The Astrologian Wish List

[SuzakuCMX]

Hi guys; there are a ton of threads about Astrologian crawling around with about 45 different ideas on how to change Astrologian. I thought it would help the devs if we had a thread devoted to what we wanted out of Astrologian with changes. These can range from the general (more healing potency or stronger card buffs) to the specific (specific skill changes/reworks). Keep in mind that there's no guarantee that a dev will read this thread.

[SuzakuCMX]

Suggestion 1: Buff Astrologian's Healing Potential
Reasoning: Astrologian has all of two cooldowns that actually boost their healing potential (half if you count Diurnal Sect regens being affected by Celestial Opposition and Time Dilation). For these changes, the potencies of Astrologian's healing skills would have to be changed to more closely align with their WHM/SCH counterparts depending on the Sect. This can be achieved either through a cooldown spell that increases their potencies for a duration, or by changing the base potencies of their spells directly.

Changes:
Benefic -> 400 Potency base (420 in Nocturnal vs. 400 on Cure or Physickl)
Benefic II -> 650 Potency base (685 in Nocturnal vs. 600 Adloquium or 650 Cure II)
Diurnal Aspected Benefic -> 250 base and 120 Regen (970 total vs. WHM 1050)
Nocturnal Aspected Benefic -> 280 base and 280 shield (294/294 or 588 total vs. 300/300 or 300/600 crit or 600/900 total SCH)
Diurnal Aspected Helios -> 180 Cure Potency and 50 regen (680 total potency vs. 700 WHM)
Essential Dignity -> Min. heal potency of 600 to make it equal with Lustrate. Same max heal potency.
Lightspeed -> Also halves the GCD from 2.5 to 1.25, becoming a true heal booster. 120s Recast Time.

I'd prefer we avoid this method as it still leaves cards feeling tacked on and gimmicky while copying the playstyle of the other two healers but in a gimped way (IE: not even as fun as them). It leaves AST as a copy of either WHM or SCH but with a few buffs...

Suggestion 2: Buff Astrologian's Card Support Potential
Reasoning: It seems SE wants Astrologian to have slightly less healing power than WHM/SCH but make up for it via cards. This is currently not the case as they don't meet baseline healing checks because of low potencies and no healing CDs and the fact that cards have a minimal effect on the outcome of a raid due to RNG and low tuning. As such, it might be that Suggestion 1 and Suggestion 2 have to be implemented together, but neither completely to keep balance.

We can either buff the base effects or buff Royal Road. Or both, really, but that would be harder to tune.

Draw -> 20 second recast time (3 cards/min vs. 2 cards/min -> 50% increase in number of cards you can put out in a single battle)
Royal Road: Enhanced -> Increases effect of the card by 100% instead of 50%.
Royal Road: Expanded -> Only reduces Arrow/Balance by 50% -> the rest are instead reduced by 20%.
Bole -> Increases healing on the target by 20% for 15s
Spear -> Increases critical hit rate by 25% for 15s

Of course Collective Unconscious and Celestial Opposition would still be lackluster:

Diurnal Collective Unconscious - 200 potency regen while channeled, 15s duration (1000 potency total). While channeled, all card buffs on current players are extended to everyone in range. 180s Cooldown.
Nocturnal Collective Unconscious - Cause all members within Collective Unconscious to become invulnerable to most attacks while channeled (not invulnerable to channeled abilities, OHKOs, status effects, or DoTs already placed). After this shield takes X amount of damage, the channel automatically ends. While channeled, all card buffs on current players are extended to everyone in range. 180s Cooldown.

Celestial Opposition - Deals 500 Potency of damage and stuns all enemies for 10s. All beneficial effects on party members are extended by 15s. 120s Recast.

Suggestion 3: Integrate Cards into Healing
Reasoning: This makes cards integral into the Astrologian's healing output and also makes cards useful beyond the buffs (IE you might want to use a sub-optimal card because of the healing it provides).

Synastry -> 45s Duration, 60s Recast Time. In addition to what it currently does, Synastry now heals the Synastry target for 8% of their maximum HP everytime a card is used (only applies once when Expanded RR is used).

This would be in addition to the above RR changes since otherwise you'd miss out on too much by RRing a card.

Suggestion 4: Make Astrologian a More Unique Healer
Reasoning: It is very hard to balance Astrologian as it is right now because it'll either be a SCH/WHM clone (and therefore have to do the job as well as or better than a SCH/WHM) or it'll have buffs so strong you won't want to miss out on them unless Astrologian is heavily reworked. This is a heavy reworking to avoid those two outcomes.

Nocturnal Stance -> +10% Attack Speed. Card effects are increased by 50%.
Diurnal Stance -> +5% Potency on Benefic and Benefic II. Benefic, Benefic II, and Helios apply a stack of "Destiny" to the target. "Destiny" can be stacked stack up to 3 times and lasts 10 seconds.

Nocturnal Aspected Benefic -> 200 Potency heal + 8% of the target's max HP in shield, stacks with Galvanize.
Nocturnal Aspected Helios -> 190 Potency heal + 5% of the person's max HP in shield, stacks with Galvanize.
Nocturnal Synastry -> 90s Recast Time but permanent duration; all card buffs are automatically duplicated to the target of Synastry.
Nocturnal Collective Unconscious -> Cause all members within Collective Unconscious to become invulnerable to most attacks while channeled (not invulnerable to channeled abilities, tank busters, status effects, or DoTs already placed). Channel ends after absorbing 50% of the caster's MP in damage. While channeled, all card buffs on current players are extended to everyone in range. 180s Cooldown.

