The Great Astrologian Divide

[Halik]

So, I would like to go over my thoughts on the 5.05 patch changes first, but you can skip to the large letters in the next post to get to what I'd like to discuss.

The Sleeve Draw is the big change. I actually enjoyed playing Astrologian more when I was synced below the level of Sleeve Draw because of how horrendous it felt to use. It definitely feels good now without losing the functionality. I also personally like how it doesn't just line up with Divination now so you don't just trivialize the seals every time.

Divination being only 2 minutes also helps a lot with having us actually engage with the seal system instead of literally getting all of our seals in the first 15 seconds (with Sleeve Draw) and then sitting around for 3 minutes turning every card into a Crown, because having to use an extra oGCD for every card draw because the seal system doesn't matter 80% of the time was fun. :|

Reducing the cast time on everything to give us time to draw and play all of the cards during every GCD without losing cast time is very nice as well, even more than I thought it would be before I could try it.

Celestial Opposition was the last ability that, every time I used it, made me wonder why I even bothered using it. I ended up pretty much ignoring it. Actually feels good to use now.

But... Potency and performance were never really that big of a deal for me as a healer if I'm being perfectly honest. As long as I could still do it, I wasn't very worried and even liked the challenge and potency is the easier thing for them to change. As long as Astrologian can preform well enough to function, I'm cool with being an underdog.

The cards are ultimately what drew me to the class and how they function is the make or break for enjoyment. To be clear, from a mechanical standpoint, I actually like the new card system.

The other change to Divination is the epitome of why their new card direction bothers me, and where this divide in Astrologians is coming from:

"Damage increase effect changed from 2%/4%/6% to 4%/5%/6%."

Because Divination is only a 2 minute CD now instead of 3 minutes, it means you have less time to get the seals, especially when Sleeve Draw no longer lines up perfectly with it CD-wise.

I don't think it's too hard to infer with this change, along with why they changed all cards to just give the same damage buff, that they are very afraid of letting the Astrologian have any kind of bad card RNG. If you can't draw bad cards, why even have cards? Why not just have abilities to use for buffs? Heck, if I completely ignore the seals I draw and just spam cards out, I lose at max, 2% damage to the raid during the 15 second buff. Although if you look at the odds you're actually more likely to only lose 1% from spamming cards randomly.

1% for 15 seconds. :( I'm not saying it doesn't add up, but am I really suppose to feel good about spending the energy on getting those seals when that's the reward?