Square Enix Can't Figure How To Make AST Fun!

[Payadopa]

Ngl, the fact a pure healer gets a shield as a capstone is just mystifying to me. SE, you made that arbitrary distinction and yet with every second ability you erode it. What even is the point?

And yet we still Neutral Sect. Neutral to what? lol Why is an Arrow card HP regen? Or was it increased heal potency? Who cares. Chances are they'll make it worse next expansion anyway. Precious, precious balance and all that.

As an AST main since Stormblood I'm disappointed. And I didn't expect much in the first place. lol Healers are so unbelievably bad designed it boggles the mind. You'll be pressing the exact same two buttons from lvl 1ish to 100 apart from the odd trial and dungeon (unless you have a WAR).

How is this engaging?

I will say, though, that AST has the best particles this side of Tuliyollal. That's what drew me to the job back in HW (and the cards but... eh).

[Vladmiere]

That is somewhat true. I can get my jollies off being a quasi time mage thematically and celestial caster at the very least. Half our spells are LB3 worthy. Astrologian is at least tolerable still to me. Maybe not to others. I try to play the scholar and still miss the days of bane/shadowflare and i do miss the fishing mechanic from Heavensward. Call me a glutton for punishment i guess. Removing TP as a dps was a mistake imo and homogenising gear/stats/jobs to make the game easier for development is also destroying creativity because FF 14 has fallen into a catatose development cycle that is so easy to predict. Same length of expansion with 2x dps then next 1 healer 1 dps or 1 tank and 1 dps. Same number of dungeons same systems just theme parked up to next level. Blah blah we go on. Next expansion past Dawntrail will be revving up the new big bad while introducing one range dps and one new tank. 4-5 level dungeons. Two grind dungeons at cap with raid ready to go two weeks out and harder version short after. 3 patch cycles and 4 new dungeons. Next expansion... I am not counting the experiments they have like the floating isle sanctum, dynamis and our own airships.

[Zolvolt]

Astro is incredibly fun in dawntrail. The only complaint I really have is that you only use dps cards during burst windows and sun sign takes too long to apply it's buff to the party. The support cards are insane for both the dungeons and extremes though and I'm really excited for more lightspeed uses. Allowing for more double weaving is going to make the rotation feel comfier.

[LU_K]

The damage buff cards no longer seem to work on the chocobo companion or am I crazy? The other cards do.

[awhitet]

Thanks for being so specific, if you gave us more information about why you don't like we would be overwhelmed.

[Katish]

Astro is incredibly fun in dawntrail. The only complaint I really have is that you only use dps cards during burst windows and sun sign takes too long to apply it's buff to the party. The support cards are insane for both the dungeons and extremes though and I'm really excited for more lightspeed uses. Allowing for more double weaving is going to make the rotation feel comfier.

So I did as you regarded in a previous post, and have determined you can straight up remove them. They add nothing...this feels just like WHM, as the RNG was what made it AST to me. It feels exactly how I thought it would feel so effectively worse in all accounts. We lost buttons and became something AST wasn't (If you see how blank my bar is lel).

These cards add nothing for healing purposes, they don't have a reason to be because the tanks don't need them *I even had DRK in the run below. If you think you need them now, just wait until gear score creeps up, then reform your opinion. I have provided the extreme dungeon run and leveled AST first just to showcase it for you. If you are not properly timing your heals you shouldn't be rewarded with a fail safe OGCD [that's why GCD exists] (that's part of what makes healers fun to begin with). I will do a current extreme too but this is as you suggested...[I am still grinding FATES for gemstones.]

Below is a spoiler dungeon, if you have not completed DT, I recommend you do so before watching.
https://youtu.be/gZsOGSW2vl4

[Vladmiere]

Astro is an incredible step backward from the previous versions of the class in last expansions. It is a disappointment and my only non complaint is it is still more useful with its new neutral and 100 talent that the almost culmination of the white mage. At least the astro still has to have some knowledge of the encounters to properly time the delayed spells for maximum effect. Astro can 60 second and 2 minute phases as a healer while a white mage is still either or. Please return astro back to its previous versions and give white mage something to make it worthwhile.

[Rithy255]

I believe this version is just redundant and more boring then previous versions.
I don't even mind them bringing back support cards but it's the way it was done that felt sort of lazy and boring to me.

Personally I would have liked Minor arcana (the current version is still really underwhelmingly pointless) been reworked to your single target damage buff cards while the draw system takes place as your support cards, What would have been nice at the very least would be a way to augment one of your drawn into a AOE effect cards if the support cards were brought back.

This current system has barely anything to do with "Cards" they're just generic cooldowns, which you already have a barrier and Mitigation abilities for the defensive cards... It's also not like Astro is lacking healing options it has 3 charges of essential dignity lol... Like seriously why do we even need this much bloat on astro at this point you're better off removing cards or just putting stronger cooldowns on the cards and removing things like essential dignity and intersection... You don't see any other healer with so much single target bloat.

It's also a concern because a lot of jobs with not a lot of hotbar space are designed to only ever really have upgrade traits now.

[elioaiko]

They can't figure out to make healers fun in general.

Honestly AST has to be one of the few jobs that gets a hard rework every launch/mid xpac. The devs hate the cards so much that I'm convinced they'll just delete them out of frustration.

I really don't understand what ppl's deal is with the cards. Stormblood and Shadowbringers had the best iterations of it tbh.

SB for the flavor and just the sheer dopamine hit of using Royal Road mechanics.

ShB had the best "compromise" IMO. Divination felt good to use because it was connected to the cards and was something you naturally proc'd just by making sure you drew cards.

AST's cards these days are so disjointed from the rest of the kit. It's sad. Cards are just a small part of the kit atp and they tried to give the old effects from SB back but it's just not the same without Royal Road.

Being able to pick between Spread, Enhanced, Extend was just so fun. In dungeons using Enhanced Bole just meant that your tank was unkillable in a wall to wall pull and that felt so good. Or giving a SAM/BLM Extended Arrow to go even faster.

I fear AST will only get worse from this point and that's just....so sad to me.

[Vladmiere]

Im afraid that they may turn the cards into effects from just spamming heals and Malefic version 1-2-3-4-5. Cast Malefic you build up a stack of blah blah cards and the buffs go off when you use divination.