What do you want to see on Astrologian?

[Linfy]

Just wanna see everyone's ideas.

[Lyrica_Ashtine]

This would be a good start

[KisaiTenshi]

Just wanna see everyone's ideas.

That they change the icon used for SCH? We know people are going to be making that mistake.

Honestly, I just hope that it's healer/shielding stance makes sense. Not this "Cleric Stance makes you a crappy healer and a mediocre DPS" in which I hope future dungeons actually align combat better where you can't just faceroll over top of it with sheer DPS. I'm talking about actual phases of trash and boss monsters where shielding saves the party instead of just buying a few seconds for the healer to DPS.

[Nadirah]

I'm probably minority here but... I don't want to DPS as a healer...

[KisaiTenshi]

I'm probably minority here but... I don't want to DPS as a healer...

I don't care much for the healer DPS. Going by FF lore, the only DPS spell the WHM/Healer is supposed to have is Holy which is supposed to be the equivalent of casting "long cast" Ultima, Flood, Quake(Stone III,) Tornado (Aero 3), Meteor, or Gravity 3. If you note, both Stone and Aero are also part of the Conjurer spell list, while Holy is WHM-exclusive. So it may seem strange if CNJ gets Stone III and Aero III and they do the same damage as Holy.

In FF6, what I'd do if I wanted to grind for something, is just have everyone learn Ultima, and have everyone with the white magic healing spells anyway. In other FF games that have the roles like FFXIV, FF5 and FFX-2 if you wanted to do the same, you just put everyone into the job that has the most powerful spell, and cast it repeatedly, forgoing the healing.

That unfortunately is what people want to do ... all the time. So powercreep through gear ilevels eventually lets players do that.

So we won't see a healer class with no DPS skills, because that will prevent them from being able to play the storyline since the storyline always involves solo instances. The Astrologian might have to get their DPS skills from cross-classing if they don't have any.

[Kuwagami]

I don't care much for the healer DPS. Going by FF lore, the only DPS spell the WHM/Healer is supposed to have is Holy which is supposed to be the equivalent of casting "long cast" Ultima, Flood, Quake(Stone III,) Tornado (Aero 3), Meteor, or Gravity 3. If you note, both Stone and Aero are also part of the Conjurer spell list, while Holy is WHM-exclusive. So it may seem strange if CNJ gets Stone III and Aero III and they do the same damage as Holy.

Dia is a damaging skill and is part of WHM's spells as well
Not in FFxiv though

So whatever we get at level 51-60 would have to be added to the base class, and whatever is job-specific would be added via whatever convoluted quest that is only unlocked at that level. If they aren't class skills, then they won't be cross-class able either.

It has been said that all of the new skills would be from quest, and job only. No new class skills should come in this expansion, due to SE's will to reduce classes' importance over time.

[KisaiTenshi]

It has been said that all of the new skills would be from quest, and job only. No new class skills should come in this expansion, due to SE's will to reduce classes' importance over time.

I have a feeling that people are just reading what they want into it.

FFXIV has classes and Jobs, the two are mutually exclusive of each other. The class skills you automatically get when you get to that level. The Job skills are all quests that can only be done after reaching that level. Unless they are going to retroactively change this for every existing class, I'm pretty sure they will be unlocked the same as before. If you're not playing the Job, then you can't use the Job skills, even if there is a quest for it.

Where I think the interpretation is being lost is that whatever comes after level 50. Because if we continued the previous trend you got a new Job skill every 5 levels. The class skills you got a new skill automatically every 4 levels after level 15 as well as a new trait every 4 levels after level 8. So if there are 10 new levels, there would be no less than 2 new class skills, 2 new job skills (4 for ACN/SCH/SMN) and 2 new traits.

We do not yet know how these slot into the existing skill set. For example, does Aero III/Stone III replace Aero I and Stone I in the same way that Carbuncle's were replaced with the Fairies for Scholar, and Garuda/Titan? Or do they just appear as new skills that can't be accessed in all level synced 50-and-below content?

And it would be ridiculous to retcon this new way of getting the skills for the new class/jobs.

[Cynfael]

I have a feeling that people are just reading what they want into it.

No, they're reading what Yoshida has been saying over the past few months. All of the pre-release information is of course subject to change, but it's not spun out of whole cloth.

Frankly no one will give a damn whether new skills are class or job-based, anyway, except for SCHs (because Ruin III as an ACN class skill would automatically be granted to SCHs, and indications thus far are that it's not happening). Besides, all Astrologian, Dark Knight, and Machinist original abilities will be Job-based, so it fits with the new paradigm.

[SirDiscoFrog]

It has been said that all of the new skills would be from quest, and job only. No new class skills should come in this expansion, due to SE's will to reduce classes' importance over time.

Just throw the source for this out here for anyone else wondering.

The level cap will be increased to level 60 for all jobs, and we'll be adding multiple new actions. Disciples of War and Magic jobs will learn new actions from their job quests. You’ll be able to level up without completing these job quests, but that means you won't acquire any new actions, so please be sure to accept job quests as they become available.

All of the new actions we will be getting are going to be Job abilities and must be unlocked via quests. I think its going to be an ability every 2 levels, I forgets whether or not that has been said specifically yet.

On the topic of Astrologian, I am honestly torn between SCH and WHM and use them both frequently. I'm hoping the buffs in the card system pushes me in one direction to picking 1 of the 3 more frequently, I am loving the various buffs each of the cards gives. As for heal-dps I hope if AST does have DPS involved in its kit that is to be used in runs its not too risky/mp intensive, although I dont know what skills AST will have for mp regen.

[Nadirah]

Can understand that, I just hate seeing people expect the healer to be doing DPS. Drives me nuts.