Astrologian 5.0 Discussion

[Cidel]

Having finally completed the MSQ and the 2 extra dungeons (haven't tried EX primals yet), I don't entirely dislike the direction they've taken AST in, but as many have voiced, it needs a bit of fixing (Play not "queuing" correctly, delay in Divination registering "in battle-" or just let us set-up Divination seals anytime, etc.) and adjustments to ability timers (waiting for Divination, which is pretty much the whole 'goal' of playing the new system when a lot of the time most ASTs will have a new set of seals ready in half the recast).

Healing is going to be harder from here on out it seems. No more throwing hots on the tank and playing dps for prolonged durations. You will NEED to use nearly every aspect of your kit in these large pull situations. The same could be said before with new content and possibly under geared tanks, but with your nerfed hots it's all the more difficult.

-And I actually enjoy this new "challenge." The 1st time a tank did a big pull on me in the 1st dungeon, I literally had to use my whole kit to keep them alive, even slapping-on the now underwhelming Celestial Opposition's regen; it felt good. Might just be a symptom of the early expansion undergearing, but I like being preoccupied using more of my healing kit- and the card system still gives me something else to juggle- even if it's not as involved and diverse/rewarding as it used to be. Will see if that changes once I've dipped my feet in the EX primals; the Normal Trials weren't too taxing. Will be leveling WHM to 80 next and I'll see how that compares.

[Cyrocco]

no ones saying its horrible. the cards and their buffs dont feel rewarding and the cooldown for Divination is way too long.

You can;t deny that no ones winning a fight bc you buffed the party 6% for 15 seconds every three minutes. The buff is pretty pointless and it's the only mechanic we have now. It's all we're supposed to be striving for.

We have...a lot of people saying they're quitting the role because of the direction AST has been taken in...I think it's fair to say they believe the job is horrible.

Realistically, the same could be said for AST before the card changes, it was by no means a mandatory role, as no healer should be. No one has ever one fights because of AST. The best we've seen is slightly faster clears, and in the big picture, that's the only thing we've slightly lost. And at the very least we now have something AST is ultimately supposed to strive for with their cards, instead of each cast being independent, I'd personally like to see how SE can enhance this current system with an ultimate goal, rather than the old one.

[Seraphor]

My opinion on AST has yo-yo’ed quite a bit so far.
At first, the card changes shocked me, then I kinda came to terms with why they were changed and how they would work.
Then, trying it out for myself… I didn’t like it. It felt weak, and the card system felt like a lot of work for no noticeable difference.
But, that was in isolation. In context of the other healers, and the overall change to healer philosophy, I’m warming to it again. Healing in general is getting a bit more difficult, or requires more focus and better timing, and the cards… still seems overly elaborate for one type of buff, but it’s starting to feel rewarding when I get a full Divination out, which is after all basically the same as an Expanded Balance before. Every other individual card though? Still feels pointless, just a means to an end.

[Chortle]

-And I actually enjoy this new "challenge." The 1st time a tank did a big pull on me in the 1st dungeon, I literally had to use my whole kit to keep them alive, even slapping-on the now underwhelming Celestial Opposition's regen; it felt good. Might just be a symptom of the early expansion undergearing, but I like being preoccupied using more of my healing kit- and the card system still gives me something else to juggle- even if it's not as involved and diverse/rewarding as it used to be. Will see if that changes once I've dipped my feet in the EX primals; the Normal Trials weren't too taxing. Will be leveling WHM to 80 next and I'll see how that compares.

100% agree! The increased healing requirement is something I think was needed. I think the harder they make content for healers, the more rewarding it will be to play as one.

[Truck]

So I guess I didn't really give the new astrologian much of a chance after hearing all the negative feedback but I decided to pick it up yesterday and see just how bad it was.

Learning a new card system while having eager bandwagon tanks wall2wall pulling made it to where I couldn't even draw a card without letting the tank die in some instances.

That being said once I got the hang of it wasnt that bad. Astro always had slightly weaker heals since it had flexibity of Shield/Regen and cards old bole and ewer a good safety net that could make up for that.

Needs a few tweaks

[IanFrench]

So I guess I didn't really give the new astrologian much of a chance after hearing all the negative feedback but I decided to pick it up yesterday and see just how bad it was.

Learning a new card system while having eager bandwagon tanks wall2wall pulling made it to where I couldn't even draw a card without letting the tank die in some instances.

That being said once I got the hang of it wasnt that bad. Astro always had slightly weaker heals since it had flexibity of Shield/Regen and cards old bole and ewer a good safety net that could make up for that.

Needs a few tweaks

Believing AST having slightly weaker heals is "fair" is a bias and proved wrong, because the Diurnal and Nocturnal is not switchable during battles, which means AST can only play either hot OR shield healer at a time with weaker spells and additional card system to distract them from healing.

The card can buff dps which is fair to give AST weaker offensive spells (probably too weak at 6.0), but weaker healing spells are not fair for me.

[Cyrocco]

Believing AST having slightly weaker heals is "fair" is a bias and proved wrong, because the Diurnal and Nocturnal is not switchable during battles, which means AST can only play either hot OR shield healer at a time with weaker spells and additional card system to distract them from healing.

The card can buff dps which is fair to give AST weaker offensive spells (probably too weak at 6.0), but weaker healing spells are not fair for me.

Except for the 20 seconds in which I can play in both sects, which has shields stackable with SCH and Celestial Intersection letting me cast a Regen from Nocturnal or a Shield from Diurnal.

EDIT: Also the MP value on Aspected Benefic doesn't change when you're in Neutral Sect, letting you cast 500MP shields from Diurnal, which is oh so nice with the MP issues.

[GU7]

AST sucks now, the removals of ALL OTHER buffs wasn't needed. Just attack speed, DPS, and defense boost was needed... people were just pissy about the TP regen card which benefit basically no one. Divination is useless as it only last 15 seconds, for an ability that has a cool down of 180 seconds! not including card drawing times, Aspected Helios & Aspected Benefic both have their effectiveness buffed, but their time active has been reduced. Sure that isn't so bad, but we would be burning twice the amount of mana now, micromanaging our abilities more as well. Before in lvl 70 dungeons I'd go though without using my whole mana bar, now? I have to cast Lucid every 2 mins, just because my other heals are not up to snuff. Like SERIOUSLY the only class that benefited from this, was White Mage, its pissing me off!

[IanFrench]

Except for the 20 seconds in which I can play in both sects, which has shields stackable with SCH and Celestial Intersection letting me cast a Regen from Nocturnal or a Shield from Diurnal.

EDIT: Also the MP value on Aspected Benefic doesn't change when you're in Neutral Sect, letting you cast 500MP shields from Diurnal, which is oh so nice with the MP issues.

First, Noctural set has specifically made it clear that Aspected benefic will incur additional mana cost rather than just 500mp as in Diurnal, please read the job guide properly.

Second, (edited)

[kyuxel]

I wish celestial opposition give opposite to our sect. No reason to have 2 same aoe heal when we have aspected helios.