Astro changes 5.1

**LariaKirin** · 10-26-2019 07:09 PM

I wonder if this is going to be too much.

The Malefic/Combust changes are an approximate increase of 7% to the AST's dps. The CU buff in Diurnal is massive.

Currently: 50 pot regen every 90 sec.
5.1: 100 pot regen every 60 sec.
Stormblood: 150 pot regen every 90 sec.

It's 3 times stronger than current CU and equal to Stormblood in terms of throughput. This is alot of free healing that will result in a dps increase.

AST + SCH might once again become the strongest combination.

**Sylvain** · 10-26-2019 07:39 PM

Originally Posted by LariaKirin

I wonder if this is going to be too much.

The Malefic/Combust changes are an approximate increase of 7% to the AST's dps. The CU buff in Diurnal is massive.

Currently: 50 pot regen every 90 sec.
5.1: 100 pot regen every 60 sec.
Stormblood: 150 pot regen every 90 sec.

It's 3 times stronger than current CU and equal to Stormblood in terms of throughput. This is alot of free healing that will result in a dps increase.

AST + SCH might once again become the strongest combination.

if it's strongest by 1% dps margin it's not a big deal (especially considering WHM brings the insurance of unlimited mp and death recovery)
SB was bad because the gap made by the AST was just too big, AST SCH was way ahead of WHM SCH.
With these buffs if it goes ahead it will be marginaly ahead.

**MitsukiKimura** · 10-26-2019 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by LariaKirin

I wonder if this is going to be too much.

The Malefic/Combust changes are an approximate increase of 7% to the AST's dps. The CU buff in Diurnal is massive.

Currently: 50 pot regen every 90 sec.
5.1: 100 pot regen every 60 sec.
Stormblood: 150 pot regen every 90 sec.

It's 3 times stronger than current CU and equal to Stormblood in terms of throughput. This is alot of free healing that will result in a dps increase.

AST + SCH might once again become the strongest combination.

I don't care about receiving more DPS so I can do as much as a SCH. Honestly feel like these changes are to make us turn a blind eye toward the lame card system they have implemented.
CU was garbage to begin with, with Celestial Opposition on a 60 second timer with 4 times the HoT it was valued more than it. AST is the party buff support of the three healers, giving it more "Raw" damage than actually making it unique is very uninspiring.

**Ceasaria** · 10-26-2019 08:16 PM

To be honest, I don't understand why Yoshida are selling AST changes as key selling point during the Live letter.
I mean, the major points were a better mana management and a buff to AST Noct, but the changes are abyssal.

Honestly, I look at MP changes, I laugh so hard. Even at worse, I didn't imagine it would be so ridiculous : -1/10 MP cost on two healing spells.
It will change nothing.

Furthermore, for the Noct part...only one change, and for me it less efficient than Diurnal part.
Diurnal has now more 2 oGCD HoT than Nocturnal. HoT value is more important than Shield and Mitigation value (especially because this expansion requiere less shield than the last, and because every role / jobs have more mitigation).
And let's not forget that proc CU is generally used for mitigate one attack, not several (reason : there are too rare). So, you can still mitigate while doing HoT in Diurnal, when Nocturnal is doing only mitigation and maybe 100-200 healing potency.

It's a shame, really, Nocturnal is still not worth after 4 years and 4 months.
SE should really consider to delete this stance for the future and doing WHM/AST as HoT-Pure, and SCH/4th as Shield-Mitigation.

However, not everything is black hopefully.
DPS solo has been increased and CU Diurnal is now better than during Stormblood (100 HoT, 60 CD > 150 HoT, 90 CD), because we have more windows to place it so, more damage reduced + great HoT.

Next step : focus mp management (again), cards and Time Dilation, (and forget about Noct please).

**tesni_g** · 10-27-2019 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by LariaKirin

I wonder if this is going to be too much.

The Malefic/Combust changes are an approximate increase of 7% to the AST's dps. The CU buff in Diurnal is massive.

Currently: 50 pot regen every 90 sec.
5.1: 100 pot regen every 60 sec.
Stormblood: 150 pot regen every 90 sec.

It's 3 times stronger than current CU and equal to Stormblood in terms of throughput. This is alot of free healing that will result in a dps increase.

AST + SCH might once again become the strongest combination.

I feel like SCH/AST would have to be stronger by a margin than WHM/XXX to shift the meta. The AST population has been gutted because many don't consider it fun. The new card system drove away a lot of players and we've been told to stop hoping for changes. The damage has been done, basically, and a potency adjustment can't repair it. This change will hopefully make it easier for those of us who stick with AST to enjoy it a bit more, but if I wasn't already playing it, I wouldn't be changing mains because of these updates.

