Astrologian changes 6.0

[inhaledcorn]

The changes to Lord/Lady and the new Astrodyne are awful.

You now have a strong chance to lose out on damage over something you can't control. Y'all wanted RNG, and now you have it in the worst possible ways.

"Oh, but Divination is consistent!"

Whoopty-doo. I could deal with losing out on some damage in my opener because my Divination was pretty consistent everywhere else. Now? Well, who knows if I'm getting my personal damage buff or if I'm just getting that MP regen that's really not even necessary, even with the mp economy nerf due to the reduction on mp recovery from Draw and the loss of Sleeve Draw.

StB Lord/Lady sucked because the Lord was always good while the Lady just sat there because I had no need for it. Essential Dignity was on a 45s cooldown and healed for faaar more than Lady ever could. What do we need an AoE heal for when we have Earthly Star and Celestial Opposition, both of which are on 60s cooldown timers? On top of that, you're still losing out on damage because of a thing you cannot control.

The ShB card system didn't need to be messed with. If they wanted to make Divination its own cooldown, fine, but Astrodyne is a terrible replacement, and ShB Minor Arcana was a necessity for leftover card seals. This new system is just not well thought-out.

[Sqwall]

The changes to Lord/Lady and the new Astrodyne are awful.

You now have a strong chance to lose out on damage over something you can't control. Y'all wanted RNG, and now you have it in the worst possible ways.

"Oh, but Divination is consistent!"

Whoopty-doo. I could deal with losing out on some damage in my opener because my Divination was pretty consistent everywhere else. Now? Well, who knows if I'm getting my personal damage buff or if I'm just getting that MP regen that's really not even necessary, even with the mp economy nerf due to the reduction on mp recovery from Draw and the loss of Sleeve Draw.

Respectfully Disagree. You're looking at this from a strictly DPS point of view. Is DPS the main focus of a healer...it can be, but it's not. If someone that is good at healing and DPSing, great! But is DPS required of healers....absolutely not. The RNG aspect is contained only to the AST now, and doesn't punish you for poor RNG to buff the party damage. So in that regard...nothing changed...the party STILL get's the divination buff, but now you don't have to fish for seals to get in that opener. This is good.

To you're point about RNG is worse...I still disagree. The only change that I can see is that we have one less redraw. And the no longer awkward sleeve draw cooldown. Sleeve draw was great for the opener, but it was utterly useless otherwise. One guaranteed seal to complete every OTHER divination. I never had that much trouble filling out my seals even without sleeve draw. With the long cooldown of divination we currently have, I ALWAYS have my seals completed before Div is off CD, with minor arcana filler or the seal will replace my first seal. I might have the once in a while poor RNG and spend 3 redraws, but I still have plenty of time to get in another Draw/redraw before Div is up.

Minor Arcana is so low on the totem pole in 5.0 that I only EVER use it when my seals are complete and it acts as filler while I wait for Div to come up so I don't break my seals, unless like I said...I can successfully push a seal. So this basically went to a FREE DPS card or a FREE HEAL card. I really don't see the downside here. Will people fish for a lord pre-pull...maybe. Will raid parties wait til a AST get's a Lord...doubt it (unless that's required in a particular static) Is it THAT big of a difference....no....because you can't UNDRAW a lord/lady. Deal with it and move on kind of RNG...seems harmless when I think about it. The lord pre-pull for a small DPS 250 potency hit does not replace a 15s 8% damage up buff on a party member...not even by a long shot. It's just a flat free dps or free heal.

[GrimGale]

Respectfully Disagree. You're looking at this from a strictly DPS point of view. Is DPS the main focus of a healer...it can be, but it's not. If someone that is good at healing and DPSing, great! But is DPS required of healers....absolutely not. The RNG aspect is contained only to the AST now, and doesn't punish you for poor RNG to buff the party damage. So in that regard...nothing changed...the party STILL get's the divination buff, but now you don't have to fish for seals to get in that opener. This is good.

