3.1 : Astrologian "adjustments''

[Dante_V]

I honestly don't have any ideas what the changes will be but I don't feel like they will be drastic or as game changing as everyone is implying. It will likely be small tweaks. The AST is in a decent place at this point. The only real issue is Noct sect for PVE but TBH the people wanting this to compete with scholar are kidding themselves. I just don't see that happening and even if it does happen on a level of shield output, the SCH will still be the king of healing/dps and the go to for that in raids. Ultimately what the game needs to compete with sch is another native dps/heal class. But we prob won't see this until 4.0.

[NamoNanamo]

The only real issue is Noct sect for PVE but TBH the people wanting this to compete with scholar are kidding themselves.

I think it's more "I want noct to be as useful as Diurn." Cause right now, it's kinda sad.
And it would be nice it we could compete with scholar

[Ghishlain]

I think it's more "I want noct to be as useful as Diurn." Cause right now, it's kinda sad.

I feel the biggest flaw with AST right now is that it'll always be competing with itself. If Diurnal is better than Noct, Noct will always be sidelined. If Noct is better than Diurnal, Diurnal will always be sidelined. There's no way to truly make one sect better without dramatically decreasing the usefulness of the other. At least with separate healers, you can argue someone might not have other healers leveled. In the case of AST, it's "always use this sect outside of niche scenario #1, #2, and #3".

I don't look forward to how the Dev's are going to keep AST balanced as content rolls forward.

[Mibgestalt]

I feel the biggest flaw with AST right now is that it'll always be competing with itself.

If you're speaking bleeding edge progression, then yeah, I absolutely agree it's an issue, but it always will be, just like PLD being worse than DRK/WAR this cycle. Those teams that want to compete for firsts are always going to try to eek out every advantage they can, and that includes using the balance situation. I don't think that's a problem that'll be fixed in any MMO, ever. But for the rest, bringing Nocturnal Sect to be closer to what a SCH can bring to a raid group would just open up more people that can raid and fill out groups. Right now SCH is considered mandatory even (or especially, because the DPS output is likely to be lower) by casual groups, which only hurts WHM and AST because they're competing for a single healing spot, when the design is meant for AST to half-compete with each.