AST: What it means to be a "hybrid"...

[RichardButte]

The concept of a "hybrid" has always been a tricky one to tackle in MMOs, but it's certainly doable.

The idea behind a hybrid is that the added utility and versatility the hybrid will bring to a group makes up for their lack of strength in any one specialization.

In the case of a hybrid healer, we must first consider what the role of a healer during a boss battle truly is. The obvious answer is "keep people alive", sure, but that's not ENTIRELY accurate...

The REAL answer is "keep people alive until the end of the encounter", and there are multiple ways one can go about doing that.

A WHM focuses on healing damage that has been taken. A SCH focuses more on preventing the damage from being taken initially through mitigation.

By design, an AST was intended to focus on ending the encounter more quickly, thus negating the need for as much healing and mitigation. Just look at the cards: the only card that doesn't directly work toward ending the counter faster in some way is Bole (which mitigates damage).

Everything else either causes more damage (balance, arrow), makes cooldowns end more quickly (spear, which leads to more damage), or encourages players to spam abilities that would normally drain their resources too quickly (ewer, spire).

Yes, some of these can aid in healing as well, but all but one has a component that in some way aids in doing more damage. This was DESIGNED to make encounters end sooner in exchange for not having the emergency buttons and heal-boosters of the other healers.

And as I said earlier, this CAN work, but the AST has to legitimately deliver on ending the encounter more quickly, and right now, we have enough data that has proven that this just isn't the case. In fact, SCH DPS outperforms AST DPS, and the reliability of the Selene buff is just way better than the current randomness of the cards.

The AST was also designed with a risk vs. reward playstyle (which I absolutely LOVE) but this will only work in the long run if the risk is truly worth the reward. Otherwise, ASTs will be relegated to content that's on farm status, and I really don't want to see that happen to the class.

So here are a few suggestions on making AST end encounters more quickly, and no, I'm not suggesting ALL of these be implemented together, but maybe one or two here and there:

1. Significanly Increase AST's Natural DPS

Just make all of the AST-exclusive spells do more damage outright, and if they wanted to REALLY give the AST a leg up as a DPSing healer, make Cleric Stance unnecessary and calculate its spell damage off of the mind stat instead of int.

AST has enough buttons to push and would benefit from not needing to swap in and out (plus, you wouldn't have to worry about lag spikes causing CS to not deactivate when pressed).

2. Double or Triple the Potency of the Card Buffs

AST's have to average out to doing significantly more damage than other healers to be worth bringing, and that factors in the RNG nature of the cards. Remember, whatever additional benefit the card buffs can bring to an encounter is effectively divided by 6 as you have a 1 in 6 chance of drawing any given card.

Plus, pretty much all of the cards are limp noodles right now. 20% less T/MP usage when the AST happens to draw it is a joke. 20% cooldown reduction would be decent if it worked on abilities that were already on cooldown. A situational 10% damage reduction only serves to offset the lower mana efficiency of the AST. While 10% damage and 10% speed are nice, they're not nice ENOUGH.

Again, divide all of these by 6 and you have the actual benefit we're looking at.

Even firing off all of the buff duration extenders we have onto the top parsing DPS just doesn't make us worth it.

3. Make AST able to move while casting EVERYTHING

Many of AST's tools are already geared toward mobility (with some notably stupid exceptions like CU, which should also be mobile while channeling). AST could fill a role as a mobile healer, making them shine on fights with tons of movement/evasion.

4. Make the Cards Heal/Shield as well

A simple way to adjust for healing potency would be to add healing to the cards. For example, a card could heal for 1% of the target's HP (or a 50 potency regen) every second for the duration of the buff. This would also indirectly make ewer/spire more valuable for their 20 second duration as it would provide a longer heal.

Cards could even heal differently depending upon stance, maybe giving the the target a shield when in Noc stance.

This would also make the cards more versatile, as no card would ever be completely useless (like when you buff someone and a second later they get trapped in one of Titan's gaols) and the odds are that either the heal or the buff would be put to good use.

