Patch 5.05 Astrologian is still frustrating, stressful, and disappointing

[Seraphor]

I played AST from 70 to 80 before the 5.05 buffs.
It was fine. People are overreacting.

[Brandedblade]

Outside of the initial opener and Sleeve Draw windows I don't really understand the issue with cards being busywork. You have a 30 second window with each card, and single weaving space on every Malefic in which to utilize said window.

I will admit that the opener is hectic, and I understand the target swapping. being worse on controller, but once you get past that you have ample space to play the cards.

[Brandedblade]

I have to say you all are making me dread leveling my ast at this point.

It's not anywhere near as terrible as people here are making it out to be. The only truly hectic part of it is the opener, and even then you can just ignore the seals and focus on getting divination out on time. Its only a 1-2% damage loss if you cant get all three seals and your future divinations will be easier to setup.

[IanFrench]

SE would be blind if they cannot see the AST problem right now. And if they really gonna wait until 6.0 to fix it, I probably won't keep subscription while waiting for that.

[Seoulstar]

I played AST from 70 to 80 before the 5.05 buffs.
It was fine. People are overreacting.

Try not to pass off a personal opinion as a fact~

[Hatstand]

RE: Divination prep -
I believe this was intentional to prevent the "pre-loading" of cards prior to starting a fight. Sure, maybe you got lucky with a Balance + Ewer/Spire and were good to go within 60s, or maybe you sat there cursing RNG for 5 minutes as the game refused to give you anything but Boles. But either way, you would wait, because having that expanded Balance in your pocket at the beginning was just too good. They did the same thing with SCH aetherflow by making it useless out of combat (see also: WAR Infuriate). SE doesn't want us "prepping" like that anymore, and I can see where they're coming from. It sucked knowing that with a SCH in the group you had a full minute wait time before you could restart a fight, and likewise with AST you could sit there for several minutes before you would actual start a fight, only to do it again later if there was a wipe. But even doing it just once was still boring and unfun, on top of giving AST a major advantage over the other healers.
Now, everyone's on the same equal footing when they start. Everyone needs to wait for combat to start before generating their respective resources.

Except they could have solved this in other ways without making all our resources feel buggy to use. For example: make aetherflow/seals/other prep skills unavailable inside the circle you spawn into the duty in, and make the boss automatically aggro (if not pulled first) 30 seconds after the first person steps out of the circle. Now you have all your abilities, you won't unexpectedly not get a seal because the game hasn't realised you're in combat yet, and you won't be frantically mashing the aetherflow button as the last mob in a pull dies a second before aetherflow comes off cooldown, and no one has to wait more than 30 seconds for setup abilities.

[Violet_Galaxy]

Bare in mind you have to think and apply all of this while dealing with an over ambitious tank or a tank/DPS that likes to stand in things and thus you can forget about fiddling with your cards as it's Aspected Benefic+Benefic II spam for you along with Earthly Star and prayers that your tank doesn't fall and your DPS is using their aoes. It's funny how they put a lot more emphasis on the card system but most of the time it's far too dangerous to sometimes risk it otherwise you're doing finger gymnastics. Now it's not all doom and gloom of course; I've been in numerous amounts of good parties that really know their roles and AST has plenty of time to play cards and DPS. I only wish they made the cards count outside of battle; I've lost count how many seals I thought I had but recently found out that that person has to be engaged in battle for it to count. That change is a total bummer.

[AmeliaVerves]

I will admit that the opener is hectic, and I understand the target swapping. being worse on controller, but once you get past that you have ample space to play the cards.

I agree that during fights the 30s windows to manage cards are fine, but still not worth the 'extra' effort you have to put sadly. It's less about being 'too' busy, but more about the gain you get from all this extra work you put into and for savage content it is barely worth it atm.
If you have a team playing on a very high level gameplay wise, yes, Ast is actually worth in a speedkill setting (even tho fastest clears are still done with Sch+Whm on all floors afaik), but as soon as you step into your regular PF all the buffs you can throw out will not grant you any gain over Whm, therefore there is little reason to put the extra stress on you when you can just slack off and be a glare-mage.

I guess all of this applies in a more competetive setting and most players might not care much about it, tho.

[Brandedblade]

Bare in mind you have to think and apply all of this while dealing with an over ambitious tank or a tank/DPS that likes to stand in things and thus you can forget about fiddling with your cards as it's Aspected Benefic+Benefic II spam for you along with Earthly Star and prayers that your tank doesn't fall and your DPS is using their aoes. It's funny how they put a lot more emphasis on the card system but most of the time it's far too dangerous to sometimes risk it otherwise you're doing finger gymnastics. Now it's not all doom and gloom of course; I've been in numerous amounts of good parties that really know their roles and AST has plenty of time to play cards and DPS. I only wish they made the cards count outside of battle; I've lost count how many seals I thought I had but recently found out that that person has to be engaged in battle for it to count. That change is a total bummer.

Aspected Benefic is an instant cast, theres weaving space for your cards, Lightspeed is a thing, that makes the benefic II spam give you weave space. AST has the tools for allowing you to heal that bad tank and play YuGiOh. And so what? Bad tanks are bad and no amount of healing on your part will fix that.

I agree that during fights the 30s windows to manage cards are fine, but still not worth the 'extra' effort you have to put sadly. It's less about being 'too' busy, but more about the gain you get from all this extra work you put into and for savage content it is barely worth it atm.
If you have a team playing on a very high level gameplay wise, yes, Ast is actually worth in a speedkill setting (even tho fastest clears are still done with Sch+Whm on all floors afaik), but as soon as you step into your regular PF all the buffs you can throw out will not grant you any gain over Whm, therefore there is little reason to put the extra stress on you when you can just slack off and be a glare-mage.

I guess all of this applies in a more competetive setting and most players might not care much about it, tho.

The cards could literally just be "throw confetti into the air" and I'd still prefer it over whm, it's more engaging to have something outside of heals and dps to manage, regardless of how much it contributes. Some people prefer not being a glare mage, irregardless of actual contribution.

Not to mention, the cards arent the only thing ast brings now. It brings its ogcd heals as well, while the AST themself have the awesome ability to use ogcds without loosing damage potency thanks to Malefic's cast time. While yeah their personal dps isnt the highest, they are def capable enough to minimize their cohealer gcd healing without loosing to much of their own.

[Seraphor]

Try not to pass off a personal opinion as a fact~

So should it be your opinion they listen to instead of mine?

AST was soooo much more fun and interesting before ShB.

Careful, make sure you preface this by saying it's just your opinion.