Astrologian "BUFFS"

[Crater]

Good lord, huge buffs and more whining.

You've got a really funny definition of "huge".

[NorthernLadMSP]

You've got a really funny definition of "huge".

They're definitely nice buffs, IMO.

Lightspeed went from pretty much useless (except for quick raises or Stoneskin) to a 25% reduction in mana and no gimping of the healing spells.
Spread being available outside of combat is awesome as you can saved the card you want for a future battle, before you even enter the fight
Shuffle cool down reduced by 33%.
Best of all - TP and MP refresh cards that can be used on anyone - beats bards having to sing for a DPS reduction or NIN being unable to Goad themselves

[amihavingfunyet]

Best of all - TP and MP refresh cards that can be used on anyone - beats bards having to sing for a DPS reduction or NIN being unable to Goad themselves

NIN can't Goad themself.
As for the buffs, they are nice but nothing that will make me pick AST back up.
And for DPSing AST is still heavily reliant on keeping Spear/Ewer for themself.

[NorthernLadMSP]

NIN can't Goad themself.
As for the buffs, they are nice but nothing that will make me pick AST back up.
And for DPSing AST is still heavily reliant on keeping Spear/Ewer for themself.

LOL right, that's why I said unable.

[Crater]

They're definitely nice buffs, IMO.

Lightspeed went from pretty much useless (except for quick raises or Stoneskin) to a 25% reduction in mana and no gimping of the healing spells.
Spread being available outside of combat is awesome as you can saved the card you want for a future battle, before you even enter the fight
Shuffle cool down reduced by 33%.
Best of all - TP and MP refresh cards that can be used on anyone - beats bards having to sing for a DPS reduction or NIN being unable to Goad themselves

The card changes are nice, but I wouldn't call them "huge".
Like, as many, many people have already pointed out, the Haste buff that people get from a Scholar's fairy is a larger overall increase to party DPS than an AST who draws perfect cards, every time, for maximum card-based DPS boosts. What the changes to Spire and Ewer do is basically to make card-based utility effects as powerful for utility as card-based DPS effects are for DPS - ie: Useful, measurable, definitely-not-nothing, but also not powerful enough that they define an Astrologian's role in the party.

And it's fine that they're not that powerful - if AST can keep up with the other healers when it comes to actually healing. And that was always the true problem with AST. It wasn't that their cards were mediocre or RNG-dependent, and it wasn't their MP management.
It's that when a WHM needs to ramp up their healing output, they have Divine Seal, they have Presence of Mind, they have Benediction, and Tetragrammaton, they have Assize, and they can lay down an Asylum and keep casting. And when a SCH needs to ramp up their healing output, they can Rouse their fairy, or even switch to Eos for Whispering Dawn and Fey Covenant, and they can blow through Aetherflow stacks on Lustrate and Indomitability to dump out thousands of potency worth of healing in just a few seconds.

When an AST needs to pump out more healing than their GCD heals will allow, they have Essential Dignity. That's it. In very, very, very specific scenarios, they can get some mileage out of Synastry, but it's not a general-purpose healing boost: It doesn't boost their AoE healing, and it doesn't boost their single-target healing.

That was the fundamental problem with the class, and they got absolutely nothing to address that problem.

[Violin]

That was the fundamental problem with the class, and they got absolutely nothing to address that problem.

Agreed, but I don't think that Square is anywhere close to done with tweaking ASTs in the least. Understandably they released tweaks to the class with Savage, but that's all they can do with the data they have. I imagine once they have more data regarding Savage outcomes with AST that more tweaks to the abilities they said they'd be changing will be coming out in the coming weeks. Im just grateful for what I got right now as they could have just held off completely until AFTER ASTs get pretty much banished from Savage runs.

[Eudyptes]

They're definitely nice buffs, IMO.

Lightspeed went from pretty much useless (except for quick raises or Stoneskin) to a 25% reduction in mana and no gimping of the healing spells.
Spread being available outside of combat is awesome as you can saved the card you want for a future battle, before you even enter the fight
Shuffle cool down reduced by 33%.
Best of all - TP and MP refresh cards that can be used on anyone - beats bards having to sing for a DPS reduction or NIN being unable to Goad themselves

They are nice but not great. The buff to lightspeed was significant, but lightspeed overall still isn't that great of a CD. Especially when you consider it's one of the few CDs we have. It's useful for when you need to be mobile, but otherwise the mp reduction is a drop in the bucket considering the 2.5 min CD it's tied to, and the CD itself adds absolutely no extra healing.

The spread buff was a nice QoL buff, but adds nothing for when in combat.

The shuffle cooldown reduction was utterly worthless imo. It doesn't address the issue with shuffle at all, which is that you have the chance to burn an entire CD to get absolutely nothing accomplished. 90 sec or 60 sec means jack when you get the card back that you were trying to get rid of.

CU still has all the same issues it had before.

Now, the ewer/spire changes imo were absolutely great. Imo, the one true buff to the class today was through these. I now feel like no matter what I draw I will draw something useful, with the exception of too many spears too close together.

Note: My opinions are based on spending the last 5 hours healing alex, so I'm not just basing this on patch notes or something.

[SuzakuCMX]

You've got a really funny definition of "huge".

He comes into every AST thread and complains about people complaining about AST because it'll make SCH not as godly.

[NorthernLadMSP]

He comes into every AST thread and complains about people complaining about AST because it'll make SCH not as godly.

Who are you referring to?

[SuzakuCMX]

Who are you referring to?

ckc22. Everytime I've seen him post in an AST thread it's to tell people to stop whining and that you can't make AST as good as SCH.