FFXIV Dawntrail: Initial Thoughts on Level 100 Astrologian

Dungeon and trial spoilers used in the clips used in the video! if you have not finished the Dawntrail story do not watch the video! You can still listen though :D!
Here are my first impressions for Astrologian (AST) at level 100! Healing in FFXIV Dawntrail!
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Intro 0:00
Initial Overview - 0:33
Card System - 1:30
Oracle - 6:30
GCD Potency (Malefic) - 7:08
Essential Dignity - 7:44
Sun Sign - 8:27
Astrologian Overview - 10:27

[@Nobilitism]

Its actually really funny that less than a day after this video came out, they announced astro changes thats basically answering most of your issues with the class. Adjusting lighspeed recast time and giving it charges will make it MUCH more flexible to use for movement and burst. Changing astral/umbral draw recast times will handle issues with drift, and increased macrocosmos potency will now make it damage neutral vs fall malefic. Now the only ask is to change gravity potency, and replace synestry with time dilation, and youve got a brew going.

[@Ilandria.]

I want the buff extension back on Celestial Opposition and for Time Dilation to replace Synastry so badly...

[@Iris_1217]

Is it wrong that I want Macrocosmos to go up to like ... 300-400 potency? I'll be fine if it's just AoE malefic though.

[@OneTallBloke]

I don't hate Arrow for having a 'increased healing received' effect I hate the Arrow because it should have been the Ranged damage card instead of the Spear

[@SubduedRadical]

Spear should be Balance (melee damage), and Balance should be increase healing done (nothing else REALLY fits that mechanic anyway, so why not Balance?), not to mention ending the "Oops, All Balance!" memes. And Arrow should then have been the Ranged damage boost.

[@OneTallBloke]

@@SubduedRadical Agreed, the fact that they couldn't even put in enough thought to have 'Arrow is the Ranged card' shows how little the devs play healers, or pay attention to their lore/identity/aesthetic. As long as the numbers are good enough according to their simulations, nothing else matters to them regarding healers it would seem

[@SubduedRadical]

@@OneTallBloke I don't know if it's EXACTLY that - Arrow used to be a speed boost at one time and "The Balance" as "damage" has always been a thing. So it being top of mind for "the does damage card" I can understand, even if I disagree with it. I don't know if I'd go QUITE so far as to condemn them over it, but I do think they could put a bit more thought into it.

[@supergold9390]

@@OneTallBlokean Astro friend of mine stated that the cards are like this because of their lore. According to them They are divided into astral and umbral. I haven’t bothered to check myself though.

[@OneTallBloke]

@@supergold9390 They are divided into Astral and Umbral based on their elements, yes, but the lore's been mangled several times over the years to try and 'explain' the card system and its constant reworks. The original pairings from HW (Balance/Bole, Arrow/Spear, Spire/Ewer) also respected Astral/Umbral split, the SHB/EW pairings (Balance/Bole, Arrow/Ewer, Spire/Spear) ALSO were Astral/Umbrally split. So I don't get why they decided they needed to swap the pairings AGAIN. Especially if the effect of the card is going to have little to no relation to the card itself (eg Spear being ranged damage). They could have left it as the EW pairs, and had Balance be the 'Healing up' card instead of Arrow, then had Spear be Melee and Arrow be Ranged. It all just smells of 'the devs don't play AST beyond making sure it has enough numbers to clear content'

[@azu3187]

I don't get why they added 1s CD between cards, the fact that you can't double weave them felt so clunky to me.

[@axylum4453]

Same on DRG with high jump and mirage dive. It throws off my muscle memory :/

[@bleeeeeeh]

@@axylum4453 you can disable it for drg

[@NoXiiZz]

@@axylum4453you can still double weave it, either put mirage dive on bar or uncheck the « safety option » box on the spell proc menu

[@turbo6328]

@@axylum4453 You can still do it on dragoon, if you open up mirage dive on your actions tab, you can disable the internal cooldown, the majority of job changes like this can be reverted.

