Healer Suggestions Megathread

[Shurrikhan]

Recalling back before the launch of EW, Yoshi P mentioned that they're adding an extra thing for healers to manage, we now know he meant stuff like Aquaveil, Protraction and Exaltation. But that gave me some ideas, what if it was something different? Every example skill given will be on the GCD:

WHM
Thorns: [1s cast] [2.5s recast] [25s CD] Applies a buff on target ally which causes the next 4 hits taken to reflect damage equivalent to 80 potency.

SCH
Focus Fire Tactics: [1.5s cast] [2.5s recast] [30s CD] Attacks an enemy for 100 potency and grants a buff to all nearby allies in a 15y radius that causes their next attack to echo for a guaranteed critical 30 potency damage.

AST
Crossed Fates: [Instant cast] [2.5s recast] [40s CD] Applies a buff to selected ally that allows them to receive the very next card effect applied as if it was also applied to them directly. (So if you apply this buff to a ranged job and your very next card used is Balance on a melee, the ranged job will gain 3%)

SGE
(Idk what to name this): [Instant cast] [1s recast] Sends a noulith to a selected ally, granting them a buff that enhances their next 5 attacks with 65 potency of damage and also granting them a buff that causes the next Eukrasian Diagnosis to also apply to them at 50% of the effect (Both buffs last 30s, ability cannot be used again unless both buffs are consumed or timed out).

Sorry, for the 'nitpicks', but... while I really like the intent... none of these seem like they'd be particularly fun in practice, let alone unique, thematic, or kit-intwined, etc., as I would think would be the goal from "an extra thing for healers to manage"?

This will become more relevant on a general note in a second, but first, to deal with the brass tacks by way of example:

Even if you buffed it, Thorns would just essentially be an alternative-attack that replaces Glare once per 25s, by casting it on the tank. (It'd need to be over 101 potency per reflect, though, because Glare's 310 potency is multiplied by the +30% damage modifier from Maim and Mend II, giving it actually 403p.)

The same goes for Focus Fire Tactics. Either it's not worth casting at all, or it's worth casting every 30s. The only interesting component there would be whether the "echo" actually carries with it an additional proc chance for the attacker (an extra Chakra, a bonus Wildfire stack, etc.).

Crossed Fates is just an extra 1.5-3 Cards' value per 2 minutes. Use on CD in place of Fall Malefic (325 relative potency), if will do more than 6191 relative potency within 15 seconds (since they have a 75% chance, via Shuffle, of scoring a 6% buff and a 25% chance of scoring only a 3% buff, between which they'll need to match the RP of Fall Malefic). [For that one, you'd have to buff the skill hugely for it to be worth using on more than only certain jobs and only per 2 minutes.]

The same goes for the offensive component of the SGE ability. You'd have to buff it by 31.6% to even equal Dosis III, and even then... you'd just put it on whomever has the highest gear, if the bonus potency doesn't interact with their traits and buffs, or the gap between potency and relative potency otherwise (which would then just go to BLM during AF or a fellow healer, as they have the highest multiplier now that Monk has neither GL nor FoF).

None of those would be unique nor thematic: they'd all just be 'use on CD', targeting the only worthwhile ally. The only tactical or remotely thematic component there is the EukDi spread.

To put it more simply, none of these components would likely do anything interesting in isolation. Trying to add just one "something" different... isn't going to do anything beyond a single outlying gimmick (that'd each play almost identically to one another, in those examples).

Honestly... even as much as I'd like to see additional offensive options with which to shake up the filler-attack-spam, I'd likely have preferred Aquaveil, Protraction, and Exaltation over all but maybe the last (Sage's), as they at least rewarded fight knowledge a bit more, rather than just being something we key-swipe over our Glare equivalent (a la Refulgent>Burst Shot, so that one needn't actually pay attention to procs).


As an aside (since I realize your suggestion was just meant as an alternative to those throw-away mitigation skills we were given)...
:: If we want a "something" that can make those jobs feel more unique, you'd have to rip out the template-based designs as they stand, pick just a couple kernal ideas, and expand from there. No single-button gimmick can replace that necessary work.

