Astrologian 5.0 Discussion

[Chortle]

I think it just takes some getting used to. The cards themselves don't seem super rewarding, but I feel Sleeve Draw and Minor Arcana when mastered will show the true power of the new astro.

The Aspected nerfs are what really surprised me. The first dungeon went smoothly with small pulls since it was everyone's first time. On my second run through I had a group of 3 players that were grinding for xp and a tank that pulled huge groups. This is where the Aspected nerfs really stood out. Healing is going to be harder from here on out it seems. No more throwing hots on the tank and playing dps for prolonged durations. You will NEED to use nearly every aspect of your kit in these large pull situations. The same could be said before with new content and possibly under geared tanks, but with your nerfed hots it's all the more difficult.

MP management is using Lucid and Lightspeed (esp. for aspected heals) on cooldown. That's it.

[heynowjose]

i really dont like the new cards. they just feel so... useless. Or as others have said not really rewarding. Aside from that I guess i'm ok with the healing itself. But the cards are just boring

[Jinorah]

It may not be the best changes (RIP cards) but at least were not Scholar...

[Zandalr]

I think a lot of people are comparing pre ShB healing geared characters to healing new dungeons in levelling (low) gear post ShB. on top of the fact that SE have said more healing will be required for all healers, it should be expected that healing is tougher than it was before. it has been designed that way. Reading posts where people are complaining that they are having to use Essential dignity (ED) and light speed to heal the tanks is a baffling mentality - as that is what the spells are there for - to heal when its tough going . With the hyperspeed trait and 2 charges of ED from lvl 78 onwards - it makes lightspeed a 1.5 mid CD if we are using our ED spell regularly, which is a huge mana saver if used and not saved throughout the fight. Lucid dream will take some getting used to to not be afraid to press it on its 1 min (and lower potency) CD, and we do have a lot of healing spells that cost no mana, so using and not saving them is important.
With more time healing i think having less to think about with the card system is not such a bad thing - although when in a dungeon with 2 dps both melee or 2 ranged can be annoying. sometimes having to minor arcana dps the tank!
using synergy i feel a lot of people forget about. Using that on the tank and healing them is a great HPS cooldown for tank healing heavy situations

[Irohma]

Sad. After seeing the preview of the AST I've noticed the changes were bad, but reading you guys here it seems it is even worse. I am yet to return to it (gotta play the main scenario as DPS first, but mained SCH and AST previously), but it seems my favorite moment playing in a dungeon is gone.

Gods, I loved playing AST, picking a bole with extended duration, throwing it on the tank along with aspected benefic and helios and bumping those durations with Time Dillation and Celestial Opposition. After that it was nearly 2min of the tank auto-healing during pulls while I played with the cards and used my Malefic/Gravity. No more of that it seems. I always felt really helpful when throwing an Ewer at some rezzed healer in the party or in a DRK o PLD even. Heck, I typically held Ewer of all cards during dungeon plays. No more of that too.

I'll try my hand at SCH again this time around. Although it seems it got butchered a lot too. At least it got rid of the button bloat it had.

[Blueyes]

It bothers me that the cards have lost their identity. It's been pointed out that you can determine whether a card will be better suited for a melee or ranged DPS based on the outline color for each card. (Blue for melee, red for ranged.) The only information you need to look at are the outline color and the seal symbol. This means that the individual identity of each card (Arrow, Balance, Bole, Ewer, Spear, and Spire) could be completely removed and we wouldn't lose required information to play the job in its current state.

[MPNZ]

I think a lot of people are comparing pre ShB healing geared characters to healing new dungeons in levelling (low) gear post ShB. on top of the fact that SE have said more healing will be required for all healers, it should be expected that healing is tougher than it was before. it has been designed that way. Reading posts where people are complaining that they are having to use Essential dignity (ED) and light speed to heal the tanks is a baffling mentality - as that is what the spells are there for - to heal when its tough going . With the hyperspeed trait and 2 charges of ED from lvl 78 onwards - it makes lightspeed a 1.5 mid CD if we are using our ED spell regularly, which is a huge mana saver if used and not saved throughout the fight. Lucid dream will take some getting used to to not be afraid to press it on its 1 min (and lower potency) CD, and we do have a lot of healing spells that cost no mana, so using and not saving them is important.
With more time healing i think having less to think about with the card system is not such a bad thing - although when in a dungeon with 2 dps both melee or 2 ranged can be annoying. sometimes having to minor arcana dps the tank!
using synergy i feel a lot of people forget about. Using that on the tank and healing them is a great HPS cooldown for tank healing heavy situations

Nopers! This is totes what healing is like without Protection spells and buffs, and just a lot of abilities removed, pushed into higher levels, or outright changed unnecessarily, which happens every expansion...

