Nerf AST

[AnotherPerson]

Now I've been playing AST more, it's quite stacked. 5s Gravity that instantly refreshed the full duration was incredibly strong and definitely needed to go or get adjusted. The heavy duration reduction on dualcast Gravity from 5s to 3s and heavy duration on Gravity from 3s to 2s is a good nerf. I was expecting more of a LoS nerf for Lord of Crowns and Macrocosmos damage since the coverage of AST can be quite strong, but I guess that wouldn't be work as well for certain FL specific maps. The potency nerfs are pretty considerable due to how AST layers buffs/debuffs together, which I suspect is why AST is deceptively strong atm. It's a good nerf to address both CC and FL in its damage department while maintaining the uniqueness of AST intact.

If it gets nerfed any more, it wouldn't feel like much has changed between 6.1 AST and 7.1 AST other than the reduction of card effects, an added dash, and cc nerfs. You'd have to play it really well to get any mileage with RNG attached otherwise. I think it's still a solid job atm, but I'll still have to play it to see how it holds up with the adjustments in other jobs cooldowns and potencies.

PLD and RDM really needed those nerfs, their personal sustain was really strong for the cc/dps they dish out.
Personally, I don't think Viper's problem is fixed even with potency buffs, because the core problem isn't just the potencies alone, but the toolkit's design on certain skills (like Hardened Scales still locking you in place). The higher potencies does help alleviate a bit of the issues from the loss of Slither's damage buff, although the lack of instantaneous ranged burst is still a pretty sizeable loss.

[ThreeBeastSmile]

Personally, I don't think Viper's problem is fixed even with potency buffs, because the core problem isn't just the potencies alone, but the toolkit's design on certain skills (like Hardened Scales still locking you in place). The higher potencies does help alleviate a bit of the issues from the loss of Slither's damage buff, although the lack of instantaneous ranged burst is still a pretty sizeable loss.

Believe me it hasn't. I share some similar sentiments with the JP that Bloodcoil should at least heal flat rates rather than be compromised due to slamming into a ward or mitigation bonus. Yes yes, all part of a potential skill ceiling argument, but really... devs, compare it with other jobs pls. Compare that and compare that to what it can put out and how it puts out. Is it justifiable? Don't think so. It's still not where it needs to be gameplay-wise. Personal opinion, yes, but don't think it's an isolated one.

And also personally... I miss the Slither attack boosts to spike Uncoiled up to something considerable. Even under LB debuff it still doesn't win out against just spamming your normal reawakened buttons with these higher potencies (Uncoiled's two ogcds I mean). In the old build the former was actually the higher output, so why mess with that? Those two hits were pretty damn strong too, and with less button mashing. As for it being counterintuitive to use a gapcloser to boost a ranged skill, well... to that I say look at current MNK.

At the risk of hijacking I'll be quiet now though.