My Preferred Adjustments for Astrologian (Some Ideas I haven't Seen)

[Brightshadow]

Astrologian have a lot of potential, but we cannot possibly compete with our fellow healers unless we get some adjustments. We don't need game breaking changes or anything like that, but we do need a way to entice people to bring a AST for the second healer spot.

Here are adjustments I think would be beneficial to the job.

1. Nocturnal Sect:
Increases healing magic potency by 5% while adding a Fortification effect to certain actions. Effect ends upon reuse. Fortification is an enhancement which creates a barrier that builds up overtime. Unlike the regular shield you don’t get the full effect at once instead it works similar to regen in that the shield is reapplied with each tick. However, unlike regen this “Shield” gets stronger overtime so if you avoid a hit, or are out of combat the shield potency goes up to the maximum buildup potency. Since this isn’t a basic shield it stacks with the regular shields from scholar.
i. Aspected benefic: Shield Potency - > 50/Tick | Maximum Buildup - > 300 | Duration 18s
ii. Aspected Helios: Shield Potency - > 25/Tick | Maximum Buildup - > 150 | Duration 18s

2. Synastry:
I feel that this ability has much potential, but my biggest problem with this skill is that it’s on a long recast timer which is absurd when you consider how underpowered we are compared to the other healers , and Scholars have a fairy up almost 100% of the time which is basically the same thing as Synastry. So if we can’t keep this ability up full-time at-least allow us to keep this ability up most of the time. It’s not overpowered because the scholar has the fairy. And the white mage has the best recovery tools in the game making them unmatchable in burst/AOE healing.
i. New Recast (45s)


3. Lightspeed/Collective Unconscious:
I absolutely love Lightspeed this ability is really fun to use, and it fits in perfectly with the theme of the job; however that doesn’t necessarily mean this ability is good, sure it’s good for saving the MP cost of one spell; however, it should also eliminate the GCD of the spells to make it a great emergency tool which is one of the main things that the job currently lacks. Now I know if the GCD is removed you might be able to cast around 8-10 spells; however, these spells aren’t MP free so there is still a limitation to this ability, and since most emergency heals are MP free this one is still not as optimal as the white mage or scholar emergency tools. As for Collective Unconscious I think that if they are 100% set in keeping it as is to at least make it useful for the cards. (The reduce duration is for it to not be overpower)
i. Lightspeed Additional Effect: Removes the GCD from all spells.
ii.Increase Noctural Collective Unconscious to 15% damage reduction
iii.While in Collective Unconscious anyone within the aura retains their card enhancement until the aura expires or they exit the aura. (Reduce Duration: 12s)

4. Offensive tools:
While the Astrologian is a healing job and the offensive tools shouldn’t be something that receives too much attention I feel that the job needs some adjustments in this department because unlike our peers we have very little additional effects making many of our spells useless. Sure we have a damage overtime but so do the other two healers, and they have their own debuffs.
i. Malefic II: Additional effect = Slow
ii. Stella: Additional effect = Stop (Similar to stun/petrify)
iii. Combust II: Additional effect = Combustion (Causes damage to all nearby enemies every tick, the spread damage is 50% of the potency)
iv. Gravity: Additional effect = Heavy

5. Cards:
I feel that the cards are almost in their right place ever since we got our hotfix; however, I feel some small adjustments are still needed, and perhaps some new abilities to give us more enhancements when we don't actually use the cards.
i. The Ewer: Merge the current Spire effect into this card making it useful for any party composition.
ii. The Spire (New Effect): Increases the healing potency of recovery spells/skills used on the target by 10%.
iii. Royal Road: Additional Effect = Decreases the recast of the next "Draw" to 15s
iv. Shuffle: Additional Effect = Cannot redraw same card
v. Discard (New Ability): Gets rid of the drawn card but provides a "Fast Cast" effect making your next spell instant Cast; also lowers the recast of your next "Draw" to 15s. (60s recast)
vi. Celestial Opposition (New Effect): Transforms the next card used into a negative effect. (The effect is the negative effect of the card and its enhanced by royal road effects) (Example: Using Celestial Opposition then bole would give defense down to the enemy. (New Recast: 1Min)

6. Miscellaneous:
i. Allow Astrologians to hold cards until used (No Timer). (To hold your card during mechanics or not stress while healing is necessary and you drew a card.)
ii. When more than one Astrologian is in the party do not overwrite their cards instead allow us to apply both cards to the target (party). (However using the same card will still reset the card)
iii. Fix the spear card so it could function on skills already on cooldown.

