Astro changes 5.1

[Brandedblade]

I do not play this game to only care about my damage parse. I play this game to have fun, in my honest opinion it\\'s people like that, that have literally destroyed my favorite class in the game "Fishing for balance". The Update to Minor arcana is a QoL for console players. There\\'s no joy in having your utility gutted and downgraded to all damage cards, that\\'s a joke. Buffing Combust and malefic, will not ever be in my mind a good substitute for the lack of passion towards this class.

You mean the rng locked utility that only gave the illusion of usefulness because of a cognitive bias towards the sparse moments that you actually had the right card for the right time? Let\\'s take a look now.

Bole: Now you have CU, Diurnal Intersection, andNocturnal and Nuetral Aspected spells. CU is even getting buffed next patch to where its effectively an AoE Bole in Nocturnal Sect. Ast has options to cover mitigation WITHOUT relying on luck.

Ewer: if you noticed, ast is not the only class that\\'s lost its external MP restoration. Ranged Physical lost their Refresh and Caster dps lost Mana Shift. The intent seems to be having MP management be a personal responsibility. While AST does need help in the MP department. Tying it to luck and randomness is not the way to do itm

Spire: TP\\'s gone. Even then TP restoration was rarely needed.

Could they do stuff like making Spear and Arrow give crit and haste again and like give Ewer and Spire something like +det or +DH? Sure they can. But unfortunately, those minmaxers that ruined the class for you are just going to figure out which card\\'s the best and it will go back to fishing for the best one.

[MitsukiKimura]

You mean the rng locked utility that only gave the illusion of usefulness because of a cognitive bias towards the sparse moments that you actually had the right card for the right time? Let\\'s take a look now.

Bole: Now you have CU, Diurnal Intersection, andNocturnal and Nuetral Aspected spells. CU is even getting buffed next patch to where its effectively an AoE Bole in Nocturnal Sect. Ast has options to cover mitigation WITHOUT relying on luck.

Ewer: if you noticed, ast is not the only class that\\'s lost its external MP restoration. Ranged Physical lost their Refresh and Caster dps lost Mana Shift. The intent seems to be having MP management be a personal responsibility. While AST does need help in the MP department. Tying it to luck and randomness is not the way to do itm

Spire: TP\\'s gone. Even then TP restoration was rarely needed.

Could they do stuff like making Spear and Arrow give crit and haste again and like give Ewer and Spire something like +det or +DH? Sure they can. But unfortunately, those minmaxers that ruined the class for you are just going to figure out which card\\'s the best and it will go back to fishing for the best one.

You're still blind to the RNG you can still get with drawing cards, nothing but melee's or nothing but Range and ALSO trying for 3 seals which you'll never get 100% of the time.
Ewer Card would be nice to have for that MP Regen cause Astro needs something other than lucid dreaming. WHM and SCH both have other ways to get it, AST needs something too.
Spire can be replaced with a direct hit buff instead of TP, honestly don't think you even care to think outside the box of much anything.
Having all the cards named differently only to give the same effect is "Lazy". Also CU in Nocturnal STILL makes you stand perfectly still to use it which is even not worth the buff. Rather have it place able so I can use my cards or keep casting. People who would complain about "Fishing for balance" didn't appreciate anything about the class. MY Class should NOT have to Suffer just to Boost your Parse in Raiding with just "Balance Cards" Disgusting in all aspects.

[Shurrikhan]

You're still blind to the RNG you can still get with drawing cards, nothing but melee's or nothing but Range and ALSO trying for 3 seals which you'll never get 100% of the time.
Ewer Card would be nice to have for that MP Regen cause Astro needs something other than lucid dreaming. WHM and SCH both have other ways to get it, AST needs something too.
Spire can be replaced with a direct hit buff instead of TP, honestly don't think you even care to think outside the box of much anything.
Having all the cards named differently only to give the same effect is "Lazy". Also CU in Nocturnal STILL makes you stand perfectly still to use it which is even not worth the buff. Rather have it place able so I can use my cards or keep casting. People who would complain about "Fishing for balance" didn't appreciate anything about the class. MY Class should NOT have to Suffer just to Boost your Parse in Raiding with just "Balance Cards" Disgusting in all aspects.

1. Then reduce the RNG through Redraw chances: make it so you can't draw the same card twice in any draw period. If absolutely necessary, you can have Sleeve Draw refresh Redraw stacks, or even reduce the chance of drawing a card you've already used in the same Divination period.
2. If MP is a unique concern despite not having what would be a uniquely strong kit (if not for those MP concerns), it should be addressed by simple MP cost changes, not through needing to waste cards, else you underpower the job. That's not to say you can't use either-or, but do pick one.
3. Direct Hit is simply damage. Literally just damage. Except it doesn't work on auto-Directs like Warrior's entire burst period. It would therefore just be a worse-designed version of Balance.
4. I've no problems flashing CU just before the hit to get the defense buff up, same as with Passage of Arms.
5. That's... your job, though? And, you've got it backwards. How well they use your cards does absolutely nothing for their parse now; it only feeds yours. It takes 8 players to give you your parse; what you "give" them doesn't show a single point of impact on their individual parses.

[MitsukiKimura]

1. Then reduce the RNG through Redraw chances. You can't draw the same card twice in any draw period. If absolutely necessary, you can have Sleeve Draw refresh Redraw stacks, or even reduce the chance of drawing a card you've already used in the same Divination period.
2. If MP is a unique concern despite not having what would be a uniquely strong kit (if not for those MP concerns), it should be addressed by simple MP cost changes, not through needing to waste cards, else you underpower the job. That's not to say you can't use either-or, but do pick one.
3. Direct Hit is simply damage. Literally just damage. Except it doesn't work on auto-Directs like Warrior's entire burst period. It would therefore just be a worse-designed version of Balance.
4. I've no problems flashing CU just before the hit to get the defense buff up, same as with Passage of Arms.
5. That's... your job, though? And, you've got it backwards. How well they use your cards does absolutely nothing for their parse now; it only feeds yours. It takes 8 players to give you your parse; what you "give" them doesn't show a single point of impact on their individual parses.

