

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It should be clear that you are not intended to get it 100% of the time. I am predicting that even Redraw will eventually be nuked, so I would get used to this. Undraw might remain an option, but you're throwing away damage. Redraw right now really just feels like the dev's compromise to still keep some RNG mitigation with the mechanic. I know they just want to be rid of it completely.

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Originally Posted by Vukimukinukiduki

It's just pure luck to draw 3 signs

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Yes. This is the intention. I know some players are going to be all, "Well that sucks." Nothing wrong with that, but it remains the intent behind the mechanic regardless.

Gemina, i just hate when abilities have rng mechanics. Crit chance is enough rng i think.

It's 56% chance to get a 3 Seal Astrodyne, but you're almost guaranteed a 2 seal. Both 2 and 3 seal are worth less than 100 potency each. At this point you could probably take Redraw off your bar entirely and the overall loss on a raid fight would be 0.5% or less and even Astrodyne itself is worth maybe a few % and is mainly there for mana economy. The whole system is just a waste of hotbar space.

With just the changes up to lv80, I am enjoying most of them. I know the direction they are going with AST, and I am on board. It just needs some tweaks, and I will just fall in love with this healer for all time.

Minor Arcana/Crown Play just need to go away. They feel tacked on, and do not add anything to AST gameplay. I strongly dislike having to monitor another CD on AST right now, especially knowing that it might not translate to a heal I can use, or damage I can put into a burst window. SE, please just get rid of it.

Play should trigger the GCD. Draw is fine and needs to stay an the oGCD. I was thinking of upping it to three charges, but think it is fine at two for the time being. Redraw needs to be nuked to finally circumvent the long time core issue with this mechanic. As a result of this, Astrodyne needs to give a damage boost no matter what so they at least get the haste buff as consolation for a poor draw, and the configuration of the seals acquired need to reflect the true odds:
2:1 ratio of seals = Haste
1 of each seal = Damage up
3 of one type of seal = Haste + Damage up

Base MP should be given when using Astrodyne instead of the refresh effect given currently, and is not dependent on the type of seals acquired. Being able to only Redraw once per draw and the best result truly being a luck of the draw is a giant step in the right direction. SE just needs to put both feet in.

Everything else is good. I am wondering how to save more buttons. AST feels a bit bloated. MA/CP are two. These basically replace Diurnal and Nocturnal Sect as abilities you hotkey, but they were a set it, forget it. Now we are actively using these two hotkeys/buttons, and it doesn't feel good at all. Undraw is another possibility.

After messing around with SGE, I wonder if the augmenting style they have can also be used to change Benefect and Helios to Aspected Benefect and Aspected Helios. They can save another button by allowing the AST to augment those two skills with an oGCD ability.

Ultimately like I said, I believe they are heading in the right direction and are not quite there yet. They just need to keep heading in that direction.

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Originally Posted by Vukimukinukiduki

Gemina, i just hate when abilities have rng mechanics. Crit chance is enough rng i think.

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And it's understandable why you do. The AST card mech has been cumbersome since its inception. We're stuck with it though. This is why I feel it just has to be stripped down completely and akin to a scratch ticket. The more layers and RNG mitigation you add to it just serves to convolute the playstyle.

The thing is, if there is any role to give this mechanic to; it's a healer. Without question. Especially with FFXIV design and how adamant they are with the direction they have gone with healers. When placed in this context, the card mech becomes a lot more enjoyable. I'm not saying that is how everyone should look at it, but rather that is how it is looked at by those who do enjoy it.

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Originally Posted by Liam_Harper

It's 56% chance to get a 3 Seal Astrodyne, but you're almost guaranteed a 2 seal. Both 2 and 3 seal are worth less than 100 potency each. At this point you could probably take Redraw off your bar entirely and the overall loss on a raid fight would be 0.5% or less and even Astrodyne itself is worth maybe a few % and is mainly there for mana economy. The whole system is just a waste of hotbar space.

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I strongly disagree. This mechanic results in steady DPS increases for the party or yourself, conditional DPS increase to self, MP restoration, and a downtime tool. How this mechanic is not seen as anything but beneficial is entirely beyond me. The element of luck only affects the AST now, and is a matter of how much benefit they get from it. Not getting the best result should not be looked at as a 'loss'. Those who do will not enjoy this mech on AST.

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Originally Posted by IceBlueNinja

Cant say, I toss my star globe into my glam dresser and moved on to sage which am enjoying with 0 complaints, same boring cards with only lady/crown being changed back to stormblood effects with aoe instead is alright but that was not enough + removal of noct which idc for no more cause sage such a better noct ast . Maybe if the cards get some flavor again like old stormblood one maybe one day ill pick up ast again.

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Guess I'm in the same boat as this one, though I don't consider Sage to be flawless. But as far as AST goes I'm dropping it for good save for leveling it to 90 at some point during this expac. The flavor is gone and the lore is shattered further, and Lord/Lady does nothing to restore it.

