New AST from a New Player

[Nhala_Levee]

I feel so sorry for all the new players who will probably never get to experience AST at its best. It really drives home that each expansion is only something you buy access to for two years, and after that it’s gone forever (at least in terms of playstyle), and you just have to hope that the next is as good or better.

Part of me hopes that in two years ShB healers will just be a nasty memory and AST and SCH will have their identities back (and WHM will have found a better playstyle for itself than it has had previously), but part of me just desperately wishes we could preserve the old expanions, even as we move to new ones, even if it was just the option to play an older version of the class when playing content available during that expansion.

Totaly agree with this. I was an AST main in the past. And yes, AST was that class ZeroFool mentioned. Useing the fate (as rng) to turn the tide of any battles. Was useful in every situation. And was very very VERY fantastic feeling to use it.
Sadly... the main word here "WAS"...
Everybody who want to become a healer, i just could tell, avoid AST. Most worthless healer class now. Have no uses, cant complete MSQ contents, too weak for everything. Solo duty is a struggle with it or much more a torment.
Only usable in group contents, as a passive DMG booster. No more....
The biggest fail in the Final Fantasy 14 history.

As i told in another comment. I simply cant understand, why the developers try to fix something, what is perfectly works.

[Kuwago]

I felt this one hard. I, like many people here, gave this game a try because of how AST looked and played. Fortunately enough, I was able to play AST where the cards were still unique and gave different effects. Personally, the one I was devastated the most being taken out were Time Dilation and Old Celestial Opposition Effect of Stun and Buff Duration Increase of 10 sec.

As much as I loved the Cards and its varied effects alongside Royal Road giving cards more additional effects, for me at least, nothing beats the idea of increasing the duration of the current active buffs. Other than cards being super beneficial to others, I loved the fact that AST had a power not only to change/alter fates but also control space and time. How I wish that they would bring these skills back and honestly, they should've kept them with how low the durations of HoT's and card effects now.

While I don't mind the card changes, I still feel like they could've kept the variety of effects that each card has while also making each card viable for use, RNG is what I loved the most in terms of class mechanics and using each card that you pulled to its best ability felt exhilarating. Not gonna lie, pulling balance basically filled me with Euphoria especially that amazing AOE Balance combo.

I've pledge my loyalty to this class and will do so in the future expansions to come, its AST or bust for me. The best I can hope for is for them to actually listen, which they have been fortunately, and strive for the improvement to AST.

[ZeroFool]

To play devil's advocate a bit, I do understand the critlo change. I say this as someone who raids as scholar, and is considered pretty good at it, spreading a critlo was really broken strong. You could outright ignore some mechanics if you spread a critlo, so from a dev point of view, I can understand why they wouldn't allow you to spread a critlo. I also feel like what we got in exchange for not being able to do it anymore was well worth it, recitation is an amazing ability,and the only good thing that happened to SCH this expac.

My issues with SCH is that they took away my interesting DPS options, and neutered my fairy to the point she's basically only good for dissipation and getting 3 more aetherflow, because her healing is unresponsive, has to be weaved in, and is pathetically weak.

That is a solid point, and I guess crits will simply come up more often the better and more optimized your gear is late game. To make it a deploy-able skill seems like it would add much to the tactical flavor of the class, so it's good that they didn't remove crit-adlo completely.

The fairy was another thing, however. Much like discovering how much of a farce the cards were, seeing the two 'different' fairies function the exact same way was baffling. And at one point it was manually controlled too, now it feels like a glorified Regen!

[ZeroFool]

Generally, the developer don’t make huge overhauls to any job in the middle of an expansion; they save those for expansion releases. The largest changes they make tend to be things like WAR’s Inner Release change during Stormblood, in which they changed how the skill inherently functioned (same with Shake it Off). The changes they are discussing for NIN—where they’re talking about a major overhaul that will make it feel like a different job—are actually unprecedented in the history of this game.

Very interesting that this will be the first time they plan an overhaul. Two ways it can go is that this is a once off thing we can't depend on happening again, or more favorably, they'll take the momentum of working on NIN and apply it to the other jobs which sorely need it. However unlikely, it's a spot of hope nonetheless.

2 years is a long time for a class to feel bad to play, and being open to making changes as the playerbase demands them (although I wish they'd get a better mechanism for player feedback than whatever distortion gave them the idea that every card except balance was worthless and SCHs were dpsing too much) is a good thing. I just wish healers could get the same consideration.

Two years really is too long, not to mention having to shell out for a sub every month for a game that created such a high barrier to enjoy the rest of it. I'm content with remaining hopeful, however, since this seems to be an issue of just restoring assets they never should have cut in the first place.

Devs fixed things that weren't broke, but all they have to do is put the pieces that fit right back.

[Hatstand]

Two years really is too long, not to mention having to shell out for a sub every month for a game that created such a high barrier to enjoy the rest of it. I'm content with remaining hopeful, however, since this seems to be an issue of just restoring assets they never should have cut in the first place.

Devs fixed things that weren't broke, but all they have to do is put the pieces that fit right back.

Those are the practical barriers, yes, but there are three psychological barriers there, too: pride, a sunk cost fallacy, and the dam on healer changes.

