New AST from a New Player

[Billythepancake]

Oh man, that sounds so satisfying. The majority of my playtime as a healer was spent on SCH, and I thought that clink when you hit a crit-adlo is wonderful.

I can imagine it slowly becoming less rewarding when you can just have it on a whim, just like any other skill in a rotation.

Must be the same for the ASTs hitting that AoE Balance to collectively go to town on the last stretch of a boss.

Too bad we as healers aren't allowed to take any risks anymore, that would just be 'sub-optimal'.

To play devil's advocate a bit, I do understand the critlo change. I say this as someone who raids as scholar, and is considered pretty good at it, spreading a critlo was really broken strong. You could outright ignore some mechanics if you spread a critlo, so from a dev point of view, I can understand why they wouldn't allow you to spread a critlo. I also feel like what we got in exchange for not being able to do it anymore was well worth it, recitation is an amazing ability,and the only good thing that happened to SCH this expac.

My issues with SCH is that they took away my interesting DPS options, and neutered my fairy to the point she's basically only good for dissipation and getting 3 more aetherflow, because her healing is unresponsive, has to be weaved in, and is pathetically weak.

[ZeroFool]

To play devil's advocate a bit, I do understand the critlo change. I say this as someone who raids as scholar, and is considered pretty good at it, spreading a critlo was really broken strong. You could outright ignore some mechanics if you spread a critlo, so from a dev point of view, I can understand why they wouldn't allow you to spread a critlo. I also feel like what we got in exchange for not being able to do it anymore was well worth it, recitation is an amazing ability,and the only good thing that happened to SCH this expac.

My issues with SCH is that they took away my interesting DPS options, and neutered my fairy to the point she's basically only good for dissipation and getting 3 more aetherflow, because her healing is unresponsive, has to be weaved in, and is pathetically weak.

That is a solid point, and I guess crits will simply come up more often the better and more optimized your gear is late game. To make it a deploy-able skill seems like it would add much to the tactical flavor of the class, so it's good that they didn't remove crit-adlo completely.

The fairy was another thing, however. Much like discovering how much of a farce the cards were, seeing the two 'different' fairies function the exact same way was baffling. And at one point it was manually controlled too, now it feels like a glorified Regen!

[Kuwago]

I felt this one hard. I, like many people here, gave this game a try because of how AST looked and played. Fortunately enough, I was able to play AST where the cards were still unique and gave different effects. Personally, the one I was devastated the most being taken out were Time Dilation and Old Celestial Opposition Effect of Stun and Buff Duration Increase of 10 sec.

As much as I loved the Cards and its varied effects alongside Royal Road giving cards more additional effects, for me at least, nothing beats the idea of increasing the duration of the current active buffs. Other than cards being super beneficial to others, I loved the fact that AST had a power not only to change/alter fates but also control space and time. How I wish that they would bring these skills back and honestly, they should've kept them with how low the durations of HoT's and card effects now.

While I don't mind the card changes, I still feel like they could've kept the variety of effects that each card has while also making each card viable for use, RNG is what I loved the most in terms of class mechanics and using each card that you pulled to its best ability felt exhilarating. Not gonna lie, pulling balance basically filled me with Euphoria especially that amazing AOE Balance combo.

I've pledge my loyalty to this class and will do so in the future expansions to come, its AST or bust for me. The best I can hope for is for them to actually listen, which they have been fortunately, and strive for the improvement to AST.

[ZeroFool]

Oh wow. As much as I love the idea of Time Mage becoming a job, if it resulted from stripping AST of its identity then I can't imagine it being received super well. To take away abilities is one thing; repackaging these skills that were used and enjoyed by players for years into a separate job would just be a betrayal to players of the original job.

[althenawhm]

To take away abilities is one thing; repackaging these skills that were used and enjoyed by players for years into a separate job would just be a betrayal to players of the original job.

I dont know, as a WHM main I'm pretty used to getting abilities stripped away and given to other jobs.

[ZeroFool]

I dont know, as a WHM main I'm pretty used to getting abilities stripped away and given to other jobs.

So they have a history of this. I'm sorry but I have the least knowledge regarding WHM out of all the healers, but if you or anyone can elaborate on what nature of skills were taken and refurbished for other jobs; it would help in connecting where WHM is now in contrast with other healers. As far as I understand, WHM was the most neglected job overall, but coming into this expansion I've seen the most praise for it(not to diminish its issues and complaints about them in any way).

Is it because its existing baseline was reinforced instead of tampered with? Or because it's seen the least amount of change, and therefore 'abuse', it managed to come out on top with its soul intact?

