FFXIV Shadowbringers: Patch 5.05 Astrologian Changes and Thoughts

[@myforeheadyourfuture4752]

The fancy effects finaly heal again.

[@l.madrid8815]

Pray for lady of crowns ofgcd heal

[@MakoEyesOfSapphire]

I still wish Celestial Opposition had its stun for casual dungeon runs but I am mostly satisfied for the changes. Would also be pretty cool if AST would get like 3% mp back from playing cards or something.

[@jextra1313]

That's a great idea. It would incentivse me to play cards cause the damage buff alone is lame. Also astro still has mana problems so 2 birds one stone.

[@mahoufoxxo]

Astro's card effects are still incredibly uninteresting and the job just feels like a reskinned amalgamation of the other two healers. I'm happy they're usable again but their identity is still missing.

[@SmileyB0mb]

I agree. The cards were over-simplified. Used to be six cards that did very different things. Now its six cards that all do one thing (damage buff) in only two ways (melee or ranged); or you can convert the cards into two other cards (Lord/Lady) that do *gasp* a damage buff! Should have just eliminated all but two of the cards because their individuality has been completely lost. Doesn't match up with the lore of the job and it bugs me.

[@fredxu99]

Feels much better than before, but it's still not as smooth to play as the old system. Hope they keep tweaking it, has potential :D

[@justalfric8719]

I will say all of these changes have been BLESSINGS. I didn’t think the job was dead before, but these changes are welcome. On the note of MP, I don’t really find myself running out of mp still with Lucid Dreaming being on a 60 second cooldown and all of our OGCD heals and all of the dps contribution in the form of card buffs making fights go by faster on average. I think we are truly good now!

[@armandozertuche4054]

The ast buff is amazing. It's still very potent.

[@armandozertuche4054]

And also, it's very possible to solo heal as AST.

[@justalfric8719]

Armando Zertuche I agree!! And the shield stance is almost as good as SCH now. Basically SCH shields without crit? Almost.

[@DageD214]

You know what I really. missed celestial opposition. The stun and ability extended duration..

[@Chase-The-Vision]

Broo you need to make your videos at least 10 mins your content is too good not to maximize om ad revenue

[@cereyza]

agreed

[@andrewfoti462]

He’s the hero this city needs

[@quiet5835]

Thank you for always bringing good and worthwhile content! Love all your Job videos, I really do learn a lot

[@hinotaiwildfire7276]

they still killed this class by taking away the original cards and over simplifying them

[@GrimoireM]

I'm glad I was right about Sleeve Draw being hot garbage and SE fixing it properly goes a long way.

[@cutekatara]

I'm definitely satisfied with these changes, even though the cards are still annoying as hell to use, it is so much easier to coordinate my skills with others and I never have to worry about healing less than what I did in 5.0. So far I've been getting a few people saying that I've timed my healing with my oGCDs so well that they never have to worry about healing in Eden. To me that's second nature now because I had to adept and memorise what I needed to do while dealing with a lot of aoes, dpsing and RNG cards, but hearing them say it was really nice and made me happy lol, I felt that I was being appriciated for being a good AST. xD

[@jackreilly7823]

While we still figure out optimization and BiS, it’s becoming more clear that AST still does not contribute as much rDPS as WHM, despite needing to go to exorbitant lengths of planning and optimization. It’s clear that the last thing they need to do is either buff Div’s potency slightly or give them a personal DPS buff to even out the discrepancy. Otherwise there’s still too much effort for too little a reward, despite the job being way more engaging and fun.

[@RockR277]

It just feels fun to play now

[@Amocoru]

This job confuses the hell out of me now. Just reading the tooltips seems exhausting.

[@maomekat2369]

This .plus all the fancy moves are just flashy not effective.it feels just reskinned healers

[@LittleSparklingStars]

You need to use lightspeed off cd for mana optimization.

[@onioncultistlordoftheonion8315]

Fortunately Lightspeed being 90 sec and Sleeve Draw being 180 means that you almost always have them up together

[@ridleyroid9060]

I am immensely happy with the changes to the job as an (admittedly fairly new and a noob) astro main.

[@Symphiney]

another great video! I’ll be mostly happy with AST if they address the MP issues. I’m struggling with my MP in dungeons (an issue I haven’t had since HW WHM).

