Astrologian changes feedback

[Kamishawe]

I PUT THIS IN AN ACTUAL THREAD : REDIRECT HERE--> https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...56#post6465456

Switch the Single Cards to Party Cards. It would be a literal game changer to not deal with the tab-targeting system outside of what healers already do for spot healing or mit application.

Please remember names are place holders, and descriptions are not exact and merely convey concepts and ideas. I would LOVE to see other thoughts and suggestions that play into alternatives they haven’t done yet or would be cool to explore. I'm specifically being general because I'm not the devs, I would think THEY know better than anyone in the community what is best if they take any suggestions from the community and how best to apply them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Draw Timer: 1 set of 4 RNG cards, 40s timer. 3 sets in 120s = 12 playable cards (aka BRD Song Times)
New Skill: Card Sacrifice: Active until executed or 60s has passed. Discard/reject any 3 cards for a bigger personal dps return. Not executing before 60s Duration is loss of those cards and any potential gain.
- In 120s, 0:3:6 of 12 cards could be sacrificed if you don't like them.
- aka Misery equivalent on a timer
- Astro Unique Chance: Leave behind card after-images and execute is BLU Trident with cards.


Damage Slot Options

• Balance Card: X% Party Crit Chance Increase
• Arrow Card: X% Party GCD Haste
• Sun Card: Party Reflect : 1x hit
  Mini-Macro - dps aspect only
  Astro Unique

Utility Slot Options

• Ewer Card: Y% Party MP Recovery
• Spire Card: Y% Party Movement Speed + Lost Action Re-raise
  Astro Unique: Time Stop from the Tower of Zot : re-raise= Frozen #s. Party Wipe: all dead/frozen.
• Moon Card: Party Debuff Cleanser
  aka BRD The Warden's Paean but party-wide
  Astro Unique

Heal Slot Options

• Bole Card: Z% Party Damage Reduction
• Spear Card: Z% Party Passive Health Recovery Increase
• Eclipse Card: Party Stack of Time Reverse
  Mini-Macro - heal aspect only aka Lily Bell/Panhaima.
  Astro Unique

Court Slot Cards: Personal Cards 1 in 4 rng chance

• Lord of Crowns: current iteration of Flat DPS Damage
• Lady of Crowns: current iteration of Flat Party Heal
• Lady of Stars: Astrodyne#3 buff: Speed UP, Heal potency up, DPS UP
• Lord of Stars: X% of all personal dps in buff window applied to enemy at end duration. (aka MCH Wildfire)

General:

• Boost Divination (Party Buff) by 2% and get rid of all % DPS cards.
• Trash Prerequisite : Aspected Helios activates Neutral Sect.
  Maybe convert Neutral Sect to similar "SGE Holos" Raw Shield with secondary activation like "SCH Emergency Tactics" Raw heal conversion.
• Trash Prerequisite : Helios (any kind) triggers extended Horoscope but keep Extended and early execution.
• Trash All Solo Cards requiring Draw-> Alt-Target-> Play-> Re-target aspects.
• Redraw : keep to "reshuffle" only none played cards in a hand.

About RNG: I personally vote keep rng because I adore it; however, I don't think anyone would care as long as every card opportunity is beneficial to more than just one random person.

[glamazon]

If I COULD make a suggestion to Square and they'd ever read it... Switch the Single vs Aoe Roles of Regular Cards and the Court Cards. It would be a literal game changer to deal with the tab-targeting system as little as possible out side of what healers already do for spot healing or mit application.

Suggestions:

Name Card = X% Party Crit Chance Increase
Name Card = Y% Party Movement Speed
Name Card = Z% Party Passive Health Recovery Increase

Name Card = X% Party Damage Reduction
Name Card = Y% Party MP Recovery
name Card = Z% Party GCD Haste

Name Card = Party Debuff Cleanser
Name Card = Party 1-time Party hit - Reflect Damage Back (mini Macrocosmos)
Name Card = Party Stack of Heal Regen "Lilies Bells/Panhaima"

Crown Cards : 1 in 3 rng chance
Lord of Crowns = Personal current iteration of Flat damage
Lady of Crowns = Personal current iteration of Flat Party Heal
Joker of Crowns = Personal Old Astrodyne #3 buff : Speed UP, Heal potency up, DPS UP

General :

Boost Divination (Party Buff) by 2% and get rid of all general % DPS cards.
Trash Prerequisite : Aspected Helios activates Neutral Sect.
Trash Prerequisite : Helios (any kind) triggers extended Horoscope.
Trash All Solo Cards requiring Draw-> Alt-Target-> Play-> Re-target aspects.

About RNG : I don't think anyone gives a damn about rng as long as every card opportunity is beneficial to everyone and not just one random person. Even if you take my party card suggestion and made it a set of 3 rng draw card system of 9 possible cards, no one would care because they're all beneficial to everyone.

