Please do not nerf Astrologian instead buff WHM/SCH

[Cupcakesu]

AST needs to step back a bit.
I don't care if they keep their utility buffs, that's their thing. But by no means, should they be healing for the same numbers as a WHM, and even stronger than a SCH. It's so stupid.

They threw themselves into a hole with Astrologian by making it heal identically to both other jobs. Healing is what's most important for a Healer, and yet AST also has buffs that need to be taken into account for balancing. Problem is, if you nerf their Healing, they still need to be able to heal all content. If their healing is weaker than WHM and SCH, that just means WHM and SCH will heal in excess because content will be keeping AST's nerfed healing as a baseline. If you nerf their cards, they lose the only identity they have. SE needs to improve SCH's healing or mitigation and give WHM something other than big heals. Each Healer SHOULD have a completely unique strength that makes them desirable or special in at least some content.

[loreleidiangelo]

They threw themselves into a hole with Astrologian by making it heal identically to both other jobs. Healing is what's most important for a Healer, and yet AST also has buffs that need to be taken into account for balancing. Problem is, if you nerf their Healing, they still need to be able to heal all content. If their healing is weaker than WHM and SCH, that just means WHM and SCH will heal in excess because content will be keeping AST's nerfed healing as a baseline. If you nerf their cards, they lose the only identity they have. SE needs to improve SCH's healing or mitigation and give WHM something other than big heals. Each Healer SHOULD have a completely unique strength that makes them desirable or special in at least some content.

Serious question. How does nerfing Balance specifically (the one true "problem" card in AST's deck) hurt their identity? If anything, Balance ITSELF is what hurts AST, because now their card system is set up in such a way where the only real desirable outcome IS Balance. I actually think nerfing or reworking it entirely would open up a lot of new avenues for more varied and engaging cardplay. Tank buster coming up? Whatever, I still want Balance anyway, the tank can deal with their issues on their own. Fight with heavy movement? Whatever, I still want Balance anyway, I just won't use it on the BLM cuz most of it'll go to waste, I'll use it on the mobile RDM or heavy-hitting SAM instead. I need MP? Whatever, I still want Balance anyway, cutting back on my own personal DPS a bit isn't worth losing 20% on an actual DPS job or 10% on an entire raid group.

For the most part, I actually agree with your statement about the devs developing AST into the gutter from the get-go with their stupid "hybrid" idea. But I also don't think we'll be ruined forever if Balance gets adjusted or changed to something else. I get tired of fishing for nothing but that orange icon 90% of the time.

[Cupcakesu]

Serious question. How does nerfing Balance specifically (the one true "problem" card in AST's deck) hurt their identity? If anything, Balance ITSELF is what hurts AST, because now their card system is set up in such a way where the only real desirable outcome IS Balance. I actually think nerfing or reworking it entirely would open up a lot of new avenues for more varied and engaging cardplay. Tank buster coming up? Whatever, I still want Balance anyway, the tank can deal with their issues on their own. Fight with heavy movement? Whatever, I still want Balance anyway, I just won't use it on the BLM cuz most of it'll go to waste, I'll use it on the mobile RDM or heavy-hitting SAM instead. I need MP? Whatever, I still want Balance anyway, cutting back on my own personal DPS a bit isn't worth losing 20% on an actual DPS job or 10% on an entire raid group.

For the most part, I actually agree with your statement about the devs developing AST into the gutter from the get-go with their stupid "hybrid" idea. But I also don't think we'll be ruined forever if Balance gets adjusted or changed to something else. I get tired of fishing for nothing but that orange icon 90% of the time.

Here's the issue with the other cards: You can't make content that relies on them and thus no one will care about them. Balance and Arrow are both damage boosts, and people find that appealing because damage is ALWAYS useful. We trade our single target DPS for that boost. Will people care about Bole if content doesn't require it? Will people bring Astrologian to raids because of Bole? Probably not, because Bole will never matter. SE can't design content around having an extra 20% damage reduction, both because the other Healers don't have that level of mitigation and because you're not guaranteed a Bole draw, which means you will never need a Bole and thus can heal through damage naturally. Spear has never been useful, and it's clear by this point that SE doesn't care. Ewer and Spire are, again, not important enough to care about for raid content because one is only useful if the fight is terribly long (and most of the time raid content has enrage timers), and the other is useful typically only for yourself.

If they want to make the card system work without Balance, they need to literally redesign the entire system and every card with it. Otherwise, cards (without Balance) will be unnecessary bonuses that no one care about.