Astrologian "BUFFS"

[chumsy]

Its the step in the right direction however, not quite there yet. I still don't get why they have a 150% enhanced potency at the cost of 2 cards, and double duration at the cost of two cards, essentially making it equal. Royal road needs to be reworked, where either the cards potency should be worth more than 2 cards; you are essentially using a CD skill to receive some kind of benefit not to receive equal or less than. To make this an effective/useful/meaningful skill increase CD and boost all output potency/durations.

[jojober]

@jojober

Interesting idea you have there, but this will mean that AST's only viable partner is SCH in tough content, as your new Noct Sect provides no mitigation tools to help with tank busters etc.

I don't think this is the case. One of the card buffs could be a substantial mitigation ability. We already get damage -10% damage with The Bole, so if we are buffing them up as a tradeoff for heals, this could very well be feasible.

[jojober]

The problem with this is that if you make AST card buffs too powerful, it will trivialize dps checks in progression fights. This means that fights will either be always cleared with a nocturnal AST, or dev will need to balance checks keeping into account AST buffs - basically making AST mandatory.

Yeah I think it would be difficult to balance, and it would have to be done well. As much as I would love every group to want an AST, I of course want all to be desired.

[Dyvid]

WARNING(s): I have not read all of the 72 different AST threads, but probably about 61 of them. Also I'm not in any way a class designer thing, so there's that.

What about a rework on Noct Stance all together? We as AST want to be different from WHM and SCH, but we also want to be as equally desired. With that in mind, what if we kept diurnal sect the way it is. Sure it lacks the raw healing power of the whm, and it lacks the mitigation of the sch, but with suggested noct changes, maybe that is okay.

What if in Noct we kind of reversed where are strengths are. In diurnal, our healing is decent, but the support from our cards, that which is supposed to set us apart, is pretty miniscule at best. So what if in Noct, we changed that. Make our heals still there. We are still healers, but make them not nearly as effective. To counter that, tremendously boost our support ability. In noct, make our card support as potent as our healing is in diurnal, but our healing ability as strong as our support is in diurnal. Also allow sect changing during fights but with a somewhat longer cooldown.

I think this would help give us a more defined role without replacing either of the current jobs and without us being OP. We can be decent backup healers during heal checks with little support, and we can be good support to help with DPS checks, but sacrificing our heal ability and letting our partner pick up more there. I think this also would add a little more strategy to the job since we would need to use good judgment and still have a bit of that risk factor.

Yea I was thinking the same thing today as I walked the dog. Give Noct the +5 attack speed buff and Diurnal the healing buff. Add a trait for Noct Stance like 15% or 20% chance that potency on next card drawn is doubled. Either change Aspected Nocturnal to a percent based damage reduction or a percent based return heal based on player damage on target. As for Nocturnal Collective Unconscious 10% damage reduction buff + card duration extension or an actually barrier that push mobs out and stops them from entering.

[Miiu]

The problem with this is that if you make AST card buffs too powerful, it will trivialize dps checks in progression fights. This means that fights will either be always cleared with a nocturnal AST, or dev will need to balance checks keeping into account AST buffs - basically making AST mandatory.

Bottom line is they need to do something. AST have to become desirable by the community. As much as WHM and SCH are. And I don't think aligning the potencies to rival those of the other two healing jobs will actually do the trick. At least not without reworking a good chunk of the AST abilties. So I sincerely hope they'll concentrate on what makes the job unique.

[Tint]

why should i, as a whm, want to heal together with an ast? he has NO healbuff for me. i have to work harder to compensate his lower heals and don't even get a buff from him...

[chumsy]

The problem with this is that if you make AST card buffs too powerful, it will trivialize dps checks in progression fights. This means that fights will either be always cleared with a nocturnal AST, or dev will need to balance checks keeping into account AST buffs - basically making AST mandatory.

I dont believe it will trivialize dps checks, because 1) you wont be drawing balance 100% of the time. 2) its percentage based, so if ilvl is lower dps increase is lower. 3) card buffs are not stackable ie. cannot have 10% dmg and 10% att speed. 150% of current card potency of all cards except spear would make it balance right now.

[Eudyptes]

Point is, you cannot make AST on par with SCH on Nocturnal and WHM on Diurnal. While that would be "balanced", it would make both WHM and SCH obsolete as you could just roll an AST and be both with the flip of a switch.

You need to get rid of the crazy notion you seem to have stuck in your head that when people ask for AST heals to be on par with WHM/SCH, that they are asking the class to be identical to whm/sch. No one is suggesting that putting up Noct stance is suddenly going to spawn a fairy, but there is no reason the two skills we do have in common with a sch shouldn't be as powerful. Beyond that we need CDs that we can use to push our HPS to be on par with the other two during critical moment. Ideally slightly less with a trade off of our buffs. Though the other two classes can out perform us there too atm.

[jojober]

why should i, as a whm, want to heal together with an ast? he has NO healbuff for me. i have to work harder to compensate his lower heals and don't even get a buff from him...

We can give you a pretty decent mp refresh. We can give you haste which will make you cast faster. We can give you cool down reduction for the awesome heal buffs you have that we lack.

[Dyvid]

why should i, as a whm, want to heal together with an ast? he has NO healbuff for me. i have to work harder to compensate his lower heals and don't even get a buff from him...

Your right, we don't and you make a good point. We don't have any buff cards to help healers. Maybe they could do something like changing Balance from "+attack power" to "+action potency". Or instead of Bole's defense boost how about "Increase HP recovery by actions".

Also another question for fellow AST. You prefer spread save Card or Royal Road effect?