Diurnal Aspected Benefic -> 75 potency per stack of Destiny (225 max). Places a 21s Regen (7 ticks) on the target for 40 potency per Destiny (120 max). Total: 225 + 720 = 840 = 965 total.
Diurnal Aspected Helios -> Same as it is now
Diurnal Synastry -> Permanent buff; whoever has the Synastry buff placed on them has +15% healing on their spells.
Diurnal Collective Unconscious -> 200 potency regen while channeled, 15s duration (1000 potency total). While channeled, all card buffs on current players are extended to everyone in range. 180s Cooldown.

[Geardagas]

More healing potency and at least one healing cooldown like divine seal. That would fix the job. The card overhaul and a change to nocturnal stance can come later.

[Akyio]

Permanent synastry.
Cards all AoE, with cards being reworked to be more offensive and to really reward good teams decently with AST.
Rework of c. unconscious and c. opposition.
Nocturnal has to be on par with diurnal
Mp management needs to be still better to be on par with WHM mp management.

[Psychosamm]

I think Royal Road should be adjusted so that every time you RR a card you get a 10 or so second buff that increases your healing output by 20% or something like that, due to the fact you are throwing away your utility every time you RR a card, thus making your lower healing potencies unneeded.


Also the cards need some sort of buff that makes the lower healing potencies worth it. Not sure how to go about it though.

[Miiu]

Complete rework of the card system. In my opinion AST should have two kind of cards. The first one are controlled cards. Cards the AST can pick at will and have up almost 100% of the fight like for example abilties like synastry or even a mantra like effect where the person affected by the card receives % more healing. The other cards would be the buff/tp regen cards we have now who are still RNG based.

This idea isn't really thought out and in this forum a lot of people made some good suggestion sure some of them were borderline overpowered but at its core weren't bad ideas. I just wish that AST at some point will be its own thing and won't be regarded as just a weaker version of SCH/WHM.

[Volsung]

I just posted this ins Ghish's Thread, I'll repost here. These are my wants for the job, it will make healing better,
add some QoL, and enhance buffs, while taking a little from ast personal dps, I still don't know what to do about
Noct stance.

I do think single target heals are almost where they should be, perhaps a rework to enhanced benefic could aid to this. The
large area in need of help imho is in aoe situations, where a lot of healing is needed to take place. MP costs are also a weird
story. Aspected benefic does less than regen but costs more, does less than adloq, but costs less. That is hard for me to
reconcile. Since AST seems to be heading in the way of a buffer healer, I would like to enhance that and make it mean something
or be unique. Here is a list of everything I personally think would help the job.

Benefic trait -> changed to reset timer of ED
While instant cast benefic 2 is great, it does nothing for mp this would
help cast time and mp issues.

remove gravity, make malefic 1 stronger, and make malefic 2 aoe. This sound like something
bad at first, but would put us in a similar spot to fire 1/2. We would be losing gravity, but
gaining a slot for a useful healing/buff ability. As a buffer healer, our goal shouldnt be amazing
damage in the first place.

Instead of gravity, we would receive a new aoe buff ability(no mp), ogcd. This would help us like assize
or emergency tactics. The aoe buff would do a medium cure and put a new effect on players- Astral Field.
This would be a regen AND a shield. it would either wear off when whichever happens first, it reaches all
tics, or soaks damage, does stack with nocturnal field. (on second thought stack is not necessary as this is ogcd)

As for CU, I propose changing the effect to when players enter the bubble, they are given the spell bubble
max hp boost and heal, like thrill of battle. On top of that either a random card effect, or a new card effect
only available with CU (det + anyone?). Bubble and effect only received if you enter the bubble. effect could last
20-30 seconds. That way the AST could move stopping the ability, but you would still have buff momentarily.

As for cards, I don't personally need the effects enhanced, or changed, or draw made on a lower cool down. But
I would suggest the duration be increased for all cards. My reasoning behind this is that it would be more rewarding
for playing well. You would have to live with the choices you make. If draw recast time were lowered, you could mess
up more but you would have more actions to average out your playing.

Last suggestion, is just a small amount of mp restored on drawing cards. Nothing Humongous.

I see these suggestions as a way to solidify AST's use in a party as a healer buffer, while also making some quality
of life changes and furthering the usefulness of card buffs. I am not entirely sure how to make nocturnal sect
more appealing. Perhaps if I gave it some time and thought over it. current issues, does not stack with other
shields the way regen stacks, extending duration of shield does not increase amound absorbed, but extended regen
always cures more.

I'll go on to add that I am a 60 SCH. And find using it to heal easier.

[UlricCraft]

1. Increased Helios Range
2. Collective Unconcious - Allow me to cast or move
3. Synastry Cooldown Reduced
4. Aspected Benefic Noct Sect Potency Increased
5. Time Dilation - Let me target myself!

Cards are fine, healing potency is fine.

There's a bunch of other things that could be changed about them, but right now those are my only major issues.

Edit: List is in order of most annoying to least

[Muahbec]

1. Increased Helios Range
2. Collective Unconcious - Allow me to cast or move
3. Synastry Cooldown Reduced
4. Aspected Benefic Noct Sect Potency Increased
5. Time Dilation - Let me target myself!

Cards are fine, healing potency is fine.

There's a bunch of other things that could be changed about them, but right now those are my only major issues.

Edit: List is in order of most annoying to least

Healing potency may...MAY be fine.
But cards? no, just no.

[Muahbec]

I want AST to be unique as well as most of the healer community
So i would take your fourth suggestion.
And the awesome Time Mage Healer suggestion from carbonx
SE is completely capable of making AST an unique healer.
Hybrid is a no no.