[@Harleigh_19]

I haven't tried AST yet but I already miss my Ewer =(

[@Dan-uc8fq]

Haven't had any MP issues with ast in dngs, especially now with CI and COpp buff, hell I did Amaurot without a tank, with 3 dps just for fun and I didn't bottom out on MP once. Just remember to use your full kit efficiently. You have so many free heal options and don't forget to use Aoe oGCD heals in trash pulls as well mainly to take care of the tank.

[@solisimperium1203]

Use piety melds, am I right?

[@Symphiney]

Dan X thanks for the tips! never thought of using aoe oGCD heals in trash pulls. i’ll give it a try!

[@bulat9331]

Hey, your content is great do you think you'll be making a how to ast in dungeons like your sch one?

[@jamieanderson8308]

This would be pretty awesome actually. I was making an Astro going into Shadowbringers but with the changes, I stopped playing. I now have an 80 whm and an 80 sch/sum. I picked Astro back up again yesterday and it would be helpful to see how the more hardcore players approach things. The scholar video was excellent. Dissipation at the end of a mob, genius.

[@Melissa-jb5mi]

Thank you for this! Actually thinking of switching to Ast, once we are done progging at least E1 and E2. I just still don't feel fluent playing this class. Need more random runs to actually stop my eyes from hyperfixating on the hotbar >_

[@armandozertuche4054]

Horoscope is one of my favortie AST skills.

[@DageD214]

Why is it your favorite because it looks cool. ? it doesn't heal for much..

[@craigtrish2011]

@@DageD214 Horoscope helios has a 400 potency and a 30 second window to cast it when you feel you get most impact. What are you smoking?

[@DageD214]

@@craigtrish2011 you asked what am I smoking I wish I could smoke what you just post.. that I already know.. and again it is still too weak, 400 isn't enough..I wanna see big heals..

[@Es3iya]

I find this job very difficult. Being a healer is usually always being a healer AND a dps, that is already more difficult than just being a DPS. With AST you have to keep on reading cards all the time as EXTRA, get the 3 seals, apply them.. All that work for 1-2% more damage. It feels very clunky and not satisfying. There's so much to focus already, and with the cards on top i just get so damn tired of it all.

[@belphe7621]

It's really nice just not having to feel like you need to meld a lot of spell speed just to keep tanks alive, omg. Though, restoring Bole's old effect would be great for the buff window

[@kalliskivike]

The card system still messy, tried E1 savage and my dps did suffer a lot by giving out the cards out. All other classes can give buff in one click yet ast needs to do seals and result of it is still useless cause its 6% aeo dmg which still lasts only 15 seconds. They should extend it to 30 atleast.

[@mrdinkles6649]

Yes. Exactly this. Please DM Yoshi P. About this.

[@kalliskivike]

@@Aaron.Arcanum how is divination not useless, theres bard buff which gives 20% direct hit and lasts 20 seconds every 3 mins in one click, drg which gives 10% crit to everyone lasts 20 seconds. Then theres Ast who needs to do so many retakes for seals just to get aeo buff which is only 6% and lasts 15. WHM raw dmg can do way more than work your ass off buffing people while your dps suffers at it. Minor arcana is fine, its divination which is the main problem in my opinion. Getting correct seals doesn't feel that great since the pay off is still weak. Noct ast sucks and ast needs a second mp skill cause that one drains your mp like crazy ^^

[@Nagantios]

No longer suffering while leveling AST. Feels a little comfier, tbh.

[@Sweetwaterdream]

AST still lags behind unfortunately. The rdps contribution is still not high enough to compete with whm damage output. I was stubborn in sticking with ast but whm healing potency, dps potency and mana efficiency is just too good.....

[@KanriKaenan]

Not sure why people feel the need to compare rDPS between WHM and AST so much. WHM should ALWAYS be ahead of AST otherwise we get 3.1 to 4.55 all over again where there was no reason to go WHM over AST except for very edge case scenarios. As it stands, WHM AST makes a viable combination due to Celestial Opposition's rework similar to how WHM SCH operates, while AST SCH drops some overall DPS for insane shielding utility due to Neutral Sect and Galvanize being stackable. This is a good situation in my opinion.

