So 5.08 is coming tomorrow, do you expect any changes to AST?

[Billythepancake]

I don't know, I don't fully disagree however there is something about channeling CU that has a power to it. Like the player made a conscious (mind the pun) decision to sit there and do nothing else but create a protective barrier for everyone to gather in. This current pop and run isn't very...collective. Heck even Yshtola and the WHM(? cant think of her name now) from Gridania channel and everyone gathers. I wouldn't mind if you channel and it gets stronger the longer you hold it, or rather since it's collective the stronger more people that enter the bubble. That might be a coding nightmare but meh, not our job lol

I can't imagine it's be used very often. There is a fine line between what's practical and thematics. An AST literally locking themselves out of doing anything else while channeling a defense buff, will literally never channel it, especially in fights that have enraged timers and AST doesn't have time to stand around doing nothing.

[Almostward]

I do.

I sincerely hope SE could address the current issue with AST sooner than later. For example,

Clunky card system (especially for console players),
poor card potency,
poor self dps potency,
poor mp sustainability, and yeah,
why Horoscope cannot take effect automatically ? I thought SE has learned the lesson from SCH's Excogitation!

I don't. SE clearly showed they will not change healers unless it's to oversimplify them to make then braindead to play, and take all fun out.

But they do appreciate our feeback

[MintnHoney]

But they do appreciate our feeback

They didn't even say that much to us; they said that strictly to the DPS, lol.

[Ubbernaut]

Think it's an in-between patch with some minors bug fixes or the like.

Don't expect any balance changes at all, much less something major. 5.1 maybe something, but even then it's unlikely... Even moreso considering any major healer changes that are needed would be massive gamechangers (be it a knife to the oGCDs or embracing the Green DPS)

[Lola_bunny]

I sadly expect no significant changes to any of the healers until 6.0. I'm pretty sure, given the amount of negative threads on healers, if there was any changes planned they would've stated them. So maybe some minor bone throwing for 5.1 but not much would be my prediction. Hopefully I'm proven wrong. Healers just don't seem like a priority to the dev team at the moment.

[althenawhm]

Yep, all the changes are to the glorious DPS, cant spare a thought to healers.

[Almostward]

Knew it. Ninja and Samuria buffs across the board.

Guess I'm happy Samuria is my main dps, but man this sucks cause Astro use to be my main healer.......

[Arale]

AST doesn't need any potency changes, besides maybe CU, and I don't expect 5.08 will bring anything but potency changes. Just waiting on some mechanical changes in 5.1.

I'm just hoping for some RDM buffs tbh.

I can't disagree enough. Even played optimally, we are behind the other healers by a fair margin. Potency buffs are absolutely needed, either on cards or on our DPS skills. Both may be too much, depending but one or the other has to happen or we will be doing double the effort of other healers for 3/4ths of the reward when everything optimal, which simply isn't balanced.

[Side-Eye]

Knew it. Ninja and Samuria buffs across the board.

Guess I'm happy Samuria is my main dps, but man this sucks cause Astro use to be my main healer.......

Yeah just read the notes. Disappointed, but not surprised. I knew they weren't going to do anything complex like reworking cards; however, I had hoped that they would either increase potency on Collective Unconscious, or add the stun back to Celestial Opposition -- either of those would have been easy adjustments.

It's so weird to have an ability whose very name indicates offense, be neutered to have no offensive capacity at all. Again though, not surprising considering the hack job devs did on cards, where they no longer fit the lore, and the old names don't even match up sensibly with the role/types they're meant to benefit. Honestly it's one of the laziest job reworks ever. Maybe it was assigned to an intern who hadn't played the game yet.

[HyoMinPark]

Knew it. Ninja and Samuria buffs across the board.

Guess I'm happy Samuria is my main dps, but man this sucks cause Astro use to be my main healer.......

The developers explicitly named NIN and SAM as two jobs that were going to be buffed in 5.08. These potency buffs are also temporary, so they could change with Patch 5.1 when more gameplay elements are reworked. There was never any mention of healer adjustments—especially for AST, given their tone in the last PLL about how they wanted to keep it “as it is”. Sadly, I don’t expect any changes to things like the card system any time soon... they may have potency buffs in the future, but I was never expecting them to have buffs for 5.08 since they mentioned only DPS potency adjustments.