I hate to, but I think I put down healing for now. Please make it engaging again, SE.

[AmurT]

I think I'm most annoyed at the feeling of being ignored by SE.

BRDs complained about lack of support and had small support effects added back to their songs.
SAMs complained that losing Hagakure was bad for gameplay and that was added back.
SCH at least had ED returned to it (but at the same time, pet problems were made worse with the added delay?).

AST? "We've read your questions, but you only wanted Balance so you're keeping this new system that's all Balance. Also here are some bandaid fixes and buffs to make the job playable again, please play it." Except still nobody is playing the job because everyone's already jumped ship.



Literally last place.

[Crushnight]

Literally last place.

Not even a 1/3 of Sch kinda pitiful really especially since it is the least restricted category of 3 healers for 2 healer spots, all Dps vie for 2 spots (in a traditional group going after the 1% party bonus per role) with a 1/3 or 1/4 for 1 slot and then 1/9 for the other slot and the 4 tanks vie for 2 tank spots. A healthier balance for healers would need Ast to have another 2k parses minimum, this would still show there might be some problems but nothing too major but as it stands it needs a serious looking at at why people are not using it.

[Rosa_Frandlia]

I think I'm most annoyed at the feeling of being ignored by SE.

BRDs complained about lack of support and had small support effects added back to their songs.
SAMs complained that losing Hagakure was bad for gameplay and that was added back.
SCH at least had ED returned to it (but at the same time, pet problems were made worse with the added delay?).

AST? "We've read your questions, but you only wanted Balance so you're keeping this new system that's all Balance. Also here are some bandaid fixes and buffs to make the job playable again, please play it." Except still nobody is playing the job because everyone's already jumped ship.



Literally last place.

And by that, AST is out DPSing WHM.... again.

[Side-Eye]

And by that, AST is out DPSing WHM.... again.

As the most-played job in a game with over a dozen from which to choose, WHM evidently has a much higher enjoyment factor than AST, the least-played.

Problem is, we ASKED (begged) for more enjoyment, not numbers, and instead Squeenix bumped up a few numbers and called it a day.

[Rosa_Frandlia]

As the most-played job in a game with over a dozen from which to choose, WHM evidently has a much higher enjoyment factor than AST, the least-played.

Problem is, we ASKED (begged) for more enjoyment, not numbers, and instead Squeenix bumped up a few numbers and called it a day.

Agreed, one thing I'd love brought back even if cards stay the same is Royal Road. That alone would help it I think. I also miss the healing on Lady and damage on Lord effects.

It still though underscores that WHM is back to where it was in SB after its utility was stripped, no utility and not top DPS from the same treatment to buffing astro. At least this time lilies aren't a useless mechanic with Secret of the Lily 2 triggering less than 5% of the time on aoe gcd heals.

[Crushnight]

And by that, AST is out DPSing WHM.... again.

Heck Sch is beating Whm now, So the most played job is also the weakest in the role.

It couldn't possibly be something other than numbers that is driving people away /s

My hope (as slim as it is) is SE would actually take a look at what they have done, remember ShB was all about bringing Balance to healers and the healer with the lowest utility is also the weakest.

[Sloprano]

I think I'm most annoyed at the feeling of being ignored by SE.

SCH at least had ED returned to it (but at the same time, pet problems were made worse with the added delay?).



Literally last place.

Yeah, they did add back ED which was a great. Only issue is that it was over a month after 5.0 and 39 levels higher than it used to be. Screwing new players wanting some thought and pacing from their skill acquisition and any synced dungeons out of another tool to stave off boredom. As for the fairies, up until end of SB their AI was lovable, but could have some prioritizing issues causing delays, then they made commands on the hotbar close to immdiately. 5.0 made them oGCD hotbarskills that for some reason had even longer delay, before adding a hardcoded two second delay after summoning our cornerstone, level 80 hype spell Seraph before she performs Consolation. Who still continues to put skills on cooldown without using them. I chalk this up to Scholar sharing code with SMN and SE can't be bother to look into it, forget at one point Scholar inherited from Arcanist or debunk these myths.

That graph just looks sad and I don't even play the job. "Everyone didn't want useless cards" feels awfully quaint. Where are these "everyone", surely they weren't dps mains complaning their ASTs didnt always get Balance to give them.