[@FFXIVMomo]

@@KanriKaenan WHM should honestly only be ahead of AST in rDPS if your group is uncoordinated. If AST can't beat WHM in a super high end, best of the best group it will only fall lower the worse a group gets. This is the issue of balancing rDPS to pDPS jobs. It takes little effort to optimize your pDPS than it does to optimize a whole team around raid buffs and if jobs like Ninja and AST can't beat their respective jobs in a group like I said earlier than the balance just gets worse and worse the lower you go down the totem poll. The meta shifts in SCHs favor currently beating WHM in rDPS but only in a extraordinary group. This is good balance. With the amount of team coordination AST takes to get even close to WHM and even then it still can't is bad balance.

[@FFXIVMomo]

AST is the king of healing but requires foresight and doesn't have the ability to be as reactive as WHM unless you have Neutral Sect and Lightspeed up.

[@Sweetwaterdream]

Its not the only issue i have with AST. I feel like cards are mostly a slot machine now. You spin to win for seals for divination and i just dont dig it anymore. I’ll wait and see with AST in 6.0.

[@renycilfay3993]

Celestial Intersection is meant to be compared to Embrace/Fey Union/Seraph auto-healing and imo still comes out weaker. Not as absurd as you made it sound.

[@FFXIVMomo]

Not necessarily. You can still run Noct Ast + SCH in optimization.

[@renycilfay3993]

@@FFXIVMomo I never said you couldn't.

[@FFXIVMomo]

While Celestial Intersection is supposed to help Noct AST (which was stated in a video before) The difference between 10 Embraces and a Celestial intersection is only 100 potency which will more than likely go unnoticed. Not only that but you cannot control Embrace which means it will target players other than the tank and end up being useless. Actually out of the 85 Embraces in my E2S only 36 hit the tanks which is 49% out of all the Embraces. To make it simple let's use 255 seconds as a time mark for the 85 embraces (85 x 3 sec recast) . Useful Embrace's would account for 3780 potency and Celestial Intersection would be 8075. That doesn't seem weaker to me.

[@renycilfay3993]

@@FFXIVMomo It has its benefits, I agree.

[@BartoszBielecki]

Can I be blunt? Devs should never start with buffing/nerfing anything. The first question should always be: is this class FUN and UNIQUE. Later take care of balance (who has bigger DPS/heal meter). 5.0 ripped fun and uniqueness out of Astro. Thank god Scholar is still decently fun, but still not by that much.

[@SenjuNation-YT]

Nice video, i was hoping to see it on a dummy with 3 party members cards to test out dps.

[@TankHunter678]

In terms of DPS difference between WHM and AST post change it remains 1500 compared to the previous patch. Simply put the changes did little to nothing to actually improve ASTs viability in high end content. Healing wise it has made up the deficit it had since it lost the +10% healing on Diurnal and +15% healing it had on Nocturnal. However Nocturnal is still not viable unless it is a double AST situation. Simply because the MP requirements are still untenable and Nocturnal had to heal more then Diurnal to make up for the strength of the regens.

[@paulsmith950]

What are your thoughts on Nocturnal AST in a raid group when paired with a WHM? I'm thinking of jumping over to AST from SCH at this point in time but feel like the toolkit of SCH is too busted not to take advantage of...

[@FFXIVMomo]

Noct ACT is still weaker than SCH but it's in a lot better position than it was before.

[@nisteriaepicseven9173]

God bless.

[@TheApolloOnTheMoon]

So you think Nocturnal Sect is the best overall Sect for dungeons now?

[@DageD214]

I don't think so. Diurnal is always better for me . I know the overshield is great..but if I use diurnal i can get that overshield from calestial intersection..

