Square Enix Can't Figure How To Make AST Fun!

This is the worst iteration of AST,

I don't know what is wrong that Square Enix can't figure out this job after 10 years!

for the god sake read people's idea how to improve the job 50% of players ideas are much better than the current one.

it is about fun and fun alone.. as long history of making fun games you should at least make this job fun and balance.

My partner who is a former AST main says.. Stormblood.. thats how you make ASTRO fun.. I agree same with DRK.. ShB killed both our main classes

I'm not even gonna dignify it with a "try leveling it". Did that for 2 expansions and get disappointed everytime at the end.

Yeah I got it to 90 right before the expansion to hoping I'd like it. I was one of the OG astros, and that was the most fun I had with any class.
But this new version I couldn't even make it to level 91. Its just so boring?? And feels so weak?

They know what made AST fun. They got rid of it starting in Shb.

Go back to SB AST. It is LITERALLY what mains of the class have been begging for since card changes were announced before Shadowbringer's release.

Stormblood AST was fun. But they decided to change it simply because of the “Balance fishing” issue and “useless cards like Spire/Ewer” issue. Versus trying to make other cards outside of Balance useful. They were kind of on to something with Spear being increased crit % since two SB jobs scaled and benefited from critical hit rate (BRD and MNK). If only they had done something similar with other substats to give maybe something like Arrow with its speed/haste boost worthwhile (instead of a nightmare for most jobs). Alternatively, changing Balance to Direct Hit % and giving some jobs D.Hit scaling was another option. But why invest time in trying to fix the substats? Why not just destroy a job and its identity entirely instead!

A lot of jobs suffered the post-Stormblood job identity massacre. Two of my favorites included: AST and BRD. I’d give anything to have Stormblood AST back again. I can’t hardly stand to play AST anymore, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. For all the complaints about “useless cards”, they’ve brought that back with the new card effects, and somehow made it worse. At least in Stormblood, if you pulled a “useless card” or a card you simply didn’t need, you could Royal Road or Minor Arcana it into something better. We don’t even have that option anymore. So I just use them on myself (because what’s the point), or throw them on random party members.

Some of the effects are interesting and have their uses. Like Ewer being a small regen. Perfect for a tank or maybe to toss on a DPS that ate a pretty orange circle. But Arrow being a healing potency increase?? When healers are already overpowered in their healing output and most content doesn’t call for heal buffs? Unnecessary. Spire and Bole have some single-target mitigation potential—but if they simply aren’t needed at the time, then there’s no way to turn them into something more immediately useful. Which means they just go to waste completely, and that really emphasizes the “uselessness” issue.

I still don't know what they're going for with current BRD seeing as everyone offers party utility that's just as good. AST is just not the gambling class I enjoyed anymore with its RNG gone. There are almost no classes left that are fun to me.

With the amount of complaints concerning the current combat system (2min meta, low skill ceiling, lack of job identity, boring Healer rotations, etc), I think they need to go have a look at their older expansions and understand what made everything fun. For AST, every bit of writing from the forums suggests that StB/HW AST was top-tier design for the class and it baffles me that the Devs that essentially Phoenix-ed this game thanks to feedback just go and ignore the threads offering just that.

I seriously don't know who was asking for DT AST. It is such a departure from what made the class, both lore-wise and gameplay-wise (I did say in another thread that drawing predictable sets of cards made me feel like a con artist moreso than a tarot reader).

Ast is the best it's been in years right now. It just needs some tweaking to get the rotational feel down. Which they're doing so I'm not worried at all.

Current AST is a step below SB AST and a step above in some ways with the healing tools. Ewer is immensely better as an HP regen than as an MP regen.

Much prefer the DT ast compared to EW ast. SB still the favorite but this I'm happy with. Actually enjoying healing and looking forward to savage this tier with it. Lightspeed changes were much needed to address our movement issues. Otherwise our kit is very strong and looking great for prog.

Ngl, the fact a pure healer gets a shield as a capstone is just mystifying to me. SE, you made that arbitrary distinction and yet with every second ability you erode it. What even is the point?

And yet we still Neutral Sect. Neutral to what? lol Why is an Arrow card HP regen? Or was it increased heal potency? Who cares. Chances are they'll make it worse next expansion anyway. Precious, precious balance and all that.

As an AST main since Stormblood I'm disappointed. And I didn't expect much in the first place. lol Healers are so unbelievably bad designed it boggles the mind. You'll be pressing the exact same two buttons from lvl 1ish to 100 apart from the odd trial and dungeon (unless you have a WAR).

How is this engaging?

I will say, though, that AST has the best particles this side of Tuliyollal. That's what drew me to the job back in HW (and the cards but... eh).

