For AST changes, just potency buff malefic and combust...

[Brandedblade]

I cant see Malefic being buffed to more then 260, the reason why its weaker to begin with is the lower cast time and the potential scaling of the card bufca. Personally I'd rather see the Pdps boost tied to Combust over Malefic.

[DaFood]

As being one of those stupid dummy who used AST to do the MSQ.
Do you know how miserable to level with that potency?

Most of the Party Finder, you will find a WHM is inside already. Good job SE.

Just looking at E4S, WHM/SCH/AST, Total runs with respected classes are 14.2k/14.1k/2.4k.
Numbers/ logs are telling the truth that AST overall needs some buff other than Noct Sect buffing.
It is just a bully for AST to perform harder (throwing cards, using/lining up buffs, plan for stars ) for an overall worst result comparing to other 2 healers classes.

I am not looking forward to have 4.x AST back, but at least balance it so AST rdps similar to the other 2 healers considering how much more effort we have to put other than GLARE, GLARE AND GLARE.

Before expansion, WHM is non-stop STONE IV; After expansion, WHM is non-stop GLARE

Talking about Pure Healer right before expansion, and look at how minimum WHM is healing now with high % of over-heal. People are even talking about how PLD should heal so WHM can continue dps.

Talking about Pure Healer by increasing the potential of SCH/AST heal more than WHM while successfully murder AST population.

Well Done SE.

[HyoMinPark]

As being one of those stupid dummy who used AST to do the MSQ. Do you know how miserable that is with that potency?
Just looking at E4S, WHM/SCH/AST, Total runs with respected classes are 14.2k/14.1k/2.4k.
Numbers/ logs are telling the truth that AST overall needs some buff other than Noct Sect buffing.
It is just not right for AST to perform harder (throwing cards, using/lining up buffs, plan for stars ) for an overall worst result comparing to other 2 healers classes.
I am not asking for 4.x AST, but at least balance it so AST rdps similar to the other 2 healers considering how much more effort we have to put other than GLARE, GLARE AND GLARE.

At the highest levels, AST is relatively competitive in terms of rDPS with the other two healers—and rDPS is the only metric that matters. Sure, it lags behind by ~500 at 95th percentile (~800 at Max), but I don’t think that’s what’s holding it back. I’d wager that what’s holding AST back is the gameplay: the new card system is heavily divisive between the players that love it and ones that hate it. AST has to do twice the work in their openers and general rotations to achieve the same results as a WHM—WHM has its issues, but it feels far more fluid than AST does. Honestly, the current design of AST is why I’m no longer playing it.

I don’t think potency buffs alone would cause us to see this sudden influx of AST players and make it directly competitive in numbers with WHM and SCH. NIN got potency buffs, but it’s still one of the more underrepresented DPS jobs despite doing comparable damage to the other melee DPS now (this is from it being one of the Top 3 most popular jobs—and one of the staple meta jobs—since its inception). Why? Because people don’t like the gameplay—and its gameplay is actually getting addressed in Patch 5.1.

[Lodi]

I cant see Malefic being buffed to more then 260, the reason why its weaker to begin with is the lower cast time and the potential scaling of the card bufca. Personally I'd rather see the Pdps boost tied to Combust over Malefic.

Combust badly needs a buff, it just feels terrible. It's weaker than SB Combust, and its last tier is still weaker than Aero II (which is obtained at level 46, a whopping 26 levels earlier).
I know that potency buffs aren't all this class needs, but Combust III being a 450 potency dot over 30s feels awful.

Give it a on hit potency or something, anything to make it not feel like garbage.

[DaFood]

At the highest levels, AST is relatively competitive in terms of rDPS with the other two healers—and rDPS is the only metric that matters. Sure, it lags behind by ~500 at 95th percentile (~800 at Max), but I don’t think that’s what’s holding it back. I’d wager that what’s holding AST back is the gameplay: the new card system is heavily divisive between the players that love it and ones that hate it. AST has to do twice the work in their openers and general rotations to achieve the same results as a WHM—WHM has its issues, but it feels far more fluid than AST does. Honestly, the current design of AST is why I’m no longer playing it.

I don’t think potency buffs alone would cause us to see this sudden influx of AST players and make it directly competitive in numbers with WHM and SCH. NIN got potency buffs, but it’s still one of the more underrepresented DPS jobs despite doing comparable damage to the other melee DPS now (this is from it being one of the Top 3 most popular jobs—and one of the staple meta jobs—since its inception). Why? Because people don’t like the gameplay—and its gameplay is actually getting addressed in Patch 5.1.

I know simple potency buff won't be enough for current situation because it will at least serve as a band-aid.
I will be amused if you think that 500~800 difference is small enough to ignore it.