[@shishiroONE]

Same for me diurnal still better for me

[@Theihe]

Dungeon bosses most likely, but trash mobs basically require Diurnal

[@l.madrid8815]

2:50 celestial opposition is a free aspected helios NOT an earthly star especially on nocturnal sect it cannot function as a huge heal like earthly star due to it being 200 potency...not 700

[@FFXIVMomo]

It's compared to Earthly Star because of it's 60s cooldown. It's potency in Nocturnal is also 450 not 200 (200 x 1.25). The issue with Nocturnal is the same issue it has in Stormblood which is that it's inferior to Diurnal still even if a little stronger than it was before so you're still going to be running Diurnal with a WHM in optimization unless you need the shields. I also specifically state that Nocturnal version is weaker

[@l.madrid8815]

@@FFXIVMomo but 1.25 is 125%, and 125% of 200 is 250

[@l.madrid8815]

@@FFXIVMomo also, did they not remove the healing potency boost from nocturnal sect? iirc, in stormblood they removed the speed boost from diurnal and made it a smaller potency buff, and kept the 10% in nocturnal sect, then in Shadowbringers they were both removed, I just checked the tool tips and they do not say anything about potency buffs anymore nocturnal sect just states it increases the no cost of aspected benefic

[@FFXIVMomo]

@@l.madrid8815 The total potency of CO in Nocturnal is 450. 200 for the heal and 250p for the shield.

[@l.madrid8815]

@@FFXIVMomo oh okay

[@gaskinfrommo]

I’m sorry but what does proc means and how do you spell it, sir?

[@TheIncompletionist]

Proc'ing basically just means making a bonus effect or skill activate (ex. Adloqium on Scholar can proc the Catalyze effect/Breaking Dark Knight's TBN procs Dark Arts)

[@SH1NK1R01]

Proc is a slang shortening of procure. It’s when you gain a triggerable effect. For example. When you cast fire 1 on black mage you have a chance to “proc” firestarter. Which makes your fire 3 0 mana and instant cast. Other classes have their own versions of this but some have none.

[@gaskinfrommo]

CaptainManYak thank you sir

[@gaskinfrommo]

SH1NK1R01 thank you sir

[@NightwalkersReprisal]

Proc is an acronym for Programmed Random OCcurrence. It's effectively a shorthand way of saying "RNG happened and a thing activated". When a RDM casts Verthunder there is a 50% chance that they will "proc" Verfire Ready, or when BLM casts Fire1 there is a chance that you will get the Firestarter buff, which makes your next Fire3 cost no MP and casts instantly, so it's said that you've gotten a "Firestarter proc".

[@dandelion4575]

Regarding your comment on AST saving cohealer gcds, do you think healers combined rdps of SCH/AST would trump WHM/SCH in an average group?

[@lynameep223]

Way too early to tell.

[@BlanchetFlaurian]

Nice insight! Thanks for the video. However, what is the name of the gear you're using? I bet it is the BiS for Astro for the moment, but I'm not sure 😹

[@FFXIVMomo]

It's just the crafted gear

[@BlanchetFlaurian]

@@FFXIVMomo Ok, I haven't taken a look at these yet. Thanks :)

[@SundaeDarling]

What’s that pretty ast weapon?

[@jextra1313]

I think it's called Canopus, a lv 60 anima weapon. It's hard to get.

[@dougiebarx]

What song is playing in the background?

[@wates101]

Eden raid boss 1. Ffviii Force your way

[@Kuro-sc1mg]

do you think collective needs a buff? i think its regen is too low for being on a 90sec cooldown comparing to soil that is on a 30sec cd and also provides mitigation

[@FFXIVMomo]

No collective is fine with ASTs current toolkit and now that soil isn't free (costs 150p to use) the balance is fine

[@l.madrid8815]

Yeah collective unconcious is uhhh pretty weak especially when it used to be one of the strongest regens ast has

[@MrCmagik]

Still no one shocked that CO has 50 potency x)

[@onioncultistlordoftheonion8315]

CU having 50 potency doesn't feel anywhere near as bad now that we have Horoscope buffed and CO being up far more frequently, tbh the regen buff would only be needed in Nocturnal sect anyway since it's the only AoE hot outside of Neutral sect

[@l.madrid8815]

@@onioncultistlordoftheonion8315 aspected helios is a heal over time aoe

[@ronny_innor]

@@l.madrid8815 not in nocturnal sect

[@onioncultistlordoftheonion8315]

@@l.madrid8815 I was talking about in nocturnal sect. In Diurnal the 50 potency is a non issue because of buffed CO and buffed aspected Helios. But in nocturnal that's the only way to apply a regen to the group outside of Nuetral Sect.

[@deth2munkies]

This video highlights why I will never play astro. In every other video, even for classes I don't play, I understand what you're talking about. I just watched this whole video and I have no fucking idea what you said.

