Astrologian "BUFFS"

[ckc22]

We are still very far from the other healers... I really hoped in Celestial Opposition and Collective Unconscious changes. They said they wanted to change them and they didn't.
I'm a bit upset, it's like they made fun of us.

Good lord, huge buffs and more whining. Maybe you should actually play with some of the changes actually feel before continuing to complain endlessly.

[Crater]

Good lord, huge buffs and more whining.

You've got a really funny definition of "huge".

[NorthernLadMSP]

You've got a really funny definition of "huge".

They're definitely nice buffs, IMO.

Lightspeed went from pretty much useless (except for quick raises or Stoneskin) to a 25% reduction in mana and no gimping of the healing spells.
Spread being available outside of combat is awesome as you can saved the card you want for a future battle, before you even enter the fight
Shuffle cool down reduced by 33%.
Best of all - TP and MP refresh cards that can be used on anyone - beats bards having to sing for a DPS reduction or NIN being unable to Goad themselves

[amihavingfunyet]

Best of all - TP and MP refresh cards that can be used on anyone - beats bards having to sing for a DPS reduction or NIN being unable to Goad themselves

NIN can't Goad themself.
As for the buffs, they are nice but nothing that will make me pick AST back up.
And for DPSing AST is still heavily reliant on keeping Spear/Ewer for themself.

[Nague]

go heal opressor as AST and then you can come back and tell me how awesome AST is.

[NorthernLadMSP]

NIN can't Goad themself.
As for the buffs, they are nice but nothing that will make me pick AST back up.
And for DPSing AST is still heavily reliant on keeping Spear/Ewer for themself.

LOL right, that's why I said unable.

[Crater]

They're definitely nice buffs, IMO.

Lightspeed went from pretty much useless (except for quick raises or Stoneskin) to a 25% reduction in mana and no gimping of the healing spells.
Spread being available outside of combat is awesome as you can saved the card you want for a future battle, before you even enter the fight
Shuffle cool down reduced by 33%.
Best of all - TP and MP refresh cards that can be used on anyone - beats bards having to sing for a DPS reduction or NIN being unable to Goad themselves

The card changes are nice, but I wouldn't call them "huge".
Like, as many, many people have already pointed out, the Haste buff that people get from a Scholar's fairy is a larger overall increase to party DPS than an AST who draws perfect cards, every time, for maximum card-based DPS boosts. What the changes to Spire and Ewer do is basically to make card-based utility effects as powerful for utility as card-based DPS effects are for DPS - ie: Useful, measurable, definitely-not-nothing, but also not powerful enough that they define an Astrologian's role in the party.

And it's fine that they're not that powerful - if AST can keep up with the other healers when it comes to actually healing. And that was always the true problem with AST. It wasn't that their cards were mediocre or RNG-dependent, and it wasn't their MP management.
It's that when a WHM needs to ramp up their healing output, they have Divine Seal, they have Presence of Mind, they have Benediction, and Tetragrammaton, they have Assize, and they can lay down an Asylum and keep casting. And when a SCH needs to ramp up their healing output, they can Rouse their fairy, or even switch to Eos for Whispering Dawn and Fey Covenant, and they can blow through Aetherflow stacks on Lustrate and Indomitability to dump out thousands of potency worth of healing in just a few seconds.

When an AST needs to pump out more healing than their GCD heals will allow, they have Essential Dignity. That's it. In very, very, very specific scenarios, they can get some mileage out of Synastry, but it's not a general-purpose healing boost: It doesn't boost their AoE healing, and it doesn't boost their single-target healing.

That was the fundamental problem with the class, and they got absolutely nothing to address that problem.

[NorthernLadMSP]

Yeah, too bad they didn't had an awesome AOE heal or healing buff to Celestial Opp.

[EchuKayu]

These buffs really make me want to play nocturnal

/s

I have a feeling these won't be the last of the buffs we'll be getting, these are just to help initially with savage...I hope.

[SuzakuCMX]

You've got a really funny definition of "huge".

He comes into every AST thread and complains about people complaining about AST because it'll make SCH not as godly.