Thank you for the Astro changes coming in dawntrail!

[rewd]

I don't care much if AST has RNG or not, it's not what makes or breaks the job for me. I have to say I like 'true' RNG though, that is the one that only has two outcomes: good or bad. I like EW Minor Arcana because you never know what you will get but you always know what you want and you can't do anything about it. Most of the time you want Lord, but sometimes Lady can be useful in messy runs. If I get what I want, yay. If I don't, better luck next time. It's a good button to press in my opinion, even when I lose the RNG game.

I'm not a big fan of the 'main' cards, though, because it's 'false' RNG where the outcomes are 'good' and 'less good but still good'. It feels like I win every time and it's not very fun. You can only truly lose with Astrodyne if you don't get 3 seals, but Astrodyne is weak on purpose so it doesn't matter because you don't feel the difference. A system like this might as well not be there in my opinion.

If I had to choose, I'd take cards with different effects over RNG because that's more important to me and most importantly, more fun. Unless it has 'true' RNG, but most people don't really want a true gambler class where you can effectively lose.

I want more unique effects though, and not just something as simple as '500p heal on target' (luckily, no card is a direct heal). Even a mitigation buff can be interesting if it grows stronger over time so you have to play it well in advance and time it right, for example. Cards could have different effects based on the role you use them on and they could also add secondary effects to some of your skill (like Nocturnal sect used to do).

Lastly, we should have ways to interact with our cards, because they should be AST's main mechanic and not just a minigame on the side which often feels like pointless busywork. We should be able to undraw a card we have no use for so we can buff another card; we should be able to extend the effect to the whole party; we should be able to extend the duration of the effect. In other words, we should have old tools back that would synergize pretty well with the new system, like Royal Road, Spread and Time Dilation.

I'm curious to have tooltips, but regardless of what cards effectively do, we should get tools to interact with them in more meaningful ways.

[Rithy255]

Cause I don't trust them to do right by the class with them needing a re work every expansion

Y'know i think this one they will stick with because it's the most simple. I don't think they would randomly change card damage buff to be weaker, but who knows lol.

Which is a bad thing don't get me wrong I don't really like any of the "new designs/reworked jobs", but it's been shown that making everything simple is the only direction jobs will be took going foward

[Iedarus]

Baffled yet sadly not surprised they took away all of Astro's RNG. It's not like the whole lore behind the job is PREDICTING THE FUTURE. We should really look into old school titles like Everquest, at this point, if the DT healers are just as stale as ever. I really do want to have a genuine conversation with people who believe that this level of pruning is good for the game; everything plays like a scripted movie. I jumped back in to see if there's gonna be a shift in gameplay, but I might just unsub for good if I'm not going to actually get the chance to use my brain. I just really want to know what the passive, no DPS healers believe is good game design. I'd hate for this game to devolve into Japanese IMVU.

[Rozeee]

Afterall, my real concern now is not “how a job will be adjusted (or “destroyed”, again)” anymore, but “what is the team’s vision regarding the job”. We are players but not testers for a released patch. Tho I truly appreciate their respect towards players’ feedback, I feel weird if a job’s construction would be largely affected by these.

This is one of my main point of criticism not with just AST but healer role in this game. What is the devs actually trying to do? We got promised "more healing" with the ShB rework but that obviously didn't come to fruition, with them adding ridiculous things like Bloodhwetting or Shake it Off (Over time). Healerless clears is becoming more common. Damage options is obviously not a focus when SGE gets touted as "DPS Healer" and it only has one more DPS button compared to others. So what are they trying to do exactly?

Sure, some players are overly agitated when discussing job changes, but I see where they're coming from. It has become increasingly difficult to argue in good faith when you see healer changes over the years (SB lilies, ShB glare spam, pure and barrier split, other jobs' self sustain, SGE being a SCH copy). It feels amazingly insulting to hear "We've made the changes based on player feedback, so please try it out and provide more feedback". This forum and many other social media has already provided 2 expansions worth of feedback regarding healers. This is not working, go back to Stormblood. And no, it is not JP players that wanted this, they want SB AST/SCH back just as much as we do.

It is not illogical to make the conclusion of:
"The devs reads the feedback, but have their own vision and does that anyway"
"The devs reads the feedback, but these changes are made incompetently"
"The devs don't read the feedback"

I made a thread discussing how the devs should communicate job design changes. I firmly believe that this is an issue of communication/philosophy rather than the devs being uninspired.

[KanataNanaya]

Are we expecting to see the additional info at the end of this month?

with the media tour embargo up, probably yes. not sure when tho.,

[DivineP]

Hey all,

I'll give in too as an ASTRO main.

My backstory is I have the Mentor mount and 10,000 duties completed. I started ARR with CNJ/WHM.

I have played ASTRO since HW and seen its systems or job identity gutted with each expansion. I also play on playstation exclusively. So I'm controller based.

I enjoyed playing with cards on an OCD as it makes me think on the fly - who needs what card etc be it from TP or damage mitigation from a tank buster (earlier eras) - then to the dps cards (what roles are the dps? Who needs what?)

I didn't know about the changes till I read this thread and quite frankly, if I wanted mindless heal gameplay - I'd play WHM.

It is such a shame AST is becoming the same as the other healers, I enjoyed weaving cards etc while I spammed gravity or heals.

Very disappointed in this change and after years, I'll be swapping my AST for something else I find fun and not 111111 spam.

[LynxDubh]

I enjoyed playing with cards on an OCD as it makes me think on the fly - who needs what card etc be it from TP or damage mitigation from a tank buster (earlier eras) - then to the dps cards (what roles are the dps? Who needs what?)

Are you saying the cards are on the GCD now? The cards are still OGCD based on the trailer.

[Zaytex]

Are you saying the cards are on the GCD now? The cards are still OGCD based on the trailer.

Doesn't matter, the cards have a lot less thinking or weaving to them. Offensive cards have lost their seals or type, and you only have 2 every 2 minutes vs EW's 4 to manage.

Mitigation/Healing cards will be scripted/fixed after prog, so they'll feel the exact same to use as a aquaveil/tetra.

So Divine is right, it'll feel just like WHM, but even I'd rather just play WHM if that's the case.

[LynxDubh]

Doesn't matter, the cards have a lot less thinking or weaving to them. Offensive cards have lost their seals or type, and you only have 2 every 2 minutes vs EW's 4 to manage.

Mitigation/Healing cards will be scripted/fixed after prog, so they'll feel the exact same to use as a aquaveil/tetra.

So Divine is right, it'll feel just like WHM, but even I'd rather just play WHM if that's the case.

Not refuting any of their points when it comes to the possibility of AST feeling like WHM with the rework. Just checking with them on the GCD/OGCD understanding.

But, since one of Divine's major points was the weaving of OGCDs, it sounds like that aspect matters to them.

[DivineP]

Are you saying the cards are on the GCD now? The cards are still OGCD based on the trailer.

Sorry my phone tends to auto correct alot. (I need to learn to proof read)

What I meant was, I enjoyed playing the card mini game with AST as the cards were on OGCD - E.G I enjoyed having that little second to look what card I had when ppl weren't dying etc and thinking where I could place it - sounds like with this simplification I'll just be spamming stuff like on WHM. I'll wait for the tool tips but ot looks like it's been watered down again, but this time they've gone abit too far.