Question for those who didn't pick up AST til 5.0 or after.

[Seraphor]

Thing is, they have to change the jobs up with each expansion. Just as many would complain that they haven't added anything new to the jobs as those who complain that things were changed, you're essentially buying a new game, you want something new for your money. And they can't just add new abilities to the existing skill sets or we'd get an unmanageable number of skills to use. So some skills have to be cut to make way for new ones, which means reworking the job.

[HyoMinPark]

Thing is, they have to change the jobs up with each expansion. Just as many would complain that they haven't added anything new to the jobs as those who complain that things were changed, you're essentially buying a new game, you want something new for your money. And they can't just add new abilities to the existing skill sets or we'd get an unmanageable number of skills to use. So some skills have to be cut to make way for new ones, which means reworking the job.

You can add to a job without completely destroying its identity. That’s the complaint a lot of ASTs have: the developers removed the time aspects of the job (which was part of its identity in this game since its introduction in 3.0), and they neutered the card system to the point where they had to invent an entire mechanic to keep the six cards aspect relevant (seals—without seals, you could have just kept 2 cards: one for ranged, and one for melee). As with BRD: the developers removed all of the support aspects from the job due to the misconception that there couldn’t be two pseudo-support jobs in one game. Even with the drastic overhaul from HW BRD to SB BRD, the job never lost its core identity of being the closest thing to a support DPS this game could have. Now it’s a Ranger more than anything else, despite the level 80 quest continuing to emphasize how much BRDs sing to support their fellow people (lol).

They could have worked with the original card system without altering it so drastically; they could have also left in the time aspects. And they could have done both without making the job feel stale. It was basically the same from HW going into SB with a few new healy things (Star) and card mechanics (Sleeve Draw), but you didn’t really hear about ASTs complaining about how it was “the same ol’, same ol’ boring AST that we’ve been playing for 2 years already”.

[Rymi64]

You can add to a job without completely destroying its identity. That’s the complaint a lot of ASTs have: the developers removed the time aspects of the job (which was part of its identity in this game since its introduction in 3.0), and they neutered the card system to the point where they had to invent an entire mechanic to keep the six cards aspect relevant (seals—without seals, you could have just kept 2 cards: one for ranged, and one for melee). As with BRD: the developers removed all of the support aspects from the job due to the misconception that there couldn’t be two pseudo-support jobs in one game. Even with the drastic overhaul from HW BRD to SB BRD, the job never lost its core identity of being the closest thing to a support DPS this game could have. Now it’s a Ranger more than anything else, despite the level 80 quest continuing to emphasize how much BRDs sing to support their fellow people (lol).

They could have worked with the original card system without altering it so drastically; they could have also left in the time aspects. And they could have done both without making the job feel stale. It was basically the same from HW going into SB with a few new healy things (Star) and card mechanics (Sleeve Draw), but you didn’t really hear about ASTs complaining about how it was “the same ol’, same ol’ boring AST that we’ve been playing for 2 years already”.

Well as we all know when they take elements away from a job, in this case the time aspect, they usually add it back as a new skill or give it to another job (Or maybe they wanted to nerf ast idk, it feels pretty op to me currently compared to the other healers). And they noticed that people went for balance anyways since it was the one that boosted damage since "you cant take damage if you kill the thing faster ".

Playing old and new ast cards i prefer the new ones better since now i only have to contend with luck when it comes to seals and let me tell you my luck is still shit when it comes to seals . I believe personally they got rid of time dilation to nerf ast potential compared to the other healers. I don't understand why they got rid of the stun on opposition though, the extend effect i can understand but why the stun.

Off topic: I never understand why people keep saying bards lost all support aspects when they still have them for both their songs and their natural abilities. Yea it's to a lesser effect than SB but if they kept it the same as SB then people would just be like "Why bring dnc who can only buff the whole party for 20 seconds when we can have bard who buffs the party the entire fight."

[Absurdity]

I believe personally they got rid of time dilation to nerf ast potential compared to the other healers. I don't understand why they got rid of the stun on opposition though, the extend effect i can understand but why the stun.

The old time extention gave AST a very unique gameplay aspect due to the various interactions it had with it's own healing kit, now it's been reduced to "press oGCD when damage". They traded a very interesting mechanic for more boring oGCD healing instead of giving WHM something that can compete with it.

[Mortex]

Thing is, they have to change the jobs up with each expansion. Just as many would complain that they haven't added anything new to the jobs as those who complain that things were changed, you're essentially buying a new game, you want something new for your money. And they can't just add new abilities to the existing skill sets or we'd get an unmanageable number of skills to use. So some skills have to be cut to make way for new ones, which means reworking the job.

That sounds like monk for almost all expansions .Hw ogcd mantras that don’t refresh if you don’t press the button and Tornado “ I’m gonna lose my stacks anyway” kick. Stormblood whas the best version of mnk hands down. Double tornado kick, a lot of ogcd uses and a high skill ceiling too bad you didn’t had slashing or piercing debuff. And then they derped it again for shadow bringer first removing ogcd buttons so you fall actually asleep playing monk and then killing anatma opener and making form shift early lvl anatma. And then increasing chakra gain so mnk Mains actually made a trigger that tells you how many of them you lost over a fight when you even spam the button. Also nerfing his dps only to make him a bit bedder in a group that doesn’t play 3 meele and 1 physical range. and too top it all of next theny make a raid tier were there is sorry downtime except e12s phase 2 in one mechanic. Like bravo

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

Thing is, they have to change the jobs up with each expansion. Just as many would complain that they haven't added anything new to the jobs as those who complain that things were changed, you're essentially buying a new game, you want something new for your money. And they can't just add new abilities to the existing skill sets or we'd get an unmanageable number of skills to use. So some skills have to be cut to make way for new ones, which means reworking the job.

Just this alone feels to me like, and I often refer to it as, one of the most serious problems with FFIXV... A far better thing to do with a large amount of actions, too many for a player to work with all of the actions, is to create in-class diversity. I find it mind-blowing stupid that FFXIV never did this, and has always done this delete actions BS, instead.