________________

Stuff in this direction, on the other hand, I imagine would be a fair bit more promising in terms of trying to distinguish kits with a single "extra thing to manage". Though still singular, it's a mechanic / interactor that can be used across a large portion of the kit, after all, rather than a singular and separate action:

This system would actually be very interesting on SGE. Imagine if:
- Dosis is a straight heal on Kardia target
- Eukrasian Dosis is a regen on Kardia target
- Dyskrasia pulses an AoE heal out from Kardia target
- Phlegma places a shield on Kardia target
- Pneuma pulses an AoE shield out from Kardia target

[ForsakenRoe]

I also disagree with the suggestions, because giving all of the healers 'one new thing to manage' doesn't exactly break them up in terms of playstyle, it's like Aquaveil/Protraction/Krasis/Exaltation to me, they're all different in their effect, but at the end of the day, everyone has probably got them on the same keybind because of the inherent similarities, right? Like, if SE added one new 30s DOT to every healer, yeh it's something that makes us press a non Glarebroilmaleficdosis every 30s, but also, it's just going to result in the four healers having extremely similar gameplay still, so it doesn't exactly change anything

As for potency stuff, I assume that when they say 'damage equivalent to potency of 80' on Thorns stacks, I understood it to mean that the potency is calculated based on the WHM's attributes, rather than the target. But it could also be rewritten to be scaled on Max HP if Maim and Mend is really going to play such a factor in things

[Aravell]

I wrote those suggestions as something extra to press to break up the 1 filler button gameplay while keeping with SE's design of minimal skill requirements and everything needing to be a slight gain or DPS neutral. It's meant to be the bare minimum of changes, if I had my way, I'd implement much more drastic changes.

Also, regarding the potencies, yes, they were all calculated as coming from the healer, so they all end up as slight gains. The cooldowns are also planned so it all fits into burst windows with the exception of WHM, which is a "use on cooldown" ability as long as the tank is taking autos.

[IDontPetLalas]

So basically none of your changes do anything to "break up the 1 filler button gameplay" since aside from the burst window (aside from WHM) , the healers would go back to spamming 1 button . Also, the damage increases wouldn't have that much impact, and as they don't apply outside of group content then there is no improvement to solo QOL which is a pity.

[Shurrikhan]

I feel like we're piling on unnecessarily at this point. I had hoped I kept pretty clear the degree to which my critiques were tangential to Aravell's food for thought above (i.e., what the point at which a "something extra" would seem worthwhile to me), but it seems I had not.

Anywho, more constructively... Again, I would start instead with just 1-3 core leverageable themes, each building on each other. If the Job starts with a Class, start there instead. (Yes, I really do recommend that initial Class-based consideration over just trying to head straight for, say, a WHM. The latter is literally as generic as is possible for a class/job/profession to be, and you can build that atop something more XIV-worldly, anyways.)

No templates, no pure|barrier distinctions. Just... build it out organically. And then finally, in the last pass, tweak its pairings for parity against other healer pairs.

Working on a WHM mock-up. Should be done within a day or two.

[ty_taurus]

I was thinking more about Sage and Kardia from the conversation over in the other thread, the idea of creating more decision-making elements for Sage with their choice of spells, and finding ways to reduce bloat by focusing on more interactivity and availability of actions. While making adjustments to my last theorycraft on the job, I came up with a take on it that I think is cleaner and could really capture the fantasy of a healer who heals by attack much better by making Kardia a tool you have to be active with. Note that if an action has "Change:" in its description, I just tried to focus on what's different or important for the action, so if something isn't listed, assume that it's the same as the current iteration of the action. I also didn't include spell name numbers (i.e. Dosis II vs Dosis III) at the moment. I can return to this later and pretty it up when I have more time maybe, but I wanted to share it now because I'm pretty happy with it.

Total Sage Actions: 19
Role Actions: Swiftcast, Surecast, Rescue, Repose (maybe)
Total Actions including LB and Sprint: 25

Gauge Systems

Addersgall - Change: Accumulates 1 Addersgall every 20 seconds to a max of 3; charge persists while 3 Addersgall are present, if the duration completes and there are still 3 Addersgall, no Addersgall is gained and the timer resets.

Addersting - Change: Addersgall is automatically consumed when casting Eukrasian Diagnosis/Prognosis or Anamnesis to generate 1 Addersting. It can then be spent on Toxikon, Eukrasian Toxikon, or Parasomnia.

Eukrasia - No Change.

Dyskrasia - New: Indicates when Dyskrasia is active; enables the use of the ability Kakosis.

Special Actions

Kardia - (OGCD) Change: Not all offensive spells have Kardia effects.

Eukrasia - (GCD) Change: Affects more actions.

