Concerns with Astrologian in Endwalker

[lisaa]

Secondly Balance:

In Endwalker WHM's glare is being buffed threefold while malefic is unchanged. First it is just getting 10 more potency to 310. Second it is reduced to 1.5s cast time, which increases the damage two ways. First this removes caster tax, which is the 0.1s extra delay a spell's cast time. Caster tax means that a 2.5s spell cast actually takes 2.6s before you can cast the next spell, while a 1.5s spell cast (1.6s with tax) will take 2.5s gcd before the next spell cast. This is basically a 4% damage buff at normal 2.4s gcds. It's as if glare did 12 potency more damage. Imagine if glare did 322 potency right now, compared to malefic's 250 potency, that is crazy. Finally being reduced to 1.5s cast time also makes it easier to cast as many spells as possible, by being able to move more freely and also weave ogcds more freely. For example you can now weave Assize whenever you want which can also potentially save healing gcds.

Does AST have anything to compensate for this? Well it is having sleeve draw and the upgraded cards of Minor Arcana changed, so it is providing even less buffs to the party, while receiving a little bit of personal damage in Lord of Crowns, Earthly Star buff, and Astrodyne. But this increase is so little every 60s compared to a well timed card which can be worth 600 potency damage which we are losing from sleeve draw. AST will also have better MP than WHM but this isn't really clear in prog, because you have so much piety anyways, and the new Thin Air can be used more frequently, and Lilybell is extremely powerful to replace the current Thin Air on repeated cure 3s (AST's Macrocosmos is big but can only heal a single wave).

On the side of healing, AST is known for its plentiful free ogcd heals, but even that is changing in Endwalker, as all healers will be able to freely weave ogcd heals on a 1.5s cast time. Ironically, AST might become to most restricted because of dealing with cards. It's only real advantage is Neutral Sect, which remains an extremely powerful skill, but do we still need it with so much more mitigation from the new Feint and RDM?

But AST is stronger than WHM, so shouldn't it be nerfed slightly? That is true, but only in more optimized play. Even though WHM does less damage right now it is still more popular because it is more simple to play, which allows you to focus more on other things. Especially in prog, what reason is there to pick the more complex job if the simpler one is just as good?

Normally it's not good to talk about a balance before release since numbers can change, and especially for healers which depends a lot on the new fight designs, but historically SE has underestimated the effect of reducing cast times, when AST's malefic was reduced to 1.5s, so I think it is important to at least build awareness for it. I'm not saying "SE needs to change this" but rather "SE please watch and be mindful if it needs change"

[Risvertasashi]

Secondly Balance:

In Endwalker WHM's glare is being buffed threefold while malefic is unchanged. First it is just getting 10 more potency to 310. Second it is reduced to 1.5s cast time, which increases the damage two ways. First this removes caster tax, which is the 0.1s extra delay a spell's cast time. Caster tax means that a 2.5s spell cast actually takes 2.6s before you can cast the next spell, while a 1.5s spell cast (1.6s with tax) will take 2.5s gcd before the next spell cast. This is basically a 4% damage buff at normal 2.4s gcds. It's as if glare did 12 potency more damage. Imagine if glare did 322 potency right now, compared to malefic's 250 potency, that is crazy. Finally being reduced to 1.5s cast time also makes it easier to cast as many spells as possible, by being able to move more freely and also weave ogcds more freely. For example you can now weave Assize whenever you want which can also potentially save healing gcds.

I'd just like to point out that AST is the top damage dealing healer right now, while white mage is on the bottom. So, perhaps white mage needs a bit of a buff to keep a meta from forming against it?

But one way or another, it shows just how misleading worrying about the potency of a single spell is.

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And even then, none of this really matters because Endwalker is turning all the damage calculations on its head and we don't know exactly how stuff is going to shake out yet.

Still, it's exceptionally silly to get potency-jealous of the lowest damage healer's nuke while playing the highest damage healer.

[ForteNightshade]

I'd just like to point out that AST is the top damage dealing healer right now, while white mage is on the bottom. So, perhaps white mage needs a bit of a buff to keep a meta from forming against it?

I suspect it's to balance that Misery is actually now an even bigger DPS loss for White Mage due to it no longer needing to create weaving spaces through "wasted" Lilies. Momo has an excellent breakdown of this in his overview of White Mage.

[Risvertasashi]

I suspect it's to balance that Misery is actually now an even bigger DPS loss for White Mage due to it no longer needing to create weaving spaces through "wasted" Lilies. Momo has an excellent breakdown of this in his overview of White Mage.

It may well be. But the point still stands. AST is the highest damage healer. WHM is the lowest damage healer.

Acting like AST is somehow far behind and only getting further by looking at the potency of one spell is very misleading and very silly. (And especially complaining about the cast tax - Glare being effectively longer than the GCD should be treated as a reduction in potency - adding potency when it's no longer there is yet another blatantly misleading number fudge)