If AST get potency buffed, WHM's population will slightly shift to AST. But there will still be decent amount of population playing whm because that class is easy to play and that's what WHM is design for right from the beginning.

[HyoMinPark]

I know simple potency buff won't be enough for current situation because it will at least serve as a band-aid.
I will be amused if you think that 500~800 difference is small enough to ignore it.

If AST get potency buffed, WHM's population will slightly shift to AST. But there will still be decent amount of population playing whm because that class is easy to play and that's what WHM is design for right from the beginning.

The difference between the healers is better than the difference between the DPS—DPS experience gaps starting at 1,000 rDPS between some jobs/roles. 500~800 rDPS difference within an entire role is much better than 1,000~2,000. Sure, a slight potency to Malefic (or Combust) would lessen this gap, but I don’t think it would save AST.

I also don’t think ASTs should settle for band-aid potency fixes, and should instead advocate for gameplay changes as a whole. They have already proven to not be enough to save NIN.

I don’t think that there would be a huge influx should Malefic see a potency increase. Maybe a small shift. Maybe you’d see more of them in speedkills. But WHM still achieves the same results for much less effort, and doesn’t have the clunky gameplay (aside from being unable to adequately weave oGCDs) or MP nightmares that AST does. AST simply doesn’t feel worth it to play—and that has little to do with potencies, in my opinion. I’ll take low potency for engaging gameplay and comparable rDPS gains. It has rDPS gains in the forms of an uninnovative and repetitively boring card system; but its gameplay makes me want to chuck my globe across the arena.

Talking about Pure Healer right before expansion, and look at how minimum WHM is healing now with high % of over-heal. People are even talking about how PLD should heal so WHM can continue dps.

Talking about Pure Healer by increasing the potential of SCH/AST heal more than WHM while successfully murder AST population.

Well Done SE.

Also, the “pure healer” has been repeatedly misrepresented—it was intended to mean “regen healing” as opposed to “shield healing”. Not “just healing and no DPS”.

[Osmond]

I know simple potency buff won't be enough for current situation because it will at least serve as a band-aid.
I will be amused if you think that 500~800 difference is small enough to ignore it.

If AST get potency buffed, WHM's population will slightly shift to AST. But there will still be decent amount of population playing whm because that class is easy to play and that's what WHM is design for right from the beginning.

Yes, I agree WHM is stupid easy to play..pretty much for no reason to the point for me it's gotten boring. You have strong healing capabilities, but your DPS makes it really obvious that there have to be a potency buff for the other 2. If not, cause I have this thought in mind a few weeks back, that they should just buff mitigation potencies and regens if SE have no intention to address their DPS issue. Made SCH or AST weak in DPS, but buff their shields, regens, and/or cards whether it's CD reduction or a slight % increase.

[Sylvain]

While a potency buff wouldn't fix the issue, it would still shorten the rdps gap which is about 400~500dps for most perf below 95%

Another solution would be to buff cards. Perhaps this would make player feel like the cards actually have an impact. Because currently, 6% for 15s every 30s is barely noticeable. The only moment where your buffs feel '' strong'' are during Sleeve draw and Divination window. The rest really feels pointless.

[Stabby-Chan]

If AST's Malefic is boosted, would it be the same as WHM Glare or higher?
WHM still has the problem that it can't weave any oGCD into a Direct Damage Attack (Glare) while AST can weave in cards or oGCD into the same GCD as Malefic.

So if an AST's Malefic were to be boosted, that would mean that AST would have three steady damage sources
Malefic
Combustion
Cards

which would have great uptime vs a WHM's Glare and Dia.
Oh but what about Assize and Blood Lily?
Assize = once every 45 seconds, 400 potency/45 seconds (if actually fired every 45 seconds like clockwork)
Blood Lily = All this does is tell us to use a fourth GCD (first three for lilies to heal) in order to recover three glares vs a Single Target (savage/ex fights) but great vs Mobs.
So its Three in the Time of Four.
We still get more DPS vs a Single Target from casting FOUR glares.

In the very least when we are forced to move as WHM away from AoE circles, we can respond with Dia, Regen, or a Lily Skill to save our GCD from being consumed due to movement.

So if you match an AST to WHM raw damage and combine their cards.....(sorry but PoM + Thin Air + Endless amount of Glares do not beat out cards ever)
They would always outDPS a WHM if it wasnt for their mana regeneration problems.

[YusiKha]

If AST's Malefic is boosted, would it be the same as WHM Glare or higher?

Could it not be lower than WHM, but more than current? A 250 or 260 Malefic would solve the problem.