Changelist for ast ^_^

[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?").

[Fernosaur]

Snip.

WHY ARE YOUR POSTS ALWAYS SO ELEGANT AND SENSIBLE?

ilu

[basketofseals]

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?").

Do you think it'd take massive overbuffing for people to be willing to pick up AST? I remember the hate for DRK being QUITE loud even a month in. AST at least had people waffling back and forth on it.

[Fyce]

Do you think it'd take massive overbuffing for people to be willing to pick up AST? I remember the hate for DRK being QUITE loud even a month in. AST at least had people waffling back and forth on it.

Hard to answer. If you take a look at Yona87's post just above yours, you'll see someone who's still stuck in 2015, thinking that N.AST is crap and who was probably driven by what the community was saying rather than personal experience. So, AST being played or not will mostly depends on people's willingness to not follow this old trend.

The best thing would be for the World First clear on Alexander Savage: Creator to be done with a N.AST, so people will think that AST is playable, or even overpowered, and will start to play it.
People, and players in particular, are idiots. They'll play what they are told is good, even if they don't even play at a high enough level for it to make a difference. Since AST was labeled as complete trash, and that the lastest buffs weren't enough to make that image go away in people's mind (even if D.AST was actually quite capable in reality), I cannot say for certain that the buffs alone will be able to wash away that tarnished reputation of AST.

It's sad. To break that vicious circle ("I will not play AST because people say it's bad, because people don't play it enough to know it's good, because people say it's bad, because people don't play it enough to know it's good...") it'd only take people to actually play it in order to raise awareness and the general skill level of AST players. Because right now, one of the biggest issue is that since "nobody" plays AST, people didn't had the chance to get used to how it plays paired with a WHM (and SCH to some extand, but D.AST is already almost a thing), so I'm guessing that's part of why they are scared of that job to begin with.