Final Fantasy XIV Proposal Redesign Job: Astrologian

[Brightshadow]

Final Fantasy XIV Proposal Redesign Job: Astrologian

Hello everyone, I have decided to post this thread in an effort to get the developers attention in redesigning the Astrologian into the healer it should have been. Currently the Astrologian is a hybrid that uses elements from both the White Mage and the Scholar and while in theory a hybrid healer seems like a great idea it’s actually not that great because a hybrid healer will never be as good as the specialist, plus there is really no reason why they are considered the “hybrid” healer sure they have enhancements with the card system, but they have no control over which card they receive making their niche on par with the scholar which is considered a main healer. Now I know many will say that all the job needs is improvements to the cards but I feel like the developers missed a great opportunity because there are many people that do not like the playstyle of the White Mage or the Scholar, and as such they are waiting for the right healer to claim as their main so instead of just outright buffing the cards I decided to inspire the developers with a redesign in order to give the Astrologian their deserved unique healing style. Give this thread a like if you agree with the proposed adjustments; let’s make Astrologian into the time/healing overtime healer it should have been. And developers I urge you to really take these adjustments into consideration because the game could really use a third healing style; similar to how the dark knight introduced a new tanking style. In addition this is probably the only opportunity to introduce a time/fate related healer because it fits perfectly with the job and it’s unlikely that another time/fate related job is going to be made since the Astrologian pretty much fills that niche.

1. Malefic (Level 1)
-Unchanged
-Info: Basic Starting Damage Spell since the potency is slightly higher than stone no additional effect is added.

2. Benefic (Level 2)
-Restores target’s HP. Cure Potency 400.
-Info: Basic Starting Healing Spell.

3. Combust (Level 4)
-Potency Increased to 45 and duration Increased to 30s.
-Info: General Damage Overtime spells no additional effect added.

4. Lightspeed (Level 6)
-Reduces the MP cost for spells by 25%, and cast times for spells lowered by 2.5 seconds. Additional Effect: Allows the caster to move while casting any spell.
-Info: This change will allow us to cast spells like ascend while moving which would give it even better usage.

5. Luminiferous Aether (Level 8)
-Removes the MP cost of all spells. Additional Effect: Gradually creates a storage of MP based on the amount of healing you output while under the effect of Luminiferous Aether. The stored MP is transferred to your MP pool when the “sublimation” ability is used.
-Info: This change is to give them something different comparable to the white mage and scholar recovery tools.

6. Sublimation (Level 8)
-Transfers the MP stored from the status effect “Sublimation” This ability can only be used if you are in possession of the Sublimation status effect the storage remains on your status bar until used, K.O., or if level sync is used.
-Info: This ability is the trigger for Luminiferous Aether it uses the MP stored. (Animation: New)

7. Helios (Level 10)
-Grants yourself and all nearby party member a healing over time effect with a cure potency of 200 to targets for 30s.
-Info: Similar to Medica II but without the burst healing potency, and the HOT potency is higher.

8. Ascend (Level 12)
-Unchanged
-Info: Basic Revival Spell.

9. Stop (Level 15)
-Freezes the enemy in place. Additional Effect: Time Compression (Prevents the reapplication of Stop for 60s)
-Info: Similar to stun/virus, however it doesn’t reset the skill/spell being used instead what it does is freeze the casting bar, and attacks/movement of the enemy for 4s. (Animation: Disable)

10. Exalted Detriment (Level 18)
-Unchanged
-Info: Basic Esuna Spell.

11. Stella (Level 22)
-Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100. Additional Effect: Bind / Slow + 20%
-Info: Additional Effect has been changed to slow/bind to give more usage to the spell; the heavy has been moved to gravity.

