Astrologian 5.0 Discussion

[Elamys]

That's not an argument for healing in the shitty stance.

Because shield + HoTs is USUALLY better than HoTs + HoTs.

I'm not really here to napkin math whether or not it's currently the case that WHM + Diurnal AST is better than WHM + Nocturnal AST is better or not, but that's why.

[RyuDragnier]

That's not an argument for healing in the shitty stance.

That "shitty stance" allows the party to push harder because of shield protection, and allows for more errors. WHM/Diurnal leaves little room for errors and can often lead to the party dying to things they wouldn't have if they actually had shields to mitigate the damage.

[Miziliti]

Since 5.05 revived AST as a proper healer. I got it to lvl 80 and play test for awhile.

Healing wise, AST don't feel weak anymore, so that's a good thing, but there are still some areas need balancing.

Single card buff that lasts for 15s is still a waste of my time. Outside of seals fishing for divination, my malefic IV matters more than single card buff on the right person. Once I no longer care to fish for all 3 types of seals, the require effort for activating divination with just 2 types feels both smoother and actual usage becomes quite frequent.

Noct sect is just as inferior as it were in SB. Shield value staying the same as SB is too weak for my taste. Neutral sect can basically cover the situation where you feel shield is needed. Diurnal Celestial Intersection's shield is almost always available to cover tank buster which eliminates the benefit of Noct AB. Ironically, Noct CI's 15s regen aren't really enough to heal for anything with it's 30s cd. Noct sect has been removed from my bar for now. If two diurnal AST can take turn to neutral sect, noct sect really doesn't matter that much. Noct sect needs a greater rework.

[Seraphor]

Since 5.05 revived AST as a proper healer. I got it to lvl 80 and play test for awhile.

Healing wise, AST don't feel weak anymore, so that's a good thing, but there are still some areas need balancing.

Single card buff that lasts for 15s is still a waste of my time. Outside of seals fishing for divination, my malefic IV matters more than single card buff on the right person. Once I no longer care to fish for all 3 types of seals, the require effort for activating divination with just 2 types feels both smoother and actual usage becomes quite frequent.

Noct sect is just as inferior as it were in SB. Shield value staying the same as SB is too weak for my taste. Neutral sect can basically cover the situation where you feel shield is needed. Diurnal Celestial Intersection's shield is almost always available to cover tank buster which eliminates the benefit of Noct AB. Ironically, Noct CI's 15s regen aren't really enough to heal for anything with it's 30s cd. Noct sect has been removed from my bar for now. If two diurnal AST can take turn to neutral sect, noct sect really doesn't matter that much. Noct sect needs a greater rework.

Especially as CI's Diurnal shield is almost as strong as Noct A. Benefic.

But AST's regens don't stack like AST+WHM do, so with two ASTs is still best to alternate sects. Someone has to draw the short straw.

[Suishouhime]

It's surprising how you keep reading here on all forums (JP/EN/FR/DE) aswell as in other fansites that people just want the old card system back.

Vast majority don't even contemplate fixes or changes for the actual card system but a whole rollback to the old one.

Pretty much. The consensus I've seen is that, while AST is now viable enough for you to be able to heal with it, the class structure still isn't such that you want to heal with it.

I dunno. I just want to go back to playing my main. Kinda depressing to know that I might never again get to play the class I had such fun with for years. Hopefully we'll have some confirmation on something before 6.0, at least.

[Lumy]

Well, that leads me. To the next question then: now that 5.05 has rolled out, what's the next release schedule plan?

Or in other words, given the strong consensus that people just want the old card system back, is there ANY hope to get some hard changes to AST before the next expansion?

[Arcari]

Anyone that's still holding on to hope that the old card system is coming back... I don't know what to tell you at this point.

[NorthernLadMSP]

It is truly hilarious to me that in a game where 95% of the population is DPS obsessed, we have people crying over the fact that all of the cards are now damage up cards.

[BahamutxD]

All I know is this card system won't be around for longer than 1 expansion. Not without a big rework atleast.


What are the options for 6.0 for this system. To add a new card that basically does the same with a new skin? To add 1-2 more actions/system increasing the already large amount of buttons dedicated to cards? To add different effects to each card which is basically a half rollback to the old system?

Part of this issue is Divination, which is an skill that serves the only purpose to burn 3 seals (cards) into a bigger damage buff (redundant as that is what we are doing all the time) - Why are we wasting a skill/hotbar slot for this? This is forcing us to have the 7th skill Undraw. Thats 2 skills that can be optimized into something else.

The following is just something I came up with after 5 mins of thought. I'm sure game designers can to better.

· Make Minor Arcanas act as divination once you have 3 seals? Whenever you have 3 seals, you can burn a card into "Empowered" Minor Arcana and use it as it were Divination. Lady could had an AoE effect and Lord a single target more powerfull effect.

· Remove the melee/ranged limitations on cards and make seals reset to 0 if you don't get the best combination (3 different seals - they could add other combinations...). This promotes the use of Minor Arcana which should be changed to have 2 different effects, just like the last suggestion, one AoE and the other single but more powerfull.

· Lastly - Fusion Draw+Play like it's been suggested several times and we just cutted 3 card skills out leaving 4 skills for a system that works similar to the actual one but more streamlined/fluid.

· Additionally they could even remove Redraw and let RNG do it's thing but that may not be liked by many, it would add more pressence to Minor Arcanas though.


If they wanted to make things easier and more fluid they could have done it but they clearly searched for something else this time (dumb down AST card system for easier balance) and the result is the dissaster we got.

[Seraphor]

There is still no need to use Undraw for anything.

And Divination is superior to hoping for an expanded Balance.
You're consistently pumping out your single target buffs every 30s, and building up to an AoE every 2m.

Before, you were forced to choose between those, which could mean you use NO cards for 1 or 2 minutes, before you use a single Expanded Balance.
This made it very inconsistent and unreliable.