[xxvaynxx]

I like the new astro. Love buffing people.

[Cyrocco]

In all honesty, after four years with the same card system, was anyone actively thinking about what they were doing with the cards? I don't really like that they've all been made into the same thing, there's definitely a better way to have gone about it, but the cards were by no means situational. If you're in a raid, from the most devoted Balance-worshiping Astrologian to a level 30 newbie, you knew Balance was the best card to Spread. After that, Spear and Arrow are acceptable if nothing else is coming around, or if you're a more active Astrologian, you would cast Spear and Arrow as they showed up, along with Balance whenever it showed up. In a raid, these were all pretty much locked into being Spread to the party.

Then we go to dungeons, anything that can go faster without ruining a rotation takes Arrow, anything that especially benefits from Criticals takes Spear, any DPS can take Balance. Ewer is burned or used to fix MP issues, Bole is basically always tossed.

The way people assigned their cards was already decided by the time they reached higher levels and knew what they preferred to put on each party member. Some few circumstances where a card appeared and fit a rare situation just don't make up enough of the Draws to be considered true variation.

Then we have what happened to Celestial Opposition, which was likely changed more as a response to the addition of Neutral Sect, and the ability to turn the potential 10-15 second +14% damage buff on each DPS into a 25 second buff. But it's honestly another thing I haven't particularly missed, whether I was using it to extend tank regens or lengthen spread skills, I gain the same amount from casting one of the new oGCDs, or just casting Divination after buffing all of the DPS.

We lost some Mana Regen, we lost some card theming, and trimmed the Time mechanics, and let's be honest, Astrologian had no claim to Time spells in the first place, but that doesn't suddenly make AST horrible.

[heynowjose]

In all honesty, after four years with the same card system, was anyone actively thinking about what they were doing with the cards? I don't really like that they've all been made into the same thing, there's definitely a better way to have gone about it, but the cards were by no means situational. If you're in a raid, from the most devoted Balance-worshiping Astrologian to a level 30 newbie, you knew Balance was the best card to Spread. After that, Spear and Arrow are acceptable if nothing else is coming around, or if you're a more active Astrologian, you would cast Spear and Arrow as they showed up, along with Balance whenever it showed up. In a raid, these were all pretty much locked into being Spread to the party.

Then we go to dungeons, anything that can go faster without ruining a rotation takes Arrow, anything that especially benefits from Criticals takes Spear, any DPS can take Balance. Ewer is burned or used to fix MP issues, Bole is basically always tossed.

The way people assigned their cards was already decided by the time they reached higher levels and knew what they preferred to put on each party member. Some few circumstances where a card appeared and fit a rare situation just don't make up enough of the Draws to be considered true variation.

Then we have what happened to Celestial Opposition, which was likely changed more as a response to the addition of Neutral Sect, and the ability to turn the potential 10-15 second +14% damage buff on each DPS into a 25 second buff. But it's honestly another thing I haven't particularly missed, whether I was using it to extend tank regens or lengthen spread skills, I gain the same amount from casting one of the new oGCDs, or just casting Divination after buffing all of the DPS.

We lost some Mana Regen, we lost some card theming, and trimmed the Time mechanics, and let's be honest, Astrologian had no claim to Time spells in the first place, but that doesn't suddenly make AST horrible.

no ones saying its horrible. the cards and their buffs dont feel rewarding and the cooldown for Divination is way too long.

You can;t deny that no ones winning a fight bc you buffed the party 6% for 15 seconds every three minutes. The buff is pretty pointless and it's the only mechanic we have now. It's all we're supposed to be striving for.