Gutting Astro... again.....

[Karen_Cerfrumos]

'Some semblance of consistency' 'Unplayable mess' 'Bloat during bursts'

Jfc dude just play white mage

This is a useless and reductionist response because WHM's tools are different, WHM's aesthetics are different and for a lot of people EW card design is literally the thing standing between them and an otherwise cool healing toolkit.
If you notice most jobs getting significant adjustments in DT are those that have lesser adoption rate - monk, ninja, astrologian, black mage... It's the direction the game's been going in for years. The devs hate when a job isn't played.

[Kissune]

This is a useless and reductionist response because WHM's tools are different, WHM's aesthetics are different and for a lot of people EW card design is literally the thing standing between them and an otherwise cool healing toolkit.
If you notice most jobs getting significant adjustments in DT are those that have lesser adoption rate - monk, ninja, astrologian, black mage... It's the direction the game's been going in for years. The devs hate when a job isn't played.

They apparently hate when a job is unique, too. But hey I guess my bad for expecting my fun to be equally as important as someone's aesthetic preference right? And you can cling to AST's "cool healing toolkit" bc they'll take that away too, eventually. Now that cards are effectively removed, what's next for the casuals to complain about? Having to time your stars? Having to use macrocosmos before taking a hit instead of just being a big healing button?

This might be a pretty wild take but I think that making AST basically white mage with stars is not actually healthy for the game long term. If people couldn't hack the card system, then maybe they should admit AST wasn't for them. When I first started this game, I picked up AST because it looked pretty. I literally remember asking someone in limsa what the pretty star explosion ability was. Then I got into it, found the card system was pretty in depth, and had a lot of fun practicing it and getting better at it.

I'm getting really tired of my mains having all complexity, substance, and interesting parts of their kit stripped away all because 'some people want to play it for how it looks, and don't want to interact with the mechanics of it at all'. At that point, why even have seperate jobs to begin with? Just make a healer with all the buttons, and let you pick your preferred flavour of VFX. WHM and AST are going to play extremely similar, and just because there are slight, and I mean SLIGHT variances in how their abilities work doesn't mean that the jobs haven't been completely streamlined and homogenized.

If you're not good enough to play the class at its most optimal level, either get better or don't play it? EW AST's card system is ridiculously easy to work with at the skill floor and you don't even have to think about it or use it in any casual content. But it was there for the people who WANTED to use it. If you were only playing AST for the aesthetics, or the way it heals, then just fucking do that. The card system was never holding you back, bc no one was ACTUALLY forcing you to optimize. You weren't punished for not using cards 100% perfectly. Unless you were doing savage or ultimate content, in which case... Idk, hard content should require... effort? Is that so controversial to say? If doing AST's rotation is too hard in savage, then maybe you should play a different job for it.

But no, you want your precious aesthetic, and you want your easy playstyle, and so fuck you to everyone who wanted the challenging kit, right? Fuck you to all the people who wanted at least ONE of the four healers to require a modicum of skill to execute their dps rotation, right? AST might see more players in DT, sure. But there won't be more healers, and there might be less. You're not gonna suddenly convince dps or tank players to pick up AST by making it stupidly easy and basic. If that was all it took, we'd have them clamouring to pick up sage, scholar and white mage already. Instead, you alienate the healer mains who had AST as their last bastion of enjoyment and challenge in the role, and for what? So some white mage players will switch over to astrologian? I'm sure it'll look really nice on their demographics when there's still more whm players than ast bc the real reason it's more common is because you can fucking start with it and a lot of people just play one job.

The pool of healers isn't going to increase. No one is gonna pick up new AST from the dps and tank roles, and even if they do, I'd be amazed if they stuck with it for more than a tier. Some healers will swap around, sure. And people like me, and Aravell, and a lot of other AST mains will abandon the role altogether. I look forwards to an even worse healer shortage than EW, one I'm already seeing on recruitment discords.

Because god forbid a class be less popular bc it's got a higher skill ceiling. All for the sake of aesthetics, my god.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

[...]for a lot of people EW card design is literally the thing standing between them and an otherwise cool healing toolkit[...]

Y'know what's today's solution to this? Don't learn/interact with the card system, or play it at basic minimum effort. Y'know, play it like how one would play a WHM. Reactive healer. It also works. Is it optimal? Nah. Is it viable? Totally.

Wanna perform better? Then for the love of Hydaelyn, actually put the effort.

[Kissune]

Y'know what's today's solution to this? Don't learn/interact with the card system, or play it at basic minimum effort. Y'know, play it like how one would play a WHM. Reactive healer. It also works. Is it optimal? Nah. Is it viable? Totally.

Wanna perform better? Then for the love of Hydaelyn, actually put the effort.

There are three types of players, and it's always the third type that asks for all these changes and get catered to. Casuals, who just like pretty buttons and flashy skills. They don't need a challenge, they just enjoy whatever and don't think about what they're doing, and so difficult rotations don't bother them bc they don't know (or need to know) what a rotation is. Competitive players, who like optimizing gameplay and playing their job to the fullest and enjoying the challenge, and enjoy finding the rotation that speaks to their playstyle and perfecting it.

Then there's shitters, who want to pretend they're competitive and optimal with the rewards and 'prestige' but balk at the idea of actually putting in work to get there. With these AST changes, they were clearly loud enough. AST was too hard, RNG too difficult, DPS buffs too boring. Instead, they get a 1 button rotation with an even more overloaded healing kit for fights that almost definitely won't require it even at the highest level. And I'm sure, come Dawntrail, they'll find something new to complain about. It never ends. Everything needs to get easier.

I can't wait to watch them cry in 8.0 as jobs suddenly require braincells to operate, if I'm not coping about that. If I am, well, was fun. With that timeline, Monster Hunter Wilds will have its DLC expansion by then, and I can finally accept that this game only caters to the laziest players, and move on.

[Karen_Cerfrumos]

There are three types of players, and it's always the third type that asks for all these changes and get catered to. Casuals, who just like pretty buttons and flashy skills. They don't need a challenge, they just enjoy whatever and don't think about what they're doing, and so difficult rotations don't bother them bc they don't know (or need to know) what a rotation is. Competitive players, who like optimizing gameplay and playing their job to the fullest and enjoying the challenge, and enjoy finding the rotation that speaks to their playstyle and perfecting it.

Then there's shitters, who want to pretend they're competitive and optimal with the rewards and 'prestige' but balk at the idea of actually putting in work to get there. With these AST changes, they were clearly loud enough. AST was too hard, RNG too difficult, DPS buffs too boring. Instead, they get a 1 button rotation with an even more overloaded healing kit for fights that almost definitely won't require it even at the highest level. And I'm sure, come Dawntrail, they'll find something new to complain about. It never ends. Everything needs to get easier.

I can't wait to watch them cry in 8.0 as jobs suddenly require braincells to operate, if I'm not coping about that. If I am, well, was fun. With that timeline, Monster Hunter Wilds will have its DLC expansion by then, and I can finally accept that this game only caters to the laziest players, and move on.

Yeah I get it you've watched Misshapen Chair and you think what he says is really profound and correct.

EW AST is an awful system for objective reasons. Both of these things can be true.
"Prestige", give me a break. You're playing a video game.

[Kissune]

Yeah I get it you've watched Misshapen Chair and you think what he says is really profound and correct.

EW AST is an awful system for objective reasons. Both of these things can be true.
"Prestige", give me a break. You're playing a video game.

Why do you think it was in quotes. You think I care about 'prestige'?