Balance was balanced

[Enla]

What is even "weak" on AST? The only thing that was was Spear and that's been buffed so...

This, at best some of the cards are pretty situational but even then until this point the only bad part of AST was the Spear card and the fact that most people would constant Redraw and pray to RNGesus that they'd get the Balance. AST legitimately needs no buffs at this point because even with them nerfing Balance back to it's 3.0 days it's still one of, if not THE best ability in the game.

[MintnHoney]

What is even "weak" on AST? The only thing that was was Spear and that's been buffed so...

Personal damage output and innate MP recovery are two weaknesses that immediately come to mind, especially in comparison with the other two healers.
And yes, this is because we have a chance to put various beneficial effects on the field.
"Balance."

[Pomo]

The Balance (Single Target) Increase to damage dealt reduced from 20% to 10%.

The Balance (Area of Effect) Increase to damage dealt reduced from 10% to 5%

However, spear now gives 10%/5% crit~

Discuss!

Good. Buffing balance was the lazy option when Astros were asking for Spear to be buffed. I would have preferred to have the cd reduction work on skills already on cd, but perhaps the crit buff will be even better.

I'll be even happier if we can get a pre-50 aoe. Syncing down below 52 still sucks as Ast and it's been an issue since HW.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

You'd think not a single person in this thread play AST or something. For them to call a 5% AOE 30/40s damage buff "useless"....Holy shit.

Not to mention Balance is no longer to only card that matters. Crit is amazing. Arrow has always been just below Balance. If anything, you should have MORE buff uptime rather than discarding every card for balance fishing.

Think It this way. Remember every Spear and Arrow you tossed because you'd rather use Balance? Well now you can use them. Not only are you getting more buff uptime in general, but you're having fun with the card system again. Unless you found fishing for Balance fun....I guess?

[TankHunter678]

Think It this way. Remember every Spear and Arrow you tossed because you'd rather use Balance? Well now you can use them. Not only are you getting more buff uptime in general, but you're having fun with the card system again. Unless you found fishing for Balance fun....I guess?

You mean every spear and arrow I did use? Like throwing spears on tanks when they stop and burn cooldowns to survive through the pull, throwing Arrows on Ninjas, Black Mages, and Samurai? Or royal roading them so that I could give a nice long Bole on that squishy Dark Knight.

I would also use spear on myself to setup for sleeve drawing more often.

But eh, people complained spear was useless (because it only worked on skills cast during its buff time) when it was a DPS burst buff of its own. Course now that is gone for a buff that can eh... maybe give its value? Maybe not give its value at all? On top of reducing the applicable targets and the amount of uses that could of been planned around it. So in my opinion the change to it being a crit buff is equal parts nerf and buff, but a balance or arrow would still be preferred just due to consistency.

Oh and, prior to it getting buffed a 5% AoE balance was not enough to give AST a place on raid groups.

[Wilbow]

Oh and, prior to it getting buffed a 5% AoE balance was not enough to give AST a place on raid groups.

Most high-end raiders seem to believe that 3.3 was probably the most balanced patch (by far) for healers throughout all of Heavensward; it was mostly "Party Finder Heroes" with their heads clearly wedged back in 3.2 that were still excluding AST. Shifting Balance to 20% in 3.4 led to AST being completely broken in comparison to its competition and an obvious must-have in "optimal comps".

...And now that Balance has been shifted back to 10%, healer balance is probably the best of any role in this game right now, with people racing for world first with AST/SCH, AST/WHM, and WHM/SCH and having similar success with each. Funny how that works.

[Fernosaur]

Oh and, prior to it getting buffed a 5% AoE balance was not enough to give AST a place on raid groups.

This wasn't the reason at all.

AST was a pretty weak healer with more or less mediocre utility at release, which gave the job a bad rep. The lack of an oGCD AoE heal to supplement their burst healing was actually the biggest issue AST had in Gordias progression, and this is what led to the mentality that AST was simply shit. However, if you talk to speedrunners from that time, you'll find that a lot of them will say speed runs ended up coming down to who had more Balance uptime.

After extensive buffs to the card system's management, they finally found a good place for the cards and AST's healing potencies, and Midas was a pretty good era for healer balance. The gross overbuffing of Balance in 3.4 was a horrible mistake. It's good that they fixed it.

The fact that AST isn't absolutely necessary anymore is a great thing, as is the fact that SCH isn't absolutely necessary either. Healers are actually the most balanced role in the game right now, with tanks more or less coming in close second.

The DPS roles tho... #prayforSMN

[Sebazy]

You mean every spear and arrow I did use? Like throwing spears on tanks when they stop and burn cooldowns to survive through the pull, throwing Arrows on Ninjas, Black Mages, and Samurai? Or royal roading them so that I could give a nice long Bole on that squishy Dark Knight.

In situations where cooldowns actually matter, most tanks will figure out a specific rotation and stick to that like glue, I'd wager if I quietly speared my tanks in 3.4, there's a pretty solid shot they wouldn't even notice, and if they did, I couldn't guarantee that spear so they wouldn't be able to build a rotation around it. Bole has been very decent since 3.4. Not really news there.

Arrow seems quite a bit better now that TP isn't such a burning issue. But it's still not quite on par with balance (or crit spear) for most jobs. As for spearing yourself for sleeve draw? I'm not really convinced sorry =(

But eh, people complained spear was useless (because it only worked on skills cast during its buff time) when it was a DPS burst buff of its own.

DPS tend to have even more disdain for it than tanks as it'll put their cooldown rotations out of alignment. There might be a little merit in it for dungeons if you're with someone who hasn't built up a gameplan for the place yet, but in a 10 minute encounter you'll likely cause a DPS loss using it on a DPS especially if they're not expecting it.

Oh and, prior to it getting buffed a 5% AoE balance was not enough to give AST a place on raid groups.

Say what?

AST (5-10%) didn't get a spot on raid groups for Gordias because it was horribly untuned and didn't have the HPS throughput to catch up after a mistake. Every team on Ragnarok that ran AST/SCH either gave up or switched at A3S during the initial progression race.

AST (still 5-10%) had a decent even split with WHM for Midas. Noct sect was still subpar vs a SCH at this point, but Diu could keep up with the heat now as long as the group adjusted a little for it.

You'd think not a single person in this thread play AST or something. For them to call a 5% AOE 30/40s damage buff "useless"....Holy shit.

Oh god I'm agreeing with you again

I think it's a shame that SE forced this situation to come to a head by giving us that ludicrous 20% balance in the first place, but this puts cards in a much better situation now. There's legitimate variety rather than the 'balance or bust' that we had in 3.4. All that's left for SE to address is the button bloat the card system has now. Not sure how they are going to achieve that but eh. GL Yoshi!

[Naunet]

I'm happy with these changes. They're not perfect, but they're a huge improvement in making all cards useful.

As a side note, hilariously I managed to draw Balance EIGHT TIMES in a row in my expert roulette today. RNG can be pretty wow sometimes.

[LazyTitan87]

Side effect of the change: I almost never use minor arcana anymore.