AST feedback

[AntaresThordis]

This going to be a short post i think and i don't know if someone already made this but there we go.
I think AST really needs at least a buff if they plan on reowking it again while we wait and i don't even know if its going to be good or bad and as someone who plays this job for years and watched it got chaotic atm.

so there is my thoughts on what i would like to see on AST and think its fair

1: A buff to Fall Malefic making it 270 at least.
I don't know why it have the same potency as Malefic IV back in ShB kinda doesn't make sense to me even with Minor Arcana and a 100% chance of Lord of Crowns

2: Light Speed should be a 60 Second CD and a addition of a second charge.
with how busy AST is and how much they incrested the movement tools for the other casters (WHM, SCH, SGE,SMN haveing 1.5s cast and RDM,SMN and BLM getting a super boost on movement tools and i can not see BLM being the immobile turret anymore)on and the abmount of movement needed i feel like its fair and i played about all jobs and it just feels kinda unbalanced and awful to play sometimes while the other healers do just as good with no headache.

and i guess that's for my post, like i thought they would do the things i mentioned already so that's why i just waited and didn't see anything but they really didn't do anything to make this job feel better to play so i kinda head to let it out and speak my thoughts , and thank you for your time

[Supersnow845]

AST doesn’t need a buff right now people just need to optimise the fights better and get some more gear and AST will pass WHM like it generally does due to gear scaling, SCH the other buff healer just generally doesn’t rely on gear scaling as much because chain is a good buff regardless of how badly the party performs

I agree lightspeed because locked to the div window makes its 90 second CD pointless but I think 60 seconds and 2 charges is a bit too strong considering SCH also has no lossless movement, just decoupling the forced connection between the two would be better by not forcing so many weaves would probably fix the problem better

[Vukimukinukiduki]

AST is perfectly fine as it is. They fixed usual card doubles. They combined minor arcana draw and realese and i have no complaints here.

[MintnHoney]

AST is perfectly fine as it is.

I dunno about the use of the word "perfect" in this context. I'll agree that it's "fine," sure, in that "it works," but AST is just a shell of what it used to be, and will continue to be as such as long as the development team are afraid of going one way or the other with our use of RNG.

IMO, of course.

[ty_taurus]

Well, fine in terms of balance. The healing role still needs to be reworked entirely of course.

[Rilifane]

AST functions.
But LS is still married to 2min burst, MA doesn't have a timer, Astrodyne and praying for Lord is unrewarding, the 2min burst is bloated with weaves making it the least mobile healer outside burst while everything between 2min bursts is 1111 spam with little else to do. It functions and is competetive, but it's still poorly designed.

[ty_taurus]

AST functions.
But LS is still married to 2min burst, MA doesn't have a timer, Astrodyne and praying for Lord is unrewarding, the 2min burst is bloated with weaves making it the least mobile healer outside burst while everything between 2min bursts is 1111 spam with little else to do. It functions and is competetive, but it's still poorly designed.

Even as someone who doesn't play AST at all, the delay on the rework is giving me anxiety. Maybe I'm reading too deeply into things, but it sounds like this is supposed to be a fairly significant rework, and that holds a lot of weight as to where their headspace is in terms of healer direction. Not that I have much hope that the design team is responding to feedback, but we've had a bit more time since EW launched and healer frustration is growing and becoming louder, and not specifically on the forums. We've had more larger name FFXIV players start to talk about the healer issues, like Lucy Pyre and Misshapen Chair. Healer population is clearly dropping in NA at least. I feel like these are difficult metrics to ignore in their entirety. I feel like there will be some kind of shift come 7.0. Whether or not that shift happens and if it actually addresses the real issues is another story, but it has me on edge regardless.

Someone else brought this up as well somewhere else which is "where else can they even go with the current healer design? Give us even more OGCD heals?"

[MintnHoney]

"where else can they even go with the current healer design? Give us even more OGCD heals?"

Another round of ability level ups. "Glare XIV" "Gigadia" "Summer Malefic" "Art of Not War"
All with the description:
"The ultimate form of glare/dia/malefic/combust/art/etc., brought into fruition by breaking limits like only a true warrior of *insert flavor here* can."
...and a total potency increase of 5, except for dia, which sees a potency decrease of 10, both in the description and actual dps dealt, for reasons that the dev team will call a "miscellanious never-before-seen bug."

A new trait that grants a free cast of an AOE if you hit with your basic heal.

And they'll distract everyone with a "personal limit break" at level 100, which will just be a strong ability with a very long cooldown with a dumb name like the "100 ability" or something. All they would need to do is steal the PVP limit breaks and alter them to fit PVE content, or it'll create a new "burst window," at will, on a very long cooldown.

So, you know, it'll all be "ok."