AST would probably be a little better if they swapped the DPS buff and SpS buff parts of astrodyne, though. DPS for two seals and speed for 3 seals. But even then this mechanic is a source of frustation because they significantly took away from your tools you had to deal with and shape the RNG.

As for the people in the thread shitting on SB AST cuz "muh deeps" over job flavor and lore, it's people like you that got us in this shit situation in the first place and I hope you realize that. And you could've easily fixed that by changing Balance to DhiT, Spire to HP regen, and adding a tiny flat dps buff to all the cards alongside the unique effects while still keeping RR system. But no, we have to toss the baby out with the bathwater cuz "muh deeps" and "muh RNG" despite having the tools to mitigate it even back in SB and the ability to salvage bad cards with lord/lady.

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Originally Posted by Laphicet

Guess I'm in the same boat as this one, though I don't consider Sage to be flawless. But as far as AST goes I'm dropping it for good save for leveling it to 90 at some point during this expac. The flavor is gone and the lore is shattered further, and Lord/Lady does nothing to restore it.

AST would probably be a little better if they swapped the DPS buff and SpS buff parts of it, though. DPS for two seals and speed for 3 seals. But even then this mechanic is a source of frustation because they significantly took away from your tools you had to deal with and shape the RNG.

As for the people in the thread shitting on SB AST cuz "muh deeps" over job flavor and lore, it's people like you that got us in this shit situation in the first place and I hope you realize that. And you could've easily fixed that by changing Balance to DhiT, Spire to HP regen, and adding a tiny flat dps buff to all the cards alongside the unique effects while still keeping RR system. But no, we have to toss the baby out with the bathwater cuz "muh deeps" and "muh RNG" despite having the tools to mitigate it even back in SB and the ability to salvage bad cards with lord/lady.

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I agree I still do not get the hate on stormblood cards period even if some where situation they all had a use to me, I didnt just fish for stupid balance and if someone dare told me I tell em play ast themselves then, the only card I RR was spire when tp was taken out of the game , for each card to me was nice, ewer if i died right as I lucid for mp recover, bole for migi to help dps trash in light pt dungeon, arrow was nice as blm loved it and could save their ley lines up for future use, spear gave +10% crit who dont love crit which means bigger heals flat heal/shield/regen /dps increase.

Its very confusing how people complain about storm blood ast was too random/rng when that is the MAIN point of the job high risk high rewards lol. Now its just a more mobile whm with yawn ville boring same dry card buffs. Sorry if I sound I was dissing SB ast, its my fav and ill forever miss it the 6 different effect cards SB ast had made it very busy fun and quick thinking compared to sbh/ew dry yawn ville one.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

I strongly disagree. This mechanic results in steady DPS increases for the party or yourself, conditional DPS increase to self, MP restoration, and a downtime tool. How this mechanic is not seen as anything but beneficial is entirely beyond me. The element of luck only affects the AST now, and is a matter of how much benefit they get from it. Not getting the best result should not be looked at as a 'loss'. Those who do will not enjoy this mech on AST.

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Divination barely required luck before when sleeve draw was a thing. It was also a fun mechanic to acquire three different seals which now feels kind of pointless and even selfish when it's probably better to just immediately use card buffs on dps over trying to get a 5% damage buff on a healer.

Hate it. The previous card system was nothing to write home about, but at least, I had more control over it. Now it's just an RNG fest, and crown play is just plain terrible. I'll probably just cap my AST and never touch it again, or I'll adapt to the new system somewhere along the way, but I doubt it.

AST will be my new healer since I'm getting bored of WHM. I haven't touched it yet, but I will level the job once I finish the MSQ. I don't mind RNG mechanics. I've played games where RNG mechanics matter before. I bring Guilty Gear up a lot, but that game has a character that relies heavily on RNG gameplay, and his mechanics can literally bring the match in his favor or cost him the round.

Overall i love it, the new Earthly Star is fantastic, i love how they've kept Neutral sect...

There are some issues though, like the whole 1 draw=1 redraw instead of the old system
Minor Arcana should have a lower cooldown so it doesn't feel as weird to use...
I like Astrodyne but at the same time it feels kinda odd to use, buffing myself for some reason feels weird idk...

For my part, I’ve been having a blast with AST! As long as one can deal with not always getting perfect Astrodynes, it’s fast, busy, and feels strong.

#blastwithast

I'm mixed on AST. The RNG is mildly annoying, but I'm shifting my thinking around it. I would prefer Astrodyne as a buff that can be used on yourself OR on an ally. It would work better with the whole AST ethos. I don't care about personal DPS levels. I dps, but I would rather buff the others in my party than myself.

I find the sound effects odd. Gravity 2's timing seems off, and I dislike the sounds of Malefic. But I'll adapt. I agree with most of you, Lord/Lady and their draw need to be a single button. It feels a little busier than ShB.

I don't understand the buff to the earthly star radius. Imo it was big enough and was already considered extremely strong.

