Yoshi-P's Interview with Famitsu includes a few comments about AST

[Yumi_umi]

Ok so how did a bunch of u derail this thread with ast vs whm/ sch and what you want changed with ast.
Isn't this thread ABOUT YOSHI'S INTERVIEW WITH FAMITSU.

Also half of these ppl r jokes at playing ast and just theory craft.
Maybe the devs should listen to ur ideas cuz u clearly know how to balance classes.

[Taranok]

The problem is that that idea cannot happen. With perfect luck, you could have a permanent 10% damage boost to the entire party (not quite permanent, but pretty close.)

Furthermore, it does nothing to making Diurnal actually good when you are healing, and prevents the class from having a barrier ability on a single GCD. Yes, they have stoneskin, but all 3 healers need a reliable barrier that they can cast, and that half second is already unreasonable.

In order for that to be viable, they'd have to nerf the cards into the ground, and the cards are already clunky to use on a 30 second rotation due to GCD clipping with casting and how horrid the healing of the class is presently, so it'd only make it worse.

They may as well make a 4th class type called "support" at that point, as well.

[RichardButte]

As I thought, they were afraid that a buffer could make things too easy and ended up releasing an underpowered job. Let's just hope for the best.

Yeah, I was saying this about all three new jobs since the expansion launched.

Better to release nerfed classes and slowly buff them later so people don't over-roll them and use exploits to wreck new content.

[Assirra]

Yeah, I was saying this about all three new jobs since the expansion launched.

Better to release nerfed classes and slowly buff them later so people don't over-roll them and use exploits to wreck new content.

While i agree the ast aint bad because it gives bad numbers.
Design wise it is honestly just a mash of ideas that don't work together.
Let's hope that they make the healing and cards actually work together instead of being an half support class in a game that doesn't allow it.

[Sylentmana]

After I get SCH to 60, AST will be the next class that I level so hopefully they will have the kinks worked out by then. I'm pleased that they have been working on this and I figured it would take them a bit. I played the class a little when I first got to Ishgard and found it to be really fun and its probably the most visually pleasing of the jobs, imo. I look forward to playing it again.

[PiedPiper]

I think we can all agree a class we like needs some help in two major areas:

Giving the class it's own identity, and making us feel like our cards are worth having us around.

Aside from potency tweaks, which while needed won't solve everything, I think they should give Astro the signature of being the HoT / Synastry healer. Make it a near permanent buff in the way that has already been suggested so that it is our defining feature (instead of burst healing or shields.) Maybe even make it so you can cast it only once in combat, you scri the heavens and forsee the dangerous fate ahead for one party member. Our signature would then be that we would be the stand out sustainer. Whm excels at burst and Sch is a hybrid.

Secondly, playing a card extends all current heal over time effects created by the Astro by 15 seconds (or maybe the duration of the card). This will also help on our mama issues while making our aspected heals actually worth casting.

[Anatha]

Really all that they need to do is buff card potencies, change shuffle so that you can't get the card you're discarding, give lightspeed a recast reduction element, Slightly lower LA's cooldown, do SOMETHING about CU and CO, as one is completely worthless and the other is never optimal.

Nocturnal needs some tweaking as well, but in what way is largely entirely up to how SE intended it to be used.

But people lobbying for these massive dynamic changes.... I can't get on board with that. It's ridiculous. The job is decidedly bad off, but at the level of WAR 2.0, not XIV 1.0. They can fix this with tweaks, it does not require an overhaul.

[Assirra]

You are missing the point of people wanting huge changes.

Once again this has nothing to do with the numbers but with the design of the class itself.

Fairy feels a part of the scholar, hot's/about a million healing cd's feel part of whm/a wonky card system that is clearly intended for a dps and not a healer feels like just that, a wonky system tagged along.

Cards should be part of our healing, it is our only thing that we got different. Except that we are a carbon copy of a scholar or white mage with some potency nerfs. Yet what does our thing that (supposed) makes us stand out? some random rng 10% buffs that take away 4 whole spell slots that should have been using to build our lacking healing base.

You know what just buffing potency will do?

Turn us into the farm healer you bring together with a "real healer" when stuff is on farm and everyone is out for gear. You can buff people and heal a bit while the other healer does the real healing work.

[Taranok]

While i agree the ast aint bad because it gives bad numbers.
Design wise it is honestly just a mash of ideas that don't work together.
Let's hope that they make the healing and cards actually work together instead of being an half support class in a game that doesn't allow it.

It really feels like all 3 of the new classes fall into this category. They all feel like they're a hodge-podge of poorly thought out ideas that don't quite fit together. It's most obvious on the AST, but the DRK also has a rotation that is cumbersome at best due to the nature of how the class plays, as an example. It's almost as if, in an effort to make them all different, they tried new ideas that don't quite work out. Hell, even the Ninja has a bit of this problem that was made a bit worse in HW (namely, how Armor Crush essentially kills your ability to use Aeolian Edge in the rotation if a WAR isn't present).

But I digress.

[Alahra]

It really feels like all 3 of the new classes fall into this category. They all feel like they're a hodge-podge of poorly thought out ideas that don't quite fit together.

I'd agree on AST and DRK, though MCH feels coherent to me. I imagine they started working on it earlier (since it seemed like we were originally going to get NIN and MCH at the same time, judging from Yoshi's prior statements on new classes during ARR), so it's got more polish.