The changes to Astrologian are upsetting

[ASkellington]

The type of healer changes you want (and honestly I want them to change to more GCD healing as well) just aren't in the scope of this expansion. They said combat was going to stay the same so I don't understand why you're so upset by that. They told us this would be the case.

I don't care they said "wait until 8.0". I've been waiting since 5.3. Changes to healing gameplay should have happened IN ENDWALKER, in DAWNTRAIL. Not some far flung expansion years later because they didn't even ACKNOWLEDGE there was a problem until the healer shortage of EW.

All I hear is an excuse that the player base has been giving for 2 expansions and I don't want to hear it anymore. Its not that hard to NOT introduce extra healing across all healers, to NOT increase the mitigations of tanks that don't need it, to NERF things like Shake it Off (over time) and Bloodwhetting and to increase the damage frequency ALL BEFORE ADDING MORE UNNEEDING HEALING AND MITIGATION TOOLS.

All of those are PERFECTLY in the scope of this expansion. They're excuse is just that - an excuse and a poor one. Stop defending their crap design for healers when that's what put us in this place to begin with.

[RodP]

The type of healer changes you want (and honestly I want them to change to more GCD healing as well) just aren't in the scope of this expansion. They said combat was going to stay the same so I don't understand why you're so upset by that. They told us this would be the case.

So if I said I was going to punch you and then did it, you can't be upset because I gave you a notice before doing it, right?

[Aravell]

It's really funny whenever someone claims that healing requirements did increase. Because DRK totally wasn't soloing the stack tankbuster in P7S on day 1, right? Oh wait....

About the only mechanics that were actually tough to heal on minimum gear level were Curtain Call from P4S, Natural Alignment from P8S and Harrowing Hell from P10S (Maybe the Limit Cut intermission in P12S too). Everything else wasn't harder than ShB at all. I'd even go so far as to say that early weeks healing in SB was tougher because we had so much less to work with.

[ASkellington]

It's really funny whenever someone claims that healing requirements did increase. Because DRK totally wasn't soloing the stack tankbuster in P7S on day 1, right? Oh wait....

About the only mechanics that were actually tough to heal on minimum gear level were Curtain Call from P4S, Natural Alignment from P8S and Harrowing Hell from P10S (Maybe the Limit Cut intermission in P12S too). Everything else wasn't harder than ShB at all. I'd even go so far as to say that early weeks healing in SB was tougher because we had so much less to work with.

I'd agree to increased healing per expansion if they didn't add any healing tools each one.

Like, say for EW they didn't give me Macrocosmos, a second charge of CI and Exaltation.

I still didn't need Horoscope and Neutral Sect, but at least I'd be using them in more content!

I am not kidding when I say give me nothing but my lv70 kit and I would have more fun in every Shb onwards dungeon, raid, ex, savage and maybe even ultimate. Instead of GIVING me more healing tools they should be REMOVING healing tools. So I can, y'know MANAGE THEM LIKE I'M SUPPOSED TO AS AN EXPERIENCED HEALER???

[Aravell]

I'd agree to increased healing per expansion if they didn't add any healing tools each one.

Like, say for EW they didn't give me Macrocosmos, a second charge of CI and Exaltation.

I still didn't need Horoscope and Neutral Sect, but at least I'd be using them in more content!

I am not kidding when I say give me nothing but my lv70 kit and I would have more fun in every Shb onwards dungeon, raid, ex, savage and maybe even ultimate. Instead of GIVING me more healing tools they should be REMOVING healing tools. So I can, y'know MANAGE THEM LIKE I'M SUPPOSED TO AS AN EXPERIENCED HEALER???

And that's the main crux of the issue, isn't it?

Increasing healing requirements while also handing us tools to "deal with it better" makes the increase itself completely moot.

Like, yes, they did increase damage with the bleeds in Abyssos, but then they gave Shake it Off (Overtime) to deal with it, so what was the point in increasing in the first place?

Like let's say that DT does increase the damage we take, but they also then shoved so much extra healing into the kits of every healer that they'd have to basically double or triple the damage we receive to actually put a dent into the collective team resources.

But they'd never increase damage by that much, especially in regular content that they expect everyone to be able to clear.