Incarus - (OGCD) Change: Gains a second charge in the next expansion.

Soma - (OGCD) New, level 100 Capstone: When cast, records the next 5 GCD spells cast by you and stores that. When Recast, summons an aetherical copy of you that casts those spells in the order they were recordered in; damage dealt from your copy is 50% less than damage dealt by you (does not trigger Kardia effects as the copy does not have the Kardia buff). Eukrasia does not count toward your 5 spell limit. 60 second cooldown.

Healing Actions

Diagnosis - Change: Potency increases to 600 when you heal a target protected by a barrier; also removes a single detrimental effect; no MP cost.
- Eukrasian Diagnosis - Change: Consumes 1 Addersgall to generate 1 Addersting (If you have no Addersgall, this action does not generate Addersting). 1000 MP cost.

Prognosis - Change: Potency increases to 450 on targets protected by a barrier; no MP cost.
- Eukrasian Prognosis - Consumes 1 Addersgall to generate 1 Addersting (If you have no Addersgall, this action does not generate Addersting). 1000 MP cost.

Egeiro - No change.

Holos - Reworked: (GCD) Deals damage to all enemies within 15 yalms with a potency of 280 for the first enemy and 40% less for all remaining enemies. Additionally provides an AoE heal of 600 potency; has a 90 second cooldown.

Anamnesis - New: (GCD) Restores 15% of your MP. Consumes 1 Addersgall to generate 1 Addersting (If you have no Addersgall, this action does not generate Addersting). Has a 15 second cooldown.

Haima - Rework: (OGCD) Grants a 10% damage mitigation effect to a target party member; the original staggered barrier is now granted to your Kardion target, each stack being 150 potency (affected by Soteria/Therapeia effects). Has a 90 second cooldown and 2 charges.

Offensive Actions

Dosis - Change: Delivers a fourfold attack; 70 potency each (280 total); No MP cost; no Kardia effect.
- Eukrasian Dosis - Change: Inflicts Katarrh, a 90 potency damage over time effect; 15 second duration; No MP cost; no Kardia effect. Combos into: Paroxysm.

Paroxysm (Formerly Dyskrasia) - Change: Delivers a twofold attack; 85 potency each (170 total) in a half-circle AoE (point-blank with a radius of 8 yalms in front of you); No MP cost; no Kardia effect. Combos from: Eukrasian Dosis. Combo effect: delivers a twofold attack: 170 each (340 total); this combo is unbreakable--no action can disrupt it--the combo lasts 30 seconds.
- Eukrasian Paroxysm - New: Inflicts Katarrh, a 60 potency damage oer time effect; 15 second duration, no MP cost. Does not stack with the Katarrh effect from Eukrasian Dosis.

Phlegma - Change: Delivers a twofold attack; 200 potency each (400 total) for the first enemy and 40% less for all remaining enemies; 600 MP cost; no Kardia effect. Grants the effects of Dyskrasia.

Pneuma - Rework: (GCD) Deals a single hit in a straight line AoE with a potency of 600 for the first enemy and 40% less for all remaining enemies. 800 MP cost; no Kardia effect. Grants the effects of Zoe to all nearby party members for 45 seconds; restoring HP to the target with a potency of 300 when HP falls below 70% or when the effect expires. 60 second CD.

Emfragma - New: (GCD) Deals a single hit circle AoE (ranged) with a potency of 280 for the first enemy and 40% less for all remaining enemies, and 40% less for all remaining enemies; 1.5 second cast time; 800 MP cost; restores HP to your Kardion target with a potency of 250.

Polydipsia - New: (GCD) Deals a single hit circle AoE (ranged) with a potency of 280 for the first enemy and 40% less for all remaining enemies; 1.5 second cast time; 800 MP cost; grants 4 stacks of Soteria to your Kardion target, increasing the Kardia effects of all other actions on your Kardion target by 100% (does not apply to Polydipsia or Eukrasian Polydipsia).
- Eukrasian Polydipsia - New: (GCD) Deals a single hit circle AoE (ranged) with a potency of 280 for the first enemy and 40% less for all remaining enemies; 800 MP cost; grants 2 stacks of Therapeia to your Kardion target, blasting the Kardia effects of all other actions from your Kardion target to all party members in range of them (30 yalms) (does not apply to Polydipsia or Eukrasian Polydipsia).

