Why is the healer class basically a one spell dps class?

[Sqwall]

This is true to an extent, but only because the other cards were really just not very good most of the time. Balance and Spear (after it was changed to crit) were just straight-up better than the other choices. Spire was basically a dead draw (Royal Road/Minor Arcana fodder only), Ewer was only very situationally useful (making it also Royal Road/Minor Arcana fodder), Bole was not possible to intelligently play around (because if you need mitigation you need it on-demand, not RNG), and Arrow was actively bad for most classes other than BLM because it resulted in misaligned burst windows. AST players weren't Balance/Spear fishing because of "elitism" (whatever that means), but because it was the only choice that made sense 99% of the time.

Your right about Balance and Spear being the notable choice form HW to SB. Was I fishing for them? Not particularly. I kind of dealt with w/e ever was thrown at me as a HW, SB astro. It wasn't ideal to wait for redraw cooldowns to play certain cards. I would royal the best fit 99% of the time and that was usually for Ewer/Spire for AOE.

For Plays? Balance was usually the go to. Spear right behind that. And then arrow. Bole was pretty useless and highly situational.

Astro's skill ceiling in HW and SB (especially SB) was so high that most just threw out Balance/AOE so to avoid Draw drift. You had to be fast as an AST or you would lose your place and maybe forget to look at the Party list HP values.

I took a different approach to ASTRO. I would build my royals and plays to the team specifically. SAM or DRG Arrow/Time extend + Time dilation. BLM, SMN, RDM Balance/potency buff + time dilation. MNK, NIN, Spear/Time extend + Time dilation.
The key here was watching the battle also.
DRG used Left eye/right eye. Play on DRG.
SMN popped Bahamut. Play on SMN
NIN used Trick Attack. Play on NIN or other heavy DPS.

Follow up with arcana if RNG is bad after play.

I was surprised how well things would line up and my cards would be ready for the next burst phase after I started playing that way.

The current AST is literally a 50/50 hip fire playstyle now which is due to the previous expansions building up DPS as the main focus, and SHB doubling down on DPS hard.

AST now only cares about Ranged DPS or Melee DPS as it's quite literally all the same now card wise. 1 Draw/Play, 1 Draw,Redraw,Play, Sleeve Draw, Divination. Rinse repeat. No thinking...No strat....just DPS leading up to more AOE dps buff.

I miss Split and Royal Road as it really added a lot to the class, AST is still insanely easy to play, but now I don't have to think on my feet as much. Sad

[Feidam]

This is true to an extent, but only because the other cards were really just not very good most of the time. Balance and Spear (after it was changed to crit) were just straight-up better than the other choices. Spire was basically a dead draw (Royal Road/Minor Arcana fodder only), Ewer was only very situationally useful (making it also Royal Road/Minor Arcana fodder), Bole was not possible to intelligently play around (because if you need mitigation you need it on-demand, not RNG), and Arrow was actively bad for most classes other than BLM because it resulted in misaligned burst windows. AST players weren't Balance/Spear fishing because of "elitism" (whatever that means), but because it was the only choice that made sense 99% of the time.

Was speaking about the idea of specific buffs leading to the exclusive practice of those or else. Not anything specific within the AST community. While the other AST buffs were niche it does not change the fact that balance and to a lesser extent spear fishing contributed to the “X” or go home attitudes that part of the ffxiv community held in terms of stacking utility.

Personally I liked the original AST card system. Was really enjoyable. But it was a bit over powered in comparison to others. I wish they had taken the utility and spread it around but unless everyone had the same potential for utility as their role counterparts it wouldn’t have fixed the issue.

[Azbroolah]

Personally I liked the original AST card system. Was really enjoyable. But it was a bit over powered in comparison to others. I wish they had taken the utility and spread it around but unless everyone had the same potential for utility as their role counterparts it wouldn’t have fixed the issue.

I liked it too. It definitely felt nice being able to put out a spread Balance at the right times, and it was fun to try to put one together. I really liked Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition as well. But, I think it's easy to see why they changed it. The design philosophy in this game doesn't really lend itself to utility options besides Damage Up or Vulnerability Down buffs, which is sad. I still like playing AST (though mostly because SCH and WHM just feel kind of bad...) but it's definitely not as interesting as it used to be. Can only hope they have some nice changes up their sleeves for healers in Endwalker.

Ewer wasn't a bad card. It just didn't work on the jobs that could have used it..

I mean, in the end that's kind of why it was bad, right? It was designed with some pretty big limitations in mind that made it really situational.

[Thoosa]

Also it’s somewhat broken that often levelling dungeons are harder to heal (because of being synced down and the tank having worse gear and mobs hitting harder) than expert roulette where the tank can wall to wall and you barely have to heal.

[Duskane]

I always find this "healer shortage" thing funny to read because if it was true probably wouldn't have gotten that far in ShB msq or a massive use in trust happened
like Healers are generally the last thing you'll get in PF ex content always been the case especially when we have new content like Bozja just released.

[Rilifane]

I always find this "healer shortage" thing funny to read because if it was true probably wouldn't have gotten that far in ShB msq or a massive use in trust happened
like Healers are generally the last thing you'll get in PF ex content always been the case especially when we have new content like Bozja just released.

At ShB release, healer always had instant invites even at the oddest hours with tanks having to wait for several minutes. This went on for many months until non-healers picked up on the perks of queueing as a healer for instant invites. Which means what we now have in DF are mostly dps who switch to healer because you get instant invite and it's braindead easy; that is a far cry from the dedicated healer mains you regulary had in DF queues before ShB. Most dps/ tank mains I know despise healer but still queue as it for quick roulettes because they can just spam one button and netflix on their 2nd monitor. But they still dislike healer and would never play it for anything other than instant invite.
Not quite as extreme but similiar in endgame content. You tend to wait for healers and the ones you get are.. clearly not well-versed in playing healer. It's rare that I get a healer in reclears or Ex farm that even reaches blue while hilariously outgearing the content. And you can even reach low purple with lots of GCD heals.
Don't think that just because you don't wait 35min as a dps for a healer anymore means we have plenty of healer mains - we don't. We have dps mains that are tired of long queues and bite the bullet by doing something they don't like, they're not good at just to get it over with.

[Duskane]

At ShB release, healer always had instant invites even at the oddest hours with tanks having to wait for several minutes.

this happens when new class you add is a tank

[Rilifane]

this happens when new class you add is a tank

Sure. The fact that they butchered every single healer had nothing to do with it. It's not like the forums and balance discord was on fire or something. Or that healers have been non-stop complaing ever since ShB release. And nobody ever admitted to quitting healing because of their terrible design choices for ShB.
Nah.
It was just because there was a new tank and it was only healer mains suddenly interested in tanking.
Man, how come I never realised this?

[Semirhage]

I always find this "no reduction in healer mains" thing funny to read because it'd take literally zero healers queuing for anything before parts of this community will admit healer design is terrible.

[Duskane]

I always find this "no reduction in healer mains" thing funny to read because it'd take literally zero healers queuing for anything before parts of this community will admit healer design is terrible.

nice try but ive already said my issues with healers and Im not saying they are perfect or not flawed but the "healer strike" or "lack there of healers" always pops up on these forums always interesting to see.