12. Radiance (Level 26)
-Restores target’s HP. Cure Potency: 300. Additional Effect: Grants a healing over time effect with a cure potency of 150 to target for 12s.
-Info: Job Identity Cure No. 1 (Animation: Benefic II)

13. Draw (Level 30)
-Card Change (Ewer): Refreshes target MP & TP
-Card Change (Spire): Increases target HP recovery via healing effects by 10%.
-Info: Gives the Ewer usage in any party composition, and makes the spire a great recovery tool.

14. Swiftly Forward (Level 30)
-Transforms the “Regen” status effect on the target into an instant HP recovery cure equaling the amount of HP intended for the healing overtime effect. (Maximum Healing Potency: 800)
-Info: Emergency Cure No.1 (Animation: Essential Dignity)

15. Synastry (Level 34)
-Generates an aetheric bond with target party member. Each time you cast a healing spell on a party member not under the effect of synastry, the party member with whom you have the synastry bond will also recover HP equaling the same amount healed.
-Info: The ability has been buffed from 50% healing to the tethered target to 100% healing.

16. Royal Road (Level 35)
- Unchanged
-Info: Balanced

17. Combust II (Level 38)
-Applies the “Combustion” effect to the target causing the enemy to explode over time for the next 18s. Dealing unaspected damaged with a potency of 35. (Explosion Animation: Similar to Bane but blue)
-Info: Something different that's currently not ingame.

18. Spread (Level 40)
-Unchanged
-Info: Balanced

19. Rewind (Level 42)
-Grants the effect of “Time Lag” Preventing the target from receiving damage for the next 6 seconds or being K.O. after the effect expires you receive the effect of “Time Displacement” converting the damage avoided into a damage overtime effect received over the next 6 seconds. (Recast 3 Minute)
-Info: Unique skill. (Animation: Aspected Benefic)

20. Shuffle (Level 45)
-Unchanged
-Info: Balanced

21. Gravity (Level 46)
-Deals unaspected damage to a target and enemies near it with a potency of 200. Additional Effect: Heavy +40%
-Info: An additional effect has been added in order to give it more usage

22. Diurnal Benefic (Level 50)
-Grants the target “Energize” for 15s when the effect expires it provides a healing effect with a potency of 500. Shares timer with Nocturnal Benefic. (Recast: 1m)
-Info: Job Identity Cure No. 2 (Animation: Diurnal Sect)

23. Nocturnal Benefic (Level 50)
-Grants the target “Fortification” for 15s which creates a barrier that builds up overtime with a potency of 50 per tick. Share timer with Diurnal Benefic. (Recast: 1m)
-Info: Job Identity Cure No. 3 (Animation: Diurnal Sect)

24. Celestial Opposition (Level 52)
-Spreads the target Diurnal Benefic or Nocturnal Benefic to all nearby party members. Does not reset the duration.
-Info: Works like a positive bane (Animation: Aspected Helios)

25. Malefic II (Level 54)
-Unchanged
-Info: Balanced

26. Time Dilation (Level 56)-
-Extends the duration of nearby party members beneficial effects by 10 seconds.
-Info: Allow it to work on all the enhancements except for a select few that would be overpowered. (AOE animation)

27. Tractor (Level 58)
-Teleports the party member towards you
-Info: Pulls the friendly target towards you, to save them from impending death. (Animation: New)

28. Collective Unconscious (Level 60)
-Creates a beacon of light Instantly Transforming any “Regen” status effect on the party into an instant HP recovery cure equaling the amount of HP intended for the healing overtime effect. (Maximum Healing Potency: 500)
-Info: Allow it to work on all the enhancements except for a select few that would be overpowered. (Animation: Celestial Opposition)

[zcrash970]

I do not like anything you changed

[Adire]

27. Tractor (Level 58)
-Teleports the party member towards you
-Info: Pulls the friendly target towards you, to save them from impending death. (Animation: New)

Or it pulls friendly targets right into an AoE. Or pulls a melee away from the target for lulz. This would be THE troll skill of the game. Even more than Ninja's good ol' smokescreen on the tank.

