How could you do this to AST?

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I still do not see no details exactly how is noct weak when I have put some where in like page 3/4 of prime examples how it is not and it even actually migitates better

Shields are situational. It is strong if it performs their functions as necessary, which is increasing your eHP to survive. This is something that regen cannot do. Doesn’t matter if you can stack 999k regen per tick if you can’t survive the initial damage.
The thing is... mitigation isn’t only shields’ privileges. In a party, mitigation is an effort of a whole party & the time when noct/sch shielding are needed are usually during progs where players are inevitably going to make mistake and take damage. The nature of shields is whoever has it needs to take damage in order to consume the shield & in decent runs people already knows how to dodge those damage. That only leaves the unavoidable damage that often aren’t lethal as long as the healers are keeping the party’s health on healthy range. So when you reach this point, you may ask yourself, -objectively-: “Why do I go for the more expensive shields if players can survive without it? Is there any cheaper options?”. Yes, you guess it right: Regens. I’m not saying people shouldn’t use shields after the group’s able to play decently. It’s just that objectively shields will be outshined by regens, unless the way an encounter works is adjusted in a way to make shields necessary.

ast as is the hybrid healer like how a rdm will be a mix of a white mage/blm their heals are decent but not that strong to a standard whm and their dps too is decent but not too powerful than the standard blm.

Well here’s the thing: yes, AST is a hybrid, but guess what? They can do almost everything the other healer do! Even better than WHMs & SCHs in fact. They shield better when played properly on noct stance, they heal MUCH MORE than WHMs, they lose the least from using GCD healings amongst the three healers, and their mobility allows a very forgiving gameplay to not always preposition themselves & dodging bad stuffs are much easier. ASTs are arguably tad overpowered as of now compared to the other healers. The only thing that WHMs and SCH has that AST doesn’t have is perhaps WHM’s [Cure III] spams that’s evidently very expensive & situational, and SCH’s incredibly short oGCDs.

Noct can do something dirunal cant do.

Another niche use of shields, I’ll give you that.
This is however something that rarely players will do in real practice UNLESS the said debuff is very debilitating. I.e. e10s slapping damage downs on your DPSes.
If it’s something as insignificant as your example, healers can safely eat that debuff and proceed on to help dps to burn mobs down faster. Yes, all 3 healers can do this just fine, that’s just to show how powerful healer kits are & how insignificant most of these niche uses are.

[Ultimatecalibur]

It’s just that objectively shields will be outshined by regens, unless the way an encounter is adjusted in a way to make shields necessary.

Or job systems that effectively reward the proactive use of shields are added so that a Barrier healer is more effective anticipating damage than reacting to it.

[ty_taurus]

it wasn't until i really started playing dps (mch) at the beginning of ShB did i realize how stupid it was for ast to give speed to people and i can't believe some asts actually want that back at all.

Honestly, Skill Speed/Spell Speed might need to just retire and exist exclusively on self-buffs for jobs that actually want it (Hi, BLM). I'm not entirely confident that this will happen for 6.0, but I do think something might be done about it. As it stands, Skill Speed on a lot of gear is a trap, and I don't think that really fits the "accessibility" angle that Square wants to push for XIV.

[IceBlueNinja]

You and me both. I absolutely loved AST before 5.0, when I felt like we had been absolutely crucified -- not only was our card system stripped of variety, but we lost Time skill/aspects which had been staples of the class, as well as our only stun (which another heal job was allowed to keep, so let's not pretend that Squeenix didn't think healers should have it at all). For a while, I switched to playing another class as main. After several patches which boosted our heals, I started using AST again.. but the job has definitely not been as engaging, interesting, or compelling. Being able to heal sufficiently (or even more than sufficiently) just isn't what job satisfaction is about.

I Triple that, though I did not play the job when it just came out in HW, I have read its past abilities and was amazed at the things it had like disable/detriment. SE just tend to mess with things that do not need messing with and hate to be a little off topic here but it is the MAIN issue with their fighting game Dissidia NT that is causing them to decide soon they will be shutting off the servers. It had many potential to be better in many ways and people will always feel why its psp part duodecim and even its mobile version opera omina is doing far better.

[SpiralMask]

@op: lost their cards (and all the lore/class quest associated), lost their time magics (and all the lore/class quest associated), now losing half their healing kit (and all the--you get the point).

personally i'm just wondering what's actually going to be left of [Astrologian] at this point.

[IceBlueNinja]

@op: lost their cards (and all the lore/class quest associated), lost their time magics (and all the lore/class quest associated), now losing half their healing kit (and all the--you get the point).

personally i'm just wondering what's actually going to be left of [Astrologian] at this point.

Yup because I refuse to be now just a pure heal(boring regens) and nothing more at that point they just slighty stronger weaving whms which is sad , ah well already packing and preparing up stuff for sage, barrier heals will always be my thing anyday, as long as they make it one of their barrier instant cast like ast aspected benefic then am all for that.

[ASkellington]

Yup because I refuse to be now just a pure heal(boring regens) and nothing more at that point they just slighty stronger weaving whms which is sad , ah well already packing and preparing up stuff for sage, barrier heals will always be my thing anyday, as long as they make it one of their barrier instant cast like ast aspected benefic then am all for that.

At least we get a free ad slogan:

"Astrologian, White Mage - but with cards!"

I honestly don't believe they'll strip AST of Noct sect and leave it as a WHM clone without giving them something...

But I also don't believe they'll do anything else!

[ty_taurus]

Yup because I refuse to be now just a pure heal(boring regens) and nothing more at that point they just slighty stronger weaving whms which is sad , ah well already packing and preparing up stuff for sage, barrier heals will always be my thing anyday, as long as they make it one of their barrier instant cast like ast aspected benefic then am all for that.

I really don't see what about barriers specifically makes a job appealing any more or less than a regen does. At the end of the day, none of the jobs have ever been defined by their regens or barriers, but rather the other things that they are capable of doing. White Mage was the power healer, Scholar was the DPS healer, AST was the buffing healer. Who knows what that will look like in 6.0, but AST's gameplay changes will have little to do with the lack of barriers and have everything to do with how they tackle the hatred for the Card System. And if they do nothing about it, then it will play virtually the same as it does now.

[MintnHoney]

I really don't see what about barriers specifically makes a job appealing any more or less than a regen does.

Difference in playstyle.
The removal of Noct sect is the removal of a playstyle on AST, even if you view the difference as minor. I suspect minimizing the number of playstyles per class is the true objective of Squeen, in this case, as it's easier to mathematically map out their battles if all classes only have 1 style of play.

[SpiralMask]

Difference in playstyle.
The removal of Noct sect is the removal of a playstyle on AST, even if you view the difference as minor. I suspect minimizing the number of playstyles per class is the true objective of Squeen, in this case, as it's easier to mathematically map out their battles if all classes only have 1 style of play.

sadly horizontal progression (or even options) in most modern games is verboten.
if you happened to enjoy the class in that style (or even the option to do so at all) that's just too bad. much like monks who enjoyed the challenge inherent in the class in managing greased lightning and having a tangible reminder of your mastery of the class and a given fight? too bad.

you can't look elsewhere for that--that entire approach simply doesn't exist anymore.