New AST from a New Player

[Side-Eye]

Now that I've got used to AST (never picked it up proper prior to ShB as I've always had SCH/WHM levelled and AST never felt right coming from them), I'm kinda lamenting I didn't get it to 70 before ShB hit. Whilst I am liking it at 80 and find it less boring than my former main, SCH, I think I'd still have preferred how the cards used to work, especially with how it improved for SB. And whilst less boring than my SCH, it still suffers and needs its variety back.

Don't get me wrong; AST is (post 5.05) a sufficient healer, but not as good as it was before. The 'situational' utility it brought was just useful enough to overcome any heal shortcomings and provide value to groups/raids, and it was just RNG-reliant enough to keep it from being overpowered.

Now, the job's usefulness is limited to inconsequential damage buffs (invisible to the naked eye -- gotta have a parser to even notice), and the utility of extending buffs has been stripped away... so even the tiniest of buffing can't be enhanced by making smart timely choices with CDs.

If Squeenix isn't willing to give back our "time mage" abilities -- like Time Dilution and the previous version of Celestial Opposition -- it needs to do two things: 1. acknowledge that rDPS and utility do NOT make up for lesser healing so heal potencies need to be increased again; and 2. change heal-based abilities like Collective Unconscious to either be click-and-go (instead of requiring us to stand still and inactive) or its benefit needs to be quadrupled.

[ZeroFool]

... 2. change heal-based abilities like Collective Unconscious to either be click-and-go (instead of requiring us to stand still and inactive) or its benefit needs to be quadrupled.

I'm hoping that a change would feel more like the latter; it should be as powerful as it looks when it's channeled. Seeing CU used in cutscenes and how awesome it was whenever Y'shtola took a defensive stance, I looked forward to how that power would be translated to an active ability. It translated poorly, with 10% damage reduction and piddly regen, combined with a small radius which encouraged turtling.

I personally really like the channeling aspect because it sets it apart from the other support bubbles. Something to actually justify being rooted in place could be rapidly regenerating shields for everyone inside the bubble which disappears if players step outside, to reinforce its 'protection' aspect.

Just anything that makes it more interesting and not just another set and forget bubble that people may or may not even step in.