New AST from a New Player

[LunarShadow67]

But cause of this, ast becomed unplayable in any other content of the game. In some msq on lvl 70 i cant even complete with it cause simply dont have the dmg to finish it and dont have the utilitys to defend yourself. So yes, i trust you it is very good in raids cause "MROWL NUKE DMG BUFFER" but please peoples... raid is very very little part of Final Fantasy.
Back to the dungeoning theme: there is players who just started ast and dont have lvl 80 instantly with the endgame gear. Yes, other in the group dont have too. And you must be able to heal out the tank AND the others what is in many situation is nearly impossible. And if the players for example not that professionals as me, made mistakes or just new for that dungeon. And its cause ast was nerfed to ground comletly.
Even the developer accept or not, this is the fact.

So, I have not reach this part of you saying the job is basically unplayable and have not heard this from anyone else..... Also, raiding is a part of an MMO....regardless if this is FF or not.

This is me, as a newer player and not playing the old Astro....The way the healing jobs are designed now seems to focus mainly on healing and throwing out a few dps abilities here and there. I do not follow your logic when it comes to being new to a dungeon and not being able to run through it quickly? If a healer is new and doesnt know what mobs do what, or what boss does what...and there is a wipe....that is part of the learning curve. Are you saying you want the content to be really easy? Or the job to be really easy?

I am only asking because, as I have reached stormblood the difficulty of the game increased significantly. The first dungeon alone in Stormblood gave me a run for my money, as both Astrologian and Scholar. Which after running it a few times with both, I understood the mobs, their abilities, when to use my abilities, how hard they hit, and the boss mechanics to better prepare. After that, it was far easier to keep the group up and going.

Does it need some tweaking, yeah every class probably needs tweaking, but its not unplayable. I am very confused by this statement.

[Billythepancake]

This is wild. "If you remember the number of Roles, we have 3 Tanks, 3 Healers and 10 DPS. So naturally, we bolstered DPS because numbers." Their mind...

How did you all deal with years of this? lol

Honestly, man, after seeing what they did to SCH/AST in the name of "balance", I'm glad there isn't a 4th healer, because they would've made that one just as boring as well. They can't make 3 healers fun and unique, I'd hate to see what they do to a 4th one.

[Amaterasu_]

Part of me hopes that in two years ShB healers will just be a nasty memory and AST and SCH will have their identities back

In two years? Not sooner?
This makes me feel bad about myself since I literally left my AST in the dust.

[Mesarthim]

In two years? Not sooner?
This makes me feel bad about myself since I literally left my AST in the dust.

They never do anything drastic until a new expansion drops. At best they might give a skill back or change potencies until then.

[Hatstand]

They never do anything drastic until a new expansion drops. At best they might give a skill back or change potencies until then.

Not for healers, anyway.

https://nordic.ign.com/final-fantasy...or-inspiration

"Some people have shown their dislike of some classes, like the Ninja and Astroligian, are you looking into fixing that, and how?

"We talked about this a bit in the last letter from the producers. In the latest patch we changed some stuff for the Astroligian and we noticed that we restored the balance a bit. Still we see some feedback from players that want the same effects for the cards as we had before, but the dev team doesn’t have the intention to bring the old system back. We can’t make everyone happy. If we change back the system, a different part of the community will get mad. Some people loved the old system, and some people love the new system. You can’t please everyone.

"In regards to Ninja. We get a lot of feedback from the community that the class feels clunky now since spells don't line up nicely with Global Cooldowns, and the DPS-spec isn’t as strong as other classes, so we get the frustration. It is a challenge for the development team, but we are aware of the situation. For the next patch we will make some changes for the solo DPS Ninja, like number values. Since the job got released we have actually not changed it, so for patch 5.1 we are planning a big class overhaul. It will feel like the Ninja will be born into a new class. So for people that are waiting for changes, big changes and smaller ones like number values are coming!"

Emphasis mine

[HyoMinPark]

Not for healers, anyway.

https://nordic.ign.com/final-fantasy...or-inspiration

"Some people have shown their dislike of some classes, like the Ninja and Astroligian, are you looking into fixing that, and how?

"We talked about this a bit in the last letter from the producers. In the latest patch we changed some stuff for the Astroligian and we noticed that we restored the balance a bit. Still we see some feedback from players that want the same effects for the cards as we had before, but the dev team doesn’t have the intention to bring the old system back. We can’t make everyone happy. If we change back the system, a different part of the community will get mad. Some people loved the old system, and some people love the new system. You can’t please everyone.

"In regards to Ninja. We get a lot of feedback from the community that the class feels clunky now since spells don't line up nicely with Global Cooldowns, and the DPS-spec isn’t as strong as other classes, so we get the frustration. It is a challenge for the development team, but we are aware of the situation. For the next patch we will make some changes for the solo DPS Ninja, like number values. Since the job got released we have actually not changed it, so for patch 5.1 we are planning a big class overhaul. It will feel like the Ninja will be born into a new class. So for people that are waiting for changes, big changes and smaller ones like number values are coming!"

