How could you do this to AST?

[Sqwall]

I'm curious about this line of thinking.
Are you referring to gameplay, or are you thinking that, by removing Nocturnal sect, Squeen is suddenly going to focus on providing engaging cardplay for Astro?

Because, in either case, I don't know that I could agree with that. You can't really "focus" on your cards if you're playing the current iteration of AST "correctly" (and there isn't really anything to focus on, let's be honest), and history suggests that the Devs will shift the focus even further away from cards so that we can think about healing even more (and then end up defaulting to DPS, because we won't need it), even if they do anything to compensate for the "inconsequential" (according to many forum users) loss of Nocturnal Sect at all (which, I doubt).

The idea is with removing something from the job, and I can't really see how they can add anything that would improve healing. As it stands now AST can push through any healing required to bring party members back from a large raid wide quite swiftly. Healing for astro seems to me has plateaued and I really don't know what they can add to that part of the job.

AST got a huge change by removing Noct and basically becoming another WHM healer. Celestial Intersection, Aspected benefic, Aspected Helios, Collective Unconscious, Celestial Opposition, Neutral Sect will be changed and more then likely will retain some aspects.

So I ask again...what could they add to AST for healing. Not much imo.

So to answer your question, my HOPE is that they enhance the cards mechanics more. Give us more cards? Give us different seal types? Different seal combinations that give different effects? Maybe a skill that fills your seal gauge with the previous set you had?

Bring back the fun that was Heavensward/Stormblood Cards. Healing is fine....make cards more fun.

[IDontPetLalas]

The idea is with removing something from the job, and I can't really see how they can add anything that would improve healing. As it stands now AST can push through any healing required to bring party members back from a large raid wide quite swiftly. Healing for astro seems to me has plateaued and I really don't know what they can add to that part of the job.

AST got a huge change by removing Noct and basically becoming another WHM healer. Celestial Intersection, Aspected benefic, Aspected Helios, Collective Unconscious, Celestial Opposition, Neutral Sect will be changed and more then likely will retain some aspects.

So I ask again...what could they add to AST for healing. Not much imo.

So to answer your question, my HOPE is that they enhance the cards mechanics more. Give us more cards? Give us different seal types? Different seal combinations that give different effects? Maybe a skill that fills your seal gauge with the previous set you had?

Bring back the fun that was Heavensward/Stormblood Cards. Healing is fine....make cards more fun.

I would not like to introduce more RNG into cards, that wouldn't be my definition of fun. I certainly hope that we don't lose all shields.
My definition of fun is maintaining our mobile and flexible healing kit while introducing more introduce DPS options, even if it ends up being only 1 or 2 buttons or a combo- that would be progress.

[QooEr]

I'm curious about this line of thinking.
Are you referring to gameplay, or are you thinking that, by removing Nocturnal sect, Squeen is suddenly going to focus on providing engaging cardplay for Astro?

Because, in either case, I don't know that I could agree with that. You can't really "focus" on your cards if you're playing the current iteration of AST "correctly" (and there isn't really anything to focus on, let's be honest), and history suggests that the Devs will shift the focus even further away from cards so that we can think about healing even more (and then end up defaulting to DPS, because we won't need it), even if they do anything to compensate for the "inconsequential" (according to many forum users) loss of Nocturnal Sect at all (which, I doubt).

i think what they meant was maybe giving time magic back to ast? diurnal always benefitted disproportionately from buff extension, causing more diur vs noct balance issues, which is probably why they axed it in Shb.

[MintnHoney]

i think what they meant was maybe giving time magic back to ast? diurnal always benefitted disproportionately from buff extension, causing more diur vs noct balance issues, which is probably why they axed it in Shb.

The battle team won't want us to have something that would significantly mess with their calculations. It's conjecture on my part, but being able to extend regens and buffs, along with the comparatively high percentage boosts we used to have (regardless if it was damage output or otherwise), caused inconsistencies with trying to balance out highly scripted material because it meant too wide of a gap in allowable successes. It's why they put the difference between seals to be so miniscule and constrained the amount of buffs which can be provided to the party, the quality of said buffs, and their length. All to create a balance so that no healer could get too far ahead of the others in strength and be "too meta" (consider that they talk about all healers needing to be able to be used equally, and constantly advertise their vision of all healers being able to succeed, even though that should just be a given).
As far as I can tell, anyway.

At any rate, since they're removing Nocturnal and not Diurnal, which was the stance that benefitted the most from our now-lost extenders, I doubt they'll want to bring back something so powerful. If anything, they'll either put something in cross-class (which I doubt, due to prior reasoning), or they'll want to remove what little we have left (lightspeed) so that we can't get away with using our spells so easily and have to think more about healing because they don't think we do that enough. I really don't see us gaining anything here.

