Thread: Level-headed review of 5.0 AST

Originally Posted by LeftHandedLion

As for healers in general, it's also obvious now that all you bring is healing/mitigation and a little bit of DPS. Full stop. This adjustment was completely necessary — specifically for the future of the healer role.

lItTlE bIt oF dPs

Meanwhile back in Eden Normal....

<looks back and forth nervously> Okay, I'm a lurker and haven't posted before, but—

I think what bothers me about the new cards is that they feel like a DPS mechanic. I don't mean that their function is to boost damage done; I mean they feel like the sort of playstyle you'd see on a DPS class.

For healers in FFXIV and many other MMORPGs, gameplay focuses on things like resource management and situational decision-making. You have to choose the right ability for the right circumstances. Often, there are enough variables that decisions have to be made via fuzzy rather than deductive thinking, so healing is famously called an art rather than a science. DPS gameplay, meanwhile, focuses on "rotation"—that is, interaction between abilities. Since this is less situationally-dependent, it's more predictable, and DPS is called a science, not an art.

I like healing in MMORPGs largely because of this difference—I'd rather make decisions intuitively rather than deductively.

The pre-5.0 cards let me do that. When I drew a card, I had eight choices: give it to one of four players, or use royal road, minor arcana, spread, or redraw/discard. And what I did varied based on my situation. Normally, I'd put an extra balance in the spread and save it for a boss fight. But if I was, say, doing Ser Charibert with an incompetent group, I'd rather have a ewer in the spread. My favorite card was the Arrow: Not only did it require me to know how other classes worked, so I didn't give it to someone who didn't want it, but I could also use it to boost either damage (by giving it to a DPS) or healing (by giving it to myself).

But the Shadowbringers cards feel like a DPS mechanic. Their function is much simpler—to boost damage done by players in the party—so there's no need to choose the right ability for the right situation. Instead, the challenge is to execute the abilities quickly, and in the right order, so as to produce the maximal damage boost. Where Stormblood had card abilities, Shadowbringers has a card rotation.

Honestly, I think it's impossible to change this situation within the current card system. There's a reason why DPS classes focus on ability interaction rather than situational decision-making—it's because there are only two possible situations for a DPSer:

1. Do as much damage to this thing as possible.
2. Do as much damage to all these things as possible.

Since this is supposed to be the "level-headed" thread, I guess I should say that none of this means the new cards are objectively worse in any way. People who like planning and deductive decision-making, but still enjoy healing, may like the new cards better. But for me, the new system lacks what drew me to healing in the first place. If they were determined to make all the cards +damage only, I'd have honestly preferred that they make the card system much simpler and increase complexity elsewhere in the job, rather than create this convoluted seven-button system whose only function is a simple damage boost.

On the other hand, WHM and SCH still feel very healer-y to me, so maybe it's good to have one that works differently. I just don't think I could main it myself.

Originally Posted by Seraphor

I still find AST fun.

I don't play it at 80 though, because it needs several potency/duration adjustments to make it viable. Which I'm expecting on tuesday.

Same with NIN.

So you can't say "people arent playing it therefore it's not fun."

In terms of representation on Everyone’s Favorite Website to Hate, AST is noticeably behind the other two healers. And I mean by a very significant margin. As is NIN, too, actually. MNK almost has as much representation as NIN.

Over the last two weeks for the healers:

WHM: 187,342
SCH: 139,044
AST: 58,734

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Originally Posted by Seraphor

Which indicates a balancing issue, precisely what patch 5.05 is meant to address.

It can also represent that players aren’t satisfied with the changes. There have been a fair share of complaints regarding not only the cards, but also the changes with regards to the removal of Time Mage-esque abilities, and to abilities like CU and the way Horoscope functions (i.e., a more clunky PI). Just because you’re satisfied doesn’t mean everyone is, and you cannot ignore the complaints AST has had lately with regard to everything—not just potencies.

Originally Posted by Seraphor

Which indicates a balancing issue, precisely what patch 5.05 is meant to address.

Simple potency fixes don't fix core job mechanics issues.