I like this especially if you make some of them reactive so that they activate when the trigger ie a debuff lands on party member so the debuff cleanser activates.

[Kamishawe]

I like this especially if you make some of them reactive so that they activate when the trigger ie a debuff lands on party member so the debuff cleanser activates.

I got the idea of "Party Debuff Cleanser" from Bard's, "The Warden's Paean", which is still the only other debuff cleanser in the game, other than healers' "Esuna".

"The Warden's Paean" is also a delayed solo activation buff if it's applied to a person currently w/o a debuff. I'm really hoping they'll pick up the idea and run with it as a new unique identity trait of Astro since Sage is getting a Dot spread, which boooo. I understand SGE has more utility for it but SCH should have got that because dah... old SMN.

[KanataNanaya]

I got the idea of "Party Debuff Cleanser" from Bard's, "The Warden's Paean", which is still the only other debuff cleanser in the game, other than healers' "Esuna".

"The Warden's Paean" is also a delayed solo activation buff if it's applied to a person currently w/o a debuff. I'm really hoping they'll pick up the idea and run with it as a new unique identity trait of Astro since Sage is getting a Dot spread, which boooo. I understand SGE has more utility for it but SCH should have got that because dah... old SMN.

man reading your comment making me inhale some copium that each healer can have a very specific useful thing to do, like AoE Esuna, Speedbuff, DPS buff, bla bla bla so on. I don't wanna think more than that because it will never come true, but ugh..... imagine healers being unique to each other...

Hell, even giving us back our OG's Esuna/Raise skill name would be a great start. SCH using Leech, AST using Exalted Detriment.... I loved that tiny thing.

[Kamishawe]

inhale some copium that each healer can have a very specific useful thing..... imagine healers being unique to each other...

Hell, even giving us back our OG's Esuna/Raise skill name would be a great start. SCH using Leech, AST using Exalted Detriment.... I loved that tiny thing.

Feels. Its why I added broken down Macrocosmos suggestions too, they're unique to Astro (so far) and would be a huge boon if they could lean into that for Astros similar but unique take of current healer skills. Or take skills from other healers that aren't really used like Scholars "Emergency Tactics" aka convert shields to equivalent raw heal into a 2 part Neutral Sect.

I'm just imagining if they take my Macro-Heal to heart how frustrating it would be for the other healers to pop thier stack heals too and be like... "whatcha doing? I got Micros stacks on, we're not going to even see any damage! "

Or Time Stop in the Tower of Zot.. what if they did something with that for an Astro skill? I'm not sure how but it'd be interesting to see them think outside the box. I imagine with my Lord and Lady card suggestions... what if you could activated "Time Stop" and it acummulativly saves 3 personal cards for a bigger burst later down the road instead of the immediate personal dps release?

[Olivia_G]

After all these days, what I still can’t understand is that — Why, after these years, did they make all the jobs “easier” for the sake of so-called players’ feedback/needs? Who actually needs this??

Certainly, there’re jobs with vastly different difficulty levels (such as BLM). However, the high or low difficulty of a job does not necessarily correlate to the player's skill level. This is simply one way to cater to the preferences of different players.

Yes, what I’m saying is that, it doesn’t mean that players are worse than other people who can play it well (especially when they won't go to high-end content or some illegal websites). It can just mean they’re a happier player or a busy person who can’t play this game for so much time.

And if they start playing AST and find that they can’t handle the card system, they can just ignore it. If that’s not a savage nor ultimate, no one will care abt it. In fact, most DPSs barely notice it unless they’ve an AST fd. Even if they’re playing extreme, I don't believe many people would really mind if they haven't used any cards (of course, people might blacklist them afterward, but they won’t realize it, right?). It’s fine.

Getting back to the topic, for beginners or players with limited time, "simple jobs" can surely be an appropriate choice. They can experience the core enjoyment of the game and play without too much stress. On the other hand, challenging jobs are an attractive option for dedicated gamers and players who enjoy a challenge. By having both simple and difficult job options coexist, the game can provide a more inclusive and enriching experience.

Or let me say it clearly, if I love WHM that much, I’m already playing it. No need to make any other jobs becoming WHM, thanks.

Rather than completely overhauling the job for new players, the most important point is to find ways to narrow the gap between "new players/casual players" and "existing players/hardcore players". For example, putting sth like "the Hall of the Novice" for endgame content in the game, or providing guides or tutorial videos similar to what Yoshi-P did for BLM, could be more appropriate for adjusting the learning curve for new players to reach endgame content.

If players want to play AST so much bc it’s beautiful but then complain that it’s too hard to understand, the best way is to teach them how to learn and practice. Ruining a Job is never an appropriate way.

In EW, They’ve made the worst possible changes to the ShB system, letting many players complain abt the so-called RNG issues, and finally we’ve got the RNG being totally removed.
No matter who did this, I think that staff should be members of Mensa. That staff must be a strategist.