[Avoidy]

Here are my issues with it. Keep in mind this is purely from my own head and you might not agree or you might find things fun that I find awful and that's fine:

Square removed the sigil system from divination and applied it to Astrodyne, a really unsatisfying self-buff with worse rng than old div that I know I never asked for, but I won't speak for others. They removed lady/lord of crowns and replaced it with an random chance at a really wimpy feeling hit, or an okay feeling heal, but since it's random you can't strategize or plan around it, you just sort of draw and hope it's a damage dealer for the burst and if it's not, "oh well". They removed the sect system instead of just improving upon it to address people's issues with noct sect. They expanded earthly star's range so much that you don't even have to plan where to place it since it's just the size of the whole damn arena at this point. Its two minute window is full of unsatisfying skill-vomit. Much of the thought and fun are gone. The planning that made me feel like I was divining the future is gone. I miss using sleeve draw to cheat the odds. I miss putting Lord of Crowns on my friends while Div was up and I knew they were bursting. I miss switching to noct sect in bad groups that genuinely needed on demand shielding because they were taking too much unnecessary damage too often and heal over times weren't cutting it. I miss knowing where the boss would be in 10 seconds and putting my earthly star there in advance, and people would be like "why'd you put it there???" and then the boss would move there and they'd understand. I miss just using noct sect in casual content and shielding like crazy because I could; now if I want to play with shields, I have to either rely on neutral sect and its long cd, or play sch/sge which I'm not fond of. I miss feeling like my entire job was centered around using cards to get a good divination; now I just feel like I hold cards for the 2m burst. Old ast was satisfying and no matter how much I try to enjoy new AST, I just can't. I have no faith in the rework, since Square continues to believe that the reason people aren't playing AST is because of button bloat and not because they spent several years stripping all the fun out of it.

I unironically have more fun just playing WHM now.
edit: And before someone misses the point, I'm not talking about AST's viability. It's objectively good and has a solid kit. But playing it optimally, to me at least, feels like shit.

[ty_taurus]

Here are my issues with it. Keep in mind this is purely from my own head and you might not agree or you might find things fun that I find awful and that's fine:

Square removed the sigil system from divination and applied it to Astrodyne, a really unsatisfying self-buff with worse rng than old div that I know I never asked for, but I won't speak for others. They removed lady/lord of crowns and replaced it with an random chance at a really wimpy feeling hit, or an okay feeling heal, but since it's random you can't strategize or plan around it, you just sort of draw and hope it's a damage dealer for the burst and if it's not, "oh well". They removed the sect system instead of just improving upon it to address people's issues with noct sect. They expanded earthly star's range so much that you don't even have to plan where to place it since it's just the size of the whole damn arena at this point. Its two minute window is full of unsatisfying skill-vomit. Much of the thought and fun are gone. The planning that made me feel like I was divining the future is gone. I miss using sleeve draw to cheat the odds. I miss putting Lord of Crowns on my friends while Div was up and I knew they were bursting. I miss switching to noct sect in bad groups that genuinely needed on demand shielding because they were taking too much unnecessary damage too often and heal over times weren't cutting it. I miss knowing where the boss would be in 10 seconds and putting my earthly star there in advance, and people would be like "why'd you put it there???" and then the boss would move there and they'd understand. I miss just using noct sect in casual content and shielding like crazy because I could; now if I want to play with shields, I have to either rely on neutral sect and its long cd, or play sch/sge which I'm not fond of. I miss feeling like my entire job was centered around using cards to get a good divination; now I just feel like I hold cards for the 2m burst. Old ast was satisfying and no matter how much I try to enjoy new AST, I just can't. I have no faith in the rework, since Square continues to believe that the reason people aren't playing AST is because of button bloat and not because they spent several years stripping all the fun out of it.

I unironically have more fun just playing WHM now.
edit: And before someone misses the point, I'm not talking about AST's viability. It's objectively good and has a solid kit. But playing it optimally, to me at least, feels like shit.

Honestly I don't disagree. As skeletal as WHM is as a job and as a healer, the Misery buff ironically gives WHM one of the most interesting and satisfying healer mechanics in the game: intentionally not using Glare on occasion. It's quite literally the only healer rewarded for prioritizing healing over damage. That's not to say that WHM is great to play or fun to play, mind you. It just speaks to how bad the healing role is designed as a whole.

In regards to AST, though, the star sign/seal system is just terrible and always has been. It's an obnoxiously convoluted system that bends over backwards to accomplish what could very easily be accomplished by a single action. Imagine this:

Bravery - Ability
Cooldown: 30 seconds (2 Charges)
Increases damage dealt by self or target party member by 6%
Duration: 15 seconds

Done. There you go, the entire draw system exists to do what this one example of an action does, taking up several buttons in the process.