To you're point about RNG is worse...I still disagree. The only change that I can see is that we have one less redraw. And the no longer awkward sleeve draw cooldown. Sleeve draw was great for the opener, but it was utterly useless otherwise. One guaranteed seal to complete every OTHER divination. I never had that much trouble filling out my seals even without sleeve draw. With the long cooldown of divination we currently have, I ALWAYS have my seals completed before Div is off CD, with minor arcana filler or the seal will replace my first seal. I might have the once in a while poor RNG and spend 3 redraws, but I still have plenty of time to get in another Draw/redraw before Div is up.

Minor Arcana is so low on the totem pole in 5.0 that I only EVER use it when my seals are complete and it acts as filler while I wait for Div to come up so I don't break my seals, unless like I said...I can successfully push a seal. So this basically went to a FREE DPS card or a FREE HEAL card. I really don't see the downside here. Will people fish for a lord pre-pull...maybe. Will raid parties wait til a AST get's a Lord...doubt it (unless that's required in a particular static) Is it THAT big of a difference....no....because you can't UNDRAW a lord/lady. Deal with it and move on kind of RNG...seems harmless when I think about it. The lord pre-pull for a small DPS 250 potency hit does not replace a 15s 8% damage up buff on a party member...not even by a long shot. It's just a flat free dps or free heal.

The issue is that free healing has often very little value when put up against free damage, especially when getting one means the loss of the other. They could have mitigated this by having both Lord and Lady deal damage and heal, like a mini assize, then add a distinct effect to one or the other to differentiate them. But when damage and heal come together and are exclusive, healing will ALWAYS lose due to being situational, while damage will ALWAYS win due to being always useful. (Except maybe in very strange situations where you have to have a healing and you've exhausted all other options, but honestly considering how many healing abilities we have that might never be the case.)

[Sqwall]

The issue is that free healing has often very little value when put up against free damage, especially when getting one means the loss of the other. They could have mitigated this by having both Lord and Lady deal damage and heal, like a mini assize, then add a distinct effect to one or the other to differentiate them. But when damage and heal come together and are exclusive, healing will ALWAYS lose due to being situational, while damage will ALWAYS win due to being always useful. (Except maybe in very strange situations where you have to have a healing and you've exhausted all other options, but honestly considering how many healing abilities we have that might never be the case.)

Possibly. I look at it from a point of view if I use a Lady card, then I can DPS right away. If I use a Lord Card I can follow up with healing. Lord and Lady to me are MP savers, and help you either way. I don't know. I ultimately think the change is good, and sometimes simple execution of a simple skill at it's core are what's required. It's not going to make or break in clutch moments. BUT it does offer choice, and choice offers variety. Something Healers are in need of desperately. AST has that variety that I want in a healer. WHM is just a glare mage, and I found WHM incredibly boring to play. AST keeps me on my toes and makes me think. SCH never played it as it just didn't interest me. SGE? Perhaps....but I hate shield healing (which is why I never picked up SCH).

With the changes AST has, I agree that this is a great direction for AST. It is sort of a soft return to form, and still keeps it complexity. I always advocate for QoL fixes, adjustments. While replacing poor designs with better design.

This is probably the closest AST is going to get to "as good as it's going to get".

[GrimGale]

BUT it does offer choice, and choice offers variety.

But that was my point. It really doesn't. You will almost invariably always want Lord of Crowns as it is always useful. While Lady of Crowns is only useful when there is some significant healing to do. Especially since Lord of Crowns IS a dps gain. It adds to Astrologian's dps, its an oGCD you can weave into your casts for a 250 potency gain.

Indeed, I agree it is not much. And the RNG definitely offsets the value for both. Maybe it's not valuable enough to make a dent, but it is still more useful than healing. Healing doesn't make the fight finish faster. Healing can be completely wasted and add nothing to a team if it doesn't save anyone and for that AST has a lot of much more consistent tools.

It's a choice between always free useful damage (which can be augmented in Divination or Astrodyne windows, increasing its value.) and free very situational healing. This isn't really choice.