[@kuri_curry]

I thought this was only me and I was just dumb, thank you! XD It felt so clunky having to wait when I personally want to at least use some of the cards before I go to the other 'draw' for burst. :(

[@noisyfireknight]

Pour one out for the chocobos that can't be buffed by the Balance or the Spear currently.

[@atarynspace3590]

Can't believe they pushed back the "Overhaul" multiple patches and then a whole expansion and this is what they came up with..

[@fmalch1209]

DRG too. Like... this is it? Really? Makes me extremely worried about the team's capability to learn and change going forward.

[@redgeoblaze3752]

It might be because of the backlash that Summoner and Paladin's reworks got. I don't main Astro or Dragoon, but I would hope they keep as much about what people love about the jobs the same. Just fixing some pain points.

[@craigtrish2011]

And if they didn't overhaul it or did it too much, you would cry about that too. All you stupid little kids do is cry over everything. I honestly hope square ignores everyone and just makes what they want because their fan base is just full of you dumb kids who can't be happy with anything no matter how much effort is made.

[@AC-mp6xe]

@@craigtrish2011pretty much! They where crying so much for a new card system similar to Shb and now they got it and still crying

[@xxomega702buzzalini8]

The thought of the cards is pre 50, You gain so much more kit lower level. After 70 it hits drop off cause your getting more and more stuff that is just the cards you had 30-70.

[@ruta1133]

Was hoping for more like, defensive/dps/other for cards. So like one card could make the target move fast (like an extra sprint), one card could extend the buff time of your buffs, including cards. That plays nicely into the time mage feeling too... Would trade an ED charge for a lightspeed charge...

[@skeptik6707]

So pretty much old HE Astro?! Which if we are being honest was when it felt like a unique job.

[@AlexBearincess]

​@@skeptik6707100% agree. HW Astro was so good. I understand needing to change some things for balance purposes, but the Royal Road mechanic and Spread really put the cards and decision making at the forefront of its playstyle. ❤

[@Prismatic_Nomad]

So basically Stormblood Ast. Bring back Stormblood Ast! It felt so good, fun to play and the cards actually made you have to think and strategize how youd use them.

[@senbujohns4489]

Not only do I give spear to melee because of reflex but I also instantly still draw at the beginning of instances. Overwriting both Lord AND Balance. Like i would have rather they just give us sleeve draw back.

[@KyouK]

ucob mentioned!! spear being a ranged buff now gives me whiplash everytime i see it

[@SI4NA]

Ngl I was one of the AST doomer before the expac arrived, based on media tour info. AST is my main and I prog everything on them. I agree that the new 4 cards are kinda meh and useless depending on situations, but can be powerful to save someone who messed up. It makes the job even busier which I like. Few people liked Astrodyne, I personally found it fun and I do mourn my MP and fast cast with the new AST x) The lack of mobility + the proactive healing playstyle makes AST very skillfull to play, as you gotta know well the fight to fully master the insane potency. All the mitigation makes him very valuable as you say. Just to note, mitigation isn't additive but multiplicative, so you can't stack 20% AOE / 40% ST mitig, but 19% AOE and 35% ST. Which is still insane tbh.

[@Zyphxion]

10 bucks says he never makes the sage and white mage videos just like last time

[@FFXIVMomo]

WTF

[@Charlie-lx9mg]

Waiting for my $10

[@hazet13]

It really just feels like AST gets more OGCDs, as opposed to anything really interesting requiring card weaving. I love the effects, but it feels so bland...

[@AlexBearincess]

I'm crossing my fingers. On release in ShB Astro was *rough*, but the tweaks it got really helped it. I mean right now it really works, but it feels like MacGyver put it together with a thumbtack and a potato. Russet, in case you were wondering. 😂

[@karenpojar2514]

I swear they increased gravity's range. Prepatch enemies had to be kissing for gravity to hit more than two. Now I am nuking entire groups without having to prod the tank to geoup them tighter.

[@drago1uk2000]

So i'm not the only one who thought they made aoes on a whole larger...

