Astrologian Speculations! How will it fit in?

[Ghishlain]

I'm curious as well. Without CS an AST won't be as useful for DPSing or soloing as the other two healers which would be pretty bad. And without Swiftcast they would be so gimped... It's going to be interesting so see what happens with Crossclass skills. I'm wondering if they are going to change it to 3 classes that every ob can crossclass with or something. Because AST may need some ACN spells as well (virus, e4e).

Just emphasis on the bolded part, you can make the argument that AST card buffs indirectly providing DPS to groups via their buff mechanics. Say a SCH or WHM can provide 200 DPS in any normal boss fight; AST buffs would need to be able to generate a comparable number to that 200 DPS via their buffs thus negating the need for them to have CS in a party setting. Of course this is its own can of worms for balancing - will AST buffs be single target only? Area effect? Aura around the AST? Balanced for 4-man or 8-man parties? etc. And of course this changes dramatically in a solo setting as well.

[melflomil]

They will probably get there own version of protect (Shell)but it will be the opposite of WHM pro shell trait. That means sch will probably get to cross class it and get to use protect for physical and shell for magic.

As for the shields, I dont think there will be any healing on the shields just a straight-up shield to absorb damage

[VanilleFang]

buff

Yeah I thought about too. But then the whole random factor with cards... CS is reliable. A buff isn't. Not really. Especially if it only lasts a certain amount of time. The more I look at it this way the more I don't really like it. It would be so incredibly hard to balance, especially when you add in solo play. You don't want it to be over powered, but you also don't want it to be too weak. CS, to me, is perfect. It has no flaws in any way. So to try and make something similar but completely different will be really hard for SE to pull off. That's my thoughts on it anyway.

[Ghishlain]

Yeah I thought about too. But then the whole random factor with cards... CS is reliable. A buff isn't. Not really. Especially if it only lasts a certain amount of time. The more I look at it this way the more I don't really like it. It would be so incredibly hard to balance, especially when you add in solo play. You don't want it to be over powered, but you also don't want it to be too weak. CS, to me, is perfect. It has no flaws in any way. So to try and make something similar but completely different will be really hard for SE to pull off. That's my thoughts on it anyway.

Indeed, that's why I'm looking forward to seeing what will be done. If S-E gives AST the right tools, they'll be able to get a high uptime of popular buffs like Corsairs were able to in XI. It'll be a hard thing to balance, but I imagine it'll keep the AST quite busy with this and healing duties.

Can't wait to see the move list released.

[Cynfael]

Speculation about AST and Cleric Stance isn't very useful at this point since we have no idea whether or not it will be cross-class for them, if they will have a native version of it, or if they will even need it. For all we know, the devs might have coded AST's damaging abilities to scale directly off of MND and linked them to the barrier stance to limit simultaneous healing and DPS.

[Tint]

They will probably get there own version of protect (Shell)but it will be the opposite of WHM pro shell trait. That means sch will probably get to cross class it and get to use protect for physical and shell for magic.

As for the shields, I dont think there will be any healing on the shields just a straight-up shield to absorb damage

THIS will make the whm useless. and the sch already has 2 cross classes.

what happens when you only have a shield without heal can you see at the stoneskin. while you cast stoneskin the tank gets damage. so tank is at 80% life + shield (for 18%) = useless. so the shield have to be an instant cast. but that will be too overpowered or with long cd. i don't think you go in shieldstance to use a (one) shield wich has a long cd...

[Raminax]

Call me overly optimistic, but I'm fairly certain that White Mages have more than Proshell going for them. <.<

[VanilleFang]

Speculation about AST and Cleric Stance isn't very useful at this point

I don't really see it that way. I don't see us talking about it as "useful", but more a way to spark conversation among healers to discuss what they would like to see or what the think SE may do. It's purely speculation, which is the whole point of the thread. Not much is concrete at this point in time, so all we can really do is speculate and discuss what the possibilities are. I get what you are saying though.

[AlexanderThorolund]

What skills do you think we are seeing in the new trailer? I think it looked like she was throwing cards at enemies.

[Tint]

probably he makes fixed damage that only depends on the weapon stats, like guns in FF12. so no more stance-dance^^ uh, that would be great. of course, the damage have to be lower than whm/sch in cleric stance for balancing.