I'm bored when I heal because I need more complex DPS rotations

[ty_taurus]

In the case of AST, it's the job I think least needs a bunch of damage actions only because to me damage is just downtime/additional complexity, and Cards are already a huge factor there, so I'd like for what damage options AST has to synergize well with them as sort of big, pivotal, and set-up (kind of like a revised no-CD, more flexible, and more involved Earthly Star).

But, I wouldn't tell them "No additional downtime tools for you because internal-rotation-phobes might get offended at there being an option they don't want to use, even if they literally have no need to do so." It's simply that there are some things that fit better than others with its core (Cards and Time-Space Magic), so I'd want their kit to account for and build around what's core to that job.

When I talk about wanting AST to be redesigned for players who do not like DPS on healers, I'm not suggesting leave it in a state where you still stand there and mash Malefic for the majority content, but to create a gameplay loop that disguises their personal DPS as support. I'll share the sparknotes of the theorycraft I've danced around and made adjustments to here and there in the past:

Some amount of AST's card related actions are moved to the GCD. Drawing and playing cards has the added consequence of summoning a "Lodestar" that visibly orbits around you. Cards played do not immediately provide buff effects, but are added to your current hand. And you'd have another GCD (A repurposed Celestial Opposition as well as another that activate different types of cards), that consumes the cards in your hand to officially grant their effects when you want them. Meanwhile, you have an ability similar to Closed Position or Kardia that you can place on someone else or yourself (A reworked Synastry basically). Whenever the target of this ability uses a spell or weaponskill on an enemy, one of your Lodestars automatically blows up on the first target that player struck, dealing DPS neutral AoE damage.

Simply put, AST spends it's GCDs building and detonating a buff engine that they work on building and rebuilding over and over while passively generating DPS for someone else to execute for them. In solo content, you can give yourself the Synastry buff and bounce between building a buff engine, powering yourself up, and detonating those Lodestars you generated while building your engine with your small attack spell library. It'd feel very bursty when playing alone. At the same time, the other 3 healers would be given more modest DPS tools and would feel reflective of the tanks, where White Mage might feel something between Paladin and Warrior, Scholar might feel something like Dark Knight, and Sage might feel something like Gunbreaker. Astro players would not attack very much at all in group content, but would still be outputting DPS, just indirectly.

[Emitans]

No, it does not. You can Regen a tank as they pull and no longer get your face bashed in.

I miss pulling mobs with Aurora on Gunbreaker

[AnotherPerson]

You're conflating two issues here, I think. Storm's Crown also had heavy movement during the damage phases, meaning players trying to use hardcast spells weren't able to. You can have that level of damage with less movement and resolve that issue, which is what we had more of back in ARR fights, so it's not like the game hasn't done it before.

By saying heavy moment phases prevent players from healing well, you are confirming that a larger playerbase doesn't know how to heal efficiently. Even with more heavy movement phases, there are healers with 100% DPS uptime, implying that heavy movement and healing is not an issue to players who became efficient at using their healing skills (including instant cast healing to not break their DPS uptime). For these players, heavy movement and does not prevent someone from utilizing their oGCD heals and instant cast heals. It's part of the parcel in managing efficient healing when needed to DPS, something that players who only heal never have to consider since they can have plenty of time to respond to outgoing damage to heal in what another player can take 2-5 seconds to handle. Not to mention, DPS skills also have a cast time. Storm's Crown EX is nowhere near movement heavy enough to prevent players from being unable to hardcast 2 second heal if players can have up to 100% DPS uptime.

If just more movement makes them unable to heal well, that means players who can't handle movement and manage their instant cast healing skills are the ones who struggle juggling multiple activities from both healing and movement - their cognitive load can't do both things simultaneously. The mindset "I must pause and stop healing to do mechanics" only exist with this category of players who doesn't possess the cognitive load to handle both things simultaneously because they have to swap between "healing mode" and "mechanics mode". For players who are accustomed to DPSing, there is no "healing mode" and "mechanics mode" because they're always on "standby mode", ready to use whatever skill is most efficient at the time. DPSing is the byproduct of waiting for active healing phases with spare cognitive load. The same applies by extension to tanks and DPS. There are DPS who just stop attacking altogether to do mechanics, and there are DPS who can attack while doing mechanics, but DPS is especially encouraged to constantly do their rotation regardless of mechanics to ensure they gain proper amount of resources for their burst rotation and meet enrage checks. It's only a player issue if they can't handle both when the game gives you a plethora of instant healing tools and there are still people with 100% DPS uptime for those fights at that point.

Even if you were to exclude these players as Sylphies and double down that Slyphies don't exist, these players do. That's why I'm reiterating right now -- there are so many players who can't manage efficient healing, not to any degree that requires them anywhere close to having 60% healer uptime. Reducing required movement and increasing outgoing damage to the point healer uptime is required also reduces complexity on all jobs, not just healers alone. It would require a drastic redesign of fights that require stacking, clockspots, etc. It's just another reduction and simplification, repackaged in a different form.