[@Sammysapphira]

@@drago1uk2000 monster hitboxes are large

[@theiveyed8677]

They probably chose this version of the card system as a crutch for people who couldn't play around the "time mage" parts of AST's kit. If you get a bunch more instant ogcd healing and mit tools then its not quite as punishing when you don't know how to use Earthly Star properly. (That, or they didn't really think about these changes before finalizing, which also seems possible).

[@veldora8427]

My biggest problem is how bad it feels when I don't have a reason to use the utility cards. At some point you either just throw them out for shits'n'giggles or overwrite them (as you already do in the opener). I think this would only get worse the more gear everyone has.

[@alexmaganda5827]

@@veldora8427 yep this is my issue too often you just wanna get the dps buff cards out and you just overwrite the others rendering them obsolete especially in the opener

[@jtspender]

I meannnn this is all of every healer kit.

[@lightsnow123]

Ok. But HW had you overwriting cards. Or rather, cards were already fodder. This just feels like a simplified version of it. If anything, it just feels like HW-lite. I do wish spire was the HoT and ewer a utility like speed or mp regen. Spire just feels like *such* a weak shield, like why bother.

[@axis1247]

​@lightsnow123 Yeah people like to pretend they actually used HW cards and them complaining about only damage cards being useful isnt what got us all damage cards in the first place.

[@alexmaganda5827]

@@lightsnow123 idk why they are scared to give astro an mp regen card that could help both healers especially if one got ressed and is struggling to get their mp back

[@karalynn2193]

Nice! Just saw they posted in Lodestone their plans for further Ast changes for 7.01 looks like were getting a lot of fixes folks called out for, happy to light speed cd change and charges, thats going to be very nice.

[@marcusaurelius4777]

Appreciate the balanced (no pun intended) coverage of this from a thoughtful perspective with detailed examples to back up what you are saying.

[@tangentkatz]

Is Astro strong? Yes. Is it fun? Not for me personally. I came back to the game when astro released because I loved the card fantasy. Now, as you mentioned, it feels tacked on. I may adjust to it over the expansion, but right now I don't enjoy it

[@silxer3154]

That seems to be the general consensus of the comments here, the job is still good but most hate it now it seems. :/ (I don't, but every former Astro player seems too.)

[@owo3632]

@@silxer3154 ast fuckin blows to play now, pretty sure its giga busted aswell so they managed to just kill the flow of the class

[@carbxncle]

I think that's par for the course for FF players now, they all hate the jobs they play. Coming online I'm just greeted with a deluge of "I HATE THIS I CAN'T BELIEVE YOSHIDA PERSONALLY OVERSAW THE BUTCHERING OF MY FAVOURITE FEATURE HURR DURR". It's tiring lmao.

[@tangentkatz]

@@carbxncle It's not all jobs for me. I love ninja this expansion and that's been my non-healing main job forever. I haven't spent as much time with them, but monk and pct also seem fun.

[@catfood4142]

wait but sun sign is level 100. you wont be able to use it in TOP and DSR

[@CutieMcBooty-lg5yh]

My impression was that if there are fights that have a similar style of giving out damage to those fights, Sun Sign will be ridiculously powerful. Which is true.

[@Chris-iv8sb]

Is it true that they literally had no decent healer designer to manage this stuff

[@SuperShesh2]

They have the exact same group of four managing every single job as they did in ARR. At least according to the credits at the end of endwalker. Meaning the same group has to manage double the amount of jobs.

[@AllThatJazzXx]

Is there any case where stacking both the balance and spear one dps better than using it on different melee/ranged?

[@luvd3ath]

would changing astral/umbral draw to 55 second cooldown help with the drifting. also hope they change light speed to 60 seconds instead of 90

[@FFXIVMomo]

Honestly yeah that would be pretty dope lol

[@matrinezkevin11492]

Please stop I can only get so turned on. But yeah, that would make it way better. It's legit worse to drift draws on AST rn than it was to drift jump/geirskogul on DRG. A 60s lightspeed would also make dealing cards in burst windows MUCH smoother.

