What Do We Want to See? - AST

[Cleretic]

If our remit on 'what do we want to see' is solely focused on AST itself, I think EW healer is the basis that should be built around; it's the one time we should be keeping AST as-is. The cards work well for their purpose, the influence of RNG is as mitigated as it can get while still being there, and removing it while still keeping AST's fundamental identity requires a retooling that's likely to do more harm than good. It has problems, but so does every other job, it's all about picking the cons you're okay with having. I don't play Ninja, but that's not a failing of Ninja, it's just not to my tastes. Really, the failings of AST in my mind aren't AST's fault at all, it's that they're a healer in a game that doesn't really know what to do with healers.

If I were to answer 'what do I want to see' as an AST player, none of my wishes are about AST. Instead, I just want tank self-sustain to be kneecapped. The angle of 'if there's an imbalance in a role, buff everyone to be on the same level as the top' has gone on so long for tanks, mostly in response to Warrior's sheer unkillability, that it's no longer a problem you can fix with any change to one job; you need to nerf everyone.

[Shikiseki]

Honestly AST had great potential with the 2 sects but they just went the easy route and scrapped it for their ridiculous pure/barrier split...

Imagine being able to swap diurnal/nocturnal mid battle with something like Celestial Opposition for example on a 60s cd which would also change your new draw aspect cards would be quite fun to plan ahead and change things up a bit

Although I think I'd still preferred some old card buttons to come back like the card spread or time dilation

[Ari_Calithiel]

Honestly AST had great potential with the 2 sects but they just went the easy route and scrapped it for their ridiculous pure/barrier split...

There is literally zero reason for having astro's have a barrier spec. It was a watered down version of a scholar. The maximum amount of shielding you could do would be about 10% of maximum hp and this would not stack with another shield healer. A scholar though? Their spreadlo combo can easily shield 60+% of max hp of their team. If a shield healer is needed for a raid team, why would you ever pick a watered down shield from astro versus a scholar? And if a team truly wants to have a WHM/AST combo, go for it. You don't need the option of shields to make it work. Plus, the frustration of the other healers not having the option to change how their heals work would be immensely unfair. Nocturnal as it is is as it should stay. It complements other shield healers without taking over their identity. As I have said, astro's identity lies in the randomness of its cards to indicate fate and the preplanning of its heals. This is where Squenix should have leaned into.

[Valmaxian]

A wish list eh?

1. I do want Royal Road back. I’ve no use for pure RNG for its own sake, but being able to utilize every single card for something is cool, thematic, and efficient.

2. Nocturnal Sect back (adjusted to have synergy with SCH/SGE) so that double AST parties are more interesting, but don’t hinder another barrier healer.

3. Time Dilation back

4. Clear out some buttons - I know they’re useful, but I’d personally be fine giving up CU and CO if it meant getting our old tools back…

[KanataNanaya]

what if the delayed effects were incorporate into the cards buff itself.
you deal cards with various effects, then there's a skill that detonate all cards dealt and some bonus effect depends on what card was dealt before hand.

there are so many ways to make cards interesting and yet we are dealt none.

[SeverianLyonesse]

The card rework is bad. It removes the gambler flavor of the job AND retains the dumb single-target cycling AND doesn't solve general healer downtime issues.

AST has plenty of support with its time/space magic spells. It doesn't need cards for that.

AST cards should be reworked to be its DPS mini-game, instead tossing cards at the boss like Gambit-Yugi. A healer is perfect for a highly randomized proc system like that because it will only add a bit of bonus damage but never be faulted for poor draws because it is a healer first.

After Scholar, AST is the most disappointing job in the game. I want to smack whoever is heading that job's design because the solution is so obvious.

[Supersnow845]

The card rework is bad. It removes the gambler flavor of the job AND retains the dumb single-target cycling AND doesn't solve general healer downtime issues.

AST has plenty of support with its time/space magic spells. It doesn't need cards for that.

AST cards should be reworked to be its DPS mini-game, instead tossing cards at the boss like Gambit-Yugi. A healer is perfect for a highly randomized proc system like that because it will only add a bit of bonus damage but never be faulted for poor draws because it is a healer first.

After Scholar, AST is the most disappointing job in the game. I want to smack whoever is heading that job's design because the solution is so obvious.

What I hate is that SCH is a hot mess but relative to its counterparts it is the strongest job in the entire game and has been for almost its entire lifespan

Like if you want to make a class this bad can you also make it perform bad please

[GrimGale]

While I don't necessarily dislike the "card spread draw" as in drawing 3 cards at one thing, I honestly can't imagine why they chose such redundant effects for the cards.

We already have HoTs, we already have oGCD shields (we have 2 charges of celestial intersection), we already have 10% mitigation with Exaltation on the same 60s CD.

10% extra heal is unique and that's fine.

But the rest of the cards are hardly "unique" effects. They went for the most redundant effects in Ast kit.

I can see 2 out of three cards getting wasted most of the time on a 60s cicle!

[glamazon]

Umbral
spear: dps 10% to any job melee or range doesn't matter
bole: reduce dmg taken by 15% 20 secs
ewer: mp regen 20secs 2500mp
The Moon: doubles the duration of your next card played
The lord: 500 potency dmg aoe

astral
balance mp 2500 direct bonus
arrow: in combat run speed bonus 20secs
spire: barrier of 800 potency
The sun: dmg shield that dmgs the enemy anytime the target is hit duration 20seconds potency 500
The Lady: 500 potency aoe heal