Patch 6.48 PvP Balance Changes

[Cidel]

Black Mage

• Soul Resonance (LB) - Now grants the effect Apocatastasis. (15s Duration, effect: -10% damage taken)

WHY.

Why would they bring this back? We are literally just the 2 charges of Paradox away from the broken kneejerk buff over a year ago. Was this truly necessary?

It was a meme then, but I think it's probably accurate from the fanfest:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...e_pvp_matches/

Black mage has long held a below-average win rate in higher tier matches, and because they can be easily countered in custom matches, they often go unused. To help remedy this without making the job too powerful, executing Soul Resonance will once again grant players the effect of Apocatastasis. We believe the added defense of this effect will help players capitalize on the use of their limit break.

Yoshi-P be looking at his main and probably not pleased with it.

Astrologian

• Aspected Benefic - Cure potency of Diurnal Benefic has been increased from 1,000 to 2,000. Effect duration of Diurnal Benefic has been increased from 12 to 15 seconds.
• Aspected Benefic (Doublecast) - Barrier potency of Nocturnal Benefic has been increased from 4,000 to 5,000.

Questionable buff on their direct heal. The burst healing remained same, but the regen and shield got boosted. Regen from 4000 total to 10000 total and the shield from 4000 to 5000. Leaves to be seen how impactful it will be, but I didn't think Astrologian needed this buff - they were already fairly strong given their buffs and I'd not be surprised if WHM would be overtaken by AST as the most popular PvP Healer - AGAIN.

Again, taken from their 6.48 adjustments explanation:

...because their win rates in ranked matches are relatively lacking compared to other healing jobs, we have decided to bolster the additional effects of Aspected Benefic.

It seems win rates tends to be king in their decisions to buff/nerf jobs overall. I don't doubt ASTs are on the lower end; I found it harder to "carry" on AST than WHM, due to how quickly WHM can simply delete people under less specific circumstances than AST and doesn't require as much team synergy. While I'm not savvy on how a 5 second extension on MoN's recast will be all that impactful, the addition of shaving off the potency on Purgation's Regen in addition might actually tone it down. They at least acknowledged AST's strength in custom matches though where teams are expected to be cohesive. Unfortunately, its a different story with randos.

I wonder how much of what they saw at the Fanfest had any influence in these adjustments. Nobody ever really talks about the results of the tournament. Just DRK Frontline abuse and why I can't stop hitting SAMs and why that is everybody else's fault.