The changes to Astrologian are upsetting

[Poppet]

The whole issue with Astrologian has been that it takes too many actions for how little value those actions give.

Draw Card -> Redraw Card -> Target player -> Use Card -> Retarget Boss is an awful experience when you only get 100 Potency for it. But in HW/SB you got 300+ Potency pre-number inflation. So instead of 1/3 a gcd it was worth 2+ gcds. But that's not problem area. It was even less actions then. Royal Roaded AoE cards. Could be done in as little as Draw -> Royal Road -> Draw -> Play for 1k+ potency PNI. 6-10+ gcds worth for 4 actions to just 1/3-2/3 a gcd today. While not always that convenient or as cooldown similar. It feels absolutely awful.

So now with 7.0 cards using Arrow will only give a 10% healing buff for 3 total actions and 1/3 Astral Draw: Target player -> Use Card -> Retarget Boss. The action bloat that AST has today is so bad. That any level of gcd clip will lose you the value of the cards you would play. Considering that the healing buff might not even be fully utilized or even used the value of the card is sub 0.1 second average worth of gcd clip for it to have been negative value to even use it over other mitigation options.

Cards should just be aoe. That's what made them good in HW/SB era was that they didn't take so many actions use them. 1 total action and 1/3 Astral Draw: Use Card.

Cards should just be valuable. 10% healing single target or even aoe still feels pretty bad.

[PercibelTheren]

The whole issue with Astrologian has been that it takes too many actions for how little value those actions give.

Draw Card -> Redraw Card -> Target player -> Use Card -> Retarget Boss is an awful experience when you only get 100 Potency for it. But in HW/SB you got 300+ Potency pre-number inflation. So instead of 1/3 a gcd it was worth 2+ gcds. But that's not problem area. It was even less actions then. Royal Roaded AoE cards. Could be done in as little as Draw -> Royal Road -> Draw -> Play for 1k+ potency PNI. 6-10+ gcds worth for 4 actions to just 1/3-2/3 a gcd today. While not always that convenient or as cooldown similar. It feels absolutely awful.

So now with 7.0 cards using Arrow will only give a 10% healing buff for 3 total actions and 1/3 Astral Draw: Target player -> Use Card -> Retarget Boss. The action bloat that AST has today is so bad. That any level of gcd clip will lose you the value of the cards you would play. Considering that the healing buff might not even be fully utilized or even used the value of the card is sub 0.1 second average worth of gcd clip for it to have been negative value to even use it over other mitigation options.

Cards should just be aoe. That's what made them good in HW/SB era was that they didn't take so many actions use them. 1 total action and 1/3 Astral Draw: Use Card.

Cards should just be valuable. 10% healing single target or even aoe still feels pretty bad.

A lot of the issues you mention would be fixed by the game letting us cast on target of target. I swear it's the only MMO that doesn't have this feature.

[RodP]

Jfc I am still not convinced you're not a troll

There's a big chance they are. I'm not giving them the time of day, I think we're better off ignoring statements like that.

[Zolvolt]

There's a big chance they are. I'm not giving them the time of day, I think we're better off ignoring statements like that.

Not a troll. Just an astro player since heavensward. Astro seems insane in DT. The 2m meta is going to be busier than we knew at the live letter which is pretty good considering ASTRO's APM only went down by 1 with the card c hanges but the burst is getting another action and then we get another OGCD mitigation. As long as astro's potencies are on par with other healers then astro is going to not only be insanely fun to play, but it's going to be a powerhouse among healers.

[Ayer2015]

I don't think the implementation of the new draw system is an issue, but the card effects are very underwhelming. 3-6% damage buff to a single character, along with totally unnecessary mitigation and additional healing.

Personally I've given up on healing in FF14. After several expansions of the devs not listening, I'll just play a dps role.

[Kissune]

Not a troll. Just an astro player since heavensward. Astro seems insane in DT. The 2m meta is going to be busier than we knew at the live letter which is pretty good considering ASTRO's APM only went down by 1 with the card c hanges but the burst is getting another action and then we get another OGCD mitigation. As long as astro's potencies are on par with other healers then astro is going to not only be insanely fun to play, but it's going to be a powerhouse among healers.

