AST buffs in 3.4 Changes to Barries and Cards.

[KarstenS]

Only Deployment Tactics and Adlo crits are "superior" to what AST has to offer.

There is way more than this.

Best example where I really feel what Noct AST is lacking is in A8S (we are running WHM/Noct AST combo). I also think, they had not really looked at how this combination of healers is working in this turn.

The first two phases are no big issue.

But starting with Brute Justice the utility of the Noct AST is falling far behind the SCH.

While the SCH has deployment Tactics (perferred on WAR in defiance + Convalescence) OR Succor + Fey Covenant for the rounds of short-, long, short needles, the Noct AST has nothing else than Aspected Helios and in one of the rounds he can refresh Aspected Helios while under Lightspeed.

We had alot of deaths before we figured out an mostly successfull way to workaround this missing amount of migitation, including def CDs, Chakra, no Blood for Blood during needles after the first intermission and finally some VIT5 materia for classes without def CDs or Chakra.

One thing that also hurts is the way Collective Unconscious is working.

The big point of Sacred Soil is: Its fully separate. You place it and can continue with other actions. You can refresh Succor/Adlo, heal or deal damage while the shield is up. Also you can use Whispering Dawn at a different time than Sacred Soil. Collective Unconscious is Scared Soil and Wispering Dawn in one ability and you are not able to perform any other action during the time the shield is up. BTW: Whispering Dawn can be buffed by Mantra and Fey Illumination. As Collective Unconscious is an ability, it will not get buffed.

Big point for Fey Illumination: It is buffing both healers. So Divine Seal or the Buff of Synastry can be used another time.

Also: A SCH can stack all his migitation together the same time or in a combination you need it (looking at the very last phase of A8S, where I think we will not be able to survive the same amount of time, like a SCH could make it possible).