[Ultimatecalibur]

The battle team won't want us to have something that would significantly mess with their calculations. It's conjecture on my part, but being able to extend regens and buffs, along with the comparatively high percentage boosts we used to have (regardless if it was damage output or otherwise), caused inconsistencies with trying to balance out highly scripted material because it meant too wide of a gap in allowable successes. It's why they put the difference between seals to be so miniscule and constrained the amount of buffs which can be provided to the party, the quality of said buffs, and their length. All to create a balance so that no healer could get too far ahead of the others in strength and be "too meta" (consider that they talk about all healers needing to be able to be used equally, and constantly advertise their vision of all healers being able to succeed, even though that should just be a given).
As far as I can tell, anyway.

At any rate, since they're removing Nocturnal and not Diurnal, which was the stance that benefitted the most from our now-lost extenders, I doubt they'll want to bring back something so powerful. If anything, they'll either put something in cross-class (which I doubt, due to prior reasoning), or they'll want to remove what little we have left (lightspeed) so that we can't get away with using our spells so easily and have to think more about healing because they don't think we do that enough. I really don't see us gaining anything here.

I do not think the buff extension effects of Celestial Opposition were as problematic as you believe. I suspect it was changed more to make it useful in both Diurnal and Noct for healing rather than having the mostly useless effect of extending shield duration by 10s as compared to increasing the healing from Aspected Regens by 300~400 and 600~800. An ogcds that extends the effects of your Aspected Benefict and Aspected Helios regens could easily return alongside an ogcd that could "detonate" regens early for healing based on remaining duration to give Astro another way to differentiate itself from WHM.

[MintnHoney]

I do not think the buff extension effects of Celestial Opposition were as problematic as you believe. I suspect it was changed more to make it useful in both Diurnal and Noct for healing rather than having the mostly useless effect of extending shield duration by 10s as compared to increasing the healing from Aspected Regens by 300~400 and 600~800. An ogcds that extends the effects of your Aspected Benefict and Aspected Helios regens could easily return alongside an ogcd that could "detonate" regens early for healing based on remaining duration to give Astro another way to differentiate itself from WHM.

You probably already remember this, but as a friendly reminder, the buff extension affected all buffs provided by an AST's actions, including card buffs and self buffs (whenever possible) (edit: Maltothoris beat me to replying, but their examples are correct). That certainly did mean it would have been problematic for role balance, when you consider what it could (and usually would) do, vs. the "vision" they've strived for in the Healer role this expansion. I guarantee that keeping them would have been an even bigger balancing nightmare with the current iteration of AST, moreso than the issue of having 2 stances to balance between ever would.
If they were not problematic to the balance between healers, at the very least, then why did they remove that aspect from AST entirely?

[QooEr]

You probably already remember this, but as a friendly reminder, the buff extension affected all buffs provided by an AST's actions, including card buffs and self buffs (whenever possible) (edit: Maltothoris beat me to replying, but their examples are correct). That certainly did mean it would have been problematic for role balance, when you consider what it could (and usually would) do, vs. the "vision" they've strived for in the Healer role this expansion. I guarantee that keeping them would have been an even bigger balancing nightmare with the current iteration of AST, moreso than the issue of having 2 stances to balance between ever would.
If they were not problematic to the balance between healers, at the very least, then why did they remove that aspect from AST entirely?

while i agree that extending other buffs could cause balance issues, i dont see why they cant return it as an action that only extends regens and cards/divination. hell, id be happy if time dilation came back and only extended regens

[Maltothoris]

The other thing was that it extended more than just the healing hots of aspected helios, benefic and collective and the cards, it also extended the buffs like food and probably the most important reason, potions like the tincures. The pot window under astro lasted for 40 seconds whenever you paired with Celestial opposition.

[Brandedblade]

I was discussing this with a friend and honestly? I think Time Dilation should come back myself. I think having the one cooldown that you either use to extend someone's burst phase or used defensively to extend regens on a player could have the potential to give the class just the right amount of flavor.

I do however, disagree with Celestial Opposition having it's time extension returned. I do believe it should have its stun returned but I just struggle to see SE being ok with allowing the AST to extend their Lucid, Surecast, and Neutral Sect. If the extension only applied to regens and cards then...maybe? but as it is I would just be content with the stun.

[ItMe]

I think Time Dilation should come back myself. I think having the one cooldown that you either use to extend someone's burst phase or used defensively to extend regens on a player could have the potential to give the class just the right amount of flavor.

Careful there.
The idea of AST messing with the timers / skills of different jobs is dangerous.
Let's not flirt with going back to the days where Nin or Brd (or any job) were so useful they were basically auto include in comps.
Let's not go back to the days when you're expected to play certain combinations of classes in high end content.

Time magic resetting your dots like Brd does with Iron Jaws is one thing...

Using it to basically recast your HoTs is one thing...

Extending the duration of Nin's Trick Attack or Smn's Phoenix Trance is another.