balance through Balance

[Caduagm]

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

Are you actually kidding, right?
Even with the buffs on sects WHM still out HPS AST . WHM got 2 new INSTANT heals, assize reduced its CD and now they can spam Cure 3 with Thin Air.
"Ahh but AST got earthly star" yeah we did but it IS NOT an instant heal.
"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.

[Fernosaur]

Are you actually kidding, right?
Even with the buffs on sects WHM still out HPS AST . WHM got 2 new INSTANT heals, assize reduced its CD and now they can spam Cure 3 with Thin Air.
"Ahh but AST got earthly star" yeah we did but it IS NOT an instant heal.
"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.

So what if WHM outHPSs AST? WHM also (marginally) out-HPSd AST throughout Midas and Creator, even while AST had no good burst healing, and AST still did perfectly fine.


AST+SCH are still perfectly capable of clearing anything even with SCH's current bad state. They were able to do it throughout all of Midas, they were able to do it throughout all of Creator, and they're still going to be able to do it now and throughout all of Delta because I don't think the dev team will make the same mistakes they did in Gordias. Plus, it's not unlikely that SCH will recieve at least some slight adjustments to make it better.

Also, the ONE big thing that held AST back throughout Gordias, which was the lack of reliable burst healing, is solved now. Earthly Star requires planning and is not easy to use through progression, yes, I know, but it's still the most potent burst AoE heal in the game.

The fact that WHM has better resource management and is safer, and this is the keyword here, than AST doesn't mean the later can't compete with the former. If you seriously believe Balance is the only powerful thing AST has you're the one that has to be kidding, because Astrologian is in the best spot right now when speaking about healers, even in the hypothetical scenario that The Balance didn't exist. The Balance only serves to make AST the best job in the game right now, and the only one that's truly and 100% absolutely necessary for any kind of raiding party.

For the record, any job being absolutely necessary for raiding is not a good thing.

[BloodRubyXII]

Are you actually kidding, right?
Even with the buffs on sects WHM still out HPS AST . WHM got 2 new INSTANT heals, assize reduced its CD and now they can spam Cure 3 with Thin Air.
"Ahh but AST got earthly star" yeah we did but it IS NOT an instant heal.
"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.

Out HPSing with cheesing does not constitute the state of balance, sorry :x
Earthly Star, all things considered, is technically an instant. It can be placed and detonated immediately and it hits hard.
Lady of Crowns can be spent on tank busters with B2. It's not completely worthless. When we had cards that had no use other than RR fodder that was as low as it got.


I'm not saying AST needs to be toned down, just those aren't the points you need to make to defend us.

[BloodPact]

Earthly Star, all things considered, is technically an instant. It can be placed and detonated immediately and it hits hard.

Although Earthly Star doesn't have cast time it's really nothing to count on if you need a quick heal. Even when it's already set up it takes time to explode and heal the target after you do the healing casting animation. It's a really good skill (even debatable that a bit OP due to potency) but certainly not an instant heal like Assize or the Scholar one.

[BloodRubyXII]

Although Earthly Star doesn't have cast time it's really nothing to count on if you need a quick heal. Even when it's already set up it takes time to explode and heal the target after you do the healing casting animation. It's a really good skill (even debatable that a bit OP due to potency) but certainly not an instant heal like Assize or the Scholar one.

I use it on the smash after p2 swords, ukehl if it's up and thundercloud stacks. Place before it comes, detonate after the damage. In a real emergency I just place->detonate. Heals more than enough. Honestly I would class it as an instant. I understand what you're saying, I just don't think your point is completely right.

[BloodPact]

I use it on the smash after p2 swords, ukehl if it's up and thundercloud stacks. Place before it comes, detonate after the damage. In a real emergency I just place->detonate. Heals more than enough. Honestly I would class it as an instant. I understand what you're saying, I just don't think your point is completely right.

None of those are examples that require emergency (AOE) healing. Again, nothing to do with healing potency. There is a very noticeable difference in activation time for Assize/Indomitability compared to Earthly Start. Go try out these spells and you'll see. It's a good tool but not an emergency healing tool. Emergency healing is Essential Dignity and Lady of Crowns (and Nocturnal Aspected Benefic, depending on how you look at it).

[Furious]

My healer of choice is astrologian and I couldn't wish more for the balance card to be nerfed. We spend all of our card mechanics heavily aiming at generating balance+aoe and everything else is an unwanted tradeoff at best, despite the fact that every other card is mechanically more interesting.

Ewer and spire both give more resources, allowing potentially for people to recover more easily from death, or spend resources more willingly during aoe phases or whatever.
Spire is a really interesting card that gives significant cooldown reduction if it could actually ever be used for its utility.
Arrow gives haste, which while still a dps increase also has an impact on how we play (although very little with how low the effect is on spread) - it doesn't just give damage, it decreases time spent performing actions.

And then we have balance, which does literally nothing except increase dps by a percentage. It has no aspect of decision making, no effect on resources or gameplay style, just "here's your damage". It's the most boring card by far and it's also the strongest by far. It's a real shame.

All of this doesn't even address the impact it has on healer balance overall, which the other cards wouldn't nearly have the same impact on as they stand now.

Are you actually kidding, right?
Even with the buffs on sects WHM still out HPS AST . WHM got 2 new INSTANT heals, assize reduced its CD and now they can spam Cure 3 with Thin Air.
"Ahh but AST got earthly star" yeah we did but it IS NOT an instant heal.
"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.

HPS is a zero sum game, you don't need to top the meters, but apply it where it is needed and in the form that it is needed. Having a spammable aoe shield and an instant cast high potency shield with a low (comparatively) cost are insanely strong in their own rights, and allow cheesing of many mechanics.

[Cupcakesu]

Nerfing Astrologian isn't going to change the fact that WHM has no identity beyond "big heals" (which generally aren't needed) or that SCH has MP issues, a clunky nerfed pet (on THE pet Healer), and no AoE. What you're doing is ignoring the real issues that make both other jobs unsatisfying or undesirable.

[Enla]

Nerfing Astrologian isn't going to change the fact that WHM has no identity beyond "big heals" (which generally aren't needed) or that SCH has MP issues, a clunky nerfed pet (on THE pet Healer), and no AoE. What you're doing is ignoring the real issues that make both other jobs unsatisfying or undesirable.

You don't need to completely nerf AST in order to bring balance to the classes. Only a few small quality of life fixes are needed and potency increases to the others in order to prevent power creep. For example adding a cast or halving the potency of their shields would be all that's needed to put them in line with SCH. That's it.

[Verdan]

Nerfing Astrologian isn't going to change the fact that WHM has no identity beyond "big heals" (which generally aren't needed) or that SCH has MP issues, a clunky nerfed pet (on THE pet Healer), and no AoE. What you're doing is ignoring the real issues that make both other jobs unsatisfying or undesirable.

NERFING MY CLASS WON'T BRING BACK YOUR GOD DAMN HONEY