[Lodi]

That graph just looks sad and I don't even play the job. "Everyone didn't want useless cards" feels awfully quaint. Where are these "everyone", surely they weren't dps mains complaning their ASTs didnt always get Balance to give them.

I love how the trend shifted from "Nobody wants these cards" when they were unbalanced as heck, to "Nobody wants this class" now that AST is as entertaining as a dead crab.

But hey, SE said these cards are perfect so obviously we're just wrong for not liking them.

[MitsukiKimura]

I think I'm most annoyed at the feeling of being ignored by SE.

BRDs complained about lack of support and had small support effects added back to their songs.
SAMs complained that losing Hagakure was bad for gameplay and that was added back.
SCH at least had ED returned to it (but at the same time, pet problems were made worse with the added delay?).

AST? "We've read your questions, but you only wanted Balance so you're keeping this new system that's all Balance. Also here are some bandaid fixes and buffs to make the job playable again, please play it." Except still nobody is playing the job because everyone's already jumped ship.



Literally last place.

Looking at this just makes me hang my head. AST kit as far as healing goes with Durinel Sect feels great. Even with it's kit and the potential RDPS being higher than other healers, it is still the least played healer by a large margin. "We don't wanna change the card system because people like it now" Oh do they? Huh... Even after all the buffs given to AST, I feel like these "People" were a small majority of people.
I don't remember anyone asking to have our time extender buffs taken away so why did this change happen?
I started out as a Black mage main that went to AST main when I unlocked the class. I loved it ever since, as time goes by I feel myself playing it less and less. Eventually I'm going to get to the point where all that passion I had for the class is just gonna die. I rather see this current card system deleted entirely just because I've grown numb to its play style and you wanna know the sad thing about it is? I won't miss it.

[Punslinger]

I think I'm most annoyed at the feeling of being ignored by SE.

BRDs complained about lack of support and had small support effects added back to their songs.
SAMs complained that losing Hagakure was bad for gameplay and that was added back.
SCH at least had ED returned to it (but at the same time, pet problems were made worse with the added delay?).

AST? "We've read your questions, but you only wanted Balance so you're keeping this new system that's all Balance. Also here are some bandaid fixes and buffs to make the job playable again, please play it." Except still nobody is playing the job because everyone's already jumped ship.

Even better examples would be NIN, which complained about low DPS and carpal tunnel oGCDs, and got a massive rework in 5.1. Or SAM's Shoha being radically reworked in 5.1 so that its level-80 capstone wasn't completely useless.

Meanwhile, AST's card system still sucks harder than a factory full of vacuum cleaners, SCH's 60/70/80 capstones all have anti-synergy with each other, and Square doesn't care.

But if you want hard proof that Square only cares about the DPS, and to a lesser extent, the tank classes, consider the 10/31 Live Letter.

This is what they said about Ninja:

Ninja received many significant changes across the board.

Mudra and Ninjutsu were changed into GCD actions to preserve the playstyle of using Ninjutsu, while lowering the job’s busyness and reliance on low network latency.

Ninjutsu can no longer be weaved between weaponskills, which reduces the number of actions over time, but Ninjutsu potencies have been increased accordingly to balance the damage output.

Shadow Fang has also been changed to reduce busyness. It is no longer part of a combo and will now inflict a DoT by itself.

Trick Attack has been adjusted to balance out the increased personal damage, as well as improve its usability.

Ninja’s new playstyle can be seen in the video, so be sure to check it out!

Though it may take some time for long-time ninja players to adjust to these changes, we hope that you’ll be able to enjoy ninja’s new skill rotation, without the stress of excessive busyness!

This is what they said about all three healers:

White Mage / Scholar

White mage and scholar mainly received quality of life adjustments.

Astrologian

MP consumption has been lowered, personal damage output has been increased, and Minor Arcana has been adjusted to reduce busyness. Additionally, changes such as Collective Unconscious adjustments have improved the effectiveness of damage reduction.

NIN, which is 1/10 of the DPS role, got an entire paragraph and 17:56 minutes of video. SCH and WHM together, comprising 2/3 of the healer role, got one sentence, and as far as I could see, no time in the video (of course, I don't speak moonrune, so I may have missed something).