Thoughts on AST changes and job designs moving forward

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I keep seeing people say this, but a Nocturnal AST and SCH can't play nice together as the sheilds cancel eachother out, and Diurnal heals are still the same as before.

If anything, the buffs mean Scholars need to worry, as their spot can be comfortably taken by an AST, and are no longer guaranteed a spot in higher level content.

Unless I missed the memo where we can stack sheilds now, I don't see White Mages getting "benched" anytime soom.

Except you'll never need them to stack. While neither Scholar or Astro have the raw aoe healing WHM does, they are both close enough to compensate. Coupled with their sheer versatility and WHM is decidedly third now in the healer battle. Scholar isn't afraid at all. Their DPS and infinite MP pet practically guarantee them a spot.

[File2ish]

Except you'll never need them to stack. While neither Scholar or Astro have the raw aoe healing WHM does, they are both close enough to compensate. Coupled with their sheer versatility and WHM is decidedly third now in the healer battle. Scholar isn't afraid at all. Their DPS and infinite MP pet practically guarantee them a spot.

AST has raw AoE healing like WHM, I think Helios and Medica are exactly the same. ASt is just not quite as powerful in the AoE HoT department (Aspected Helios is a bit weaker and shorter radius than Medica II if I recall). Aside from the card buffs, diurnal AST is untouched, leaving it in a slightly better position than before. Whether or not this means WHM will be at the bottom of the healer barrel now because of the card buffs we can't really say yet.

What we can say is Nocturnal Sect is much better than before, and going WHM/N.AST will probably be better overall compared to WHM/D.AST now. Not that many statics do that anyway (will be useful for solo duty queues at least).

And, as you said, that N.AST won't be replacing SCHs despite the 100% consistent AND instant 170% AST shield because of SCH's overall damage output + Eos/Selene.

[Rawrz]

Aside from the card buffs, diurnal AST is untouched, leaving it in a slightly better position than before.

For the second time, Diurnal AST got buffed with the Ben II proc changing to 100% crit rate, celestial opposition duration increased, qol to cards AND increases to card potencies.

The only changes that were noct only changes were to aspected ben and aspected helios.

[Rennies]

Diurnal Ast received double potency on Bole/Balance, doubled extension on Celestial Opposition (meaning even more mana than before), and can now redraw every single card... of course they are going to be much better than White Mages now.

[Belhi]

WHM will certainly be up to filling its role but from the math I have seen AST is superior in its place in the Meta. AST simply brings more to the fight and is very much equal to WHM in healing. With Heals relatively on equal footing, the superior mitigation and buffing that AST is capable of puts AST in a superior position.

Unfortunately this is going to be the reality of the Healing meta unless they can actually alter the Healing meta. Since its always a Shield/Heal combination there is always going to be a particular pairing that is the superior option. As of now it seems to be SCH/AST. WHM's are quite capable of doing the content but they are the weaker option. WHM core strength has always been its heals with little in the way of solid mitigation or support buffing and that is what places AST above it.

[loreleidiangelo]

This job was such a type-B cluster and part of the reason I eventually started moving away from this game. The very nature of the draw system sets it up where the only universally "good" cards are...you guessed it, the DPS boosting ones. I hated feeling like I wasn't bringing any reliable utility or support to a raid, I hated feeling like my job's whole identity was basically a gimmicky flavor ability and that I was a WHM in a black dress instead of a white one. Very wary about any new healing jobs rolling out of the gate at this point, as with raids' current reliance on some form of shielding/mitigation and healing potencies being scaled such that two healers can easily boost nearly-depleted health bars back to full in 1 or 2 GCDs, means that every new healing job will be judged on it's ability to bring DPS or reliably boost group DPS, and that's idiotic when we're considering that these are healing jobs.

The Noct Sect "buffs" clearly show that the devs don't even understand why SCH is such an uncontested raid slot right now as it is. Hint: it only marginally has something to do with their shields, which AST actually surpasses at this point, and everything to do with D-P-S.