Emphasis mine

Generally, the developer don’t make huge overhauls to any job in the middle of an expansion; they save those for expansion releases. The largest changes they make tend to be things like WAR’s Inner Release change during Stormblood, in which they changed how the skill inherently functioned (same with Shake it Off). The changes they are discussing for NIN—where they’re talking about a major overhaul that will make it feel like a different job—are actually unprecedented in the history of this game.

[Hatstand]

Generally, the developer don’t make huge overhauls to any job in the middle of an expansion; they save those for expansion releases. The largest changes they make tend to be things like WAR’s Inner Release change during Stormblood, in which they changed how the skill inherently functioned (same with Shake it Off). The changes they are discussing for NIN—where they’re talking about a major overhaul that will make it feel like a different job—are actually unprecedented in the history of this game.

I think it's a very good thing that they're doing this. There's only so much playtesting that SE can do on new classes before release (and based on the fact that almost half of the jobs seemed to have major complaints (SCH, AST, MNK, SNM, NIN, BRD, SAM, DRK) they could clearly do with more playtesting). 2 years is a long time for a class to feel bad to play, and being open to making changes as the playerbase demands them (although I wish they'd get a better mechanism for player feedback than whatever distortion gave them the idea that every card except balance was worthless and SCHs were dpsing too much) is a good thing. I just wish healers could get the same consideration.

[ZeroFool]

Generally, the developer don’t make huge overhauls to any job in the middle of an expansion; they save those for expansion releases. The largest changes they make tend to be things like WAR’s Inner Release change during Stormblood, in which they changed how the skill inherently functioned (same with Shake it Off). The changes they are discussing for NIN—where they’re talking about a major overhaul that will make it feel like a different job—are actually unprecedented in the history of this game.

Very interesting that this will be the first time they plan an overhaul. Two ways it can go is that this is a once off thing we can't depend on happening again, or more favorably, they'll take the momentum of working on NIN and apply it to the other jobs which sorely need it. However unlikely, it's a spot of hope nonetheless.

2 years is a long time for a class to feel bad to play, and being open to making changes as the playerbase demands them (although I wish they'd get a better mechanism for player feedback than whatever distortion gave them the idea that every card except balance was worthless and SCHs were dpsing too much) is a good thing. I just wish healers could get the same consideration.

Two years really is too long, not to mention having to shell out for a sub every month for a game that created such a high barrier to enjoy the rest of it. I'm content with remaining hopeful, however, since this seems to be an issue of just restoring assets they never should have cut in the first place.

Devs fixed things that weren't broke, but all they have to do is put the pieces that fit right back.

[ZeroFool]

Not for healers, anyway.

https://nordic.ign.com/final-fantasy...or-inspiration

"Some people have shown their dislike of some classes, like the Ninja and Astroligian, are you looking into fixing that, and how?

"We talked about this a bit in the last letter from the producers. In the latest patch we changed some stuff for the Astroligian and we noticed that we restored the balance a bit. Still we see some feedback from players that want the same effects for the cards as we had before, but the dev team doesn’t have the intention to bring the old system back. We can’t make everyone happy. If we change back the system, a different part of the community will get mad. Some people loved the old system, and some people love the new system. You can’t please everyone.

"In regards to Ninja. We get a lot of feedback from the community that the class feels clunky now since spells don't line up nicely with Global Cooldowns, and the DPS-spec isn’t as strong as other classes, so we get the frustration. It is a challenge for the development team, but we are aware of the situation. For the next patch we will make some changes for the solo DPS Ninja, like number values. Since the job got released we have actually not changed it, so for patch 5.1 we are planning a big class overhaul. It will feel like the Ninja will be born into a new class. So for people that are waiting for changes, big changes and smaller ones like number values are coming!"

Emphasis mine

They're not even trying to hide that they're downplaying all of this, huh? That juxtaposition is so stark, it's a little grim.

It's become so evident that we aren't going to see changes within the lifetime of this expansion, which is so disappointing because I was pulled in by the universal acclaim it was getting. And it probably deserves it, making it sting that much worse.

Good thing there are so many other games being released right now, here's hoping it's enough to ride the wave til the next expansion. My time with the game has been much too short, and maybe I'll bite it and sub every now and then. But for a regular investment, I've come to care so much that these forums will have to do.

If only we had a more actionable avenue, but I guess they also thought these forums will have to do as well.

[ZeroFool]

Honestly, man, after seeing what they did to SCH/AST in the name of "balance", I'm glad there isn't a 4th healer, because they would've made that one just as boring as well. They can't make 3 healers fun and unique, I'd hate to see what they do to a 4th one.

It's unfortunate that all evidence so far seems to support this. As much as I'd like to disagree because it seems that they did once design exactly 3 fun and unique healers, if this is the treatment we can expect a fourth to get, then better off without it.