And finally, to make it easier for the team to treat me as a player with feedback: I can accept HW, SB, ShB system or any AST with an adjustable RNG system, but DT AST? No, thanks

[Zaytex]

After all these days, what I still can’t understand is that — Why, after these years, did they make all the jobs “easier” for the sake of so-called players’ feedback/needs? Who actually needs this??

The state of gaming today is all about ''inclusivity'' and making sure absolutely everything in a video game can be accessible. We're not allowed to have jobs with a higher skill floor and ceiling because it'll make new players actually have to improve, which is a risk, since there is a portion of people who just give up at difficulty. Those are paying customers, so obviously SE wants to keep their business.

The MSQ enjoyer who wants to play the pretty star aesthetic healer and not feel bad they're not good enough, is prioritised over the high-end raiders who have optimised AST and have fell in love with it due to its skill expression and difficulty to mid max its toolkit.

So here we are. Everything has been streamlined, casualised and homogenised in favour of those newer or bad players. AST, the last healer which had any form of complexity or nuance to it which set it apart from its brethren has now been reworked to feel, at the core, essentially the same as a WHM but with a couple of minute differences. Do you want to afflatus solace or throw a guaranteed card to single target heal that person?

Utterly disgusting how homogenised this game has become, the healer role especially. Mash one button for 90% of your encounter and occasionally press a OGCD cooldown which is functionally the same as what another healer has. You played AST to have something more exciting to do if no healing was needed? Sorry, we gotta gut it for the casuals because they pay more on the mog station x

sigh

[Olivia_G]

The MSQ enjoyer who wants to play the pretty star aesthetic healer and not feel bad they're not good enough, is prioritised over the high-end raiders who have optimised AST and have fell in love with it due to its skill expression and difficulty to mid max its toolkit.

My job used to be fun before. It changed one day, and someone just keeps saying, 'Oh, you can quit the game if you're unhappy.'
sigh

[Sylvain]

We're not allowed to have jobs with a higher skill floor and ceiling because it'll make new players actually have to improve, which is a risk, since there is a portion of people who just give up at difficulty. Those are paying customers, so obviously SE wants to keep their business.

That's actually the case for most people. We just don't have the same threshold on what difficulty is.

Unfortunately for most people on those forums complaining about job simplification, the threshold of the average player might be too low for our taste.

As much as people complain about SMN all the freaking time, BLM are a rare breed.
Did some TOP pf this week-end. I saw 1 BLM, well over 10 SMN/RDM.

Yesterday had a my static prog TOP, we usually have a BLM but he couldn't make it so a friend came in as a SMN with 660 gear. Never done TOP as a caster, went just fine because... "how can you fail at SMN?"

I mean, dpsing as a healer is harder because moving with only slide casting is harder than SMN.

So let's be honest for a minute here, SE reworks a convoluted job (which was loved for that) and remake something thematically quite nice, i mean it does feel like a SMN. But the skill floor is so low that once the initial buzz fades away, people realises it's a rather boring job to play unless you want to watch netflix at the same time. Yet, despite this it became the default caster you see in every single freaking group.

BLM has been praised as the most interesting caster, with non standard rotation and all that stuff, yet... you barely see any.

You're right, people give up on difficulty, and apparently the average folks, even those doing TOP, rather play SMN/RDM than BLM because "scary hard".

Same goes for SCH & AST. 90% of all TOP pf are WHM/SAG

I don't like that SMN is so brain dead, I'd rather have most job with a decent amount of complexity like BLM.

And I mean, they could, they could make RDM and SMN less brain dead. But the fact of the matter is, SMN is a huge success. No matter how much you dislike it, SMN is a big hit, simplificity is a big hit.

I just hope their comment on "making the game a bit more stressfull" will actually result in things being a bit harder and technical.

[Olivia_G]

So let's be honest for a minute here, SE reworks a convoluted job (which was loved for that) and remake something thematically quite nice, i mean it does feel like a SMN. But the skill floor is so low that once the initial buzz fades away, people realises it's a rather boring job to play unless you want to watch netflix at the same time. Yet, despite this it became the default caster you see in every single freaking group.

BLM has been praised as the most interesting caster, with non standard rotation and all that stuff, yet... you barely see any.

I think the point is, you can still choose a complicated job as a caster after SMN's remake, but only WHM and WHM with stars are left in the ph role after DT's launch.

Just like some are saying "practicing as RDM, clearing as BLM and re-clearing as SMN", sometimes I use WHM for P10S because I feel burned out after wipes and wipes, but I can still choose AST when I'm well-rested that day.
Also, for alliance raids, I prefer AST because I don't want to fall asleep (oh, sorry WHM mains).

The key point is that, the dev team should provide a greater variety of jobs for players to choose from, rather than "deciding for the players" and assuming they just like simple jobs.