Thread: 5.3 AST Changes

Originally Posted by Liam_Harper

If they give it mana regen and lower APM on top of that, it'll be almost flawless from a performance perspective.

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It seems AST isn't unpopular due to power, but more to gameplay and the changes, so that should really be their main focus.

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I'd like to see them address ScH's pet and WhM's weaving first, but for some reason it's buffing and reworking the top healer in the wrong way. It's a bad sign if they're still this out of touch after all these months of feedback.

Shouldn't we want all healers to be like that though? Seems unfair to not want flawless performance ability from a job.

That's what they're doing. Sleeve draw is a pain in terms of gameplay and they're changing it. Though I dislike the minor arcana "fix" even more because if you'd gotten around the targeting with macros, the minor arcana/play mashup brings back the original issue.

And the mana "buff" is because it's the only healer that requires more piety than the others. Like I said in the post above, it's the only healer that only has one source of mana regeneration (apart from lucid). You could argue that it's a trade-off because it can perform so well but it never had this issue before. I think it's a weird nerf and I'm glad they're working to fix it.

Absolutely AST is unpopular due to gameplay. They've destroyed the comfortable home that many many ASTs had built and gotten used to over the years and transformed it into a camping tent. Some people like the camping tent, and that's fine. But some of us want our home back.


I think we should all want ALL healers to be able to perform flawlessly. I absolutely want SCH to not be clunky, and I would love WHM to be able to hold its own against a sch/ast team. That's what the "balancing" should've been about.

Originally Posted by Sabrenn

Shouldn't we want all healers to be like that though? Seems unfair to not want flawless performance ability from a job.

That's what they're doing. Sleeve draw is a pain in terms of gameplay and they're changing it. Though I dislike the minor arcana "fix" even more because if you'd gotten around the targeting with macros, the minor arcana/play mashup brings back the original issue.

And the mana "buff" is because it's the only healer that requires more piety than the others. Like I said in the post above, it's the only healer that only has one source of mana regeneration (apart from lucid). You could argue that it's a trade-off because it can perform so well but it never had this issue before. I think it's a weird nerf and I'm glad they're working to fix it.

Absolutely AST is unpopular due to gameplay. They've destroyed the comfortable home that many many ASTs had built and gotten used to over the years and transformed it into a camping tent. Some people like the camping tent, and that's fine. But some of us want our home back.


I think we should all want ALL healers to be able to perform flawlessly. I absolutely want SCH to not be clunky, and I would love WHM to be able to hold its own against a sch/ast team. That's what the "balancing" should've been about.

For me I only have astro to base my opinions on. When I got WHM to 55-56 the lilies are insanely good to use on a quick one button heal along with an already strong healing kit. Until I get thin air I have been bashed for using Cure I over Cure II. I have been constantly told to use cure II with Lucid. I have tried this and constantly run out of MP. Utterly useless advice until I get thin air. I rarely ever have lilies capped...EVER. That leaves more room for Holy, Stone, and Aero.

So for me as an astro healer...I don't understand this logic to gives MP at all turns. I mean I rarely run out of MP on Astro...like ever....and I DPS my face off. Maybe it's because I run Diurnal for the HOT's to do most of the work for me which gives me time for cards and DPS windows. I have light-speed on cooldown almost the whole time. It has just become part of my opener to pop: Sleeve -> divination -> neutral sect -> light-speed -> aspected helios -> aspected benefic -> combust -> malefic/gravity x4 -> Celestial -> aspected helios -> aspected benefic -> lucid and then into cards again... the rest is CD management and using them ASAP. I hardly ever run out of MP and i'm mostly on the crit side of stats because I spam malefic constantly.

Originally Posted by Sqwall

Until I get thin air I have been bashed for using Cure I over Cure II. I have been constantly told to use cure II with Lucid. I have tried this and constantly run out of MP. Utterly useless advice until I get thin air.