[Aravell]

Simply put, AST spends it's GCDs building and detonating a buff engine that they work on building and rebuilding over and over while passively generating DPS for someone else to execute for them. In solo content, you can give yourself the Synastry buff and bounce between building a buff engine, powering yourself up, and detonating those Lodestars you generated while building your engine with your small attack spell library. It'd feel very bursty when playing alone. At the same time, the other 3 healers would be given more modest DPS tools and would feel reflective of the tanks, where White Mage might feel something between Paladin and Warrior, Scholar might feel something like Dark Knight, and Sage might feel something like Gunbreaker. Astro players would not attack very much at all in group content, but would still be outputting DPS, just indirectly.

While I agree with wanting AST to be more focused on buffs rather than direct damage, I don't really want to see their APM reduced drastically by moving card actions to the GCD. I personally enjoy fast-paced jobs, so AST is my only avenue to getting that kind of gameplay, unless they revert the SCH changes and allow me to micromanage my fairy directly again while doing my own things, I did enjoy that feeling of controlling 2 things at once.

[ty_taurus]

While I agree with wanting AST to be more focused on buffs rather than direct damage, I don't really want to see their APM reduced drastically by moving card actions to the GCD. I personally enjoy fast-paced jobs, so AST is my only avenue to getting that kind of gameplay, unless they revert the SCH changes and allow me to micromanage my fairy directly again while doing my own things, I did enjoy that feeling of controlling 2 things at once.

Having a card-focused GCD loop doesn't inherently mean the job can't retain having a higher APM than the other healers. That's something I've seen mentioned before, so I would absolutely do whatever I could to provide the job with opportunities to weave. I had a version of that concept where all the cards were on the GCD, and also tried keeping the major arcanum OGCD while making the minor arcanum GCD and used very regularly, as well as Celestial Opposition for defensive cards and an AoE Celestial Intersection for offensive cards.

To be fair, though, I don't think my perspective is the only way to achieve that end goal of a support engine building healer, and I don't think there are no ways to make that appealing to current AST players. It's just difficult when you're only one person without resources to experiment with.

[OogaShaka]

I heal, not there for dps other then my dot. If you want to do damage play a damage class.

[Renalt]

I heal, not there for dps other then my dot. If you want to do damage play a damage class.

So what do you do after the DoT is up? They aren't really taking damage unless undergeared AND no mitigation.

Genuinely curious.

[Renathras]

Long CDs with highly specific use cases (basically hit Button X only when you see Cue X; if no Cue X, Button X mostly goes to waste) are just an utter waste to me. (Much like inflexible 123 combos, Cleric Stance existing just to grey out one half one's kit or the other, most actions --like Lucid Dreaming-- that exist solely to be hit on CD, purposely sabotaged macro systems, etc.)

I agree with this. Stuff that should arguably be baseline. Lucid as a button made sense when it was a thread tool, but now the only time it's practical is if you use it right after being raised for wipe recovery, but that implies you were HOLDING IT for that. Moreover, several healers have tools like this in their kit; Aetherflow, Rhizomata+AG spender, Draw/Astrodyne, Thin Air/Assize, with some of those (Thin Air and Rhizo come to mind) working far better since those two particular abilities aren't used on CD and can be better saved (Thin Air due to a second stack, Rhizo due to how rarely you really NEED another AG). Anything you have to use as part of the rotation/economy doesn't become optional to hold, so it makes more sense to simply make it baseline.

Likewise, stuff that, as you say, is only for VERY specific instances should probably have something combined with it/be a combined effect. Expedience has a damage reduction, but Lilybell and Panhamia are both longish CDs useful for fairly specific things (multi-hit things, in the case of Lilybell, that specifically hit the WHM), and while they can be useful for other things, it might make more sense if they were combined with something instead of just being their own abilities. A lot of DPS have this same thing with "button you press once per 60/120 sec but that doesn't actually have any reason to exist as an independent button" cases.

It's always hard to be sure, though, since some people will insist "Me having to press Mug every 120 seconds is engaging gameplay!", but there's probably some middle ground. The PvP abilities are highly lauded, but have tons of combinations AND (for the most part) relatively short CDs. Seraph is kind of a Holy/Misery and Protect and (sorta) Cure 3 and (also sorta) Icarus. Afflatus Purgation is what you'd get if you combined Misery, Holy, Temperance, and Medica 2 into one button and made it a line attack.

But you get some people wanting to die on the hill that Undraw is engaging gameplay. So there's kind of a weird give and take there.

[ForsakenRoe]

But you get some people wanting to die on the hill that Undraw is engaging gameplay. So there's kind of a weird give and take there.

I don't think I've seen a single person say Undraw is engaging gameplay, or defend it's existence

[Supersnow845]

I don't think I've seen a single person say Undraw is engaging gameplay, or defend it's existence

I won’t defend its existence as a “skill” only as a proxy “click off buff” for controller players

Sure there is no reason to click off a card these days but it’s easier just leaving it in the game in case they ever returned cards that could feasibly lead to situations that make you want to click them off