Thread: 4.3 AST changes/speculations

I hope we get more out of crafting and gathering this time. : )

Originally Posted by Jxnibbles

The second point I agree as well. I remember hearing that a phase in UCoB removed held cards or something at a certain part, and it was harder on Astro to keep up with Hps? Make it easier on Astros but harder on another Healer for the next tier.

I didn't raid Ultimate so someone correct me if I'm mistaken regarding the next bit.

AST wasn't brought to Ultimate because there was a mandatory wipe mechanic at around the 15 minute mark when Bahamut goes Saiyan on you soon afterwards. This wipe mechanic also removed all buffs (including stored cards). The next phase afterwards is a short 3 minute window of DPS and heals check with minor mechanics. Thus you couldn't store cards for this part of the fight and had to fish for cards during a very small window of the fight.

Also I believe SCH mitigation tools lined up for the fight timelines as well, since you're dealing with Gigaflares / Exaflares in 60s intervals or something, making it hard to make use of CO from the AST kit to help mitigate damage.

Originally Posted by Jxnibbles

The final point I agree and disagree with. Yes Astro's mana is an issue but I honestly believe if they fix this Astro problem.. Whm identity again should be questioned..

I feel adjusting AST MP is going to be a touchy subject overall, but I feel it won't be as bad as it would be in the 3.X era with the super buffed LA since WHM's current iteration has more instant burst oGCDs than AST.

I guess time will tell. Like I said, healer balance is there but it's standing on a knife's edge. Any shift in any direction and the whole balance would can go totally out of whack.

Originally Posted by Yuyuka3

The only healer that needs any buffs at all is WHM... as it stands, we can't hold a candle to what the other two healers bring to the table, and I'm SICK of getting asked to switch to AST because it's better. And don't even start with "oh, best heals!". We all know that argument is bulls.

How about some nerfs for AST instead? Now THAT's something I would love to see... though it will, if any of the two, be buffs because SE are just awful with stuff like that.

So long as people value utility over raw throughput, nothing will change. White Mage is a significantly better healer and DPS than Astro but Balance > Everything. That being said, a lot of high end groups still prefer White Mage.

I personally feel like all 3 healers are generally quite balanced at this point in time, more so than they've ever been.

Astrologian just needs some QoL stuff like better mp efficiency (seriously, aspected benefic is horrific in terms of mp efficiency compared to similar abilities), and a Ruin2-like ability to make using their million off globals feel less janky. Ewer/Spire could be combined into a single card for all I care, if that's what it takes to even further reduce the chance of getting cards that are complete ass.

MP sustainability needs to be reviewed for the job. Celestial Opposition now must be used with Lucid Dreaming as a mandatory follow-up. This wasn't mandatory in HW, and CO could be better saved for specific AoE Balance situations. AST now has the worst MP economy among the healers with the other healers receiving major buffs to theirs (Assize on 60s, Aetherflow on 45s). AST is also incredibly discouraged from using Ewer, a glaring problem with the current card system, which I feel is very flawed.

In addition, AST also needs Stella back as an instant cast GCD (preferably 150 potency) for their insane clipping problem. No other job in the game clips as badly as AST does.

I'm just really worried about what this could do to healer balance. I think we can all agree balance has been better than ever for this role, and despite AST not being exactly a popular choice in Savage, it's not because they need buffs or are too weak at all, and I really hope they don't superbuff them again just to get people playing the job again.

Well, at most I could see them making Earthly Star easier to use. I really hope they don't buff their personal DPS. It's all WHM has going for them as far as uniqueness goes...

A repeat of 3.3 (or was it 3.4?) is what I'm scared of as well. It doesn't need bigger numbers, it needs QoL. The loss of aero and the merging of combust/combust2, along with adding even more off globals, makes it feel really bad to play despite it still being a strong job.

This is exactly what I feared when I first saw the skill list back at HW launch. It is near impossible to make a hybrid of 2 existing classes and keep it balanced.