Astrologian changes feedback

[Kissune]

And yet AST is still the only healer that provides ST damage buffs, ST/AoE shield+HoT within one ability, and can solo Ultimates if the player is capable. The job has a lot of power and depth to it regardless of its RNG mechanic. It’s still going to be busy.

I agree that FF14 healers have become more homogenized (I’ve played and maxed all of them - every combat job in fact). But to me each class still possesses subtleties that make them feel unique. I don’t expect everyone to feel the same way.

It's not going to be busy. Your burst window will be

Malefic+divination, malefic+play, malefic+draw, malefic+play, malefic+lord, malefic+divi follow up. Your filler will have nothing until 60s, when you press draw. Most of the utility cards will be discarded in 90% of content, and in the content where it matters like... why would I care about single target utility spells on my cards. I already have ED, exalt, CI, A. benefic... Yeah, maybe AST will be very strong bc it'll have so many tools. But I didn't want or care about *strong* I wanted *fun.* And being essentially a white mage with the occasional single target buff and a bunch of boring ass utility spells is not my idea of fun. My rotation, if you can even call it that, can now be done with a macro. The same cards go on the same people, at the same time, every time. They might as well just not exist at all.

[ThorneDynasty]

And yet AST is still the only healer that provides ST damage buffs, ST/AoE shield+HoT within one ability, and can solo Ultimates if the player is capable. The job has a lot of power and depth to it regardless of its RNG mechanic. It’s still going to be busy.

I agree that FF14 healers have become more homogenized (I’ve played and maxed all of them - every combat job in fact). But to me each class still possesses subtleties that make them feel unique. I don’t expect everyone to feel the same way.

They shouldn't be "subtleties" though. They should be entirely different play styles.

[Cosmosio]

Removing the RNG card pulls entirely is completely destroying the purpose of the job. That’s the entire point of fortune telling / tarot, you don’t know what you’re gonna get.

Just adding my +1 to the voices that as an AST main I am really not pleased with this rework at all, AST gameplay feels busy and I LOVE that, losing so much APM is gonna turn me away from my favourite job.

I’ll try out the rework at first but I’m seriously considering jumping to something else.

[GrimGale]

We Had a system that dealt with RNG. Back to the inception of AST, in HW, you had the amazing ROYAL ROAD ability.

Didn't draw something you wanted to use? Burn it to give your next thing a stronger effect.

You drew something you wanted? Use Hold to save it for later.

Those two skills allowed for RNG to be mitigated, tools that would give you agency over the use of your cards.

What was the problem? You had 1 card that was miles better than any other in most situations. It was so strong in its baseline form that it could make or break pulls on the hardest content in the game. So you always wanted/needed to draw that one. The dreaded Balance card.

In later iterations you could still deal with RNG somewhat. You could burn the cards you didn't want, trading them for an AoE attack, Lord of Thorns, or a AoE heal, Lady of Crowns.

I forgot the point I was trying to make.

[VictorSpoils]

We Had a system that dealt with RNG. Back to the inception of AST, in HW, you had the amazing ROYAL ROAD ability.

Didn't draw something you wanted to use? Burn it to give your next thing a stronger effect.

You drew something you wanted? Use Hold to save it for later.

Those two skills allowed for RNG to be mitigated, tools that would give you agency over the use of your cards.

What was the problem? You had 1 card that was miles better than any other in most situations. It was so strong in its baseline form that it could make or break pulls on the hardest content in the game. So you always wanted/needed to draw that one. The dreaded Balance card.

In later iterations you could still deal with RNG somewhat. You could burn the cards you didn't want, trading them for an AoE attack, Lord of Thorns, or a AoE heal, Lady of Crowns.

I forgot the point I was trying to make.

Probably the strangest job change in the game:

Spread: saves card for later (removed after one expansion)
Royal Road: deletes card but buffs next card (removed after one expansion)
Undraw: deletes card (still exists three expansions later)

[Jovakim]

I'm incredibly disappointed with what has been shown so far.

I could probably give a chance to an RNG-less Astro for an expansion. But losing the high APM of the job at the same time? No, absolutely not!

I live for AST's hectic burst windows, it's the only healer job that keeps me from getting bored out of my mind in normal mode content and harder content on farm. For the love of the twelve, please, don't dumb it down!

I really don't want THIS:


Turning into THIS:

(I'm betting that the new Draw button will work like Minor Arcana does now. Only executable in combat.)

Also, for those salty about wanting a busy job, we still have to weave three cards during our DPS rotation every minute. Seems similar to what we have now minus shuffle RNG and seal fishing (which led to a negligible buff from Astrodyne anyway).

If they're turning those two other cards into "healing" and "mitigation" (as they've described), then they're situational and have no business in our opener. Or even worse, those cards could go completely unused in easier content (like most of our healing spells do).
So in essence, we're trading two charges of damage buffs on a 30s CD, to one charge on a 60s CD. Can you elaborate on how am going to be just as busy?

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Turning into THIS:

(I'm betting that the new Draw button will work like Minor Arcana does now. Only executable in combat.)

Looking at this 'meme' infographic makes me squeeze my brain to think who would absolutely benefit from this hypothetical new opener: the ones who couldn't bother to setup their Neutral Sect+Horoscope, Microcosmos, and/or Earthly Star to handle healing required within today's hectic 2m reopeners.

[Aravell]

I could probably give a chance to an RNG-less Astro for an expansion. But losing the high APM of the job at the same time? No, absolutely not!

I live for AST's hectic burst windows, it's the only healer job that keeps me from getting bored out of my mind in normal mode content and harder content on farm. For the love of the twelve, please, don't dumb it down!

I agree. As someone who disliked ShB/EW AST because they ripped out my utility to turn every card into just damage, I at least still enjoyed AST because while there was less thinking to do, there was still optimisation and the fast pacing was still there.

This Dawntrail change is the absolute worst of both worlds. It pretends to be SB cards by shouting in your face "Hey, I do different things!", but there is none of the RNG manipulation of SB cards, there is no working towards your goal, everything is handed to you on a platter every minute. And they couldn't even bother keeping the fast pacing for those of us who enjoyed it.

As for those who say "You're playing and weaving more cards than before!", you get 3 cards every minute, 2 of which are situational and the last one you'll save for the burst window, in no situation are you hectically weaving all 6 cards in a burst window. Plus, you'll only play 2 cards (+Lord, which is an AoE and doesn't require switching targets) during burst, in what world is that a similar speed to what we have now?

[Rithy255]

As for those who say "You're playing and weaving more cards than before!", you get 3 cards every minute, 2 of which are situational and the last one you'll save for the burst window, in no situation are you hectically weaving all 6 cards in a burst window. Plus, you'll only play 2 cards (+Lord, which is an AoE and doesn't require switching targets) during burst, in what world is that a similar speed to what we have now?

Honestly I doubt I'll really be weaving a "single target heal card" in a lot, something tells me that astro already has more then enough healing and I don't think they're suddenly going to up the healing requirements unless they force us, I guess ill just place the mitigation on the tank if im about to hit the 1 minute mark for my next set of cards...

[Moqi]

The changes are disappointing but also expected because as they keep "streamlining" and removing mechanics from other jobs, what is left for Astrologian to do?

Imagine if we had different jobs with different playstyles: some would be proc based, some would cooldown based, actual MP managment, actual aggro managment, bursty jobs, crit-heavy jobs... with 20 jobs, there'd be no shortage of interesting effects a card could have and there'd be plenty of opportunities to use them not matter what party composition you stumble upon.