Thank you SO MUCH Square Enix for inviting me to my very first FFXIV media tour, and the opportunity to check out Dawntrail early! Naturally, I beelined to Astrologian, because I was very curious to see what they did with the job. I’m overall happy with the changes so far, and I’m excited to hear my fellow Astro mains thoughts as well!
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*Dawntrail is still in development and subject to changes*
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Im so glad the card system changed to something unique other than the generic dps increase. Making them super supportive again.
More actions to go into my ast graveyard hotbars!! It looks nice though!! I think I'll enjoy ast in DT! ❤
Ast looking good. Can’t wait to level it up
These changes look great! I think AST had a little bit of “stress” associated with it, and whether you thought that made it more fun or not, it seems a lot more consistent and coordinated now!
Sharing this with all my AST friends!!!
My main! Looking better than ever!
May have to look into maining Astrologian once Dawntrail drops!
these changes are sick, love that the cards are unique again
Reduced swiftcast cooldown so I can run out of MP faster from reviving my allies 🤡
i was scared of the changes, but your video helped me get excited for astro again <3
Tarot card reading in Limsa is going to get a lot more expensive this expansion, STOP TOUCHING ME WITH YOUR SUN lady!
LETS GO AST CARDS ARE SO BACK
Have not played Astro much, only lvl 50. But this looks like fun!
I see an Ast DT preview by THE Ast GOAT Midna, I instaclick and am happi. Excellent and fair review by an Ast main and veteran
I only dabbled in Ast casually in HW and recently picked it back up for leveling in anticipation of changes, but am also glad the card functions return in a certain form even with less rng, tho i still kinda miss burning cards for buffed / AoE cards… anyway. Thank goodness playing cards seem a bit less apm heavy (so far), my brain can't keep up with the 3 card opener on controller even w/ macros Sadge
But I feel for the Ast mains who'll miss the Rng / Apm heavy aspect of Ast
The thing that made the old utility interesting was having to quickly find a way to work what what card you happened to draw, either using it for it's primary effect or using it to enhance a future card. In the 7.0 kit, they're not so much cards as they are 3 effect you will just get with a press of a button once every 60 seconds and always use in the exact same ways. Also, another major selling point of the old utility cards was just how unique and powerful they could be. These new non-damage effects are either extremely weak at best, or at worst completely redundant to other things the AST kit already handles exceedingly well. There is no Mana regen, no SKS up, and TP doesn't exist anymore. These new non-damage cards don't offer anything truly unique and they're so weak that they'll be entirely negligible in the vast majority of the game.
To talk about the damage "cards", I was thinking of a somewhat niche scenario that just happened to be the exact gameplay you captured. What happens when you're in a dungeon and get double range or double melee? One person is getting a 3% damage buff for 15 seconds, once every minute, and then 6% on the opposite minute. Beyond that pathetic damage buff 7.0 will be introducing, you're also missing the interaction of pressing a button every 30 seconds and thinking just the slightest bit with Draw/Redraw. Between every minute you're really left with nothing to do but press a combust and non-stop Malefic. They could have at least given AST a dps combo or something. Losing Draw on 30 seconds and having a static set of cards is going to make AST the most boring job in the game, with nothing to show for it. Outside of maybe Ultimates where the small bits of extra mitigation, healing, and damage might make a big difference.
I love AST, I've been AST main since Heavensaward, previously SCH; these changes are fundamentally terrible. Also, even though some may get sore over RNG, AST has had RNG for longer than it had utility cards. In the grand scheme, the RNG of drawing is just as, and I'd argue more, core to AST gameplay than the unique, non-damage effects on the cards themselves. You mentioned loving Sleeve Draw, I loved it as well. It was maybe my favorite ability while AST had it, but it was fun because it circumvented the randomness, it felt like cheating in a cool and powerful way. It wouldn't have felt as fun to use if there was no randomness to begin with. There's a great line in Futurama I always think back to, paraphrasing here, "A casino where I win, I must be in heaven! A casino where I always win, this must really be hell". Where before it was fun to make the best of what you got, now you just get a little bit of everything. The new job identity for AST is, the regen healer without a gap closer/dash.
All that being said, nothing but respect to you, you're just the messenger. I'm actually upset with SE and these changes.
Big congratulations to you Midna, well deserved.
new AST looks like ass. im a sage main now
I'm concerned about the MP, each card used to give 500 mana, now it is just 500 mana per minute, and astrodyne is also gone, so even less MP.
Also RIP Astro players that use controllers.
I'm hoping that we no longer need Lightspeed for burst, but it looks like we still do? Maybe we do for the opener, but not later burst phases? I just want to be able to use Lightspeed freely for movement. Otherwise, I think I like the changes and will continue to play AST here and there when I'm not playing barrier healer.
Thanks for the update Midna! We're so back.
Thanks for posting this! Im curious to try out the changes when the time comes too!!
main astro here and i love it all!
What was the point of Undraw anyways?
A little loss in mp regen with no 30s cd with playing or getting the perfect buff from astrodyne. No worries though this looks more fun
bit worried about the lack of damage buff increases on the cards and divination, and losing astrodyne means no free lucid dreaming every 130 seconds. hopefully they make some changes closer to launch but im glad that the cards don't do all the same thing anymore.
YOOOOOOOO YOUTUBE ITS YA GIRL 👁👄👁 good vid strimmer :3 the way you explain it is really digestible and easy to understand for donks like me!
Love the card effect changes but having 4 draw buttons is too much. AST had always been annoying to do on controller, this isn't helping lol.
Farewell using RNG cards to choose doors during map runs. 😢
But I'm also more worried why we might need more frequent use of swiftcast (& likely ascend) in this expansion.
Thanks for the preview!
Wow, it sounds like ast will be meta. I'm glad they brought back the fun with the class.
you can make anything look exciting.
Thank you so much for this! It's great to get feedback on the changes from someone WHO ACTUALLY PLAYS IT! I've been so sick of seeing posts like "well, I don't even play AST, but these changes are horrible." I'm very excited for these changes and thanks so much for the analysis!
The rework of the cards look very nice, seems AST is back to his previous self in Heavensward, plus the new skills looks interesting too 🤔… after a year i guess its time to back to game 😂
I hope they find a way to replace the MP Refresh we lose from losing Astrodyne. Maybe revert Lightspeed to how it was in HW with the 50% MP cost reduction in spells or, funnier idea, give Synastry an MP refresh so we Astros actually remember that skill exists XD.
Hi! Love this more in-depth overview of the changes. One thing I noticed is that the Arrow card tooltip looks like Krasis or old Nature's Minne, so I think that should probably be given to the tank or whoever needs more healing received.
Do we still need light speed for the burst window? How did mp feel without astrodyne?
While I am genuinely happy for all the new AST players and what not, I do hope you find joy in the class.. I think I will pass this time around. Stormblood was where I had the most fun with it, but this feels lacking.
Thank you for the video, you're a gem! 🙂
Nice!