Balance was balanced

[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.

[Archvile78]

I love it, finally i can stop ignoring Spear. I'm fine with the Balance change, finally i can stop fishing for them.

[Hysterior]

Changes are good IMO
Just need to change my use of Lightspeed/Dignity a bit to make most of it

Balance is a slight nerf but the fact that we have now another great card (spear) totally makes up for it

[Kethic]

I spent today grinding a bunch of content on AST. It's nice to have 3 generally useful spreads, and couple of situational windfall options. The only thing screwing me up right now is Sleeve Draw and Spire in the Spread, which is preemptively manageable.

[LazyTitan87]

I'd have to agree. Yes I'm still annoyed that Noct stance has a higher potency and usage than my Succor or Adlo, but with these new potency buffs it doesn't feel like I'm left out in the cold if I end up with an AST who absolutely refuses to change stances.

Do people seriously do this? I've forgotten to change once with a SCH in the group, because my last 3 delta's had WHMs, but I started asking my group in discord to wipe it up because I forgot (that and we had a lot of deaths due to people not following mechanics). I actually prefer diurnal over Nocturnal. While I can work with the shields, they can be mana intense in encounters with a lot of aoe damage or high tank damage (AB costs as much as a Helios).

[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.

[Lildragora]

Do people seriously do this? I've forgotten to change once with a SCH in the group, because my last 3 delta's had WHMs, but I started asking my group in discord to wipe it up because I forgot (that and we had a lot of deaths due to people not following mechanics). I actually prefer diurnal over Nocturnal. While I can work with the shields, they can be mana intense in encounters with a lot of aoe damage or high tank damage (AB costs as much as a Helios).

Yes they do.

[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