[Nhala_Levee]

Those are the practical barriers, yes, but there are three psychological barriers there, too: pride, a sunk cost fallacy, and the dam on healer changes.

For pride, the devs have been insisting that the new card system is fine for months now, and that just as many people like it as like the old one. Changing it now would mean they’d have to admit they were wrong not only about the changes, but in all those statements, too.

For a sunk cost fallacy, no matter how lazily designed the new AST card system is, it is a whole new system, and taking it all back so soon after release would feel like a lot of work for nothing. Of course, it’s particularly fallacious in this case because they already discarded the old card system which clearly had had more work put into it.

Finally, the devs are always going on about how the healers are finally balanced. If they restore the assets they shouldn’t have ripped away from AST (and hopefully SCH, too) then they’d be right back where they started, and they’d have to admit that balancing the healers properly is going to require significantly more thought and effort than they seemed to want to put in last time. (The proper way to go about it would be to leave SCH and AST alone for the most part except potencies and spend more time improving WHM so that it’s as good as them).

WEll, for first, yes, they was VERY wrong. Admit it or not, it is a fact.
For second. If Balanceing healers means that they make every healer the same boring and useless, and lost every enjoyment and fun mechanic, then i dont want to be a healer anymore. I loved the healers in FF cause they was diferent, unique, special. Every healer had its strong side and ways. As whm was a pure heal ans mostly just that, but that was its role. And was fun to play it. Sch was a specialist who neglect dmg income and mostly utility user healer, a shielder. And my old main, the AST, that was just fascinating, fantastic, the most fun to play character for me. Every card and the card system was unique and you had so many ways to use them. Even its not was the highest healing capacity, that was the cost of the card system is a little stronger. So it was already balanced.
Anyway, what system we talking about? There is no any system in AST now. You drop a card every 30 sec, no matter which one to who, then you press the aoe dmg buff and poof. Not even matter which seals you have active cause that worthless 1-2% simply not a matter. Not worth the effort to hunting 3 diferent seal. In other hand, the nerfed the heal of the ast and lowers the durations of the active hots what means ast become a hardcore spamer. An i experienced this in many dungeon where ast must heal out the tank and the others alone. In raids, she dont even need to heal, thats why is there the other healers, players only get ast for raid cause its an energizer and no more.

[Kuwago]

I might be reading too much into the devs choice, but I'm starting to think it's less about the people who likes the old card vs the people who like the new cards.

I think it might be the people who likes the old cards vs the people who want a new healer. I'm starting to believe, like others here, that the changes made to astro is to make room for time mage. I think if you compare those two groups I can see why they wouldn't revert the changes.

The thing about it is I can't see this current version of ast. making it into the next expansion. It's going to need adjustments at least, if not a complete rework. But at that point isn’t reworking ast. essentially making a "new healer" that they wouldn't have had to do if they left the old card system in?

And if they are going to not add a new healer because they need to "balance" healers again, then what was the point of gutting astro. this way?

Idk, sometimes I feel like I need esoteric knowledge to make out heads or tails of what square is doing. Unfortunately all the card I have say balance.

If they do this then I’d be heartbroken. Celestial Opposition and Time Dilation WERE part of AST’s kit and people want Time Mage into the game then y’all have been sleeping on AST because, Lore wise AST IS TIME MAGE ITSELF. They could’ve given AST more time mage-esque skills for those who want the class in the game.

[SacrificialToast]

I started up the game back in June just before the expansion launched. The current card system does seem like it just takes a few too many button presses for too little effect, and since it only provides damage buffs, if I'm not perfectly weaving it into my own Malefic spam, it seems like it's almost a waste of effort. That's what bugs me the most, that a system that could provide some interesting support tools is just a dps boost now. The laser focus on DPS even for tanks and healers in this game seems detrimental to class design to me.

[ForteNightshade]

I started up the game back in June just before the expansion launched. The current card system does seem like it just takes a few too many button presses for too little effect, and since it only provides damage buffs, if I'm not perfectly weaving it into my own Malefic spam, it seems like it's almost a waste of effort. That's what bugs me the most, that a system that could provide some interesting support tools is just a dps boost now. The laser focus on DPS even for tanks and healers in this game seems detrimental to class design to me.

Having recently started playing Astro again since I need to level it. This is exactly how I felt. The sheer amount of card play felt more like busywork than something meaningful. By the end of roulette spamming, the only thing I had was a mildly sore hand. What made it worse is I knew if I simply went White Mage I could put in less than half the work for far better results.