Add Time Mage Already Or Astrologian Rewind JA|MA Or LB

[Ruf]

I did say that it could do something else in dungeons & trials | raids (as far as demi go), I never said to cut notorious monsters (bosses healths by half) I am talking about regular targets.

P.s: + I never said that i would like Astrologian to get demi, I dont want Astrologian to get demi althought it would be cool, I want REWIND to get added to the game & yes it would change the game dynamic by a lot & it would be the intention (intentional).

[Bahati]

I think OPs ideas are cool but in my opinion AST is already dominating the "time mage" aesthetic. If anything, more time mage related abilities may be added to the AST toolkit in later expansions.

[MartaDemireux]

AST is most definitely all the Time Mage we'll ever get. Fun fact: In the FF series, Time Magic is synonymous with Space Magic and in some instances is even called Time & Space Magic in Japan (Source).

AST's Time & Space magic is as follows according to various dev lore posts, lorebooks, etc.:

Gravity: Uses Space & Time to amplify the effect of gravity, crushing targets (with more damage being dealt to the target at the center of the distortion).
Combust: Uses Space & Time to create a theoretical sun, the proximity to the heat is what's causing DoT.
Celestial Opposition: Uses Space to alter fates, interacting with Time to halt it (resulting in stun on enemies and buffs lasting longer).
Time Dilation: Uses Time to draw out the duration of buffs.
Earthly Star: Uses Space to bring down a (likely theoretical) star that, when it explodes, shows the bodies of the Bole (defense), Ewer (life giving) and Balance (destruction) to directly impact the star's effect.
Lightspeed: Uses Time to compress your own speed, resulting in faster actions at half the cost.

Their Limit Break is Rewind in all but name as it is used to "change the course of history to your favor."

The other abilities (sects, aspected, Essential Dignity, Ascend, all card actions, Synastry, Collective Unconscious) all deal with the astrological side of AST (as opposed to the astronomical).

These thee fit somewhere in the middle of astrological and astronomical:

Malefic: Uses Space to attune the AST's unaspected aether to the malefic(ent) bodies to create a malevolent outcome.
Benefic: Uses Space to attune the AST's unaspected aether to the benefic(ent) bodies to create a beneficial outcome.
Helios: See Benefic, using yourself as the center of a theoretical solar system.

In physics, spacetime pertains to any interwoven space and time mathematical calculation. Time Mage has always done this (and sometimes more, a la Quake) in the series, and AST continues that tradition.

To take a look at previous Time Magic spells in use on AST:

Regen: Diurnal aspect spells.
Gravity: Gravity
Quick: Lightspeed (also Swiftcast)
Return/Rewind/Undo: LB3
Speed: Spire/Ewer
Stop: Celestial Opposition
Disable: Disable (PVP)
Balance: Essential Dignity (same thing but repurposed as a heal). Also Balance card. Also Minor Arcana mechanic.
Immobilize: Present on yourself with Collective Unconscious, otherwise present in Stella (Removed)
Reflect: Present in Synastry, "reflecting" (in a sense) some HP healed on other players to the buffed player.

Other abilities: Teleport/Warp=Rescue/Teleport/Return, Break=Break, Comet=Caster LB, Meteor=BLM LB3, Vanish=Hide, Float=Mechanic, Berserk=WAR schtick, Hastega=Fey Wind, Quake Line=Stone Line, Quarter/Demi=enemy moves (would either be entirely over powered (usable on bosses/AoE spell on mob pack) or completely useless (unusable on bosses/single target spell in a mob pack) as a player ability).

So as you can see, Time Mage has a massive presence on AST and the rest has been deconstructed to many other jobs, enemies and mechanics. There's very little left of the Time Mage toolkit and what is left will undoubtedly go to AST. Speed related abilities (Slow Haste), Veil/Vanish (as enmity perhaps), and Reflect (a form of Vengeance using Divine Benison HP determination) could easily make their way into the toolkit while fitting AST's Time & Space theme.

[Seraphor]

I do think Gravity could more closely resemble the classic spells.
It wouldn't need to reduce hp by half, just scale with hp, inversely to Essential Dignity.
Like, base 100 potency +20 for each 10% hp target has, to a maximum of 300 potency when target is at full hp.

This would make it different from all the other aoe abilities, instead of returns diminishing with more targets, it would diminish with repetition, meaning after so many uses it's effectiveness would plummet. As a healer, this is fitting, some burst aoe damage at the start of a pull, then the for can finish it off and you can heal.

[Grimoire-M]

An actual Undo cooldown would be great to have to be honest. Set it once on a target to memorize their HP and put a buff on them. Hit it again to set their target's HP to that value. Limit it by the buff's duration (10-15s), and give it a large cooldown. It would be their equivalent of Benediction but be a little slower. Only WAR would really break it and that could be accounted for.

The only reason I don't want it that badly is Essential Dignity is already really good and AST needs their issues resolved first, not more tools that infringe on WHM's few remaining niches.

[Seraphor]

An actual Undo cooldown would be great to have to be honest. Set it once on a target to memorize their HP and put a buff on them. Hit it again to set their target's HP to that value. Limit it by the buff's duration (10-15s), and give it a large cooldown. It would be their equivalent of Benediction but be a little slower. Only WAR would really break it and that could be accounted for.

The only reason I don't want it that badly is Essential Dignity is already really good and AST needs their issues resolved first, not more tools that infringe on WHM's few remaining niches.

This sounds cool, but would it replace ED or Synastry?
Your Dancer build you posted in the other topic includes a Synastry equivalent, so maybe it should replace that.

[Grimoire-M]

This sounds cool, but would it replace ED or Synastry?
Your Dancer build you posted in the other topic includes a Synastry equivalent, so maybe it should replace that.

Synastry could be replaced for sure. AST does get mileage out of it but it's too a niche skill at the moment and doesn't actually fit with the rest of their kit. I would probably increase the cooldown on Essential Dignity and/or give Undo a longer cooldown (4 minutes) and have Essential Dignity lower it when used. Adjusting ED's cooldown would have the side effect of affecting Lightspeed as well but that could be solved by improving how much it lowers Lightspeed per use to compensate.