Now there's no reason to place the spell to a specific spot anymore, it is bigger than most arena. Like, what's the point? Might as well give it the horoscope treatment drop the placement altogether, it is global anyway.

The rest feels fine so far as not much as changed but this one... I'm really not someone who tend to enjoy clunky mechanic or the game being harder for the sake of it, for instance, I was very happy with asylum and SS increased radius in SB because i thought these were too small making them a bit too restrictive.

But that? Like... This just killed a big part of AST optimisation which was knowing where and when placing the earthly star.

My question for Astrodyne is should I be prioritizing cards to their respective class (ranged / melee) and then using the skill regardless of what seals I have, or should I prioritize getting all 3 seals?

I’m not a fan of needless button bloat, of which AST has too much. I’m actually sticking with Scholar, which has been my main since Stormblood.

It’s changed a lot since then and I HATE Scholar’s DPS (or lack thereof, I should say) but the healing toolkit is fun and I don’t feel any button bloat issues.

I’m also maining the new Summoner for DPS so it’ll be nice leveling both at the same time.

There are too many buttons to press off GCD and I still don't understand why we have to emphasize so much on RNG with Astrologian. I would totally remove Astrodyne and Redraw. I love the change to Divination though.

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Originally Posted by milosralevic

There are too many buttons to press off GCD and I still don't understand why we have to emphasize so much on RNG with Astrologian. I would totally remove Astrodyne and Redraw. I love the change to Divination though.

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You would rather not cast cards then?

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Originally Posted by Vivix

Divination barely required luck before when sleeve draw was a thing. It was also a fun mechanic to acquire three different seals which now feels kind of pointless and even selfish when it's probably better to just immediately use card buffs on dps over trying to get a 5% damage buff on a healer.

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Divination required Sleeve Draw because how effective AST's signature ability for the party would otherwise be based entirely on luck. They fixed this by making Divination a button you just press similar to SCH's Chain.

The card mech is vastly improved because only the AST is affected by the RNG of the seal system. As a result there is no longer a need for Sleeve Draw or any other skill to mitigate the RNG. It gives it the flexibility it needs to be entirely based on luck of the draw, which is how it should have always been. The other thing it does is keep Astrodyne independent of a CD, and only requires that the AST acquire 3 seals to use. Technically this result in basically a 90s CD, but at least Astrodyne will never drift while waiting for the AST to acquire 3 seals which was a HUGE problem with the previous Divination. Furthermore, under the current system, Sleeve Draw can be given back as a 120s CD that just gives the AST 3 random seals so they can use Astrodyne for openers and burst phases.

I honestly believe the seal system will function and feel so much better with the revisions I proposed. Three of the same seal is the true hardest configuration to get, and should be what the AST strives for. Right now having three of the same seal gives the least favorable effect despite the more difficult odds, which makes zero sense. They need to adjust the rewards and how they are given. Redraw also has to go. I know that sounds abrasive having absolutely no way to get more chances at the best result, but trust me. It has to go. Three draws; three seals; play the hand you're dealt. Done deal.

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Originally Posted by Gemina

-snip-

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You should never design a game.
"The card mech is vastly improved because only the AST is affected by the RNG of the seal system."
What? Then what's even the point? With the skills we had before, with redraws, sleeve draw, burn into minor arcana, you could reliably get divination and feel rewarded because you actually used your tools to achieve 3 seals, which is something you now can't do.
It is NOT fun to simply draw cards and play them as they are, no manipulation at all from the player is the opposite of fun and the card system is the worst it has ever been. You seem to suggest to remove redraw too! Why then bother have a card system at all! Let's just make Astrodyne a 120s CD that has a random effect, no cards involved at all!
"Redraw also has to go. I know that sounds abrasive having absolutely no way to get more chances at the best result, but trust me. It has to go. Three draws; three seals; play the hand you're dealt. Done deal."
LOL...

new ast is super fun and theres a bunch of on-the-fly decisions for astrodyne. it also has a ton of stuff to weave which is nice because it distracts from the malefic spam

Eh, I'm not thrilled with it, but I'm used to that as I've been steadily growing less enthused about AST with each expansion. I can't imagine that it's the easiest thing in the world, trying to make AST both effective and interesting, but it does feel like they're doing more the former and barely the latter. Having played OG AST and now this feels like worlds apart, and while I get that the original system wasn't the best, this very...minimal and somewhat frustrating card system is just disappointing to me personally.

But at least the potency hasn't changed much, I still feel p effective while I'm doing my job, so there is that at least.

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Originally Posted by QooEr

new ast is super fun and theres a bunch of on-the-fly decisions for astrodyne. it also has a ton of stuff to weave which is nice because it distracts from the malefic spam

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I'm sorry, but I really do not understand what you mean with "bunch of on-the-fly decisions for astrodyne".
You factually have less decisions than before.
Draw->Like? Play. Don't like? Redraw-> Play anyway because you shouldn't waste cards.
That's literally it.