Changelist for ast ^_^

[Eloah]

Just to get this out of the way I play as a Scholar, so what I am about to say might sound a bit biased, but here goes.

Most of the buffs to AST are good I guess, the card buffs help mitigate RNG a bit better and they got a major boost to their potency. But I have a slight issue with the Shields. A normal AST can now create a shield that is 170% of what the initial heal is, not to mention the initial heal will be 10% stronger as well, plus the spell is instant, and has a lower cost. I feel like Scholar is losing the thing that makes it special, it's Shield. AST is dangerously close to having a doubled shield like SCH, but SCH only get it if Adlo crits, which is a bitch. I am not saying SCHs aren't still in a good place, but the whole appeal of SCH is shields. I feel like SCH needs some minor adjustment down the road, nothing big, but something, mostly with Dissipation. Think about it we have to kill out poor fairy to touch AST shields now. (Also admittedly I may just be projecting because I was really hoping for the Egi-Glamour T.T)

But the big thing I think they missed, is the ability for AST/SCH to play together both using shields, they should of made it that the stronger shield can override the other, that would be the biggest and best change in my opinion.

[gumas]

Yoshida to all AST player in upcoming patch 3.4

[Rongway]

Yeah i think it's a far more useful proc!

I will really miss the Instant Benefic II though. Having that proc was like a free pass to throw out two more gravities without caring how low the tank got.

[Taika]

I havnt parsed a sch, but wouldn't balance either raid wide or extended single target trump sch damage?

Assuming a 2000 dps character we are talking about 400 dps increase for single and aprox 1200 dps for raid wide + Ast dps. I know that there is some rng but with redraw over 2 draw sets you have a 50% chance ( each set either spread or royal road)

You might be actually right, but my math isn't good enough to claim either way with 100% confidence. I checked FFXIVlogs for SCH vs AST DPS on A8S and the best SCH had around 300 higher DPS than the best AST. If the group DPS is 10k for a fight and an AST would have AoE balance up for 1/3 of the fight, then AST would bring a higher DPS buff than the SCH, right?

In any case, AST+SCH brings out the biggest DPS benefit, but they did so before the patch as well. And WHM has still the biggest healing power especially for AoE and is the safest option, especially for progression. Will be interesting to see if there will be more groups with WHM+AST now.

[Ceasaria]

Bole is still useless. No Tank will map his cooldowns with taking in mind he can or can not get a non reliable mitigation cooldown.

Useless ? You can make the mitigation skyrocket on a tank or on the group
It's so much heal you don't have to do and so much DPS you can squeeze before heal

Yep, nowadays the major cards for me are Arrow and Balance.
At 3.4, it will be Bole and Balance.
If you have a Bole, just give it to your main tank (because auto attack from boss still do a lot of damages) and go go DPS !

[zuzu-bq]

I will really miss the Instant Benefic II though. Having that proc was like a free pass to throw out two more gravities without caring how low the tank got.

Yeah but it was a nuisance for some career AST on progression and would make them waste a GCD on pure overhealing sometimes not only that it was also a waster proc on Lightspeed.
The critical proc is not only far more usefull but synergizes with Synastry really well, good ASTs will know how to take advantage of it.

[loreleidiangelo]

I'm always happy to see AST buffs...but always overwhelmingly disappointed when none of them are major overhauls to what is an extremely clunky hybridization system. Potency bandaids wouldn't be too bad if they just affected Noct, but those card changes seem to hurt WHM more than they help Noct AST, IMO.

If I'll be frank, I think the biggest reason AST is still under-represented in content is just because either a lot of people don't know how to play it, or a lot of raid teams THINK that no one knows how to play it. I feel like a lot of these buffs are kind of knee-jerk handling to a problem that would have eventually been self-correcting (at least on the AST vs WHM side...AST vs SCH is a whole other beast). Cards weren't really underwhelming because their output was too low...they were underwhelming because at the end of the day, a healer's job revolves around pre-planning, and the very nature of the Draw system goes against that. I'd rather see more adjustments to card RNG mitigation rather than SUPER POWERFUL MONDO CARDS...the two times in a fight you're lucky enough to get one.

So on that note, loving the Redraw change. Don't see why Balance needed such a ridiculous buff when it's the most-desired AST card already, but hey, I'll take it lol. Hoping 4.0 might give some new card interactivity tools though, to help what is the only real unique aspect of the job outside of Synastry really shine.

[Nekotee]

If I'll be frank, I think the biggest reason AST is still under-represented in content is just because either a lot of people don't know how to play it, or a lot of raid teams THINK that no one knows how to play it.

It's more than that
It's people not getting it on how to play it...
people watching people struggling to play and then thinking oh... the job is bad (when it's the player fault)
people closed-minded that stay in the 2.0 meta of WHM+SCH
and also people that forgot that 2.07 got many potency change

I got someone who told me recently "ast is bad because they have lower potency" like... What ?

it's really an accumulation, just like DRK was feeling squishy when in fact it was only because those were DPS > DRK transition... and old DPS do not have a clue about defensive Cooldown rotation

[basketofseals]

It's more than that It's people not getting it on how to play it...
people watching people struggling to play and then thinking oh... the job is bad (when it's the player fault)
people closed-minded that stay in the 2.0 meta of WHM+SCH
and also people that forgot that 2.07 got many potency change

I got someone who told me recently "ast is bad because they have lower potency" like... What ?

it's really an accumulation, just like DRK was feeling squishy when in fact it was only because those were DPS > DRK transition... and old DPS do not have a clue about defensive Cooldown rotation

What makes AST special? DRK and MCH were welcomed and in fact preferred to PLD/BRD on 3.0.

The DRK's being squishy was an amalgam of things. The starting level 30 gear they give you is awful and gave you no accessories, so almost every DRK was undergeared. At level cap we had lots of people confused about how to balance MP/Grit/Darkside which compounded with what you said as well as people going for full slaying accessories.

[Fyce]

What makes AST special? DRK and MCH were welcomed and in fact preferred to PLD/BRD on 3.0.

The DRK's being squishy was an amalgam of things. The starting level 30 gear they give you is awful and gave you no accessories, so almost every DRK was undergeared. At level cap we had lots of people confused about how to balance MP/Grit/Darkside which compounded with what you said as well as people going for full slaying accessories.

On release, Diurnal AST was worse than WHM, and Nocturnal AST was worse than SCH. This showed both on paper and in practice.

It was due to a bad balancing of its cooldown timers and potencies, as well as overall healing power. In short: AST was designed to be able to either replace a WHM or a SCH, but never achieved to be roughly as useful as the two jobs it wanted to replace.
So, it never really took off.

On the other hand, MCH had a better DPS and utility than BRD from the get go, and the DRK's toolkit was better suited for Gordias, making it better in every way compared to PLD.
AST wasn't better than anyone. It wasn't even on the same level as any other healer.

The 3.4 buffs are here to finally allow AST to perform at the same level as WHM/SCH, making it able to fit in any team composition. It was supposed to be able to do that from the beginning... but it took more than a year to reach that point (such a long time that people are actually still wondering "is it good enough now?").