3.3 AST adjustments

[zuzu-bq]

Nocturnal AST isn't weak at the current patch (3.2) and this buffs are fair considering the feedback that the players are giving about the high AoE damage that happen on later Savage floors, specially A8S. The real problem about SCH vs NoctAST dilemma is that SCH has much more to offer to a party than the Nocturnal AST. But this doesn't mean they can't progress savage, just that SCH is much more powerfull.

A friend has been progressing Midas Savage on Nocturnal for a while and he is currently working on A8S. As a SCH I've been discussing with him how he could use Synasty in the best way so Aspected Helios would shield the party for some AoE spams. With this changes, a Synastry Aspected Helios Shield will get close to a Deploy Adlo, and you can even "spam" it during Synastry duration! This is really cool and can only add to Noct AST effectiveness and some few advantages over SCH as well. Please understand that Noct AST isn't bad, its just SCH that is much, much better for a solid progression on early stages of a raid tier.

[Judge_Xero]

With the changes I can only imagine NoctAst as main heals with SCH as well. It's toolkit will never compare to SCH as off heals simply due to the fairy.
But even as NoctAst as main heals it does have incredible versatility of shielding, Disable, Damage Reduction, Regen, Burst AOE Heals.

The changes to AHelios is going to help a lot as main heals NoctAst.

The changes to Spread will make the cards incredibly efficient as another method for cycling.

[Yoshiyuki]

From the latest Famitsu interview, the devs understand that the fairy is OP. This hybrid thing with not wanting to step on the WHM/SCH combo fell flat. They didn't commit to making a WHM/AST and AST/SCH combo work as well as WHM/SCH. We need a complete overhaul like WAR in 2.1, not these bandaid changes.

[Llynd]

They also said that it was horribly hard to touch at anything on the sch without Killing it or making of it a Op monster. Due to the fairy indeed. I expect the sch to stay that strong forever actually.

[Alisa180]

They also said that it was horribly hard to touche at anything on the sch without Killing it or making of it a Op monster. Due to the fairy indeed. I expect the sch to stay that strong forever actually.

Another problem is how SCH shares its base class with SMN. Back in 2.x, the devs admitted they were aware SMN has lackluster DPS, but couldn't make otherwise obvious and simple changes like buffing their DoTs because they risked making SCH outright broken. Hence, SMN had to wait until the new abilities in 3.0 to be brought up to par.

It cuts the other way too. They can't nerf SCH's damage the obvious way without nerfing SMN's damage as well. So they have to be really careful.

[Kabzy]

It cuts the other way too. They can't nerf SCH's damage the obvious way without nerfing SMN's damage as well. So they have to be really careful.

You don't need to worry about that. Potency wise there is no issue, which is proven with Scholar having the lowest DPS requirement in Stone, Sea, (something else beginning with S). So I highly doubt they would ever look into nerfing any Arcanist abilities. The 'problem' lies in the fact that Scholars have good MP management, and more importantly a fairy aiding the main healer while they can DPS.


I say 'problem', because as a Scholar I personally don't really see it as one. It's not Scholar's problem that they are designed to fill an off-healing role so well, and I believe SE sees this as they are not nerfing us, but slowly making Noct. Astrologian better. People need to consider that eventually we will have more healing jobs and we can't always see it as 'make x as good as WHM/SCH combo'. I like that they mentioned in the famitsu thingy that they are going to look to make AST/WHM a more viable pairing, that's the direction they should take instead of bringing out the nerf gun.

For the record, after playing all three healers I don't believe Scholar is overpowered, but I do agree that it's the best of the three current healers. And there's no problem with that, SE can balance as much as they want but one job is always going to be on top.

[Llynd]

Yup, like Kabzy said, no problem about the sch actually. It's not OP. Maybe it's the other two who needs to be buffed a bit but nerfing isn't everytime the good solution. And people who's talking about the sch being too OP are happy to have it in their team, actually.
But i do agree that the job is really well made ! Yet, i only see two things that could be remade : the Silence useless skill of Selene, and Dissipation which is a bit too situational.

[DarkmoonVael]

You don't need to worry about that. Potency wise there is no issue, which is proven with Scholar having the lowest DPS requirement in Stone, Sea, (something else beginning with S). So I highly doubt they would ever look into nerfing any Arcanist abilities. The 'problem' lies in the fact that Scholars have good MP management, and more importantly a fairy aiding the main healer while they can DPS.


I say 'problem', because as a Scholar I personally don't really see it as one. It's not Scholar's problem that they are designed to fill an off-healing role so well, and I believe SE sees this as they are not nerfing us, but slowly making Noct. Astrologian better. People need to consider that eventually we will have more healing jobs and we can't always see it as 'make x as good as WHM/SCH combo'. I like that they mentioned in the famitsu thingy that they are going to look to make AST/WHM a more viable pairing, that's the direction they should take instead of bringing out the nerf gun.

For the record, after playing all three healers I don't believe Scholar is overpowered, but I do agree that it's the best of the three current healers. And there's no problem with that, SE can balance as much as they want but one job is always going to be on top.

Rebalancing for healers that would make Noct.AST absolutely viable would probably need to wait until next expansion. No matter what they do with AST's current abilites, they can not make it compete with SCH efficiency in, well, everything. SCH will always have the advantage over GCD management compared to N.AST in the 3.x series due to the amount of lustrates it has at its disposal as well as indomnibility. It has a scary throughput of healing solely through the fairy whilst the SCH dps's that Noct.AST can not compete with. SCH has too much of the good stuff when it comes raid abilities, only in so much that it would then require the devs to acknowledge this fact when developing new healer classes and design said new classes with this in mind.

AST main issue has always been and will always be how it was designed in the first place, with two sects that mimic the style of SCH and WHM. It should have been first and foremost a unique healer its own right. And quite honestly the devs should have accepted that they should be designing a healer that would try and compete for one of the healing style positions in a raid group (i.e. main healer or the "off-healer") rather than what we have now which seems to be a nightmare to balance and will always be a nightmare to balance.

Yup, like Kabzy said, no problem about the sch actually. It's not OP. Maybe it's the other two who needs to be buffed a bit but nerfing isn't everytime the good solution. And people who's talking about the sch being too OP are happy to have it in their team, actually.
But i do agree that the job is really well made ! Yet, i only see two things that could be remade : the Silence useless skill of Selene, and Dissipation which is a bit too situational.

Saying that SCH isnt OP but then that the other two healers need to be buffed to it level is a little bit of an oxymoronic statement!

Raid group will always go for whats powerful. We see this with MCH at the moment vastly outweighing BRD in raids, and most groups wouldnt raid without a WAR, a class that many tank mains also suggest is OP compared to the other two tank available .

The fact that SCH position in raids is currently set in stone suggests the power of this class compared to the other healer looking to compete for this slot (Noct.AST). Many solutions to this: nerf SCH (worst solution), buff Noct.AST(very difficult but probably whats going to happen over time) or design the new class properly in the first place (best thing that should have happened).

[Llynd]

Nah, saying a class is OP means that it is OP for the current content, not compared to the others classes.
Yet, i agree with you ( and i've said it many times in other threads), they shall redesign the job of Ast. It can't immitate the other two in one single class.

And about the sch place in raids, we could say the same about WHM. i've never seen any ast who could mainheal like a whm.

[Parawill]

I still wished they had another version of Synastry where you could tether two people within a group and let them share a card CD. A 10% Bole would be freaking nice on double prey targets in AS8.