Toxikon - Change: Delivers a fourfold attack in a circle AoE (ranged); 70 potency each (280 total) for the first enemy, and 40% less for all remaining enemies; costs 1 Addersting; Increases healing received by your Kardion target by 10% for 15 sceonds. Grants the effects of Dyskrasia.
- Eukrasian Toxikon - New: Delivers a fourfold attack in a circle AoE (ranged); 70 potency each (280 total) for the first enemy, and 40% less for all remaining enemies; costs 1 Addersting; reduces damage taken by your Kardion target by 10% for 15 sceonds. Grants the effects of Dyskrasia.

Parasomnia - New: (GCD) Deals a single hit circle AoE (ranged) with a potency of 280 for the first enemy and 40% less for all remaining enemies; costs 1 Addersting; restores 5% of your own MP; inflicts Deep Sleep on all targets for 4 seconds (enemies cannot be woken up from taking damage while afflicted with Deep Sleep). No Kardia effect. Grants the effects of Dyskrasia.

Kakosis - New: (OGCD) Delivers a fourfold attack in a circle AoE (ranged); 70 potency each (280 total) for the first enemy, and 40% less for all remaining enemies; can only be used while under the effects of Dyskrasia; this action has a 15 second cooldown with 2 charges.

To Summarize the key points:

1. In order to heal while maintaining your DPS, you need to rely on your Kardia spells: You can set up effects that enhance and/or extend Kardia healing or buffs in advance since your casts of Dosis do not heal anymore. Instead, you can cast Emfragma to restore HP, Toxikon to increase healing output, Eukrasian Toxikon to mitigate, or use Haima to apply staggered barriers on your target or the whole party. This requires proper MP management in harder fights, which is now something you also must be active with.

2. You general gameplay outside of healing involves: Eukrasian Dosis > Paroxysm every 15 seconds. Managing Phlegma charges every 40 seconds as per usual, but with an added weave of Kakosis after each cast. Pneuma every 60 seconds. Soma to record your burst and trigger your copy to execute that burst every other minute. Dosis or healing to fill the space.

3. Many recovery actions have been removed from the current Sage kit, but the tools that remain are more accessible with shorter cooldowns, extra charges, and more interactivity in addition to Addersgall now granting free GCD barriers instead of OGCD healing and spending MP for Kardia healing as needed.

[Aravell]

I feel like we're piling on unnecessarily at this point.

I don't really view it as piling on, people disagree, and that's fine. I also disagree with my own suggestions. The point of those suggestions is just a "What if SE gave us something to manage more actively rather than stuff like Aquaveil which we mostly only put up on a tankbuster?".

As for those who say it doesn't break up the filler spam, that's not true, let's take WHM for example, if you upkeep Thorns on cooldown for a 10 minute fight, you will remove 24 Glares from your GCD casts. That is factually breaking up the filler spam. It may not be enough of a break at every 25-40s, but let's not be disingenuous and say that it doesn't break it at all.

[Shurrikhan]

The thing about it not breaking up filler spam is not true though, let's take WHM for example, if you upkeep Thorns on cooldown for a 10 minute fight, you will remove 24 Glares from your GCD casts. That is factually breaking up the filler spam. It may not be enough of a break at every 25-40s, but let's not be disingenuous and say that it doesn't break it at all.

I wasn't the one who made that point. I... stated the opposite, that they'd replace 1 in 10|12|16 fillers. I just said it wouldn't much besides that, outside of perhaps the SGE skill...

...and that because a single higher-priority action on a fixed timer (unlike a DoT) can simply be key-swiped (where you just swipe from, say, 2->1 to queue Thorns if able and Glare if not) to remove any depth it'd otherwise have added, I'd actually sooner take the single-target mitigation skill over that for purposes of my gameplay.

I don't really view it as piling on, people disagree, and that's fine.

I was just seeing it as my critiques not really resounding fairly, since I was shifting goalposts on you to something far more ambitious, and worried that others were doing the same.

_________

Work's been slow, so about a third of the way through the mock-up's initial rough thus far, btw.

[Aravell]

I wasn't the one who made that point.

Oh, I didn't mean that you were saying it, it was a general statement towards anyone who might say that. I guess it looked like I aimed it at you because I quoted you for my previous paragraph.

[ty_taurus]

I'm putting a pin in this for now. It doesn't work so I'll try it again another day, but I'll leave it here in case anyone's curious.

