balance through Balance

[Ilenya]

Only problem here is the main one needing to be toned down got buffed and scholar took several hits. So it isn't really what happened. Guessing the Ast dev didn't get the memo.

Not saying they did it right, but this was specifically mentioned back before 4.0 that SCH was going to get looked at. We expected some changes, but what we got was...Special.

"Ahh but AST got The Lady of Crowns" since we never use it because we always want The Lord, because SE nerfed our damage to the ground.

Did they really for AST? Because SCH would like to talk some about nerfed damage.

[Riyshn]

Not saying they did it right, but this was specifically mentioned back before 4.0 that SCH was going to get looked at. We expected some changes, but what we got was...Special.

Source? Because the comment I remember was that they wanted to keep SCH's power right about where it was, and bring WHM/AST up to 3.x SCH's level.

[Caduagm]

Did they really for AST? Because SCH would like to talk some about nerfed damage.

Did you ever compare healer damage? SCH and AST had about the SAME DPS Single-Target back to Heavensward.
Did you ever check fflogs?
Malefic 3 is the same potency Malefic 2 used to be (with cleric stance).
Did you actually see how much is the potency of Broil 2/Stone 4?
WHM easily OUT DPS AST by doing around 500-600 dps more.
SCH OUT DPS AST by doing 400-500 more DPS.
And for all those whm who wants a kind of utility, go learn how to dps, your dps was always amazing and now even more, stop wanting utility just to help your party while you are AFKing/Overhealing ALL THE TIME.

[Draxis_Fallspear]

I'm not a career healer, but I have played enough Astrologian to have an opinion about the cards system.

It does seem like The Balance is just the best card you can draw at the moment. I'll leave whether the numbers on it need to be tweaked to others. However, I think one of the issues here is the power delta within the cards that can be drawn.

Ewer and spire are situational, but they do what they need to and if you draw and need them; you'll use them. These, I think, are fine.

Balance and Arrow are always good. Arrow is a bit riskier due to the resource cost that come with faster attack speed. But overall, it's still usually worth playing. Balance is always amazing. These are also in a pretty good place (and like I said before, I don't really want to speak to the power level of Balance).

Bole and The Spear are more problematic. Bole is a nice thing to have if the tank just did a massive pull and you just want some breathing room. It's not necessary, but it can be nive to have. The Spear is super situational and since you have no control when you'll pull it out or if your allies have anything that'll come back from cooldown it's practically useless.

I think if they nerfed Balance, they should also look at buffing the duration of Bole and The Spear. Bole lasting longer could make it viable as a DPS increase since your co-healer and yourself (and potentially the tank) could push DPS a little longer due to the increased breathing room. Similarly with The Spear, if it lasted longer; you'd have a better chance of abilities coming back off of cooldown. I'd say that doubling their duration would probably make a lot of sense if they decided to, let's say, halve the potency of Balance.

The problem with the cards system is that you'll always be seeing the same card applied over and over again as long as the power differential between the different draws is large.

[Kyeria]

I honestly think the cards just need some overhauls. So many of our cards are useless because the buffs they provide just aren't as desirable as raw damage ( and some are just plain garbage )

So many people continue to complain that Balance needs to be nerfed because it's overtuned and that our other cards would iron out from there, but I honestly don't think they would. I personally believe that Balance is overpowered by design and not it's current numbers/percentages.

The problematic issue with "Balance" is that raw damage boosts will always be desired over any of the buffs we have because DPS is king in FFXIV. Square could nerf "Balance" to 5% and people would still foam at the mouth for it. Especially since it's something no other healer can bring to the table.

Below are some changes I believe the cards need to balance them out.
In my opinion.

Balance: Needs to be reworked into a different buff.
Bole: Honestly, I don't have any complaints on this.
Arrow: Could maybe be a bit stronger, especially if Balance was removed.
Spear: Simply allowing this to also affect abilities on cooldown would fix this card.
Ewer: Honestly, either needs to be stronger or reworked into a different buff.
Spire: This just needs to be reworked into a different buff as well. While Ewer has super niche uses...I have NEVER had a tank or DPS need this buff or ask for it. It honestly feels like a card that was designed just for Royal Road fodder.