5. Reduce the Cooldowns on ALL Card-related abilities

I think it would be entirely reasonable for an AST to ALWAYS have a card buff running on SOMEONE, so I'd suggest:

Draw: 15-20 seconds and the cooldown starts the moment you draw the card instead of when the Drawn card falls off (I hate having to manually right click a card off because I'm not about to ruin my RR with a goddamn spear...), either that or, if you let a card expire after drawing it, you can immediately draw again.

Spread: 30 second cooldown and the cooldown begins once the card is held.

Shuffle: 30 second cooldown and it cannot draw the same card again.

6. Make Royal Road Not Suck

Seriously, there's only one situation in which you actually get more benefit for RRing and waiting another 30 seconds (expanded RR).

Ewer and Spire: Triple duration on the next card. If I'm going to wait another 30 seconds before buffing someone, it better be WORTH the wait.

Arrow and Spear: Increase the radius of the buff to 30y because good luck trying to corral everyone in the middle of a raid encounter.

Bole and Balance: 250% potency on the next card. Again, time is money, and just an extra 50% to wait another 30 seconds is a joke since you've just spent 200% card potency to get 150% back in return.

7. Make the Cards Less Situational by Giving them a 1 minute duration and a number of charges (after you've cast them)

Instead of throwing a TP reducer on a party member and hoping that they needed it for the next 20 seconds (when you have no idea if they actually will due to the randomness of boss mechanics), how about you throw it on a party member and the next 10 abilities they use will have their TP reduced by 20%?

Bole: 10% less damage taken from the next 10 hits

Spear: 20% faster cooldown on the next 3 CDs used.

Arrow: 10% faster cast time/GCD recovery time on the next 10 abilties/spells used.

Balance: 10% more damage done on the next 10 attacks (doesn't include auto attacks or DoTs already ticking)

This would ensure that buffs don't get so easily wasted as the player can use the buffs when they have a chance.

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In conclusion, I love the AST's playstyle, but the RNG needs to have enough rewards to offset the risks and that's just not the case right now. I want to see the AST be the luck-based, micro-managing, "run n' gun" hybrid that it could be, and TBH, it won't take that many tweaks before it's there.

[Akyio]

Normally I believe the idea of AST was to not really be a "better" healer by using certain stance, but being able to "fill" what is missing, depending on whether you have WHM or SCH in your team. And replacing one or another doesn't mean you have to be as good as them - that's why SE gave AST some cards. And cards feel just not good enough.. There's a lot of playing with cards, shuffling, drawing thinking on who to use, but after all that they just feel not that good for how random they are.
As for damage i dont think AST was intended to deal some damage. Until lvl 54~ AST has very poor damage abilities, and soloing would be horror.
So here's how i see it: AST fills the role of a second healer. And is not better than the healer that is being "replaced", but AST has something unique - cards, to benefit the team for what's missing. And well currently cards are a bit too complicated with spread only possible in combat, long cooldown on shuffle, etc.

[Azorius]

Just give us #3 and AST is completely fixed, lol.

[Miiu]

Small added QoL change in terms of Royal Road: Let us apply the bonus effect manually. Meaning we target the affected player use Royal Road again and said buff will be extended / increased / shared in an AoE around the player.

It really annoys me using up my RR buffs even when I don't want to use them on the card I drew.

[brahesTheorem]

The primary issue with AST, I feel, is that it simply does not possess the synergy with itself that the other classes boast. Scholar is supported by ancillary mitigation, for example, that makes their shields more potent, while WHM is able to sustain cheaper heals through regen and freecure.

So, rather than trying (and failing) to be either a Scholar or a White Mage, I think it'd be really cool if AST took the whole concept of "Healer B" and ran with it. Made them focused on augmenting the abilities of the other healer and less for compensating inadequately for what they don't have.

