DPSing as AST

[Maku]

WHM is just stronger like everyone else has said.

That being said, AST also has simply more to do than the other healers. All healers have heals and DPS, but AST has a full third system (our cards) that they have to worry about so our time for DPSing does go down slightly due to that. SCH has a little bit of extra stuff with Fairy control but it doesn't take up the time that the card system does.

[Connor]

All healer jobs are expected to contribute as much DPS as possible and as little healing as possible. Astrologian is no exception to this, and very often in higher level non-Savage content you're going to find yourself with literally nothing else to do. Dealing damage as a White Mage is easier in situation me with many enemies because of Holy's stun, but you're just as capable of contributing the same proportion of damage.
It's an unfortunate part of FFXIV's battle system that healers are more easily described as 'DPS with lots of healing or utility and not much damage abilities', as opposed to, well, healers

[Miste]

It's open to luck, is messy, cumbersome, and goes away from playing a class purely based on skill - not an out of your control electronic roll of a dice that decides what skill you are going to get when you press the button.
Remove the rng and let players pick which card to use - and of course some would never be picked - which just underlines the impact of this misplaced rng in the current set up.

SE isn't going to change AST and break their lore just to make the job into what you want just to cater to you alone.

You are forgetting there are tons of people playing AST right now who like it. Based on the amount of people playing AST and the fact I've never seen anyone else ask for this idea but you (constantly; I swear I've seen you post the same thing in every AST thread I've decided to read and I haven't even read them all)...it seems you are likely the minority if not the single only person complaining about this.

There are many people who like AST cards how they work now. If you don't like the cards you have two other healer jobs (that don't have cards!) to pick from that will suit you better.

I mean AST is just a hybrid WHM/SCH with cards. So if you like Nocturnal AST but don't like the cards? Play SCH. If you like Diurnal AST but don't like the cards? Play WHM. It's pretty simple. You know, Instead of trying to change AST to something all the people who enjoy it now probably won't like just to cater to you alone.

[Teraluna]

There are many people who like AST cards how they work now. If you don't like the cards you have two other healer jobs (that don't have cards!) to pick from that will suit you better.

I mean AST is just a hybrid WHM/SCH with cards. So if you like Nocturnal AST but don't like the cards? Play SCH. If you like Diurnal AST but don't like the cards? Play WHM. It's pretty simple. You know, Instead of trying to change AST to something all the people who enjoy it now probably won't like just to cater to you alone.

People like online rng gambling - good for them. Poker.com and the like is keeping them happy. Doesn't mean rng should have a place in a skill based class.

[Miste]

People like online rng gambling - good for them. Poker.com and the like is keeping them happy. Doesn't mean rng should have a place in a skill based class.

Like someone else said right in this thread. AST's primary role is to heal and the cards are simply support and just give an extra bonus. The main function is still to keep the party alive.


Reason 1 why your argument is flawed: Cards being RNG doesn't make or break your ability to do your main role, heal.

Cards are only a support mechanic and are technically unnecessary for an AST to fulfill their main role of healing the group (it is simply a perk of the job, an added bonus) and honestly you can pull good cards a lot of the time now since 3/6 are good for boosting party DPS. I mean every time you use Draw you have a 50% chance to pull either Spear, Balance, or Arrow.

50% is really high (it means one in two draws will likely net you a DPS boosting card) and that can almost hardly be called RNG at that point except in the technical sense. In 8 man content you want to setup a royal road AoE then you need one Spire or Ewer so those two cards are also useful then it becomes 5/6 of the cards are desired at some point. That's 83%.


Reason 2 why your argument is flawed: The cards being RNG actually increases the skill needed to play AST because it adds a layer of critical thinking and fast reaction/decision making to the job.

Having the cards being RNG actually increases the skill needed to play AST to fullest potential. You need to quickly decide the best use of each card you get when you get it and all available options to maximize the usage of every card you pull in an encounter. You say it is skill based class but uh....who came up with that definition anyway? You did? I don't remember SE saying anywhere that the jobs in this game are "skill based classes". I mean if you want AST to take "skill" to play then changing the card system to your way actually makes it less so. So that logic is backwards I think?

If you change the cards to what you suggest then it is simply one best use for each card which means you just memorize who to use each of them on and it removes any critical thinking or the need to make quick decisions to use cards. It would require zero skill, just memorization, and would also lose the lore of what AST is supposed to be.


Reason 3 why your argument is flawed: RNG is everywhere in this game. Why is it that only AST needs their RNG aspects removed, but every other job is fine?

RNG is present in every single job in this game. Why do you only advocate that AST can't have RNG? WHM has Freecure procs, SCH has crit shields, all healers can RNG crit heal, all heals in the game heal for a RNG lowend-highend amount even! (have you not noticed that sometimes you don't heal for exactly the same amount every time you cast a cure or a regen ticks? You guessed it! R-N-G!) All DPS jobs have RNG crit damage. A lot of DPS jobs have RNG procs (looking at you BRD, MCH, and RDM where almost their whole toolkit is RNG in some fashion).

RNG is everywhere. It is a huge part of MMO's and video games of all kinds so at this point you are fighting against the normal order of this game and for some reason in your mind "only AST cannot have RNG", but every other job is fine? Huge hole in your reasoning if you think RNG doesn't belong. If other jobs are okay to have RNG in their toolkits then AST can too.


PS. I've never gambled in my life, but I still like AST because most of the time you end up getting favourable results anyway unlike real gambling where it seems to me people lose a lot of the time :x

[Sebazy]

The RNG is absolutely fine and in the best place it's ever been thanks to both the Balance nerf and Spear buff imo.

My only beef with AST is 'need' for 9 hotkeys specifically for cards alone now. That's just absurd and goes entirely against SE's stated aim with SB.