I also personally believe that Royal Road needs some adjustments as well, but I'm not entirely certain how to fix it. One of my major complaints with Royal Road now is that it's set up to make certain buffs it provides useless & specific cards nothing more than fodder. A few examples are;

Bole and Balance: 150% potency:
I almost never use the 150% Potency boost provided by Royal Roading Balance & Bole because the cards themselves 9/10 are more useful in any situation to use even without a Royal Road effect, than to waste them on the RR buff they provide. I also seem to remember someone doing testing and providing statistics that showed you got more benefit out of any given card by doubling its duration rather than boosting it by 150%. ( I could be wrong though as that was an old study and I can no longer find its source )

Ewer and Spire: 50% potency + AoE:
This bonus actually has the opposite problem of Bole & Balance. The buff Ewer & Spire provide from Royal Roading is so insanely powerful, that it's almost always more important to Royal Road them than to use the cards individually, even if the Buffs they provided were more useful.


Arrow and Spear: Doubled duration:
And finally, the buffs provided by Arrow & Spear are just kind of niche and largely useless outside of 4 man dungeons.
I know the Astrologian is the last Healer that needs massive attention, but I honestly feel like our cards are designed poorly in that they pigeon hole you into using only a few specific cards in any situation.

[Fernosaur]

I agree that Balance needs to go, tbh. By now, Astrologian's healing kit is so powerful that it can easily compete with the other two even without Balance.

Hell, even just having Arrow is still gonna make it borderline mandatory, but it wouldn't be 100% necessary like Balance makes it atm.

[jmanfrw]

I agree that Balance needs to go, tbh. By now, Astrologian's healing kit is so powerful that it can easily compete with the other two even without Balance.

Why would they ever remove balance? the whole cards system is what makes the job, it's the whole theme. Nerf shields a bit because they are insta-cast and so should be weaker than cast shields that just makes sense.

Don't go slashing the unique aspects of the job it's the healing that needs de-tuning, the cards are the utility, the thing to consider when choosing which healers to role with but should come at a cost of more demanding healing. Cards are still RNG so inherently not to be relied on. The new spells have helped game the cards better but it's still all on a die somewhere and to nerf an RNG aspect is always a harsher nerf than any static element, because now that great thing you might get is the meh thing you might get.

[Fernosaur]

Why would they ever remove balance? the whole cards system is what makes the job, it's the whole theme. Nerf shields a bit because they are insta-cast and so should be weaker than cast shields that just makes sense.

Because The Balance has become the absolute center of the healer meta, and it's made it unhealthy as hell. Not only community-wise, but also in terms of gameplay. Balance is a better DPS cooldown than ANY cooldown a DPS has ever had in the history of the game save for maybe Darkside and NIN's poisons, which are a passive now. But Balance gave the same % bonus as Quelling Strikes, can give the same % as traited Blood for Blood, etc, and all this for double or almost triple the duration depending on the Royal Road effect.

Think of this for a moment, a healer can give better DPS cooldowns than what the DPS actually have/had for themselves, and for a longer time.

The problem with this is that the other healers have no answer to this either, so it's pretty centralizing.

Balance being a mini Battle Litany would make it much better than what it is right now imo. Though AST's personal DPS would need to be buffed a bit to compensate.

[Fortune_Cookie]

Balance being a mini Battle Litany would make it much better than what it is right now imo. Though AST's personal DPS would need to be buffed a bit to compensate.

That seems the most likely change with 4.05: Balance back to 10% with a small buff to AST's personal dps.

In the long run, SE will need to find a way to balance AST's healing vs WHM and SCH healing and AST's damage contribution against WHM and SCH damage contribution. More healing vs more dps can never be balanced.

[LegoTechnic]

One of the reasons I liked skill/spell speed buffs on Selene was that bringing her also meant removing a SCH's regen, divine seal, and shell moves, so it came at cost to the healer. AST pays a cost in having their buff be a minor bit of RNG.