Astrologian "BUFFS"

[mp-please]

And forget the word "Emergencyskill". A serious healer use all skills and CDs as regular skills.

That's the thing, people are too focused on the emergency skill button function rather than thinking of using lightspeed as a mp saving resource.

Yeah, cuz Ewer and passive mp regen don't stack I forgot...

They do stack, so using ewer by itself is like having double passive mp regen for 15-30 seconds.

[Codek]

I don't know what you guys are all complaining about, everyone seems to be overlooking the true buff.

Resolved Issues:
-An issue wherein the astrologian's auto-attack attributes were incorrect.

[MidnightTundra]

INC AST defense force!

No really. The buffs are nice and all but people saying that Light Speed is an emergency healing tool are a little off on that. It is the equivalent of swiftcasting a spell on the initial cast under light speed. You're actually not gaining any type of HPS increase because the GCD isn't reduced. You're just casting spells without the casting time. I'm honestly using it as a glorified swiftcast with MP saving capabilities. I like having mobility. It's a nice change but its not the emergency healing tool like people are calling it.

The Ewer change is pretty cool. Due to my play style, I always want extra mp. Whenever I stumble across the card, I throw it on myself and there is a noticeable difference. No comment on Spire. It is a nice buff but I haven't run any content where I've really needed it.

Shuffle CD being 60s is lovely and Spread out of combat is a huge QoL change.

[Parawill]

Basic maths! Cause that's what I can do

Assuming Ewer & Spire is like all HoTs and DoTs, with its 15 second duration and 30 potency refresh, that's a total of 150 potency refresh.

Extended Ewer & Spire has a 30 second duration which doubles potency refresh to a total of 300 potency refresh.

Enhanced Ewer & Spire changes potency from 30 to 45 (50% of 30 = 15, the 100% = 30, so 30 + 15 = 45); however, duration is the same. So that means you get a 225 potency refresh with enhanced.

Expanded Ewer & Spire is now AoE but 50% less potent. Therefore it's an 15 potency refresh (30 divided by 2) for a total of 75 potency refresh. Across a light party that's a 300 potency refresh collectively or 600 potency refresh in a full party. Factoring in benefits, expanded is kind of mediocre :P

[Eudyptes]

Been running some Alex runs after the patch. Ewer and spire seem better than they were before. Lightspeed, while better than it was, still isn't very useful. I find it to essentially be like getting roundabout version of a WHM's free cure proc, except it takes like 4 casts to fully benefit from it and you can only do it once every 2.5 min. Honestly it's still not very good, but at least we can use it when when low on mana. The shuffle buff hardly seems noticeable to me. Spread is a nice QoL change, but does nothing for combat. And even though it's more potent, CU is in exactly the same spot it was before.

All in all, this buff did almost nothing to help the class. Our mana regen was slightly improved, but not by a huge amount. That's it really.

[Troile]

It's already been said...but I love to restate things. Lightspeed seems to be more about mana management than anything else. Not really sure how anyone is seeing this as emergency healing since it doesn't seem to really affect output.

That being said, i'm hopeful these changes will help fix some of the mana management issues. It's always felt like during an emergency I just dump my entire bucket of mp over everyone's heads then just shrug my shoulders as they ask me where the rest is. I'm viewing lightspeed like tanking cooldowns, use it often, not just for emergency.

That being said it's obvious that these changes are not "nothing" (though I will concede to "almost nothing" since that does acknowledge "some" change took place). Clearly they are positive and will change, if even a little, how AST's play. On the other hand, this also clearly does not fix all the issues with the job. Just because "you" as a player feel satisfied with the job and can keep up with SCH's or WHM's doesn't make AST "on par" with those jobs.

The hybrid argument doesn't hold up under scrutiny, since SE has not allowed the AST to freely switch sects during combat. That change alone would alleviate "some" of the uselessness of nocturnal sect. The main issue with that sect is being stuck in it.

Should White Mages or Scholars be able to perform better in certain areas than an Astrologian? Sure. However, AST's should also bring something to the table that the other two cannot. It looks like SE is looking in that direction, but doesn't want to change too much too quickly without proper observation.

[TonberiScholar]

Lightspeed as an "emergency healing tool" is mainly for allowing you to cast Benefic II/Aspected Helios at less cost. The being instant-cast/faster-cast is less for "emergency" and more for movement.

The Ewer change combined with the Lightspeed cost reduction should help sustainability issues, but AST still has a bit of a throughput issue. Lightspeed helps in letting you use your bigger heals more often (and being more reliable of a cost reduction than the old Ewer), but I'm not quite sure if it's going to be enough yet.

[Koopatroopa]

People are focusing on the reduced cast time of Lightspeed instead of the mana reduction aspect of it. More mana = more heals! Before we had to pace ourselves. Now with the Refresh and Lightspeed we can be more aggressive meaning more heals = more output.

[Eudyptes]

People are focusing on the reduced cast time of Lightspeed instead of the mana reduction aspect of it. More mana = more heals! Before we had to pace ourselves. Now with the Refresh and Lightspeed we can be more aggressive meaning more heals = more output.

It's literally 1 extra heal every 2.5 min. Let's not get carried away here.

[NorthernLadMSP]

I'm good with the changes, as a start. Hopefully, we will see some future adjustments to other skills.

However, I will say this. I'm pretty upset at the fact that SE specifically told us there would be changes to Celestial Opposition and Collective Unconscious, and CO got absolutely nothing and CU only got a slightly higher regen potency.