AST buffs in 3.4 Changes to Barries and Cards.

[zuzu-bq]

Diurnal AST is actually fine and went as strong if not stronger than WHM in this tier thanks to many Darkness damage out there and his power to stack mitigations with SCH even when in Diurnal Sect.

[Valknut]

Expected, AST still is suboptimal. I'm actually shocked it's taking them so long.

I kind of agree, if I run 4 mans I take WHM or SCH for dps, but if I pug a raid I go AST because no matter what other healer I get I fill the blank. I mean I could go WHM for more dmg an better raid heals, or I could go SCH for same, an probs end up dps'ing the whole raid, but I kind of like having the option.

[Nihility]

I imagine the royal road stuff will be left alone.

Several of the cards are pretty awkward though.
Bole can be useful but it's never ever necessary and the odds of getting it at a useful time is pretty low
spire and ewer are both kind of pointless as well, outside of AoE in normal dungeons, no one ever runs out of resources. About the only actual use for them is if you happen to get lucky on the draw right after someone needed a raise
spear seems to be actively disliked by most people and is relegated to "lower my own card draw cooldown"
arrow gets the same reaction to spear most of the time for me, dps just complain it messes up their rotation. Black mages moan it made them cast fire before the mp was fully up etc... honestly the only job I've found that likes arrow unconditionally is warrior
and of course balance, like drawing an Ace the one big amazing card that actually makes a difference

definitely should look into effects that are more generically useful such as crit chance, or a DoT/HoT proc

[Atoli]

I honestly felt that Diurnal AST was in a pretty good place now. Messing with the cards only has me worried, not happy at all so far.
I REALLY hope it's just a simple matter of potency/duration increase, no complete overhaul ;-;

As for changes to shields, well, we all knew they'd be coming at some point since Noct AST was so inferior to SCH.
Not much to mess up there.

[Rennies]

I honestly felt that Diurnal AST was in a pretty good place now. Messing with the cards only has me worried, not happy at all so far.
I REALLY hope it's just a simple matter of potency/duration increase, no complete overhaul ;-;

As for changes to shields, well, we all knew they'd be coming at some point since Noct AST was so inferior to SCH.
Not much to mess up there.

Let's be honest, there is no reason for Spire/Ewer to function the way they do right now. Nobody wants it in 4 man content because the AoE damage boost effect is much less valuable if one player is playing really poorly (unless they constantly play with people bad at MP/TP management) and nobody wants more than a single one to Royal Road it in 8 man content. And then there's Spear's list of issues. Bole is fine the way it is IMO, just really niche, but feels noticeable (more so in 4 man content).

[basketofseals]

Expected, AST still is suboptimal. I'm actually shocked it's taking them so long.

It's probably really hard because the class lacks a proper identity. I kinda wish they'd just nuke Noct and tunnel focus on the regen/buff/time manipulation aspects of it.

It's kinda two jobs sharing the same kit, and we all know how much SE didn't like handling SMN/SCH balance in 2.0

[ADVSS]

just let em switch sects in combat, already. Bam Astrologian is born, finally

[zuzu-bq]

just let em switch sects in combat, already. Bam Astrologian is born, finally

They already said they considered it but would be too strong for current cotent. So maybe 4.0.

[Fyce]

As for changes to shields, well, we all knew they'd be coming at some point since Noct AST was so inferior to SCH.

Common misconception.
Nocturnal Aspected Benefic' shield is ~14% more potent than Adlo's (341 potency shield vs. 300), and Nocturnal Aspected Helios is ~26% better than Succor (189 potency shield vs 150).
Not to mention the fact that Aspected Benefic is instant, which is a big deal in itself.

Only Deployment Tactics and Adlo crits are "superior" to what AST has to offer. But this is relative as Deployment Tactics is only used on specific scenarios to reduce raid damage, while AST can just heal through that (unless very specific scenarios where the HP pool of the party isn't enough to survive a mechanic without DT, but that's quite the exception), and as Crit adlos are unreliable because of RNG, so in the end they just serve as a way to ease a "heal check" mechanic and improve DPS as you can switch in Cleric without having to care about healing someone, the shield already serving that purpose... but you still never plan your strategy around them, it's just "nice" when they happen.

So, if they buff N.AST's shield to the point where DT and Adlo crits aren't impactful enough to make the cut, the "shielding apsect" of healers might very well be put in the hands of N.AST.
For example, if Nocturnal Aspected Helios's shield passes the 200 potency, then it'll become just 100 potency away from a DT'd Adlo, which is quite scary if you think about it. Crit Adlo with Deployment tactics will obviously remains the most epic thing to pull off, but way too unreliable to take in consideration when comparing the two jobs.

I think we'll have to wait until we see the patch notes, because right now there's absolutly no way to even try to speculate about how much N.AST will get buffed. I don't think they will make the AST better than the SCH in the off-heal spot, but they'll probably be very close. We'll see.

[Rennies]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._for_patch_34/

Pack it up, boys and girls and everyone in between and outside. Ast is gonna be the new Scholar.