Thread: 4.3 AST changes/speculations

I do not expect, but would like to see:

(Overbuff in this form, and is not representative of the actual strength desired, but is representative of the direction of change desired.)

Background Changes:

• Macros now allow queuing of the first action in their sequence. This is primarily a QoL change to any skills which are best set to be used against a specific target or one other than the current target.
  
  
• Sprint, Duty Action, and item usage may now be queued.
  
  
• Ground AoEs will now properly limit their indicator to their maximum range and will click through enemies (unless set to target @cursor, in which case they will be deposited beneath the enemy clicked on, or @target, in which case they will continue to skip the indicator process altogether).
  
  
• Primary stat materia removed. Fending accessories now have equal portions Strength and Vitality (two-thirds each of the primary stats found on other accessories). Now gain .67 AP per point of Strength, and .33 AP per point of Vitality.
  
  
• When in instances where cooldowns reset upon death, skills such as Aetherflow, Draw, Spread, and Shuffle are all reduced to a 5-second cooldown until having begun combat.
  
  
• The way buffs and debuffs are replaced or stacked has been revised.

  Whenever a durationed buff or debuff is replaced early, the square root of the previous duration is added to the replacement. (This includes shields. See below.)
  
  Shields cast upon an existent shield which it cannot outright replace will refresh missing absorption HP and extend the shield's duration based on the square root of the normal duration multiplied by the second's portion of the first's strength. When a shield replaces an already existent shield, the weaker previous shield is consumed to bring the shield to its maximum nominal potency (e.g. the +5% of +/-5%) and the duration is increased by the square root of the remaining duration multiplied by the first's portion of the second's strength.
  (Sounds complicated, but it's just the stronger absorbing duration from the lesser, so that you can never be locked out of extending your shields.)
  
  When two similarly named effects of varying strength or remaining duration interact (i.e. when a 30s 20% Balance meets a 10% Balance with 45 seconds less), the stronger will absorb the duration of the weaker at the square root of the weaker's duration multiplied by the weaker's portion of the stronger's strength.

For AST specifically:

• Multiple cards can now be present on any given ally at the same time. (Note that unless an AST gets maximized AoE Balance cards all day every day, SCH is still actually the king of total (raid + personal) DPS, so this is less a buff to double AST as it is to Extended forms of cards.) Multiple instances of the same card buff (i.e. two Balance buffs) still cannot coexist, however.
  
  
• Royal Road: Enhance now generates 200% effect.

  The purpose of Extend is now less to be more efficient than Enhance as it is to allow for double cards on the target over a more important period some 30 seconds future.

• Royal Road: Expand revised. Now uses 150% of the card's strength split over the square root of total members, rounded to the nearest percent. No effect to Full Party performance, but a small buff when in smaller groups, to decrease the rDPS gap that would otherwise be felt between pDPS and rDPS contributions when there are fewer people to buff.

  (100% @ 2 members; 87% @3; 75% @4; 67% @5; 61% @6; 57% @7; 53% @8, equating to a Balance of 10%, 9%, 8%, 7%, 6%, 6%, 5%.)

• Royal Road now allows you to select which card to affect, your Draw or your Spread. It can also be macroed to automatically target either via "/ac Royal Road <Draw>" or "/ac Royal road <Spread>".
  
  
• Ewer/Spire combined.
  
  
• Spear buffed to 20%, putting in more on par with Balance and Arrow.

  (.2 * .4 = 8% damage increase to those at low personal Crit. Value increases towards a 10% damage increase when stacked with Chain Stratagem in Crit-heavy and/or Crit-dependent compositions.)

• Balance now affects main stat, instead of Damage, making it more useful in progression.
  
  
• Bole buffed to be more useful on non-tanks. (Exact change pending.)
  
  
• Any time you increase the duration of a buff, you also increase any missing potency (e.g. from a Nocturnal Field) proportionate to that increase in duration relative to the original duration (e.g. 15 seconds increase via Time Dilation would replenish absorption HP missing from a Nocturnal Field up to 50% of the original effect, and Collective Unconscious would refresh up to a sixth thereof), to a maximum of the original effect. Affects both Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition.
  
  
• Collective Unconscious no longer provides a HoT, but in either Sect will now very rapidly heal (instantly and at 1 tick per second thereafter, scaling with Attack Speed) for 200 potency to allies nearby with any overhealing turning into a self-stacking form of shield, stacking atop any existent Nocturnal Field effects, to a maximum shield strength of 500 potency. Each tick affects allies with The Sublime, causing following ticks to generate 25% less healing. (Thus, it has a maximum strength of 500 potency.) Provides a 10% healing taken increase and 10% damage taken decrease. Maximum duration reduced to 10 seconds. Cooldown increased to 2 minutes. May again turn while casting; only movement, not turning, will break the channel.

  This makes it more useful for surviving burst damage as faced in progression, but less powerful in overgeared fights of less consequential damage, as it takes at least 3 seconds (scaling with Attack Speed) to put out its full impact.

Personal preference:

• Sect potency bonuses removed, moved into raw potency. Nocturnal no longer stronger in its basic heals than Diurnal. Diurnal regen duration decreased by a tick. Can now swap between Sects at mana cost once per 10 seconds while in combat, down from per 5 seconds outside of combat.
  
• Mana costs decreased and Time Dilation can now be used on self, but Lucid Dreaming can no longer be extended by TD or CO.