For pride, the devs have been insisting that the new card system is fine for months now, and that just as many people like it as like the old one. Changing it now would mean they’d have to admit they were wrong not only about the changes, but in all those statements, too.

For a sunk cost fallacy, no matter how lazily designed the new AST card system is, it is a whole new system, and taking it all back so soon after release would feel like a lot of work for nothing. Of course, it’s particularly fallacious in this case because they already discarded the old card system which clearly had had more work put into it.

Finally, the devs are always going on about how the healers are finally balanced. If they restore the assets they shouldn’t have ripped away from AST (and hopefully SCH, too) then they’d be right back where they started, and they’d have to admit that balancing the healers properly is going to require significantly more thought and effort than they seemed to want to put in last time. (The proper way to go about it would be to leave SCH and AST alone for the most part except potencies and spend more time improving WHM so that it’s as good as them).

[ZeroFool]

Those are the practical barriers, yes, but there are three psychological barriers there, too: pride, a sunk cost fallacy, and the dam on healer changes.

For pride, the devs have been insisting that the new card system is fine for months now, and that just as many people like it as like the old one. Changing it now would mean they’d have to admit they were wrong not only about the changes, but in all those statements, too.

For a sunk cost fallacy, no matter how lazily designed the new AST card system is, it is a whole new system, and taking it all back so soon after release would feel like a lot of work for nothing. Of course, it’s particularly fallacious in this case because they already discarded the old card system which clearly had had more work put into it.

Finally, the devs are always going on about how the healers are finally balanced. If they restore the assets they shouldn’t have ripped away from AST (and hopefully SCH, too) then they’d be right back where they started, and they’d have to admit that balancing the healers properly is going to require significantly more thought and effort than they seemed to want to put in last time. (The proper way to go about it would be to leave SCH and AST alone for the most part except potencies and spend more time improving WHM so that it’s as good as them).

I hadn't even considered external factors, especially the ones you just listed being particularly pervasive and so core to the direction that they took Every Job in. I simply don't know what kind of influence we as players have to affect these barriers. I may have opted from resubscribing due to the reasons already discussed, but they will only see my absence and not the reason behind it.

And I'm sure others who continue to play but are so put off by the changes that they opted to switch jobs will only show up as numbers the devs can construe as a whole number of things: that they did good work with the 'refuge' job which explains its sudden influx of players; players may have all just collectively burnt out on their main; etc. Whether or not they analyze the data in good faith will never be transparent.

It seems the most effective course of action is the forum, which despite all our activity may as well be background noise they tune into now and then(according to the recent responses we have received). An ideal course of action, as many have suggested and to my surprise has never been implemented in a game as big and ongoing as this, would be an official thread/poll created to directly interface our concern with the devs. Maybe we can start campaigning for this avenue as well?

I'm not sure, but seeing the devs trying new things I am hoping that they can also consider new ways of connecting with the players they're doing it for.

[vtndll]

Devs so adamant about the changes on AST, makes me wonder if we are the minority in this issue. Every time they will say players don't want useless card.
Unfortunately we will not see AST restored, wonder why would they satisfied with such bland mechanics

I might be reading too much into the devs choice, but I'm starting to think it's less about the people who likes the old card vs the people who like the new cards.

I think it might be the people who likes the old cards vs the people who want a new healer. I'm starting to believe, like others here, that the changes made to astro is to make room for time mage. I think if you compare those two groups I can see why they wouldn't revert the changes.

The thing about it is I can't see this current version of ast. making it into the next expansion. It's going to need adjustments at least, if not a complete rework. But at that point isn’t reworking ast. essentially making a "new healer" that they wouldn't have had to do if they left the old card system in?

And if they are going to not add a new healer because they need to "balance" healers again, then what was the point of gutting astro. this way?

Idk, sometimes I feel like I need esoteric knowledge to make out heads or tails of what square is doing. Unfortunately all the card I have say balance.

[ZeroFool]

Oh wow. As much as I love the idea of Time Mage becoming a job, if it resulted from stripping AST of its identity then I can't imagine it being received super well. To take away abilities is one thing; repackaging these skills that were used and enjoyed by players for years into a separate job would just be a betrayal to players of the original job.

[althenawhm]

To take away abilities is one thing; repackaging these skills that were used and enjoyed by players for years into a separate job would just be a betrayal to players of the original job.

I dont know, as a WHM main I'm pretty used to getting abilities stripped away and given to other jobs.

[ZeroFool]

I dont know, as a WHM main I'm pretty used to getting abilities stripped away and given to other jobs.

So they have a history of this. I'm sorry but I have the least knowledge regarding WHM out of all the healers, but if you or anyone can elaborate on what nature of skills were taken and refurbished for other jobs; it would help in connecting where WHM is now in contrast with other healers. As far as I understand, WHM was the most neglected job overall, but coming into this expansion I've seen the most praise for it(not to diminish its issues and complaints about them in any way).

Is it because its existing baseline was reinforced instead of tampered with? Or because it's seen the least amount of change, and therefore 'abuse', it managed to come out on top with its soul intact?