New AST from a New Player

[Impurrrsive]

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.

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 it's true, they chop off AST limbs just to make another healer i would really disappointed.
If u chop off a starfish arm u will produce the exact same starfish, omg...

[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.

[Nhala_Levee]

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.

[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.

[LunarShadow67]

I myself am pretty much new to the game. I dabbled in it in the past, but never got past ARR due to....well the pretty long and tedious MSQ for it. With the launch of Shadowbringers and the praise it was receiving I decided to push through this time and level.

As it currently stands I am in Stormblood content (LOVED HW) and, I have primarily been maining Astrologian...along with Scholar depending on my mood.

I do not know much about how Astrologian plays as compared to before. Overall, I love the animations of the job and I enjoy its pace. Lore wise, I have to agree for the cards and their uses. I thought there would be more....purpose for each card compared to the Job quests descriptions.

With that being said, I understand everyone's frustration about how AST is in its current form. I know what its like to have class identities gutted and changed every expansion (former WoW player here). I also understand the needs for the balancing from the dev team.

I guess ignorance is bliss cause I do enjoy how the job plays right now. Would I be upset if they changed the way the cards work and bring back the original design or something similar. I would say no. I love playing a buffing type healer over a straight up healer. So if they brought that system back to make it interesting or change it up. I would be down.

[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.

[Yanyami]

I've been a new player at the start of the Stormblood expansion.I picked AST to play as my main... i stopped playing the job after a week or two after i had hit the 70lvl... Wall to wall tanks were a plague for a new players... especialy as a Healer

- I remember SB AST card game goal was just chasing for the BALANCE card and believe in RNGsus... and it was an headhache sometimes. Don't you remember this :"Damn..should i keep this BOLE card for the next tank buster ? what if i get a SPIRE if i redraw ? But i could get a BALANCE too !" (and some dps died while you were pondering)... you redraw a card and get an EWER ...
- Let's be honest ... BOLE, SPIRE, EWER were just card you used for royal road.. and sometimes.. really rarely you used the cards for their effect... i'm not even talking about SPEAR and ARROW cards that were just seen as bad draws.

I gave up AST for WHM and things became way more easier without that damn RNG card game.
But let's talk about the Shadowbringer expansion. I've played WHM mostly.. but i decided to give the new AST a chance, and i found the job far better to play. The card game is more instinctive and i've never been brainfucked by it since. There's still bonuses to play the card game but it's no longer bound to RNG.. (thanks to the new minor arcana)
So yeah, for me the new AST rocks. But i understand others may not enjoy it.

I think we could come back to unique card effects as long as we keep minor arcana to switch the card to a dps buff. But the dev team wanted some kind of balance between the healers, maybe it would be really unbalanced with these cards.

oh and btw.. i never met any difficulties in healing as an AST for now.. even with dumb tanks that dont use their mitigation tools or dps seeking death in AoE for that position strike they need.. The only issue may be the MP cost of nocturnal spells (diurnal are fine) but nothing that some Piety melding can resolve.

[ZeroFool]

The healing seems to be in a good place with AST, which can probably be said for all the healers. I think the main points of contention has been less about each healer job's effectiveness in their role and more about how they feel to play, which while subjective and is a matter of taste, has been widely considered such a drastic departure from what was already enjoyed by many players for years to something so unrecognizable that long-time players have been dropping it en masse.

That's not to say that changes shouldn't be made; they should be made to maintain healthy engagement with ALL classes. But what the devs seem to have done is applied a sledgehammer to a doornail, leaving little to no room for compromise between old AST and new AST.

And there was such a large space for compromise too, if they even took the opportunity to explore them. The Minor Arcana conversions for example could have been the guaranteed DPS buff regardless of the card pulled, pleasing the big numbers crowd and the ASTs who wanted to preserve unique effects. Just anything that would indicate more than "We see people complain about not getting one card enough, so despite the fact that that is the point of the card mechanic from the start, we made every card the same without gauging how that would affect the people that have played and enjoyed it like this for years."

Compromise is meant to reconcile opposing sides. Now that they have acknowledged that "some people loved the old system, and some love the new" then maybe they can begin to work on compromise; the problem here is that they've set themselves up for an uphill battle to achieve a happy medium while also saying that they have no interest in even doing so.