So I talked in the past about trying to make Astrologian a job that substitutes a lot of their GCD DPS for support actions to create a healer that still contributes DPS competitively, but does so in a way that feels supportive rather than offensive. There's been a little bit of back and forth about whether or not GCD cards are desired by some of the AST players on here, and I went back and tried to rectify some of that. I'm just including the key points of the changes here and working off existing potencies and names of offensive spells, so that would naturally adjust to 7.0 balance as needed. If anyone wants to share some feedback, I'm curious if this sounds more satisfying to some of the AST players I've talked to before orif it still misses the mark:

Gauge Systems

The Arcana Gauge - This will now be referred to as "The Hand." When you play a Major Arcanum, that Arcanum will be displayed in The Hand; The Hand is broken up into two sections: Astral Arcanum and Umbral Arcanum. You can hold up to 3 Astral Arcanum and 3 Umbral Arcanum at a time. The Astrologian begins with a full hand of all 6 Arcanum at the start of an instance.

The Sect Gauge - A new element that displays your current sect. Visually, this takes the form of a wheel with 3 parts: a sun, a moon, and a star--Diurnal Sect, Nocturnal Sect, and Stellar Sect respectively. Your current sect is the icon at the top of the wheel; the Astrologian always begins an instance in Diurnal Sect. Every time any Major Arcanum or Minor Arcanum is played, the wheel spins to the next sect in the following order: Diurnal > Nocturnal > Stellar > Diurnal. In the center of the Sect Gauge, your current number of Lodestars is displayed. Lodestars are generated through the use of certain actions while you're affected by the buff "Asterism" and act as a source of indirect damage while using support GCDs; Lodestars are also displayed around your character and orbit around you. Up to 6 Lodestars can be held at a time.

Offensive Actions

Fall Malefic - (GCD) Single target damage with a potency of 250; 50% chance to grant you the effects of Hypergravity for 30 seconds; 1.5 second cast time; has no MP cost.

Gravity II - (GCD) AoE damage around your target with a potency of 250 for the first enemy and 40% less for all other enemies; 1.5 second cast time; has no MP cost. While under the effects of Hypergravity, potency increases to 500 and has an instant cast time.

Asterism - (GCD) Replace Combust. Grants you the effects of Asterism that lasts for 15 seconds, allowing you to generate Lodestars when casting certain spells, and summons 1 Lodestar. The duration of Asterism can be extended to a max of 30 seconds. This spell is instant cast and costs 800 MP.

Premonition - (GCD) Takes a damage snapshot on all enemies within 15 yalms of you when cast to be detonated later (see Minor Arcana). This spell has a 1.5 second cast time, a 60 second recast time, and costs 600 MP. Damage is snapshot at the time of this cast (i.e. when used during buff windows, the damage is calculated based on those buffs even when detonated after they fall off).

Earthly Star - (OGCD) Remains largely the same, but is reduced to 15 yalms in size. (Makes it easier to use in Deep Dungeons)

Healing Actions

Benefic II - (GCD) Upgrades from Benefic. Single target heal of 600 potency; 50% chance to grant you the effects of Hypergravity for 30 seconds; removes 1 detrimental effect from the target; instant cast; no MP cost.

Helios - (GCD) AoE heal around you with a potency of 400; 50% chance to grant you the effects of Hypergravity for 30 seconds; 1.5 second cast time; no MP cost.

Aspected Benefic - (GCD) Single target heal of 300 potency; provides an additional effect based on your current sect; instant cast; costs 600 MP.
- Diurnal Effect: Healing over time with a potency of 250 for 15 seconds.
- Nocturnal Effect: Generates a barrier worth 180% of the HP restored and lasts 30 seconds.
- Stellar Effect: Summons 1 Lodestar while under the effects of Asterism.

Aspected Helios - (GCD) AoE heal around you with a potency of 200; provides an additional effect based on your current sect; 1.5 second cast; costs 1000 MP.
- Diurnal Effect: Healing over time with a potency of 150 for 15 seconds.
- Nocturnal Effect: Generates a barrier worth 120% of the HP restored and lasts 30 seconds.
- Stellar Effect: Summons 1 Lodestar while under the effects of Asterism.

Neutral Sect - (OGCD) Your Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios spells will trigger all 3 effects regardless of your current sect for 20 seconds; has a 90 second cooldown.