[Sqwall]

But that was my point. It really doesn't. You will almost invariably always want Lord of Crowns as it is always useful. While Lady of Crowns is only useful when there is some significant healing to do. Especially since Lord of Crowns IS a dps gain. It adds to Astrologian's dps, its an oGCD you can weave into your casts for a 250 potency gain.

Indeed, I agree it is not much. And maybe it's not valuable enough to make a dent, but it is still more useful than healing. Healing doesn't make the fight finish faster. Healing can be completely wasted and add nothing to a team if it doesn't save anyone and for that AST has a lot of much more consistent tools.

It's a choice between always free useful damage (which can be augmented in Divination or Astrodyne windows, increasing its value.) and free very situational healing. This isn't really choice.

Hmm good point. I seem to go in a different direction on this I suppose.
Minor Aranca is 60 sec cooldown timer starts when used. Separate timer from draw and crown play.
Crown Play is instant use and is technically "Spread" from astro of old. You can hold on to this for 60 sec until you start to see drift.

This gives me the chance to use Lady within 60 sec of pulling it up. I don't have to use it RIGHT away....I can hold it when healing is needed with the 60 sec until minor arcana comes up again. Lord...well yeah might as well us it right away as it is undeniably more useful.

Either way. I see them both useful. And I understand your point. I just see it in a different way as MP savers for DPS and Healing respectively.

[Sylvain]

But that was my point. It really doesn't. You will almost invariably always want Lord of Crowns as it is always useful. While Lady of Crowns is only useful when there is some significant healing to do. Especially since Lord of Crowns IS a dps gain. It adds to Astrologian's dps, its an oGCD you can weave into your casts for a 250 potency gain.

Indeed, I agree it is not much. And the RNG definitely offsets the value for both. Maybe it's not valuable enough to make a dent, but it is still more useful than healing. Healing doesn't make the fight finish faster. Healing can be completely wasted and add nothing to a team if it doesn't save anyone and for that AST has a lot of much more consistent tools.

It's a choice between always free useful damage (which can be augmented in Divination or Astrodyne windows, increasing its value.) and free very situational healing. This isn't really choice.

Well it all depends on the encounter and your gear regarding that encounter.
If you can heal through everything solely with ogcd then yes the Lord is better but that's usually only true when you overgear the fight or have it already down and had time to figure out the best ogcd rotation with your coheal. Especially during prog a 400potency aoe heal can be quite nice.
On day1 even E9S was hardly healable without gcd heal and by the time you figured it she was usually already dead.

200 damage potency on an average of 120s is like so weak I don't even see why people care about that.
Over the course of an entire fight this will result in 2-4 malefic depending on the RNG something that shouldn't be needed for a dps check. And again, if it is then it would probably only be on 4th floor week one and usually when you do the 4th floor on week one you generally do use a few gcd heal there a there and if you have to then the lady is better than the lord because it heals more than a helios so if 3 lady can replace 3 helios then that's 3 malefic cast instead which is a net benefit.
(and yeah ofc once you overpower the fight well... at this point it only matter if you do speed run or want that 99+% perf)

[EthanMoonkin]

While I am intrigued about some of the changes, I also agree that the card system is still poorly designed and will not be enjoyable to play. At first I was excited because I thought Macrocosmos was an ogcd which would mean being able to weave in-between malefics like assize, but it's just a malefic substitute with a heal since their potencies are the same. The Lord is nice, but now your personal damage is completely based on rng and there's nothing you can do to change that no matter how much you master the class.

Just as someone already mentioned, damage will ALWAYS be better than healing. This is not an opinion but a matter of fact as that is how the game is designed. You are not benefiting the party by healing constantly, but you are by doing damage. This is something all players need to understand no matter what casual or not.

Being able to reroll the arcana for the other card would also be an option I'd he happy for but that would probably add to the skill bloat, so giving both equal amounts of damage will having a slightly different effect would also silver the problem.

[Sqwall]

While I am intrigued about some of the changes, I also agree that the card system is still poorly designed and will not be enjoyable to play. At first I was excited because I thought Macrocosmos was an ogcd which would mean being able to weave in-between malefics like assize, but it's just a malefic substitute with a heal since their potencies are the same. The Lord is nice, but now your personal damage is completely based on rng and there's nothing you can do to change that no matter how much you master the class.

