Weird/random idea for AST to make one ability actually...have a point:

[Renathras]

There is no way they would ever give anything a buff potency as high as 25%, you'll get 6% at most.

What is the % damage gap between AST and WHM? Personal damage, not counting AST's buffs.

[ForsakenRoe]

What is the % damage gap between AST and WHM? Personal damage, not counting AST's buffs.

Probably close to 20%, but you're playing with fire re: accidentally making 'use card on self' be the bigger damage gain. 's not a terrible idea in theory, but... I'd rather just axe the skill (undraw) to make room for interesting things, and then have the cards reworked to benefit AST in some way too with their effects, and I don't mean just flat damage

[Renathras]

Probably close to 20%, but you're playing with fire re: accidentally making 'use card on self' be the bigger damage gain. 's not a terrible idea in theory, but... I'd rather just axe the skill (undraw) to make room for interesting things, and then have the cards reworked to benefit AST in some way too with their effects, and I don't mean just flat damage

Fair enough I suppose. I guess at the end of the day, it's whether we're designing classes for noobs or not (typical threads here suggest NOT), so something like a Trait when you get Draw/Play that says "Using a Major Arcanum/Card on yourself increases damage dealt by 18%". Still would be a bit less than WHM, but would put things a lot closer for AST's soloing content.

I think 25% is more proper over time (since you can't keep yourself buffed 100% of the time, after all, since Cards don't last that long), but it could also hassle burst windows, so...

It doesn't have to be Undraw, btw. I was just thinking of making that ability do...well...something. But if everyone's cool with AST doing 20% less damage than the other healers when doing solo instances and stuff now (I THOUGHT everyone was opposed to that, but maybe I just misread all those threads about the topic...), then no need to change it. : )

[AnotherPerson]

Fair enough I suppose. I guess at the end of the day, it's whether we're designing classes for noobs or not (typical threads here suggest NOT), so something like a Trait when you get Draw/Play that says "Using a Major Arcanum/Card on yourself increases damage dealt by 18%". Still would be a bit less than WHM, but would put things a lot closer for AST's soloing content.

They could also thoretically do something along the lines of RPR's Arcane Circle, granting a secondary weaker group-wide buff and then a self buff that allows them to pick between a highly powerful burst attack or a strengthening buff on all your allies. This powerful burst attack would supplement the lack of damage in solo content but keep the AST identity of party-buffing in party content. If they really wanted to differentiate but also allow both skills to be used in party content, then the cooldown of the skill would affect when AST wants to use a burst attack over a group-wide strengthening buff (30s/90s would work better for burst attack and align with solo play to maximize card buffs on self, 60s/120s would align with 2 minute burst window because group burst damage would be way higher than self burst).

A mix and rework of Divination and Astrodyne can work to fit in that kind of playstyle as well, as Astrodyne is already mostly useless in the face of AST's already overbearing mana regen and the damage boost in the worst DPS job is negligible at best.