'Only went down by 1' my god you actually just do not play astro.

We have playx2, draw, lord, divi, divi follow up. 20s to do 6 weaves. Compared to EW where we had... drawx2, lightspeed, playx3, divi, dyne, minor arcana as the barest of minimum. That's 8. Add in 2 potential redraws, 2 potential lords, and a potential second dyne and suddenly its pretty obvious you dont know what you're talking about. Unless you mean overall actions per minute including the new cards in which case... I don't consider tossing out random heals just to pad apm to actually count, and it's weird if you do. You are literally deluding yourself into thinking white mage with a bootleg aetherflow is something new and unique just bc you think wasting single target heals on tanks who won't and haven't needed them is good design and definitely different from what literally any other healer does. Bc I got a news flash for you. If all the ST stuff AST has is actually required, white mages will not be able to clear. Meaning that either A. They're irrelevant buttons bc WHM can always make do with less anyways, or B. SQ miraculously decided to make the community favourite healer unplayable out of nowhere. Incredible the level of delusion you are under. It's almost sad to see, if you weren't so arrogant about it.

[Aravell]

I'm in the same boat with you. I picked up AST in Stormblood because they made SCH less fun to play. AST was a lot of fun back then.

I tolerated the changes in Shadowbringers because there were still aspects of card optimisation, plus the pacing and quick thinking requirements was still there.

Endwalker was a straight downgrade, but even what we have now is better than what we're getting in Dawntrail. A slow paced job that flings boring OGCDs with a card skin, and with no RNG, you can just map out all your cards in a spreadsheet, there's no need to react to anything anymore. Definitely the worst AST has ever been.

[ASkellington]

The AST changes aren't upsetting. They're tone deaf.

People who wanted the various card effects back wanted HW/SB version of AST not this garbage and it IS garbage.

I don't know how many times a hammer has to nail this into their heads but the dev team needs to wake. up.

Mitigation is not needed in AST's kit what so ever on a card. You LITERALLY gave us a second charge of Celestial Intersection in Endwalker only for the entire skill to be replaced by Exaltation. And just in Shadowbringers you gave us Celestial Intersection to begin with as well as Neutral Sect. Counting right there at lv90 an AST has 5 ways of mitigating on a single target. That's just SINGLE TARGET. We also have Collective Unconciousness and again, Neutral Sect for Aspected Helios.

As far as the healing cards go? You couldn't have given us a refresh for MP? I have more uses for that than a regen and an increase towards healing. EVERY HEALER HAS A FORM OF INCREASE HEALING. WHM iirc has Temperance, AST has NEUTRAL SECT. SCH has who the hells know cause I'm sure they got at least 3. And SGE does as well. Pneuma? I think? And a regen? Did you forget A. Benefic exists? That every AOE heal we have aside from 3 ticks on a regen????

Change the defensive card effects to something useful and worth while and decrease the recast timer on these cards to 30s.

Mitigation and curative effects are garbage and do not belong in a healer's kit when you refuse to increase healing requirements in the same breath.

[glamazon]

How about a card that adds mp and mp gen to give to myself or anyone else that dies and needs mana? that's useful

How about a card that adds a 1000 shield barrier thats useful

how about a card that gives a burst of run speed in combat?

How about a card that stuns the enemy?

How about a card that reduces enemy mitigation?

How about a card that spreads a dot to a second enemy or turns the dot aoe?

[Zolvolt]

Defensive effects on the cards are quite strong.
Bole being back is what half the old astro lovers have wanted for ages.
increased healing potency is amazing. The fact that you can use it on anyone, even non-healers that apply shields like warrior is exciting.
A regen/shield is just nice.

Astro's who say we don't need more single target mitigations are being silly. Single target OGCD optimization is already a lot of double-weaving OGCD's. If they up damage even just a little bit in Dawntrail we will have a use for all of our OGCD's just like we did in savage this expansion. I'm actually stunned a little that people are complaining the healing classes are getting more heals. The goal for this game is to move a little further away from only caring about dps. This is a move in the right direction as long as dawn trail fights are tuned around the changes. (which obviously they will be. we've never had an expansion not do that)