You're playing WhM wrong then, most likely spamming Cure II too much and overhealing. Regen should cover a lot and Cure II when your tank drops low. You should only be running out of MP if the tank is made of paper and you need to spam heal, in which case Cure I was never going to keep up. At 56 you have Solace, Asylum, Assize which are all 0 mp or a gain, so Cure I shouldn't even be looked at.

Originally Posted by Liam_Harper

You're playing WhM wrong then, most likely spamming Cure II too much and overhealing. Regen should cover a lot and Cure II when your tank drops low. You should only be running out of MP if the tank is made of paper and you need to spam heal, in which case Cure I was never going to keep up. At 56 you have Solace, Asylum, Assize which are all 0 mp or a gain, so Cure I shouldn't even be looked at.

I don't play WHM anymore...it's kind of boring to me, but if I pick it up again i'll look into throttling my Cure II when the tank is at 50% HP. Thanks

Originally Posted by Sabrenn

Absolutely AST is unpopular due to gameplay. They've destroyed the comfortable home that many many ASTs had built and gotten used to over the years and transformed it into a camping tent. Some people like the camping tent, and that's fine. But some of us want our home back.

Exactly correct. As usual, Squeenix is fixing a busted leaking pipe by installing new ceiling fans. They look pretty, but don't address the actual issue. MP is more of a challenge with AST than with other healers, but it can be worked around by being vigilant with Lucid (most people don't hit Lucid until they're low MP... instead of simply clicking it every time its cooldown is up).

The biggest issues with AST, which have haunted us since 5.0, are the loss of variety with card buffs, the loss of card dual purpose and buff extension via RR, and to lesser extent, the loss of "time mage" abilities like Time Dilution and Celestial Opposition. Until those issues are addressed, the job will not be as popular because most people care less about meta, and more about job satisfaction.

Originally Posted by Side-Eye

Exactly correct. As usual, Squeenix is fixing a busted leaking pipe by installing new ceiling fans.

I about spit my coffee out...freaking hilarious.

You're looking at it purely from a dps perspective. AST, while doing huge raid healing, can put out numbers that are slightly ahead of WhM who is barely healing at all. If that same WhM tried to take a bulk of the raid healing, they'd drop significantly. AST simply contributes more because it can deal high damage and high healing thanks to it's mobility, weaving and toolkit. WhM/ScH you have to pick one.

You say WhM having a fraction the mobility of a BLM and so few weave windows it has some mandatory clipping is good class design and intentional weakness, yet AST having MP management as it's only weakness is an "issue" that needs to be fixed?

Originally Posted by Sabrenn

Shouldn't we want all healers to be like that though? Seems unfair to not want flawless performance ability from a job.

Depends on the definition of flawless. If you mean no weaknesses at all, they risk becoming copies of each other that do everything perfectly. If you mean smooth enjoyable gameplay with a unique toolkit able to handle any situation, with each bringing something to the table then I'd definitely agree. It's gameplay and ironing out clunkiness they should be working on, rather than throwing buffs and simplification at everything that doesn't have a high enough participation rate.

Originally Posted by KDSilver

I'm gently asking (just in case you might think it could be an aggresive question). Did you truly experienced yourself AST and its mana managment on different content?

Currently, AST mana is not just a weakness, it's a chore, an issue and it needeed some help.

Honestly, I don't mind admitting I haven't experienced AST enough to judge properly. I'm leveling one at the moment, even if I don't main it at endgame just to get a better insight on how my co-healers function. So no, I'm not disagreeing on that at all. Any discussion is a good chance to learn more so it's all an interesting read.

Don't get me wrong, I like AST's. I don't want nerfs and I'm all for them getting an MP bump and I really hope they get that gameplay fix that many seem to want. Similar to WhM's mobility and ScH's handicap ...I mean pet, there's a difference between weakness and crippling and if that's the case then give them more mana.
But it does still surprise me that that's their main focus, when AST is still the top endgame healer and the other 2 are riddled with issues and not even acknowledged. And that's not even getting started on the overall healer gameplay we've been discussing for months because I assume that's a 6.0 job.