[@AdamGCurtis]

The only card that feels moot with 2 stacks of noct already existing is the spire, although I'm not sure what form of mit could take its place. Maybe a proc when the shield breaks?

[@justinriley7193]

Would you be interested in doing a video over your current HUD. I'm looking for a change and/or some ideas and I like your setup.

[@Rayhaku808]

Man at the rate they’re designing jobs, next expansion all cards are gonna end up targeting all allies

[@LatuaBelladonna]

I actually like that idea but make the cards more useful for crying out loud

[@Kazeryuun]

That's already in PVP lol

[@soldierorsomething]

Nice, i can listen to this :D

[@rafaelmendonca1272]

Surelly the next rework will be the one! *Copium*

[@Marcomax742]

You've mentioned before the Astro doesn't feel like Astro anymore. I was wondering if anyone could elaborate on that? I started leveling AST in late Endwalker before the changes. I've read up on the old abilities astrologian use to have. Dinurnal/Nocturnal Sect, the old card system, Royal Road and Time Dilation. But it feels like there's some other aspect I'm missing regarding old AST.

[@armandguidirontani6955]

Hi Momo, can you show up your macro card ?

[@AZodiacCancer]

Wait, does the arrow work with oGCD heals? I always thought it was GCDs only. So if it says action it's oGCD too?

[@FFXIVMomo]

Healing actions = all abilities, healing spells = only gcds

[@fae85]

correct "healing actions" increases all incoming healing; IIRC "increases healing magic potency" increases all outgoing GCD heals

[@guffels]

I miss my slot machine. the fact you don't have to respond to anything and could play all your dps cards with an auto hotkey script sucks.

[@ridleyroid9060]

Haven't done the extremes yet but I really have not had fun with astro at 100 so far, I'll have to see how it behaves in harder content.

[@O_Aurora]

I pref the new cards makes things a little more interesting. But also its better than the last two expantions for me as i miss my old gutted stormblood astro. Its a welcome change for me. 😊

[@chexrail]

I just can't get behind this card system tbh, I already know how Im going to play my next 3 cards before I even hit draw its just sad. I miss the reactive gameplay this class used to have, now its just a slapped down watered version of aetherflow tied to 2 tank CD's and a dps card...ontop of this the cards are (mostly) already copies of oGCD's that AST already has....

[@Caramel_rabbit]

Differents of opinions or conversations

[@akatsuki20113]

What’s that robe you’re wearing that looks like it’s has a scarf

[@FFXIVMomo]

It's the poncho from the 93 dungeon

[@Prismatic_Nomad]

Bring Time Dilation Back!

[@Mikichiko_]

I thought I would enjoy new ast as someone who played it a lot in EW but i really dont vibe with some of the rigidness and a point of personal bitching i really hate 3 buttons for the cards. so the job isnt for me anymore which is ok i have bard and scholar to play instead. but if i could change ast id do this Spear = Melee Arrow = Ranged Spire = Mini nuke Balance = Dot Ewer = Shield Bole = 5% mit on target(aoe) whilst bringing back the old 1 card at a time. to reduce the issue of people fishing fir the dps boost cards id put some limitation on redraw if not remove it

[@catfood4142]

waiting for SGE

[@goodsherbear]

It's slower and clunkier now. Cards don't feel like a core component, more tacked on. This was my main for healing, but no more. It feels awful now.

[@albertobarberacampos451]

4:50 I understand what you mean with the arrow, but come on now, it's tedious beyond belief for a 10% healing increase on 3 actions every 2 minutes

[@starrynte]

Compared to before, it feels worse recovering mana after dying. Before I would usually be able to draw right away (sometimes even twice), now with bad timing I have to wait almost a minute to draw for mana.

[@AkihiroReality]

The cards do more than just buff dmg!? SHOOT I BEEN PLAYING ASTRO WRONG

[@Abk-zo7ts]

Nice!