[Zeonx]

From what I seen the other healers can handle the load and astro cannot.

What needs to be done is lower the casting times and give a little more MP

Cause every time I am in a party with one, die die die die cause they just can't keep the tank alive no breathing room to fight at the same time, plus defense on the astro is bad if they get touched even 2 times on a boss dead or lucky to have a tiny bit of mp left.

The tanks die because other's have to heal the ones to get hit and by that time tank dies and healer dies then others die.

Never see this with a white mage.

[WingsOfAzrael]

I do not like anything you changed

ya i think this pretty much covers my opinion on this topic

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Troll spell just in time for the new 24 man raids!

[SuzakuCMX]

Currently the Astrologian is a hybrid that uses elements from both the White Mage and the Scholar and while in theory a hybrid healer seems like a great idea it’s actually not that great because a hybrid healer will never be as good as the specialist, plus there is really no reason why they are considered the “hybrid” healer sure they have enhancements with the card system, but they have no control over which card they receive making their niche on par with the scholar which is considered a main healer.

Why is this paragraph of text all one sentence?

Now I know many will say that all the job needs is improvements to the cards but I feel like the developers missed a great opportunity because there are many people that do not like the playstyle of the White Mage or the Scholar, and as such they are waiting for the right healer to claim as their main so instead of just outright buffing the cards I decided to inspire the developers with a redesign in order to give the Astrologian their deserved unique healing style.

Please divide your opening paragraph into more sentences; it just sounds like you're rambling and have no coherent thought process.

Let’s make Astrologian into the time/healing overtime healer it should have been.

It should have been literally anything that makes it competitive with WHM/SCH. It can be a hybrid and be competitive, but it's undertuned right now. A massive rework is NOT required and is NOT likely at this point.

And developers I urge you to really take these adjustments into consideration because the game could really use a third healing style; similar to how the dark knight introduced a new tanking style.

How is DRK a new tanking style? Their "style" is the exact same as a PLD but they get to use mana to enhance a few of their abilities, mostly for DPS reasons.

In addition this is probably the only opportunity to introduce a time/fate related healer because it fits perfectly with the job and it’s unlikely that another time/fate related job is going to be made since the Astrologian pretty much fills that niche.

Except, you know, it doesn't because its niche is "hybrid healer" and not "time healer"

1. Malefic (Level 1)
-Unchanged
-Info: Basic Starting Damage Spell since the potency is slightly higher than stone no additional effect is added.

Why did you bother including abilities you didn't change at all in your post? It only adds to the mess of a clutter you have here and it's a waste of space.

2. Benefic (Level 2)
-Restores target’s HP. Cure Potency 400.
-Info: Basic Starting Healing Spell.

You should start out with the Sect changes rather than the base spell changes because at this point I'm unsure of if you're including the 5% Noct Potency Bonus or not when you increase this to 400 base potency. Also I don't need info on any of these spells.

3. Combust (Level 4)
-Potency Increased to 45 and duration Increased to 30s.
-Info: General Damage Overtime spells no additional effect added.

This makes it the single highest damage DoT (not including initial application potencies) in the entire game with a total potency of 450 and it's accuracy-less to boot. It also doesn't fix the problem that AST is too mana starved to actually DPS currently, so it's not like I'd be using it anyways.

4. Lightspeed (Level 6)
-Reduces the MP cost for spells by 25%, and cast times for spells lowered by 2.5 seconds. Additional Effect: Allows the caster to move while casting any spell.
-Info: This change will allow us to cast spells like ascend while moving which would give it even better usage.

What's the point in this? It doesn't make Lightspeed any better at all because it only changes functionality for Ascend, which is rarely used without Swiftcast anyways. There is so much that can be done with this spell and yet you gave it some dumb functionality with a Rez spell.