[Zaytex]

The casuals who sit in Limsa for half their month's sub duration RPing will eat this rework up like its revolutionary, and then go back to WHM or whatever they already played. Once the dust settles in DT, AST will still remain as the least played healer and I'm sure we will all look at each other going ''Why is there a healer shortage? Why does everybody still play WHM/SGE for literally every PF?''

[Awful]

I miss back in HW when AST had more of identity and time magic it was such a thrill to not only extend or empower your cards, but your own regens and AoE regens, there were choices that impacted the whole group a lot from proper card usage/buff uptime. You could also go Noct or Diurnal Sect to change the way you wanna play the game and fulfill that perfect versatility of a hybrid support role.

Now? AST is so far gone from what it is now and it pains me to see everyone so visually upset over a lot of the Media Tour show cases and the lukewarm job trailer, the real nail in the coffin is the lack of job identity across the board because going forward with DT is going to stagnate it but I hope it doesn't. I want to remain hopeful for DT but at the moment I just keep scratching my head at all the changes since ShB and the route XIV is going in.

[awhitet]

I'm really surprised they decided to bring back single target defensive cards, AST is already super strong in single target healing/mit and now you even have 3 charges of ED.

They better ramp the damage to tanks and party this expansion otherwise these new abilities and changes are going to be useless and just sitting on CD.

[Ioletia]

I feel pretty poor about arguing in Square's favor at this point. I really thought they would have at least thought any of this through, but they didn't?

The damage cards are still divided into melee/ranged, but now they're set. So, if you're in a duty roulette with two ranged or two melee DPS, you would have been better off playing a different healer as Astro's damage mainly comes from buffing their allies (See Fall Malific's 250 potency against WHM's Glare at 310, SCH's Broil at 295, and SGE's Dosis at 330 that also heals). Only having two damage cards at all means that you're even more tightly bound into the two minute meta- where you'll be Astral drawing and saving that up for a minute before playing your damage card, Umbral drawing your next damage card, playing that card, and then using Divination > Oracle while the damage cards are still active on your DPS. It's literally worse now as you have even more things to weave in to be effective.

And then there's Neutral Sect > Sun Sign. Neutral Sect already requires other abilities to be useful at all, unlike Temperance or Holos or Illumination/Expedience that just naturally give an effect without requiring a combo ability. So, Square has literally just given Astro's a two oGCD Temperance or a 2 oGCD + GCD Holos. It's literally worse. A 10% mit is already such a common thing that unless DT has massive raidwide damage spikes, it's just going to be another niche "healing" ability that you only use when you remember it. Because, honestly, the shield on Neutral sect is so pitiful (and I need to use Aspect Helios so rarely) that the ability itself should really be removed altogether for something more functional.

The non-damage cards are all oGCD worse effects that require even more buttons. On paper adding more "Play" buttons to replace Redraw/Undraw/Astrodyne comes out neutral, but how often did those abilities get used? Redraw was an occasional thing if you were shooting for Astrodyne seals, which few seemed to care about. Undraw was never used. And Astrodyne was basically on a 1.5 minute timer. Now? Every sixty seconds you get to scramble around with one necessary and two functionally unnecessary cards split across three buttons- and the Lord/Lady.

None of this makes the Astro better. These are all strict downgrades from what the class is now. Hell, keep the kit as is- don't even add any new abilities- and I bet Astro would be fine until 8.0.

[PercibelTheren]

Defensive effects on the cards are quite strong.
Bole being back is what half the old astro lovers have wanted for ages.
increased healing potency is amazing. The fact that you can use it on anyone, even non-healers that apply shields like warrior is exciting.
A regen/shield is just nice.

Astro's who say we don't need more single target mitigations are being silly. Single target OGCD optimization is already a lot of double-weaving OGCD's. If they up damage even just a little bit in Dawntrail we will have a use for all of our OGCD's just like we did in savage this expansion. I'm actually stunned a little that people are complaining the healing classes are getting more heals. The goal for this game is to move a little further away from only caring about dps. This is a move in the right direction as long as dawn trail fights are tuned around the changes. (which obviously they will be. we've never had an expansion not do that)

Which Savage fight in Endwalker needed a lot of single target healing? Because what I experienced was slapping a regen on the tank and occasionally putting Exaltation on them. That's it. They didn't need anything else. You either play with tanks who don't press their mit buttons and are wearing extremely bad gear, or you don't play healers.