[@andreluizxd2873]

They should remove the damage cards to give us freedom to hold or choose when we want to use the cards. Because the DMG cards, we need to keep draw on CD making us discard some utility.

[@bingbong3782]

I was a long time astro main, with dawntrail i fully dropped astro. Maybe some like the change, but its not for me. Its sad but thats what they decided to do, so i simply play a other job.

[@RyouEmerald]

I'm still bitter about the HW cards being gone and it's been 6 years.

[@andylawlzz]

I'm still bitter they added Astro to the game and it's been 8 years

[@SPB___]

​@@andylawlzzskill issue

[@DanBurtonCodes]

We kept the 2 good cards, balance and bole. Messing with others' tp/mp: bleh. Messing with others' CDs and gcd speed: bleh. They were cool effects but it's preferable that they made these resources personal responsibilities and took away the party's ability to mess with them.

[@nelieltu9730]

Most of the card effects sucked in heavenswards.

[@Sammysapphira]

Ast going from the most mobile healer to the least mobile healer shows that they have no idea what they want to do with ast.

[@Dioptase26]

I like the idea of the cards but they needed to be different buffs they just seemed so generic and bland

[@liiqaonmarz6451]

I absolutely hate the new changes to the cards. They should at least lower the cooldown to draw cards

[@DeadEye935]

bit of a bummer to hear. I have not raided with astro, but I enjoy playing it, and while I liked the idea of cards with different effects instead of just damage buffs, its unfortunate that their usage doesn't feel particularly interesting.

[@branford2606]

Agreed. I used AST during the entirety of the MSQ. I personally enjoyed it, but I have to agree that the card don't feel necessary during healing when the tank knows their job. (Maybe except in the latest dungeon, they hit hard lol) Also tried AST in the second ex trial, it's fun, but kinda a bummer to overwrite the cards that you don't need to use. I wish we had more moments when it feels necessary.

[@pedramcq]

I hear that our lvl 100 capstone ability is kind of just...under whelming

[@pedramcq]

Also, what if you want to use Sun Sign and not Neutral Sect? They're both our ultimate protection abilities, and using them together feels like overkill

[@alexmaganda5827]

i gave these changes a chance but damn after reaching lvl 100 im already kinda bored of the job.....the healing cards are giving they don't know what to do with astro

[@nonemitigation]

casual players never necessarily hated the cards in a bubble, so much as they generally dislike single target ogcds on party members that you *have* to press, because they usually end up drifting their gcd from not being able to select a party member, press the button, and tab back quickly enough (which is why PF white mages sometimes act like pressing benediction requires like three seconds of downtime). this version of AST not only doesn't solve that, it actively made it worse!

[@albertobarberacampos451]

If this really is a problem, then they should just get rid of single target cards, make them AoE and obviously rework them (again), but if people really do not like it, I'd rather have a job that most people will find fun/engaging to play with than just a job which I and just a bunch of other people in the world enjoy

[@alexmaganda5827]

@@nonemitigation thats a skill issue as a controller player with decent parses in svg i had 0 issues with cards its a skill thing you get better by practice

[@jeremylong8535]

Will somebody tell me something AST is better at than the other healers so i can cope please

[@BlackWhiteOFFICIALCHANNEL]

performance wise could be specially on the healing / single target aspect. The thing is its funnier? Only you can decide, on savage just play which class you prefer you dont need to follow the meta or something all 4 healers are good enough

[@Nobilitism]

It's better at raid buffs. It's better at being busy and pressing buttons.

[@zerothree9126]

​@@Nobilitism It's not like that anymore, which sucks. No more double weaving and drawing and throwing out cards all the time. You press like maybe...3 buttons in 60 seconds for your cards. There is no weaving requirements anymore making it extremely boring imo. It just plays exactly like the other healers now. It completely lost it's identity.

[@zerothree9126]

It has the highest pure healing output (you will rarely ever use even half of it though) and can...buff damage for longer than Scholar. That's it. The card system changes made it play like every other healer now.

