AST as a support-focused healer

[ty_taurus]

So a few things to note:

Before anything else, I can say I respect if you're not interested in the concept. I can't make you like it if you're turned off by it, but I do think it's also something that's difficult to actually gauge how it would feel without testing because it's so different to what we're familiar with. And that's the big flaw we're all faced with is we can't prototype anything, so there's a limit to how much we can accomplish on paper ideas shared on a forum. How fast or slow this would feel in practice is really hard to gauge without being able to put it in your hands. I also don't want AST to be slow, so it's a concept I would regularly adjust in a prototyping environment to get a good pacing feel. But regardless, I appreciate that you seem like you'd give it a chance if it were real anyway.

There are a few reasons as to why I fixate on the GCD cards. I want more distinct playstyles for each healer. What is the point of having multiple jobs if they're 4 different variations of the flavor for chocolate? We've talked a lot about DPS on healers, and while I do not agree or really sympathize with your standard Sylphie mindset of "I'll just stand here and look pretty" or the Ren mindset of "Just leave 1 healer in the trashcan", I can sympathize with healers who are not a fan of the heavy DPS mentality every healer adheres to, and I believe there should be a healer that tries to provide a fun and engaging playstyle that moves away from offense as much as possible while still feeling good in solo environments. There is a limit to how much you can do this given how this game is designed, but it is possible, but the only way this can ever work in FFXIV is to create a healer who still contributes DPS, but filters it through some form of support, but that support also has to be consistent support. Mitigation and healing are only as needed as a fight demands, which just isn't all that much in this game.

So in order to accomplish this, we either need to rework an existing healer to fulfill this playstyle, or add a new healer. But we just got SGE this past expansion, and it's identity is defined by being a highly aggressive healer--the opposite of this mindset. Realistically, assuming we even ever get another healer, it'll be another 7 years---maybe 5 years if we skip a double-DPS expansion--before we get a 5th. Meanwhile we have 4 healers that are starving for individuality, which is why I lean toward reworking each to have a more distinct playstyle. Of the healers we have, AST is undeniably the one that matches this class fantasy the closest.

All that said, it's also a justifiable route to say that no healer should be designed to cater to that type of playstyle, and anyone who doesn't like the heavy direct DPS frequency of the healers can deal with it or leave. At the end of the day, it's the designers who decide what playstyles they do and do not want in their game. No one is obligated to appeal to any given audience. Or we could leave the cards off the GCD and give them other forms of support GCD actions in addition to the cards, but that would be even more actions and would require a more intense culling of actions to properly fit.

To clarify on some of the details...

• On button pruning, combining Benefic and Esuna is an option, or upgrading Benefic to Benefic II. Since we're effectively performing a mini-divination every 30 seconds, there's an argument for removing Divination here, potentially moving further away from the 2 minute meta. Astrodyne could be removed. Synastry could if not be removed, maybe combined with Stargazer. Redraw and Undraw are unneeded for this build. In general, having 3 hotspots for all your cards is there to condense actions while also providing more control over the cards and replace Play and Crown Play, naturally. So I do think there's room here.
• The effect in those descriptions for Stargazer and CI is what I explained after that sentence. I just worded it oddly. Stargazer is simply, whoever has it (be they you or someone else) it's that person's spells and weaponskills that cause your lodestars to detonate. You're designating who is going to use your lodestar stacks essentially, or leave it on yourself during solo play. There's some optimization though to taking it off and making sure your lodestars are dumped while buffs are active though, so it's not quite like Dance Partner or Kardia which you generally want 100% uptime on. CI is just, whoever you put it on, their buffs are doubled in power when you use CO.
• Lodestars are in a sense like lilies because they are a DPS refund tool, but the application of them is quite different. Regardless, I really don't see a way around having some type of refund system to allow support GCD actions to not be completely ignored in favor of direct DPS. It would be very wonky to try and balance a healer that only provided % damage buffs and no or little personal DPS of their own (in group play anyway). This makes the support still emanate from you, but would generally be triggered by others.
• Shuffle exists for two reasons: 1. it gives structure to your gameplay. You can only do a triple offensive party buff once per 30 seconds, and 2. it also makes it so that you aren't just trying to stack 3 Balances or so by enforcing the one-of-each-card aspect.

And I've said it before but it's worth saying again that there are more ways this concept could work. Mine isn't the only way, it's just the best that I've come up with at the time having gone through several iterations prior. And I'm just 1 person, so I'm not bouncing ideas off anyone else. I'm sure there's an even better way to approach this out there.