Something like changing Aspected benefic/helios to a healing potency increase/percentage-based damage reduction would be an interesting way to support either SCH or WHM while maintaining some uniqueness to the class. Or letting Time Dilation affect E4E or Regen. Personally I think that'd be much more satisfying than simply filling in whatever your group doesn't have for its second healer.

[MidnightTundra]

I feel like people just want this class to be broken.

[Alahra]

I feel like people just want this class to be broken.

What I want is to feel like I don't need to pick up SCH again to be useful in my off-spec for my FC. I haven't done a large variety of content on AST yet, since I've only just about hit i170, but what I have done has made me really miss the strength that SCH had even at 50, even if we've been able to clear the content. Considering SCH only got significantly better (with their primary weaknesses mitigated and Selene significantly improved), AST definitely needs some tweaks. I can't speak as much to WHM since I rarely played it in the past, but it seems to have significant advantages over AST as well. It's okay for the healers to be different (and indeed, personally, I want them to be), but the differences don't need to result in only feeling disadvantaged in difficult content.

[MidnightTundra]

snip

I've been playing AST since it came out and what OP is suggesting is entirely unnecessary. Yes it does need tweeks but dramatically buffing the potencies of the cards by double or triple of their original potency is far too much. At most, they could use slight duration increases to mathematically beat out Selene's Fey Wind for a party-wide damage buff. Statistically, it'd would fall behind but that's why we have RNG in the first place. On our best days, our party buff should beat Selene but what we have now is ASTs DPS buffs just breaking even. If we double or triple the potency of the cards, we absolutely wipe the floor with Selene mathematically and statistically. I don't agree with that.

SCH is strong because of their overloaded kit. They have damn good mitigation, AoE healing, Personal DPS, Mana Sustain, Burst healing, etc. you name it. They also having healing oGCD at a constant rate but SCH only really excels in mitigation and mana sustain. They are the real Hybrid and AST is lurking the back but they aren't as far behind as people claim. ASTs personal DPS is actually pretty high but your weak mana sustain doesn't allow it like a SCHs can. Your mitigation pales in comparison to SCH but that's the point. You're not a SCH. Your sustained healing beats out SCHs unless they have Eos out (and they give up Selene to do that while we still have our cards.)

We don't need DPS spells that scale off of mind (Unless you remove CS all together and adjust other healers accordingly). We don't need double or triple the potency of our cards (1.5 at most or duration increases). We don't need to be able to cast everything while moving because mobility is incredibly powerful and it shouldn't be taken lightly. Cards do not need healing or shields.

The goal isn't to overpower the other healers. The goal is to be comparable with our unique strengths so buff what makes us unique but don't buff it so hard it overshadows the competition.

[Yhisa]

im sorry but AST is good but it does have flaws and quite a few

- Card system is good but it needs Tweaking
- MP is fine we just lack cooldowns to help with healing unlike our counterparts
- Some skills are just awkward to use or need slight changes

I love AST alot but it does have flaws but not major issues me personally want them to look at these skills

- Nocturnal Sect - Need rework
- Royal Road - Need rework especially with Draw/Spread.... make it only effect spread.... or rework entirely
- Draw - Need lower cooldown,,, due to cards being our core mechanic
- Spread - Need lower cooldown, Possible buff to group whilst holding card
- Shuffle - is nice but frustrating when u redraw the same card
- Disable - Auto attacks is a pain
- Lightspeed - Needs rework only useful for running and casting protect/stoneskin or to shorten cast time of Ascend
- Collective Unconscious - *You Shall Not Pass* need rework
- Celestial Opposition - *Disco Party* need rework

[Yhisa]

All other skills are fine maybe slight increase range on our AoE heals but other then that the class is fine we just lack cooldowns to boost our healing or ways to mitigate damage ... problem with AST is that when everything goes really bad it effect us in 2 ways...... 1 we turn into spam healers and burn through mp if there is ALOT of damage going out due to lack of cooldowns to help with healing.......... 2 whilst spam healing we dont have time to use our cards due being on global CD ... i have killed players b4 due to trying to draw a card whilst trying to rapidly heal everyone up due to high damage