That is somewhat true. I can get my jollies off being a quasi time mage thematically and celestial caster at the very least. Half our spells are LB3 worthy. Astrologian is at least tolerable still to me. Maybe not to others. I try to play the scholar and still miss the days of bane/shadowflare and i do miss the fishing mechanic from Heavensward. Call me a glutton for punishment i guess. Removing TP as a dps was a mistake imo and homogenising gear/stats/jobs to make the game easier for development is also destroying creativity because FF 14 has fallen into a catatose development cycle that is so easy to predict. Same length of expansion with 2x dps then next 1 healer 1 dps or 1 tank and 1 dps. Same number of dungeons same systems just theme parked up to next level. Blah blah we go on. Next expansion past Dawntrail will be revving up the new big bad while introducing one range dps and one new tank. 4-5 level dungeons. Two grind dungeons at cap with raid ready to go two weeks out and harder version short after. 3 patch cycles and 4 new dungeons. Next expansion... I am not counting the experiments they have like the floating isle sanctum, dynamis and our own airships.

Astro is incredibly fun in dawntrail. The only complaint I really have is that you only use dps cards during burst windows and sun sign takes too long to apply it's buff to the party. The support cards are insane for both the dungeons and extremes though and I'm really excited for more lightspeed uses. Allowing for more double weaving is going to make the rotation feel comfier.

The damage buff cards no longer seem to work on the chocobo companion or am I crazy? The other cards do.

Thanks for being so specific, if you gave us more information about why you don't like we would be overwhelmed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zolvolt

Astro is incredibly fun in dawntrail. The only complaint I really have is that you only use dps cards during burst windows and sun sign takes too long to apply it's buff to the party. The support cards are insane for both the dungeons and extremes though and I'm really excited for more lightspeed uses. Allowing for more double weaving is going to make the rotation feel comfier.

---

So I did as you regarded in a previous post, and have determined you can straight up remove them. They add nothing...this feels just like WHM, as the RNG was what made it AST to me. It feels exactly how I thought it would feel so effectively worse in all accounts. We lost buttons and became something AST wasn't (If you see how blank my bar is lel).

These cards add nothing for healing purposes, they don't have a reason to be because the tanks don't need them *I even had DRK in the run below. If you think you need them now, just wait until gear score creeps up, then reform your opinion. I have provided the extreme dungeon run and leveled AST first just to showcase it for you. If you are not properly timing your heals you shouldn't be rewarded with a fail safe OGCD [that's why GCD exists] (that's part of what makes healers fun to begin with). I will do a current extreme too but this is as you suggested...[I am still grinding FATES for gemstones.]

Below is a spoiler dungeon, if you have not completed DT, I recommend you do so before watching.
https://youtu.be/gZsOGSW2vl4

Astro is an incredible step backward from the previous versions of the class in last expansions. It is a disappointment and my only non complaint is it is still more useful with its new neutral and 100 talent that the almost culmination of the white mage. At least the astro still has to have some knowledge of the encounters to properly time the delayed spells for maximum effect. Astro can 60 second and 2 minute phases as a healer while a white mage is still either or. Please return astro back to its previous versions and give white mage something to make it worthwhile.

I believe this version is just redundant and more boring then previous versions.
I don't even mind them bringing back support cards but it's the way it was done that felt sort of lazy and boring to me.

Personally I would have liked Minor arcana (the current version is still really underwhelmingly pointless) been reworked to your single target damage buff cards while the draw system takes place as your support cards, What would have been nice at the very least would be a way to augment one of your drawn into a AOE effect cards if the support cards were brought back.

This current system has barely anything to do with "Cards" they're just generic cooldowns, which you already have a barrier and Mitigation abilities for the defensive cards... It's also not like Astro is lacking healing options it has 3 charges of essential dignity lol... Like seriously why do we even need this much bloat on astro at this point you're better off removing cards or just putting stronger cooldowns on the cards and removing things like essential dignity and intersection... You don't see any other healer with so much single target bloat.

It's also a concern because a lot of jobs with not a lot of hotbar space are designed to only ever really have upgrade traits now.

They can't figure out to make healers fun in general.

Honestly AST has to be one of the few jobs that gets a hard rework every launch/mid xpac. The devs hate the cards so much that I'm convinced they'll just delete them out of frustration.

I really don't understand what ppl's deal is with the cards. Stormblood and Shadowbringers had the best iterations of it tbh.

SB for the flavor and just the sheer dopamine hit of using Royal Road mechanics.

ShB had the best "compromise" IMO. Divination felt good to use because it was connected to the cards and was something you naturally proc'd just by making sure you drew cards.

AST's cards these days are so disjointed from the rest of the kit. It's sad. Cards are just a small part of the kit atp and they tried to give the old effects from SB back but it's just not the same without Royal Road.

Being able to pick between Spread, Enhanced, Extend was just so fun. In dungeons using Enhanced Bole just meant that your tank was unkillable in a wall to wall pull and that felt so good. Or giving a SAM/BLM Extended Arrow to go even faster.

I fear AST will only get worse from this point and that's just....so sad to me.

Im afraid that they may turn the cards into effects from just spamming heals and Malefic version 1-2-3-4-5. Cast Malefic you build up a stack of blah blah cards and the buffs go off when you use divination.