Thread: 5.0 AST is a failure

Originally Posted by Daralii

I'm half expecting them to add a big potency bonus to Nocturnal like they did in 3.05. I think it was 150% extra healing, and Synastry also had some hefty bonus attached.

The big buffs to noct astro came in slow but then it got big in patch 3.4. Patch 3.07 was just the aspected benefic shield going 100% to 130 and aspected helios potency from 140 to 150. Patch 3.3 had aspected helios shield pot from 100 to 120%. 3.4 was the noct healing bonus from 5 to 10 percent healing, aspected benefic from 130 to 170 percent (which made it a more mp efficient tool over benefic 2) and aspected helios from shield pot from 120 to 150 percent. (Still didn't even come close to due the card buff to balance back then.)

But ya, it was actually the changes to noct astro that made me lose faith in their healing balance. Something not working, oh let's just make the numbers bigger instead of changing the gameplay.

While I will make the admissions that my AST is only 76 so I haven't got to play with it in 80 content. I dont think AST is dead. I agree that its currently the worst performing healer at the moment but outside of a certain situation I'll elaborate on I think AST is mechanically satisfying to play. Output wise, no it is weaker and I wont argue that.

The cards are the most controversial aspect so I'll start with that. I think they're mostly fine, SE seemed to choose consistency for the sake of balance over versatility and nuance. I'm ok with it myself but I understand and even miss the versatility of the old system. My issue with the system is Divination and Sleeve Draw. When you're simply cycling the cards between your Malefic and Benefic casts and slowly building up the seals for Divination between the cooldown windows it feels smooth. However, between Divination itself feeling too weak for the payoff and the fact you'll inevitably use Sleeve Draw along side it, whether to hastily set it up in an opener or to generate a bunch of Lords or Ladies to stack with it, It turns into clunky busy work. I believe if they can smooth out this particular part of the cycle, while increasing the payoff from Divination, then the system will be more satisfying to use.

There have been a few suggestions on how to address it, my personal favorites are Sleeve Draw automatically drawing the next card after you play it and Minor Arcana doing both the conversion and playing the card at the same time. I believe that would allow for the rushed feeling without the massive ogcd clutter. However I'm no game dev so I cant confidently say what would work best.

As far as the actual healing output goes, I agree it feels too weak, but ED feels great as always, same as Earthly Star when used properly. I'm also very fond of Intersection myself but I can see it needing a small buff. Horoscope I'm actually quite fond of, I do agree it can feel clunky and inefficient to setup but I have found it nice to have when I unlocked it. The elephant in the room to me is Collective and Opposition myself. These skills are what feel to weak to use in my opinion. Opposition either needs a significant potency buff or a cooldown reduction. But Collective definitely needs a buff to the regen, especially since Sacred Soil is superior to it in every single way.

It's sad the devs won't say anything about the healer changes for these awful decisions they made for healers. Sadly we need to wait for 5.05 to hear about their next amazing changes, and if I had to guess it's just potency buffs for a few things because they think they did a amazing job.

Sadly even with that Ast is still dead to me. I hate how it plays now. I hate the cards, and I hate what the devs have done.

Originally Posted by Almostward

It's sad the devs won't say anything about the healer changes for these awful decisions they made for healers. Sadly we need to wait for 5.05 to hear about their next amazing changes, and if I had to guess it's just potency buffs for a few things because they think they did a amazing job.

Sadly even with that Ast is still dead to me. I hate how it plays now. I hate the cards, and I hate what the devs have done.

It will be on 29th.Jul, so just 3 days from now. Patch notes may even be earlier.

Then I will know if I could dump my AST for good.

It’s strange, the cards now just seem like busy work and they don’t seem to do anything much, healing the 70+ dungeons just feels really tough and and healing spells don’t seem to feel very powerful at all - even earthly star doesn’t seem to feel like it has much impact. There also doesn’t seem to be an “oh shit” button like scholar or white mage.

Then I try whm and it’s day and night and wonder if there’s any point playing AST.

So like, perhaps I'm not the person to say this, but playing Ast feels bad man. As a SCH main, I've always looked side-eyed at the competition. It's the first 80 I got. ATM, I'm leveling my trust buddies so I picked WHM, AST, RDM, and BRD to help out. I'm basically leveling WHM and AST together, and after leveling SCH, I really can say AST feels so WEAK. I don't mind the card change too much (though divination has a stupid long CD) but everything else is funky. Especially the DPS spells. What's the point of gravitation? Can I haz 'chuck wet noodles at target' spell? I'm sure it would do more damage. I've been running in noct sect and the shields are shitty. The heals feel weak. I didn't want to jump onto the 'ast sucks' train but jfc man. I feel for you all. You need buffs like right now. There's absolutely no comparison to WHM. It's so ridiculous leveling the two at the same time. AST feels SO much weaker in every way. There needs to be a 'save the wild ast's' fund to help this endangered and beleaguered job. =x

Yeah, part of their nerf was removing the healing boost that sects gave. So AST was 15% down in healing potency right out of the gate.