[Trunks]

The RNG is absolutely fine and in the best place it's ever been thanks to both the Balance nerf and Spear buff imo.

My only beef with AST is 'need' for 9 hotkeys specifically for cards alone now. That's just absurd and goes entirely against SE's stated aim with SB.

It's basically a necessity dictated by the mechanics, though. The only way to fix that is to reduce the number of cards you have access to (not going to happen, and shouldn't). I'd be interested if you have an idea for how it could be changed, because I've given it a considerable amount of thought and have come up empty.

[Teraluna]

It's basically a necessity dictated by the mechanics, though. The only way to fix that is to reduce the number of cards you have access to (not going to happen, and shouldn't). I'd be interested if you have an idea for how it could be changed, because I've given it a considerable amount of thought and have come up empty.

As a previous poster has already said, the current set up involves around 9 slots on the skill bar and goes directly against the skill bloat mentioned by Yoshi when he talked about the Stormblood changes.

This bloat is entirely a result of the introduce rng/mitigate rng of the pot luck card gimmick. For me it needs slimming down, and to do this, the removal of some cards completely.
As I have said, rng should not be there for cards. Your performance - with any class - should be based on skill, not I'll press a button and wait to see what skill pops up.

Slim down the cards to three, it's less of a problem then to keep these equally useful and desirable. It removes the skill bloat. No rng. Pick the one you want, which then has a longer cool down than the other two.
This gives you intentional abilities, allows the player to make known, pre-planned and structured decisions on when and where - and that is how it should be with any class.

[Jollyy5]

...

You've brought this up on other forum posts as well, and each time your arguments have been pretty much stomped to the ground, not sure why you bother trying anymore.

Not to mention they have nothing to do with what this post is originally about: Astrologian DPS.

[Miste]

Your performance - with any class - should be based on skill, not I'll press a button and wait to see what skill pops up.

Considering a lot of jobs in this game work the exact opposite of what you want and SB actually added MORE RNG type jobs (IE: BRD and RDM)...it is safe to say SE doesn't agree with your opinion that all jobs should not have any RNG elements to them.

I've seen you post the same stuff over and over and over in multiple threads for like a year straight and they still ignore you. Pretty sure they have clearly shown through game development choices that their answer to your idea of "no RNG in jobs" is "No".

Slim down the cards to three It removes the skill bloat. Pick the one you want, which then has a longer cool down than the other two.

This is severely boring. You are basically dumbing down the job to be so simplistic. It would be like if I advocated removing the SCH fairy because the fairy micro-management is too annoying and complicated for me to handle. I wouldn't do that because I know people who like SCH being a pet based healer and if SCH doesn't suit me then I have two other healers to play that don't have a fairy to micromanage.

Just so you know you are advocating removing Draw and separating it into 3 cards usable on cooldown...you know what else that removes?

Spread? Gone.

Redraw? Gone.

Sleeve Draw? Gone.

Three out of Six cards? Gone.

Royal Road? Gone.

Minor Arcana? Gone.

You are basically gutting the entire unique part of the job to make it specifically catered to you alone. How about...No.

People have already pointed out the problems with your arguments. It all boils down to personal preference being the problem not that AST needs to be changed. If AST doesn't suit your personal preference then you have two other healers to choose from. If none of them do then you play another role. If none of the jobs at all in this game suit your personal preference then you give your feedback and then move on to another game, because if none of them are fun for you to play then why are you still here with an active subscription posting the same complaints for over a year?

This gives you intentional abilities, allows the player to make known, pre-planned and structured decisions on when and where - and that is how it should be with any class.

Why do you think that takes skill to play? Even 2 year olds can memorize a continuous pattern that always loops back around and never changes. Red, blue, green, yellow, red, blue, green, yellow, red, blue, green, yellow, red, blue, green, yellow, red, blue, green, yellow. That take you a lot of skill or time to memorize that pattern?

No variation is stale and boring to most people...sort of like eating Vanilla ice cream every single day of your life when there are over 100 other flavours you could try once in awhile.

If "Vanilla only forever" really is what floats your boat then, while all jobs have some RNG, there are jobs in this game that don't have very much RNG that you can choose from and since healer seems to be the only thing you complain about two out of three of the healers barely have any RNG elements so go play WHM or SCH if you don't like the cards. Just like I don't like SCH because of the fairy mechanic. If I don't like the fairy mechanic then I go play WHM or AST which don't have a fairy. Simple. I have choices to cater to my personal preferences and so do you otherwise you wouldn't still be playing this game.

As for other jobs? Tanks barely have any RNG, and multiple DPS jobs barely have any IE: DRG, SMN, NIN, MNK SAM etc. So there are plenty to choose from that cater more towards your style. Leave alone the ones that are there to cater to other people who like the RNG style... and the obvious reason there are many different kinds of play styles for the jobs is because SE needs to cater to a wide variety of people and not just you.

I mean why do you continue to play this game if you feel this way about RNG? The entire game is based around RNG in some way; it's EVERYWHERE in FFXIV. Every single job has some RNG elements. You literally cannot get away from it. It's like going into the forest of your own volition and complaining there are too many trees. It makes zero sense; why did you go into the forest if you hate trees? If SE hasn't listened to you by now over a year of seeing you post the same complaints I am pretty sure you are wasting your time and it doesn't help that very few, if not no one else, seems to share your exact grievances.

If you don't like RNG then it baffles me to no end why you would choose to play a game that is completely soaked in RNG since launch. So again, you are fighting against the natural state of this game and since RNG is a massive presence and everywhere in a lot of aspects of this game do you REALLY think they are going to change it for you alone? It would take a huge overhaul of their entire game to remove all the RNG from every single aspect of the jobs in this game. You are completely wasting your time here.