1:You CAN however draw back to back cards resulting in only melee cards or Range cards. I've had this happen countless times using all my redraw stacks before a pull on a raid.
2: 30 seconds of not using 1 "balance" card is not going to kill your damage support. The devs already implemented a MP cost reduction -100 which is honestly why bother
3: It's not the point, the point of the different aspect of having a direct hit card is for variety and also timing this with a dancer's Devilment can be really good btw
4: Why make it a channeled skill if we're just suppose to instantly break it after using it? Serves no Purpose
5: It is my job to give party support yes but making it only "Damage" cards is not fun. A lot of people don't seem to understand that.
I'm honestly tired and I'm done ranting about it. SE you need to go back to the drawing board. End Rant

[Shurrikhan]

1:You CAN however draw back to back cards resulting in only melee cards or Range cards. I've had this happen countless times using all my redraw stacks before a pull on a raid.

Well, knew that would bite me before I could get home to a PC to edit. God forbid I rely on contextual understanding.

Then reduce the RNG through Redraw chances: make it so you can't draw the same card twice in any draw period.

2: 30 seconds of not using 1 "balance" card is not going to kill your damage support. The devs already implemented a MP cost reduction -100 which is honestly why bother
3: It's not the point, the point of the different aspect of having a direct hit card is for variety and also timing this with a dancer's Devilment can be really good btw
4: Why make it a channeled skill if we're just suppose to instantly break it after using it? Serves no Purpose
5: It is my job to give party support yes but making it only "Damage" cards is not fun. A lot of people don't seem to understand that.
I'm honestly tired and I'm done ranting about it. SE you need to go back to the drawing board. End Rant

• Even once per 5 minutes is already a 10% reduction to your total card output.
• The multiplicity bonus works the other way; a scalar which multiplies that Direct-Crit damage alongside all damage, does more than one that simply increases the chance of a Direct-Crit occurring.

Let's say we have a 15% natural crit chance (enough crit for 50% bonus damage) and a 15% direct hit chance. You have therefore a 12.75% chance Crit, a 12.75% chance to Direct Hit, and a 4.5% chance to Direct-Crit. This grants a total bonus of 11.8125% damage, up from the 11.25% damage they'd do if they could neither stack nor conflict (until each over a sum of 100% chance). Thus, the multiplicity is responsible for exactly 5% of their damage bonus.

Now, let's say we increase the Crit chance by 20% via Devilment. On its own, at our current Crit Bonus, this should amount to an increase of roughly 10% damage if there were no multiplicity, for a total of some 21.8125% damage bonus. Instead, it gives 22.5625%, 0.75% higher.

Now let's say we have the choice of an added 5% damage or an added 20% Direct Hit chance (raising each to 35%, which is the best case scenario for multiplicity).

Damage: 28.690625%
Direct Hit: 29.3125% (~.62% higher or a relative increase of 2.2%).

But let's pretend for a moment that 35% of each chance is just such a pitifully small stat value that we just can't yet see the miracle of multiplicity reach its full potential, to where it could really outshine there mere +/- 5% damage modifier attached to every skill. In fact, let's go to the maximum: 80% of each chance naturally, or 100% each under Devilment/Spire.
Starting from the Devilment alone: 72% damage increase.
Adding Spire: 100% damage increase.
Adding Damage: 80.6% damage increase.

Finally, we can see multiplicity pay off. But, if that's what you're hoping for from XIV, you really ought to consult our stat charts: you would need over 4500 Crit just to reach a 30% Crit chance. You are unlikely to hit any point at which even the optimal addition of Direct Hit chance (raising it to one's already buff-inflated Crit chance) would outperform its nominally equivalent basic damage buff by more than a few scant percent. And, as they tend only to follow multiples of 5 once dealing with relatively large numbers, unless Direct Hit is balanced for nominal equivalence (that is to say, without relying on multiplicity whatsoever, a (Direct Hit) Spire will never outpace a (Damage) Balance within the lifetime of this game. A 15% added chance of 25% more damage and its Crit-multiplicity will never compete with a 10% Damage buff within the gearing lifespan of this expansion, even when stacked atop CS, BL, and BV, simply due to how limited our stats are.

Direct Hit is therefore, for all intents and purposes, just another Damage bonus, effectively indistinct from Balance.

• Why make Passage of Arms a channeled skill when its optimal to flash it? Why were Anatman and Meditate previously flashed despite being channeled resource-generation skills? Why is Flamethrower still so lackluster? I'm all for changing the whole lot of them, but it makes no sense to find this one uniquely problematic, nor is there at present any place for it if used as a channel given how strong AST mitigation and regen tools are already. At best your complaint is likely to force the skill onto the GCD in the fashion of Anatman, Meditation, and Flamethrower, without seeing it meaningfully buffed in any way.
• I never said we should be limited to damage cards; I'd rather have the full slew of card effects back (I merely dislike throwing out so many different flavors of the same card, as Direct Hit and Damage would be, whereas Speed and Crit at least have more versatile and varying usefulness). But, if you're begrudging the use of damage utility just because it isn't strictly labeled "Support", don't. It's probably the best way prog runs have of avoiding wipes, certainly better than what AoE Bole could do within the raid damage dealt in the fight designs we've seen so far from ShB.