I'm bored when I heal because I need more complex DPS rotations

[Shurrikhan]

And this is where my ugly shows, because if it were me behind the wheel, I'd rip the bandage and do it anyway. I would just make it my goal to try and make the gameplay that I replace all that bloat with more enjoyable than the negative of losing cooldowns and OGCD healing. And this also includes reworking AST to be the healer designed for healers that don't want to DPS. A while back you asked me if I'd do that regardless of the couple AST players who responded not liking that suggestion, and my response would be "tough. We need this to end this eternal feud, and AST is the healer that makes the most sense to do it with." Now it wouldn't just be the theory crafts I've regurgitated in the past, but something that would be worked on and refined with the help of the other designers, as well as playtested, but I would redefine AST regardless of what any existing AST player wants, because that's the only way I see this war ending before healer number 5 comes along in 2030.

I feel like I agree with much of this, though perhaps just incidentally? I'd definitely have an authoritarian streak when it comes to de-cluttering healer oGCDs. If someone cried out "But I love my Panhaima button. I don't care whether I'm still capable of a near identical action without using up that button on it separately!" I'd still take their button without even offering a pacifier.

Long CDs with highly specific use cases (basically hit Button X only when you see Cue X; if no Cue X, Button X mostly goes to waste) are just an utter waste to me. (Much like inflexible 123 combos, Cleric Stance existing just to grey out one half one's kit or the other, most actions --like Lucid Dreaming-- that exist solely to be hit on CD, purposely sabotaged macro systems, etc.)



In the case of AST, it's the job I think least needs a bunch of damage actions only because to me damage is just downtime/additional complexity, and Cards are already a huge factor there, so I'd like for what damage options AST has to synergize well with them as sort of big, pivotal, and set-up (kind of like a revised no-CD, more flexible, and more involved Earthly Star).

But, I wouldn't tell them "No additional downtime tools for you because internal-rotation-phobes might get offended at there being an option they don't want to use, even if they literally have no need to do so." It's simply that there are some things that fit better than others with its core (Cards and Time-Space Magic), so I'd want their kit to account for and build around what's core to that job.