5. Luminiferous Aether (Level 8)
-Removes the MP cost of all spells. Additional Effect: Gradually creates a storage of MP based on the amount of healing you output while under the effect of Luminiferous Aether. The stored MP is transferred to your MP pool when the “sublimation” ability is used.
-Info: This change is to give them something different comparable to the white mage and scholar recovery tools.

Why do you feel the need to make this spell so complicated and give it TWO effects? I also don't know what the duration or the recast time on this are so I have no idea how often you want this to be used. It's fine as it is now as long as our mana consumption is reduced or the cooldown on LA is reduced.

6. Sublimation (Level 8)
-Transfers the MP stored from the status effect “Sublimation” This ability can only be used if you are in possession of the Sublimation status effect the storage remains on your status bar until used, K.O., or if level sync is used.
-Info: This ability is the trigger for Luminiferous Aether it uses the MP stored. (Animation: New)

What is the point of splitting this into two abilities rather than just having it restore MP the next time LA is used?

7. Helios (Level 10)
-Grants yourself and all nearby party member a healing over time effect with a cure potency of 200 to targets for 30s.
-Info: Similar to Medica II but without the burst healing potency, and the HOT potency is higher.

WHY did you change the basic AoE healing tool to an entire HoT? This completely removes the AST's ability to AoE heal through heavy damage because there is 0 benefit to using Helios again while the HoT is still active.

9. Stop (Level 15)
-Freezes the enemy in place. Additional Effect: Time Compression (Prevents the reapplication of Stop for 60s)
-Info: Similar to stun/virus, however it doesn’t reset the skill/spell being used instead what it does is freeze the casting bar, and attacks/movement of the enemy for 4s. (Animation: Disable)

You say this like it's simple, but it'd be fucking HELL to code this and it's also marginally more useful than just reducing damage.

11. Stella (Level 22)
-Deals unaspected damage with a potency of 100. Additional Effect: Bind / Slow + 20%
-Info: Additional Effect has been changed to slow/bind to give more usage to the spell; the heavy has been moved to gravity.

Why does it bind? Maybe if it was Bind 4s and Heavy 10s? I'd rather the Slow be on Gravity for AoE pulls.

12. Radiance (Level 26)
-Restores target’s HP. Cure Potency: 300. Additional Effect: Grants a healing over time effect with a cure potency of 150 to target for 12s.
-Info: Job Identity Cure No. 1 (Animation: Benefic II)

Why did you change the name and not just leave it as Benefic II? Also how do I heal someone from low HP when you, again, changed our large heal into a HoT?

13. Draw (Level 30)
-Card Change (Ewer): Refreshes target MP & TP
-Card Change (Spire): Increases target HP recovery via healing effects by 10%.
-Info: Gives the Ewer usage in any party composition, and makes the spire a great recovery tool.

Why would you change Spire to that, and not Bole? It also doesn't fix the fact that RNG sucks and our other cards are awful unless they're Balance.

14. Swiftly Forward (Level 30)
-Transforms the “Regen” status effect on the target into an instant HP recovery cure equaling the amount of HP intended for the healing overtime effect. (Maximum Healing Potency: 800)
-Info: Emergency Cure No.1 (Animation: Essential Dignity)

Again, what is the Recast time?

15. Synastry (Level 34)
-Generates an aetheric bond with target party member. Each time you cast a healing spell on a party member not under the effect of synastry, the party member with whom you have the synastry bond will also recover HP equaling the same amount healed.
-Info: The ability has been buffed from 50% healing to the tethered target to 100% healing.

Yeah but you removed any of our strong healing potential so we basically just have Benefic to spam on them.

17. Combust II (Level 38)
-Applies the “Combustion” effect to the target causing the enemy to explode over time for the next 18s. Dealing unaspected damaged with a potency of 35. (Explosion Animation: Similar to Bane but blue)
-Info: Something different that's currently not ingame.

....what? You didn't actually explain what you mean by "exploding." How is it different than an AoE DoT? Does it still check accuracy?

