Potential AST Rework: Cards = Heals

[YusiKha]

Is celestial opposition OGCD or just instant? Earthly star is an interesting ability, you really have to plan ahead for it or you lose a great deal of potency detonating too early.

It's oGCD. Always has been, even when it had the buff-extension effect.

[SieyaM]

You'll just have to forgive me then. I don't play savage which kind of invalidates me as a player anyway so it's whatever.

[Billythepancake]

What is tedium for some is fun for others, maybe I consider managing seven dots to he tedious but tracking my party's burst windows fun?

If you find that fun, then great, I'm happy for you. However, it is bad design that a class would require knowledge of other classes in order to be played well. Not only that, you also need a parser, because who says your DPS are doing their rotations right? Unless you plan to open the battle tab and keep track of literally read every single spell cast that goes out while keeping track in your head where they are in their rotation (and if you can do that, I'll gladly mail you a medal because you would genuinely deserve it for the Galaxy brain that would require) which is ridiculous. A class should not require a parser, a keyboard and mouse setup, and knowledge of other classes to be able to be played at a competitive level. Meaning if you play on PS4 AST is completely out of your reach if you ever want to play optimally. For a game that has a huge PlayStation playerbase, that's bad design.

And before anyone brings it up, you don't need a parser to play a class well, the best PLD I've met, who has oranges on every fight this tier and every fight last plays on PlayStation and does not use a parser themselves. They will be parsed by someone else, but that will not help you in real time. This same person could not do AST at the same level because AST demands too much for anyone on the same setup.

[Brandedblade]

If you find that fun, then great, I'm happy for you. However, it is bad design that a class would require knowledge of other classes in order to be played well. Not only that, you also need a parser, because who says your DPS are doing their rotations right? Unless you plan to open the battle tab and keep track of literally read every single spell cast that goes out while keeping track in your head where they are in their rotation (and if you can do that, I'll gladly mail you a medal because you would genuinely deserve it for the Galaxy brain that would require) which is ridiculous. A class should not require a parser, a keyboard and mouse setup, and knowledge of other classes to be able to be played at a competitive level. Meaning if you play on PS4 AST is completely out of your reach if you ever want to play optimally. For a game that has a huge PlayStation playerbase, that's bad design.

And before anyone brings it up, you don't need a parser to play a class well, the best PLD I've met, who has oranges on every fight this tier and every fight last plays on PlayStation and does not use a parser themselves. They will be parsed by someone else, but that will not help you in real time. This same person could not do AST at the same level because AST demands too much for anyone on the same setup.

Personally? I disagree with the idea of a class needing to understand other classes rotations to optimize their own being a bad thing. If anything, we need more classes that specialize in being team players.

I will throw you a bone in the sense that I do think the ffxiv team has been overcautious with the pdps of classes like AST and DNC out of a fear of their buffs making their dps contribution so strong. But considering they did address this in the current live letter by mentioning that said classes are getting potency buffs I'm going to keep being optimistic as I've always had.

It's a two way street, my job as the AST is to provide the damage boosts at optimal times and it's the responsibility of said dps to take advantage of it and play optimally. People are random and it can't be helped, I agree that AST needs a touch more pdps to accommodate this randomness and for solo situations but at the same time I fail to see the issue with relying on team synergy to reach your fullest potential? Is it because WHM and SCH don't? That WHM and SCH are more selfish with their damage? I dont mind that.

[Brandedblade]

...if you play on PS4 AST is completely out of your reach if you ever want to play optimally.

Yes and no. True you will not have a parser to notify you to perfectly optimize your cards, but fortunately most dps do have visual ques, auras, and buffs that you can observe and take advantage of, such as Bahamut being out for SMN, drg having its red aura from being under Life of the dragon, etc. That's where trusting and relying on the other player comes into play. L

[Billythepancake]

Yes and no. True you will not have a parser to notify you to perfectly optimize your cards, but fortunately most dps do have visual ques, auras, and buffs that you can observe and take advantage of, such as Bahamut being out for SMN, drg having its red aura from being under Life of the dragon, etc. That's where trusting and relying on the other player comes into play. L

The parser isn't even the only issue, while I'm sure some do, I can't imagine most PlayStation users will play on keyboard and mouse, and a controller setup will not work with card with how often you will have to swap targets. I don't think the class buffing other classes to reach maximum potential is a bad thing, it's what makes AST, well, AST, but you shouldn't have to know another class' rotation so you can do it. Why should I,someone who has 0 interest in dragoon, who hasn't even unlocked it because I genuinely have no interest in melee classes, now have to go out and learn their rotation just so I can know when to buff them so my card isn't useless? Why should I have to track that down for him and 3 other people so my main mechanic isn't useless? AST should have to buff others in parties to be at it's most optimal, it always has, but it shouldn't need to know every rotation in the game, and it CERTAINLY shouldn't NEED to be on keyboard and mouse.

[Reynhart]

Just because the old system had nuance doesn't mean the new system is devoid of nuance.

We never said it didn't, just that it has less than before. Sure, the old one had some really bad outcome, but, in my opinion, it would have been more interesting to "balance" cards better instead of simply making all of them damage boost.

[Brandedblade]

The parser isn't even the only issue, while I'm sure some do, I can't imagine most PlayStation users will play on keyboard and mouse, and a controller setup will not work with card with how often you will have to swap targets. I don't think the class buffing other classes to reach maximum potential is a bad thing, it's what makes AST, well, AST, but you shouldn't have to know another class' rotation so you can do it. Why should I,someone who has 0 interest in dragoon, who hasn't even unlocked it because I genuinely have no interest in melee classes, now have to go out and learn their rotation just so I can know when to buff them so my card isn't useless? Why should I have to track that down for him and 3 other people so my main mechanic isn't useless? AST should have to buff others in parties to be at it's most optimal, it always has, but it shouldn't need to know every rotation in the game, and it CERTAINLY shouldn't NEED to be on keyboard and mouse.

Because you want to optimize your card uses is why you should take interest in other classes rotations, if you arent interested in doing that, then play whm or sch, since buffing allies isnt as big (or even a factor, in the WHM's case)

Is the controller thing really a big issue? I can def understand it was back when 5.0 launch with how much button spamming and weaving you had to do, but with the current system and the 5.1 updates significantly reducing the amount of buttons you're trying to spam it seems like it would be more doable? I distinctly recall finding a guide on youtube about playing ast on a controller, maybe I should find it for yall

[Brandedblade]

We never said it didn't, just that it has less than before. Sure, the old one had some really bad outcome, but, in my opinion, it would have been more interesting to "balance" cards better instead of simply making all of them damage boost.

Making them all damage boosts is overall healthier for the design of the game in the long run. Knowing that AST will contribute X-Y% damage means that the dev team can far easily balance its output to be more in line with the rest of the classes within its role. With the old rng you ran the risk of said X-Y% being too drastic to properly quantify. Like I said in an earlier post, it does however, seem the devs intentionally made the support dps have INCREDIBLY low pdps out of fear of their buffs being too powerful, and the live letter did mention that alot of these classes, such as AST and DNC, are getting damage boosts in 5.1

Its biggest issue, however, is that it had support options tied into the system when in this game, playing optimally means optimal damage. Yes, pulling that prime Bole felt amazing when you happen to have a tank on the verge of death, but what if the tank wasnt struggling? Bole would be useless then, and what if you drew a Balance at that time, sure the extra damage might help but the tank might be dead without the extra mitigation.

[Sylvain]

Considering we already spend 90% of an encounter dpsing, you want to give us more healing tool?