Grand Trine - (OGCD) Level 100 Capstone. Places an astral field effect down in the shape of a pyramid that lasts 21 seconds. Grants a healing over time effect with a potency of 150 to all party members standing within the field and also converts 20% of all damage taken into a barrier that lasts 15 seconds each time a party member takes damage within the field effect; has a cooldown of 90 seconds. (This action would be an upgrade of Collective Unconscious, adding the damage conversion aspect. CU would be reworked somewhat to make this upgrade feel fluid, such as removing the channel. The pyramid shape would be able to perfectly fit the current radius of CU in it while adding in extra space for each corner).

Special Actions

Synastry - Reworked: (OGCD) Functions like Dancer's Closed Position and Sage's Kardia in the sense that you select a "partner" to benefit from certain effects; you can target yourself as the receiver of Synastry as well. All offensive Spells and Weaponskills used by your designated target of Synastry cause 1 of your Lodestars to explode on the first target hit by that Spell or Weaponskill in a small AoE, dealing damage with a potency of 250 for the first target and 40% less for other enemies. Synastry has a 5 second cooldown and transforms into "End Synastry" while active, which allows you to remove the effect.

Astral Play - (OGCD) Draw no longer exists. Instead, Astral Play automatically populates with one of your Astral Arcanum based on your current sect: The Balance during Diurnal, The Arrow during Nocturnal, and The Spear during Stellar. Playing any of these Arcanum adds that card to The Hand and turns the Sect Wheel. This has a cooldown of 20 seconds with 2 charges and does not share a cooldown with any other actions.

Umbral Play - (OGCD) Functions identically to Astral Play, but with your Umbral Arcanum: The Bole during Diurnal, The Ewer during Nocturnal, and The Spire during Stellar. It also has a cooldown of 20 seconds with 2 charges and does not share a cooldown with any other actions.

Celestial Intersection - Reworked: (GCD) Grants Celestial Intersection to yourself and party members around you for 15 seconds; the effects of Celestial Intersection are dependent on the Astral Arcanum in your hand while this action is cast (see below). This spell is instant cast, costs 1000 MP, and summons 1 Lodestar.
- The Balance Effect: Increases damage dealt by 3%
- The Arrow Effect: Increases the chance to score critical hits by 6%
- The Spear Effect: Increases the damage dealt by critical hits by 6%

Celestial Opposition - Reworked: (GCD) Grants Celestial Opposition to yourself and party members around you for 15 seconds; the effects of Celestial Opposition are dependent on the Umbral Arcanum in your hand while this action is cast (see below). This spell is instant cast, costs 1000 MP, and summons 1 Lodestar.
- The Bole Effect: Decreases damage taken by 5%
- The Ewer Effect: Increases the chance to restore critical HP with healing actions by 10%
- The Spear Effect: Increases the total healing delivered when critical HP is restored with healing actions by 10%

Minor Arcana - Reworked: (GCD) Automatically populates with one of your Minor Arcanum based on your current sect: The Lord of Staves during Diurnal, The Lady of Cups during Nocturnal, and The Knave of Crowns during Stellar; each Minor Arcanum summons 1 Lodestar when cast under the effects of Asterism, is instant cast, and has an MP cost of 600.
- The Lord of Staves - Reduces damage dealt by all nearby enemies by 5% for 5 seconds.
- The Lady of Cups - AoE heal around you with a potency of 300.
- The Knave of Crowns - Inflicts Stop on all nearby enemies for 5 seconds and detonates the effects of Premonition on all enemies in range.

Astrodyne - Reworked: (OGCD) Consumes your Asterism buff and restores 1% of your MP for every second remaining on the effect. This action has a 10 second cooldown.

That includes all the key points. It doesn't include every action, just the general flow of offensive combat, the card system, and the implications of the reworked sect system at a base level. To summarize, the concept of this is an engine-building job that spends a lot of its casts on tools like Asterism to keep the Engine running as well as offering different support options to spend your GCDs on at different points. One cool aspect about the Lodestar concept and how that effects Synastry is that while the casual player can simply place Synastry on someone and leave it there, there's a lot more optimization potential for the advanced player to take Synastry off and reapply it when they want to their Lodestars to detonate, such as during raid buffs.

While there is still a fair amount of direct DPSing that you'd need to do, the regular usage of Asterism, and the ability to use Minor Arcana often both for support and to turn the sect wheel allows more freedom to play supportively while still being optimal, and the ability to cycle through Asterism application and Astrodyne to slowly recover your MP creates a different kind of loop you can enter without dropping DPS, making Astrologian feel safer in a way.