[@jeremylong8535]

@@zerothree9126 turns out it's actually top on the rdps charts right now too

[@poeticider]

Astrologian died for me after Shadowbringers. Sounds like it's even worse now :(

[@daniellloyd6192]

I am not a fan of changes, just switched over to playing white mage and sage

[@alexmaganda5827]

@@daniellloyd6192 ill prolly play scholar alone that lvl 100 ability looks so cool

[@Charlie-lx9mg]

Too bad WHM and SGE are boring af

[@ThatNiueanGuy]

Pre-DT Asto was more fun, I miss it

[@kylegodon]

I levelled AST to 100. I was kinda looking forward to the changes before I played it, but now after leveling I think theyre just ok, maybe not really worth the effort of changing the job lol. For now I would really like Draw to be 55ish sec instead of 60 because the drift was my biggest challenge in trials. Also side note on SGE - people were kinda meh about Philosphia but I love healing people from far away now. This was a pain point for me on SGE in anabaseios .

[@Zoomie_Rest]

Yeah I’ll stick to to my wmh/sage this exp 😔

[@Charlie-lx9mg]

Boring healers

[@AshleySmith-ht4fk]

Bad. Wait till a few patches.

[@aznlink7]

As I feared, I do not enjoy these cards after a week of play. They could have been much more interesting and not be lower potencies of already existing abilities. The only hope I'm clinging onto now is the combat design (which has been really fun so far in the dungeons and EX trials) and the changes to lightspeed and card recast times that they posted on the lodestone earlier today.

[@craigtrish2011]

The cards are the same from when ast first released which is what you crybabies were begging for since the ShB rework. But you know, never happy ey.

[@Klefth]

Yeah, this isn't AST anymore, it really is WHM II.

[@LionBoy383]

The class feels adjacent to how it felt in stormblood. I personally enjoy the class as a whole in Dawntrail since what drew me to the class was how it was set up in stormblood.

[@brontome]

That moment you realize that cards are now pretty much just aetherflow with less options

[@FrankysABoysName]

Im seriously not trying to be a shitter but it's yoo-er, not oo-er. like a female sheep (ewe = you). Know its pedantic but I was sooo distracted by it every time it was said 😭 Im gonna have to watch it again so I guess momo really won here lmao

[@CyframerEX]

The true crime is the "gravity" that is the disparity between WHM and AST. All of this functionality loaded, yes arguably you need to be good with it, but the potential of what is available in comparison is believable only due to the lack of faith in their ability to line up class balance. I think its awesome Momo was able to point out the theoretical effectiveness of mitigation and its something WHM has been sorely lacking in comparison. While the doubled up mitigation might not be "needed" in said comparison, the fact its there doesn't sit well with me. I think someone in the office really loves AST and just wants to overload them or keeps dipping their hands into the pure healer pot leaving WHM with the scraps lol.

[@kpoptrashmedz9455]

Im kinda tired how people complain abt the class where i feel bad for the devs trying to please the community when they changed ast like they reworked the class probably 3 times now? Including DT release. Bunch of whiny bbies man.

[@khdayskh1314]

These jobs exist for players to have fun, not to protect the devs' feelings. If anything this rework confirms how out of touch the devs are with the healer playerbase.

[@Infectedjohn]

So bottom line, the class requires you to pay more attention, and losers and bad players are the ones who will be complaining about it. Got it.

[@Lum-x7c]

I like the part of your comment where you make it obvious you didn't watch the video. The comment is especially funny when you consider that Momo is one of the best healers in the raiding community. Losers and bad players indeed.

[@Infectedjohn]

@@Lum-x7c That is idiotic, nobody is saying Momo is a bad anything. Are you braindamaged? First of all, you don't need to have all your credentials to make an opinion, heck look at yourself, but even if you needed to i have cleared every single ultimate and have done savage tiers week 1 for many years now, as both tank and healer. Am i better than Momo? of course not, but it is your type of commetns that show ignorance more than anything.