[kiraan]

i think i haven't say it enough but switching Gravity and Combust II , YES YES YES YES!

i like those suggestions but one i would love with the actual royal road effect, is when you get the "party buff" royal road, you don't get a penalty of 50%. I don't understand this downside when you have to give up one buff and wait 30 minimum to spread your next buff. You should be rewarded for taking time/risk of building a combo.

[Brightshadow]

i think i haven't say it enough but switching Gravity and Combust II , YES YES YES YES!

i like those suggestions but one i would love with the actual royal road effect, is when you get the "party buff" royal road, you don't get a penalty of 50%. I don't understand this downside when you have to give up one buff and wait 30 minimum to spread your next buff. You should be rewarded for taking time/risk of building a combo.

In this framework the additional effects of Royal Road no longer exist instead you sacrifice the card for a mini divine seal effect for when you need to focus on healing. As for the 50% penalty I kept it in the stance changes because it would be overpowered now since you would be able to automatically extend the buff to all party members without the downtime of RR. And it also gives Astrologians a good reason to use Noctural when there is no scholar since their buffs are potentially similar to the scholar just more or less reliant on RNG. However I also adjusted the cards to make them more useful, and made spread/shuffle/RR prevent the useless card from reappearing to give the job some control over their enhancements.

So here a small example. In Noctural Sect if luck is on your side you will be able to spread to the party the following to compete with Scholars.
1.) The Balance: 3% damage increase to party (Selene is 3% haste)
2.) The Arrow: 4% haste to the party/5% recast down (Selene is 3% haste/Sch has more DPS)
3.) The Spear: 4% Accuracy to the party/2% Critical Hit Rate

Making Ast more useful in the support slot that Scholar currently fulfills. Of course there will always be a RNG to the job, but with the changes in this framework you will have a lot more control getting the effect you want.

[Rajeme]

I would also like to add the ability to spread 2 or may be 3 cards at the same time. This will greatly reduce the disadvantages of RNG and at the same time create more strategies for uses.

In addition, the barebone of an AST is the 2 stances and they can't be changed midfight. Therefore if this is not to change in the future, AST should be adjusted enough so individually, they have enough tools in disposal to not fall so far behind WTM and SCH.

[VitalSuit]

The card changes are making them weaker than they currently are. Why would you even suggest that ._.

[YuiSasaki]

Overall: Very good ideas!

Yet i somewhat disagree with your idea of changing Essential Dignity, i like it the way it is now, the CD might get lowered A BIT (5-10sec not more).
Also the card changes are somewhat odd, at least for balance / arrow and spear.
If they would "fix" spear so that it'd would affect CDs whilst they are taken before the buff was applied spear would be much more viable than it is now. (-> Hasten CD-Timer for the Uptime of Spear and resume to old pace if expired)

[Brightshadow]

Remade the thread please look at original post. (Any suggestions or likes are appreciated)

[OpheliaHeartilly]

Waiting for Vlady to come complain.... The suspense is killing me!

[Muahbec]

Waiting for Vlady to come complain.... The suspense is killing me!

I know right? LOL

[Muahbec]

I absolutely love your "Fortification" idea.
Its unique and that is something that AST currently needs.
Merging the ewer with the spire would be awesome, and it would leave an open door for another buff.
I would change your spire idea though, instead of adding a regen effect, in my opinion it would:
Increase target's spell based hp recovery by 10% (so you would be able to help your fellow healer just like SCH helps with fey illumination)
I wish SE could take a look at these ideas :/