Just as someone already mentioned, damage will ALWAYS be better than healing. This is not an opinion but a matter of fact as that is how the game is designed. You are not benefiting the party by healing constantly, but you are by doing damage. This is something all players need to understand no matter what casual or not.

Being able to reroll the arcana for the other card would also be an option I'd he happy for but that would probably add to the skill bloat, so giving both equal amounts of damage will having a slightly different effect would also silver the problem.

I disagree with this statement. Gravity isn't RNG, Combust isn't RNG, Malefic isn't RNG. Personal DPS doesn't have to all be perfect, and for some to think that everything related to DPS needs to knock their socks of just further dilutes the job. Otherwise AST should have just been a R.DPS. At AST heart is a healer, and it is possibly the best healer in the game. Possibly.

I don't believe those that think the RNG on AST is bad....it's not. Far from it really. MNK currently has worse RNG, BRD has worse RNG. For me personally it's not hard to get a Divination opener, it's not hard to throw out a card every 30 sec, it's not hard to redraw, it's not hard to see when my non-sleeve draw Div isn't coming together well...and when I need to toss out minor arcana when I run out of redraws for 1 seal to get ready for Div.

AST has ALL the tools it needs to heal and DPS effectively. If people want to think it's DPS is completely behind an RNG system, then your missing the point. Minor arcana is fine with the new iteration, because it's basically an after thought currently. AST is the buff healer, and it's cards also serve as it's DPS. Every time you toss a card onto a Dragoon or a Black Mage, you the healer just increased your DPS.

You play AST well, and roll with the punches you can increase DPS quite a bit. The new Lord and Lady does NOT break the job at all. If anything it gives me more to do during slower moments.

I'm happy with the new changes.

[EthanMoonkin]

I disagree with this statement. Gravity isn't RNG, Combust isn't RNG, Malefic isn't RNG. Personal DPS doesn't have to all be perfect, and for some to think that everything related to DPS needs to knock their socks of just further dilutes the job. Otherwise AST should have just been a R.DPS. At AST heart is a healer, and it is possibly the best healer in the game. Possibly.

I don't believe those that think the RNG on AST is bad....it's not. Far from it really. MNK currently has worse RNG, BRD has worse RNG. For me personally it's not hard to get a Divination opener, it's not hard to throw out a card every 30 sec, it's not hard to redraw, it's not hard to see when my non-sleeve draw Div isn't coming together well...and when I need to toss out minor arcana when I run out of redraws for 1 seal to get ready for Div.

AST has ALL the tools it needs to heal and DPS effectively. If people want to think it's DPS is completely behind an RNG system, then your missing the point. Minor arcana is fine with the new iteration, because it's basically an after thought currently. AST is the buff healer, and it's cards also serve as it's DPS. Every time you toss a card onto a Dragoon or a Black Mage, you the healer just increased your DPS.

You play AST well, and roll with the punches you can increase DPS quite a bit. The new Lord and Lady does NOT break the job at all. If anything it gives me more to do during slower moments.

I'm happy with the new changes.

Let me clarify since you seem to fail to understand how this game is designed. Your ability to do your job properly as an AST with this design is entirely RNG dependent. Using your basic dps abilities is the bare minimum. AST has tools that give it large boosts of damage which will always be beneficial for your team, but those tools have more or less a 50% chance to fail.

Being a buff class does not automatically make it an inconsistent class. The current design of minor arcana and draw/astrodyne do make it inconsistent. If you like inconsistencies for the sake of it, then good for you. I’m not trying to change your opinion. Just reiterating that the class design is objectively flawed and hope they fix it for the sake of players who want their hard work to be paid off consistently.

Instead of practicing and improving on a class like AST where I’m destined to fail 50% of the time, I could just play sage whose damage is guaranteed every pull. I will always be benefiting my team to my jobs fullest extent, not barred by pointless coin flips.