And if it does become a problem, I sincerely hope that SE will buff WHM, because they really should hold the same throne as BLM and SAM do in their subroles--low utility, unmatched pDPS.

This buff to CU is more for Diurnal than it is for Noct and that's crazy to me considering how it was acknowledged specifically that Noct AST needed love. Losing that regen is gonna hurt, and it feels like Diurnal got a huge buff while Noct got a trade-off buff--they had to sacrifice the only weak HoT they had to get another thing they (also) needed. That's disappointing. Diurnal already felt good. Noct will still feel kinda bad.

**LariaKirin** · 10-27-2019 02:10 AM

Originally Posted by Sylvain

if it's strongest by 1% dps margin it's not a big deal (especially considering WHM brings the insurance of unlimited mp and death recovery)
SB was bad because the gap made by the AST was just too big, AST SCH was way ahead of WHM SCH.
With these buffs if it goes ahead it will be marginaly ahead.

It's not going to be 1%, it's going to be 3.5% from potency buffs alone.

It depends where you look (I'm looking at 95% here):
- E1S, E2S: there is a gap in favor of WHM+SCH, which from these potency buffs alone will shift equally in the other direction. E.g. where WHM+SCH was 250 ahead, now AST+SCH is 250 ahead.
- E3S, E4S: both comps are very close to each other, so in this case you are creating a gap favoring AST+SCH.

I've said this in other threads:
AST functions as an enabler and will increase the DPS of their cohealer. It is why AST+SCH can be equal to WHM+SCH in Titan when AST is 500 behind WHM.
CU is free and 3 times stronger than before. This change will allow it to ease the healing burden, thus increase dps. So expect to see another combined dps increase in AST comps in addition to the Malefic/Combust buffs.

E.g.:
Q: Why use Soil and lose 150 potency when AST can CU?
A: Because CU was weak. That is no longer the case.

So, looking in a vacuum, all three healers will be very close to each other individually. But this ignores other things that each healer brings to the party.

**Haxaan** · 10-27-2019 02:41 AM

SE Please stop upping AST pDPS and fix our damn cards already. Bard get's it's songs back and guess what, they aren't all "Damage up", please give AST it's flavour back. We are Support Healers, leave DPS to SCH and WHM. End Rant, Thank you.

**Brandedblade** · 10-27-2019 05:38 AM

Originally Posted by Haxaan

SE Please stop upping AST pDPS and fix our damn cards already. Bard get's it's songs back and guess what, they aren't all "Damage up", please give AST it's flavour back. We are Support Healers, leave DPS to SCH and WHM. End Rant, Thank you.

Technically, they all are "DPS up" buffs. Just because they go by different stats doesn't change that. The thing about damage up buffs is that if they're too strong, they will scale too massively and thus screw with game balance. However, keeping the damage boosts lower and filling the gaps with more personal dps let's one give that damage up to their group without it throwing the game balance out of whack.

**Shurrikhan** · 10-27-2019 05:58 AM

Originally Posted by Nonocu

I feel like they're on the right track with these buffs, now if only they could do something about the cards. Either way, I'm happy it looks well worth going back to, even if just to see what's changed in action.

Same, though I'd have gladly have held out on potency buffs to get more impactful cards.

Originally Posted by Crushnight

What we lost
-Lord/lady card animation

Assuming they don't just play it during the Play animation now, I'd still take that over its former additional oGCD gap cost.

Still wish they made it so Redraw couldn't draw the same card. Nothing like going through 3 mostly unusable ranged cards in a row in a double-melee dungeon run (with a tank who won't use CDs, denying any real usefulness on oneself), and no unique seal to boot.

Edit: Actually, losing that extra step makes it so we can no longer 'peak' our next card while still holding onto our Crown card, so... I'll probably have to take that back.

**Side-Eye** · 10-27-2019 09:09 AM

Originally Posted by Brandedblade

Technically, they all are "DPS up" buffs. Just because they go by different stats doesn't change that. The thing about damage up buffs is that if they're too strong, they will scale too massively and thus screw with game balance. However, keeping the damage boosts lower and filling the gaps with more personal dps let's one give that damage up to their group without it throwing the game balance out of whack.

At that point, the main problem I have with the 5.x card system is: for the relatively low amount of added DPS for others, 1) how many buttons I've pressed, 2) how many times I've changed targets, and 3) how much time I've diverted away from personal DPS and healing.

That's it in a nutshell. Unless Squeenix figures out a way to reduce how much clicking and re-targeting it takes to *use* the card system, the time and energy it consumes is horribly small compared to the end benefit. And I don't see any simple way for devs to reduce all that clicking and re-targeting without at least increasing the buff durations.

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