[@Xo1ot1]

Class design and UI have the same problem in this game: they are full of unnecessary shit. If you go through healer skills in particular and ask yourself "would the job feel complete without this skill", the answer is "yes" way too often.

[@paquirosd]

What does "proc" mean?

[@armius063]

Proc is CD for use it in a certain moments.

[@Sanjipika]

A proc is something that has a chance to be activated. For example: on dancer there’s 50% chance that reverse cascade will proc a use of fan dance.

[@shaunpp87]

Programmed Random OCcurrence

[@justfox-fs4oh]

do a video on white mage changes Kappa

[@Theihe]

Astro's personal DPS, even taking into consideration that they free up GCDs from other healers, still feels absolutely trash. It's a poor excuse aswell, not too different from "well if you keep your party alive then they're performing more DPS than if they were dead and thus that should be included in your own DPS". Mana issues are still far too real and running dungeons below lvl 65, not to mention below 50 where you lack oGCDs, feel awful. For the effort and planning it requires you to effectively play AST the reward is quite poor. AST is just a worse SCH in every way up til' endgame and even there they're having some glaring issues. Really hoping to see further tweaks to AST in the near future, especially some DMG Potency buffs, but I have faith in Enix :)

[@mismismism]

I just started leveling AST(lvl 48) since I finished WHM and don't really like SCH, and I would like it but so far, even with the buffs, the heals feel super weak and mp just goes so fast if any issues happen or tank is squishy. I don't even enjoy SCH(feels weird to me, always has), but it feels way stronger so far(lvl 55) and no mo issues. I kinda think they just need at least one other mp regen spell since they lost ewer and extended lucid cuz they seem to have weaker potency than the other 2 still and none of the mp skills, I don't get it. Like it doesn't feel horrible now, but it still feels noticeably weak compared to WHM at the same level, hoping it gets better at higher levels but looking at the skills, mp seems like it's still gonna be a huge problem. I actually don't know how anyone used it at all before the 5.05 buffs.

[@MissAyatan]

My issue with astrologian in this savage tier is actually the stupidly high MP drain, especially in nocturnal. Doing progress with it is pretty stressful. Having to meld piety in order to not reach rock bottom of the bar only casting malefic is not fun. Also celestial intersection in diurnal is a joke :S

[@dianwei32]

What weapon is that?

[@dasolja18]

I'm dying to know also

[@dasolja18]

Oh wait, that's the one right before you get lux

[@FFXIVMomo]

Canopus yeah

[@EclipseHighroller]

Canopus. The step before the lux of the HW Relic quest

[@MikkoLehtovirta]

It still sucks Astrologian card system is still weaker than Scholar and White mage. Both WHM and SCH add to their heals with their special resource Astrologian does not. it still sucks. And it is weakest of the 3 healers. soAstrologian would need more buff even now. Who cares about DPS when healing is now much more imprtant you dont have that much time to dps anyway.

[@thepurehealer1279]

...still want cards that are actually fucking not garbage boring to use

[@GiorgosAigio96]

The Card Change doesnt bother me. If we go back to the old one people will still want to pull aoe balance or other 1-2 best cards. But these 5.05 are quite nice and ill take em

[@FirestreakRodimusPr]

And so we're back on to the path of Stormblood where AST starts replacing WHM in all stages of content.

[@FFXIVMomo]

White Mage is still better for the majority of content and you need a group of 8 exceptional players to even come close to WHM rDPS which we haven't even seen yet.

[@sacredwatermage3086]

Yay! Hope so.

[@TankHunter678]

Unless they majorly buff the cards that wont happen. As it is the card system current is a big huge issue for the entire class, which has people in every region upset. As it is WHM is just so much more damage that AST is not really viable.

[@andreluizxd2873]

@@TankHunter678 They Just simplified the card system, in SB we were using Arrow on BLM and Spear on a BRD to increase DPS... The new card system just increase dps too

[@matrinezkevin11492]

@@TankHunter678 AST is still plenty viable now if a group can coordinate well enough and fully take advantage of the buffs being provided. Granted, this is a hell of a lot more work for a similar result to just spamming glare dia and misery. But its still a viable option if a little weak at times.

[@williamwalcott8808]

Because you know, we can't go an expansion without astro being the best healer. /eyeroll