Astro is Sadness

[HyoMinPark]

I really feel bad for astros right now. Very few of the big problems with the class were fixed at all.

I mean, the potency buffs mean that they hopefully fixed some of the issues AST was having with just healing. Divination was brought down to a cooldown more reflective of what it gave the party, and Sleeve Draw’s change may lessen the double-weaving hot mess that Divination/Sleeve Draw windows were. While CU wasn’t addressed (why, I have no idea), COpp needed to be changed because it was a joke of a skill with its potency and 120s recast. I think Horoscope could still be changed to detonate the effect automatically or function like the new PI, but at least it got a potency buff, so we’ll see how it fairs in the fights coming out.

I still think they can address Noct Sect to make it more competitive with SCH shields so that a WHM/Noct AST isn’t a terrible thing to have. But I never expected Noct changes in a x.05 balance patch. Gameplay changes won’t come until a main patch or the next expansion—hopefully sooner, but it may be a pipe dream to hope that they actually make Noct Sect better.

I still prefer the old card system, and I don’t think AST’s rDPS will match WHM’s even with the changes to Divination. We’ll see for sure when people start clearing Savage how much closer the two are, but at least it won’t feel like an absolute pain to heal with it anymore (at least, that’s my hope). There was just no reason for it to have to work twice as hard at healing compared to the other two healers.

This new system keeps that sense of buffing and supporting your party and knocks out the annoyance of drawings dozens of useless cards. I can sit here and pretend I used Bole or Arrow on DPS, but that would be a lie, Balance was all that mattered, everything else was just me compromising between worse buffs or no buffs at all.

Except the addition of the old Minor Arcana made those “useless cards” not useless at all: Minor Arcana it for a Lord for free damage or for a Lady for a free oGCD heal. AOE Balance was desired for speedkills and top-tier runs, but the other cards still saw uses—AOE Spear and even AOE Arrow were common to see in logs if you didn’t get the AOE Balance, and a Spear on a BRD/MNK or Arrow on a SAM/BLM were acceptable plays as well. Now the cards are all baby Balances that feel braindead by comparison. Not having Royal Road to enhance, extend, or expand the effects also doesn’t help.