How is new AST feeling?

[SweetPete]

Can someone help me understand something about macrocosmos.

So does using it after a raid wide still register it as well?

[MintnHoney]

Can someone help me understand something about macrocosmos.

So does using it after a raid wide still register it as well?

Using Macrocosmos after an attack does not record that attack's damage for Microcosmos. The issue you're likely coming across is that they want to use Macrocosmos as a oGCD, but it's actually a GCD, so it gets delayed instead of coming out when intended.
It's the consequence of it being the only spell in ASTs kit on a long cooldown, I think.

[Mortex]

Can someone help me understand something about macrocosmos.

So does using it after a raid wide still register it as well?

No. Using macrocosmos gives every party member you hit a buff. This buff stores 50% of the dmg taken (even dmg done too shields) and converts it at the end of the buff or when you recast the spell into a heal equal too the 50 % dmg you took.

[Brandedblade]

Which brings me back to my point that you could remove all seal mechanics from current Astros kit and nothing of value would be lost. Being bad on purpose doesn't make it good. It's like if 5.0 SCH never got ED back and people said overstacking on Aetherflow is working as intended. The job gauge exists to be interacted with and rn Astro's job gauge is better when not interacted with.

THey absolutely could, but it doesn't change the fact that there are players who cried for that rng to come back so they where essentially thrown a squeaky toy to chew on that doesn't hurt the rest of their output.

[Blitzgon]

After getting all the healers to 90 and tossing them at the current EXs we have I have to say AST was the one that felt the worst to play. Out of all the iterations of AST there has been this feels like a regression back to SB but with more button bloat.

Starting with the negatives
-Minor Arcana feels bad to just use, like an additional button to keep track of on top of everything else.
-Astrodyne also feels bad when you are just unlucky to get 3 seals and the Refresh on it seems a bit overkill with MP on cards still.
-Macrocosmos has way too long of a cooldown for what you will get out of it most of the time.

And the positives
-Exaltation is a fun cooldown, wished it lasted 10-15s though
-Still incredibly powerful heals in Earthly Star, Celestial Opposition, and Collective
-Essential Dignity is still a strong single target heal that is reliably up when you will need it

Overall AST is still a serviceable healer, but the changes to cards and minor arcana makes it far more challenging to use.

Now for the nitpicking starting with cards. Honestly, I have no idea who thought we needed to have this hellish hybrid of ShB and SB cards. I think its great cards are still flat damage so we are not fishing for balance spreads like the old days, but I wish I could dump or get more redraws cards with seals I don't need without just literally tossing free damage down the toilet. The lack of RNG protection has lead to Astrodyne being just a "Oh hey, that's nice" kind of thing if you just so happen to luck yourself into three seals. The unreliability of the buff outside of the Refresh and Haste feels really bad, and speaking of the buff itself, Astrodyne feels like it came two expansions late to the party. The Refresh would have been amazing back in SB and early ShB where it was an issue, though now with MP on draw and buffs to Lucid Dreaming (and not to mention the copious amounts of PIE on current gear) I do not see how anyone would ever run dry on MP, kinda making the refresh moot. I'm sure once the gear sets allow for SS with no PIE then it'll allow AST to still pump after ten minutes, but until then it is just overkill. The next buff, Haste also feels underwhelming, especially if you use it when your lightspeed is up. "But don't use them together then!" Well, what if I happen to luck into the 5% damage buff? Should I really hold Astrodyne just so my lightspeed isn't wasted? No, no I would not hold on to it, especially when raid buffs are out like trick attack. I do think stacking the two doesn't really affect much, might be able to edge out another malific inside the raid buff window but I would still need to test it further. Anyways, point being that the Haste buff feels really negligible currently, and will most certainty make double weaving under lightspeed a nightmare once the Spell Speed builds start revving up.

Minor Arcana changes also feel like dog water. It used to nice to use it as a card dump and give someone a bigger buff while you fish out your seals for Divination, now its just another RNG button for either free damage or free healing with no real choice in the matter. I don't think this on its own is too much of an issue, though I think it does compound the overall issue of AST having too many damn ogcds to push. Before in ShB, it was play through your deck as fast as possible to toss out Div with the rest of the raid buffs, now its play cards, play minor arcana, and use Div on time and pray you got the 3 seal Astrodyne for a solid opener. It is a lot of multitasking for what feels like the same benefits as before.

Macrocosmos is also a underwhelming capstone ability. Though don't get me wrong, it has an amazing effect that looks like it has a lot of potential uses, if you could be bothered to use it after the initial boss AoE at the start of fights. Having the same Pot. as Fall Malific is nice since it does use up a gcd to use, but I just wished it had a shorter cooldown for how little it really affects healing. When ASTs kit is already outfitted with some of the highest burst healing in Earthly Star and amazing raid wide regen in Collective and Celestial Opposition which still on a short 60s cooldown, its really hard to justify using it when most of the healing is already covered by yourself or your co-healer. Especially now with other jobs bringing in some heavy mitigation, I never seem to find a good spot to use it unless I specifically tell my party to not mitigate or use their ogcd heals. In the end It has a way to long cooldown to really use often enough outside of certain tank buster invuls such as Holmgang and Living Dead.

Also last nitpick before I go to bed, Make draw and play the same god damn button, same goes for minor arcana. I see no reason the play button should be different then the draw button, or at the very least let us be able to choose if we want draw and play on the same damn button.

My hope is that the current minor arcana system will be dumped or at least changed to draw cards to buff players again, Astrodyne rework to either give the damage up front instead of the next to worthless refresh, and for a shorter cooldown on Macrocosmos to create more opportunities for interesting interactions with trials

[snipski]

I like how ppl said macrocosmos was such an amazing ability before exp launched the WHM 90 flower shits on it so hard, they need to fix the button bloat for sure though.

[Zolvolt]

If you use seal lvl 1 or 2 astro dyne when you have a higher seal level (lets say 3 for example) It actually removes your buffs and applies the new ones instead of just refreshing what you have and leaving the additional buffs alone. Lost my 5% damage buff doing this in MSQ roulette today. I'm not sure why it would work that way tbh.

I'd also like to add that having this many OGCD's is NOT a problem with astro. Please don't cut OGCD's because some people are saying there are too many. The problem is how some of them work, that is all.

[QooEr]

I'd also like to add that having this many OGCD's is NOT a problem with astro. Please don't cut OGCD's because some people are saying there are too many. The problem is how some of them work, that is all.

agree. my problem with so many ogcds is that ast has no weave space to accommodate so many

i think giving lightspeed a charge or a 60s cooldown is in order if ast is going to have so much weaving

[Zolvolt]

This might be a lesser asked for thing but Gravity/Gravity II's radius is slightly too small for being based on the enemy target's hit botx With the other 5 yalm healer aoe's, they are based on the caster's position so that you could position yourself in a place to hit everything. I see all the time targets missed by gravity because a tank doesn't realize they should move it. Even Holy has an 8 yalm radius. That would be really nice.

[The_Distinguished_Anarchist]

Clarifying Draw needs at least two charges.

When playing Astro I draw the same seal five times in a row about 30% of the time.
This means about half of my Astrodyne uses are with all three seals.
One out of every three uses of Astrodyne is with two different seals, and probably 20% of the time I have three of the same seal.

The RNG element was great back when the cards all had different effects and you could adjust your playstyle to account for the hand you were dealt. Now that the whole job is just flat damage increases the RNG feels middling when you get it and crappy when you don't.

If you want an RNG mechanic to determine your damage output, then make Gambler a job.