Astrologian 5.0 Discussion

[Shurrikhan]

Anyone else wishes they'd change the seal gain from: "Seals can only be obtained when in combat" to "Seals can only be obtained when your target is in combat"
It is cumbersome to having to cast 1 spell just to get be placed into combat before you can play a card without wasting it.

I'd prefer neither requirement... but I'd still also prefer all combat-only abilities were reworked and simply drained their resources provided their recast times where out of combat (i.e. Infuriate drops 5 of its gauge provided per 5 seconds starting after 10 seconds outside of combat).

[Sanghelios]

Anyone else wishes they'd change the seal gain from: "Seals can only be obtained when in combat" to "Seals can only be obtained when your target is in combat"
It is cumbersome to having to cast 1 spell just to get be placed into combat before you can play a card without wasting it.

It would be just as bad. You are drawing one card before every pull and you dont want to mess around with your opener just to make sure your target is in combat.

[Boomsmash]

Besides, ASTs cards are it's additional dps.
Divination would be the equivalent of something like Afflatus Misery.

Wrong. AST's Malific 4 is potency 240. WHM's Glare is 300 potency, that's 25% more. AST cannot close that gap, it's 6% buff from unminored cards, and 8% with a minored. Even if those stack they don't get you there, Divination doesn't count as it pushes everyone including the WHM in the other healer slot in the full party up higher. And that's just one skill. WHM got synergies, to heal and harm, great. Where is AST's synergies within their own skill set?

What, exactly, is the draw for an AST to be wanted? It looks like "heals are weak, damage is weak, we just bring you for Balance botting and will kick you to the curb if you can't keep buffs up constantly."

[Sanghelios]

Wrong. AST's Malific 4 is potency 240. WHM's Glare is 300 potency, that's 25% more. AST cannot close that gap, it's 6% buff from unminored cards, and 8% with a minored. Even if those stack they don't get you there, Divination doesn't count as it pushes everyone including the WHM in the other healer slot in the full party up higher. And that's just one skill. WHM got synergies, to heal and harm, great. Where is AST's synergies within their own skill set?

What, exactly, is the draw for an AST to be wanted? It looks like "heals are weak, damage is weak, we just bring you for Balance botting and will kick you to the curb if you can't keep buffs up constantly."

If you want to compare the potencies, you will have to take into account that malefics cast time is much faster than WHMs glare.

[Seraphor]

Divination doesn't count as it pushes everyone including the WHM in the other healer slot in the full party up higher.

Of course it counts. All of that additional rDPS provided by Diviniation, even that applied to the WHM, is directly attributable to the AST for using Divination...

Besides, you're talking about minor potency differences here. Potencies change all the time, we will be getting a ton of potency changes in a couple of weeks.

[Boomsmash]

If you want to compare the potencies, you will have to take into account that malefics cast time is much faster than WHMs glare.

But the GCD/recast time is identical, so a shorter cast time only gets AST some move/ a oGCD. I guess one could argue that the movement ability is worth the potency decrease, but that only means you can reapply Combust (which doesn't have the initial damage hit of Aero/Dia even) or an instant heal. Is it worth it? Not sure.

[Kheoss]

I am loving Ast at the moment. On controller, the weaving and handling cards for me between a benefic or malefic is what I semi lost with Scholar. Only complaint I have is our dome skill blows having to stand there in a position for it to do something vs throwing it out on the party (Something which I will need to learn to do better as right now I am even contemplating having it on my bar). I'm cool with dps changes. The card system I feel is basic and they will hopefully work on it, overall the generic system is a good starting point. From what I am seeing in content on all of the classes I've toyed around with in ShB they are wanting to take away from staring at hotbars towards a more visual que game with not as many aoe telegraphy indicators and actually putting systems in place where you must watch the boss/room. Potencies will change in terms of healing and perhaps even some cooldowns. I don't see them completely adding in a new skill until next expansion but hopefully they can tune the skills like divination and collective unconsciousness some.

[Blueyes]

Seals don't really feel good to use. Needing to be engaged with the enemy to gain a seal can lead to awkward moments when you want to play a card, but you must first use another action. It also feels bad when, ounce all three seals have been acquired, there's nothing left to do but mindlessly Minor Arcana every card that's drawn while waiting on Divination.

Divination also has a convoluted execution phased. In order for a Scholar to apply a 10% bonus to critical hit, all they have to do is hit a single off-GCD. In order for Astrologian to apply a similar beneficial effect for the party, seven off-GCD actions must be used at minimum. Only the first of which can be done before the fight begins.

Personally, I think seals should be scrapped and Divination should just be expanded Royal Road. Activate Divination and the next card played will apply to the target and all nearby party members. Since we're allowed to at least draw cards outside of combat, all we would have to do then is pull a desired card and then we're all set to apply an AoE buff to the party the moment the fight starts.

And yeah, an adjustment like this would work best alongside the restoration of old card effects. I'll share my thoughts regarding what I hope to see.

Arrow - Skill Speed/Spell Speed (increases attack speed by X%)
Balance - Direct Hit (Increases direct hit rate by X%)
Spear - Critical Hit (Increases critical hit rate by X%.)
Bole - Damage Reduction (Reduces damage taken by X%.)
Ewer - Healing Received (Increases own HP recovery via healing magic by X%.)
Spire - Damage Reflection (Delivers an attack with a potency of X every time damage is suffered.)

This is my own take on how I would like to see the cards reworked. The idea is that half of the cards are designed to be given to DPS while the other half are designed for tanks.

Regarding Ewer, some may wonder why this no longer restores MP. This goes along with the change SE made across the board which was the removal of actions that provided MP to party members. An affect akin to Convalescence has been provided in its stead.

This take on Spire is particular interesting to me. It would function similar to Radiant Shield that Summoner provided. If tuned appropriated, Spire could be the card with the highest damage contribution for large dungeon pulls.

I want to add that I miss the old Minor Arcana effects as well. However, unlike the old system that left what you drew up to chance, it could be guaranteed to give Lord or Lady depending on the card that is "consumed" similar to the current system. If you draw the Arrow, Balance, or Spear and think "I don't want that" it's probably because you wanted a card that would help the tank. So using Minor Arcana when you have one of those three cards would always grant Lady of Crowns. Likewise, if you draw the Bole, Ewer, or Spire and think "I don't want that" it's probably because you wanted damage. The use of Minor Arcana with any of those three cards would always grant Lord of Crowns.

[Boomsmash]

Celestial Intersection: Applies the effect that's opposite of your chosen sect.
Celestial Opposition: Applies the effect that corresponds to your chosen sect.

Can we get a dev to queue these up for having their names or effects swapped? Because that's just bad.

[kyuxel]

I miss stun from celestial opposition, please put it back as additional effect.

I also don't like minor arcana and sleeve draw.
Make minor arcana share recast with draw and give 50/50 lord and lady on use, so I don't need to use draw then minor arcana. Make lord/lady back to dps/heal ogcd again.
Sleeve draw should immediately give random 3 seals upon use and reduce divination cd.