18. Spread (Level 40)
-Unchanged
-Info: Balanced

Spread actually needs a lower cooldown.

19. Rewind (Level 42)
-Grants the effect of “Time Lag” Preventing the target from receiving damage for the next 6 seconds or being K.O. after the effect expires you receive the effect of “Time Displacement” converting the damage avoided into a damage overtime effect received over the next 6 seconds. (Recast 3 Minute)
-Info: Unique skill. (Animation: Aspected Benefic)

SO MUCH CODING. SO. MUCH. CODING.

20. Shuffle (Level 45)
-Unchanged
-Info: Balanced

*eye twitch*

22. Diurnal Benefic (Level 50)
-Grants the target “Energize” for 15s when the effect expires it provides a healing effect with a potency of 500. Shares timer with Nocturnal Benefic. (Recast: 1m)
-Info: Job Identity Cure No. 2 (Animation: Diurnal Sect)

Ok but why would I want to cast this ever instead of just casting our current Benefic II 15 seconds later?

23. Nocturnal Benefic (Level 50)
-Grants the target “Fortification” for 15s which creates a barrier that builds up overtime with a potency of 50 per tick. Share timer with Diurnal Benefic. (Recast: 1m)
-Info: Job Identity Cure No. 3 (Animation: Diurnal Sect)

Do you realize that is a 250 potency barrier total with a one minute recast time?

24. Celestial Opposition (Level 52)
-Spreads the target Diurnal Benefic or Nocturnal Benefic to all nearby party members. Does not reset the duration.
-Info: Works like a positive bane (Animation: Aspected Helios)

So you mean....Emergency Tactics Deployment Tactics....except worse?

26. Time Dilation (Level 56)-
-Extends the duration of nearby party members beneficial effects by 10 seconds.
-Info: Allow it to work on all the enhancements except for a select few that would be overpowered. (AOE animation)

What is the recast time? Why is this just not built into Celestial Opposition or Collective Unconscious?

27. Tractor (Level 58)
-Teleports the party member towards you
-Info: Pulls the friendly target towards you, to save them from impending death. (Animation: New)

Why? So much trolling potential and it doesn't really add a whole lot to the game. It's certainly not something I'd want in place of another emergency heal or a card buff.

28. Collective Unconscious (Level 60)
-Creates a beacon of light Instantly Transforming any “Regen” status effect on the party into an instant HP recovery cure equaling the amount of HP intended for the healing overtime effect. (Maximum Healing Potency: 500)
-Info: Allow it to work on all the enhancements except for a select few that would be overpowered. (Animation: Celestial Opposition)

This is so bad. So, so bad. Why do I have to waste a large cooldown just to get a heal that's better than Benefic?

You didn't fix any of the class's problems. Cards are still up to RNG. You made the Sects not matter at all because you just wasted 2 ability slots. AST still doesn't have a good way to bounce back from heavy damage. Card effects are still weak. We still don't have the ability to DPS because we can't bounce back from low HP on the tank. We don't provide anything unique to the raid.

You changed AST just for the purpose of changing it. You didn't fix any problems. You made it more complicated.

[Ashkendor]

So you mean....Emergency Tactics....except worse?

Sounds more like Deployment Tactics to me.

@OP - A lot of it seems convoluted just for the sake of being convoluted. :/

[zcrash970]

@Suzaku Actually the strongest DoT in the game is Goring Blade at 540 potency and that is follow by Scourge at 500 potency.

[SuzakuCMX]

@Suzaku Actually the strongest DoT in the game is Goring Blade at 540 potency and that is follow by Scourge at 500 potency.

Those are total potencies including the initial damage. I was only counting the actual DoT potency since it doesn't require accuracy and can therefore ALWAYS hit. I'll clarify though.

Sounds more like Deployment Tactics to me.

@OP - A lot of it seems convoluted just for the sake of being convoluted. :/

My bad, you're right. Let me fix that.