AST changes, where we're still weak, and why I'm not upset with Yoshi-P...

That's why in PF/DF you use it on yourself. I'm not afraid to spread a Spear when LA is at 75% CD. (using the spreaded Spear will trigger the cooldown of Spread within the duration of the buff, thus lowering the cooldown of Spread anyway)

And to be honest, the main issue of AST was its troubles in Alex Savage, where you should have coordination and a vocal.

I never felt the class THAT weak in dungeons or primals ex.

Spear is the single best card in the deck next to Balance. If you're not spreading Spear when LA is about to come back up and you're complaining about MP, you're doing it wrong.

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Originally Posted by Assirra

Well the "issue" is what you said in the first part.
In a coordinated group it is very powerful but in the most runs you will do in df you never know when people will use cd's.

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But if you refer to second part of her post, you can easily see how powerful spear is. Spread a spear and the next brand new uber powerful Synastry will be up even faster.

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Originally Posted by Elth

I just can't take seriously anyone saying Spear is a bad card...

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It is THE most situational card in the AST's deck, bar none.

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NIN gets a huge benefit from it, not mentionning tanks and their Hallowed Ground with a little coordination.

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Even with no ninja and no coordination, the other cards still manage to be very useful. Also, you'd have to be spreading spear to ensure that it gets used at the right time.

Again, this is what makes spear so situational.

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But most of all, it's the best card we can cast on US ! LA CU CO LS all benefit greatly from it, allowing for a very decent MP conservation/regeneration, Synastry aswell is enhanced by a spear, even moreso now that it boosts our healing potency.

And what most people usually forget about, it allows to draw MORE cards, reducing the cooldown on Draw and Shuffle.

With THAT much oGCD benefiting from it, it doesn't seem so situational anymore, to me.

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But what situation will arise where you'll be popping LA CU CO and LS without wasting some of them?

See, this is the difference between "on paper" and "in practice".

On paper, sure, it'd be great if we had a spear to reduce all of those cooldowns, but that'll almost NEVER happen in actual encounters.

You can control the randomness a bit by spreading spear, but then you're reducing the chance of being able to:

-Give the party 5% damage increase for 30 seconds
-Give one DPS a 10% damage increase for 1 minute
-Give a tank a 10% damage reduction for 1 minute
-Give the party a 5% speed increase for 30 seconds
-Give an ailing healer/DPS/Tank 30% of their TP or MP back over 30 seconds
etc.

Again, you CAN hang onto a Spear in your spread, but you're basically playing ultra-conservatively at that point, eternally waiting for "the right moment" to pop your emergency cooldowns.

And that in itself isn't a BAD thing, but every draw you have a Spear spread is one more potential arrow or balance you won't be able to hang onto to push the next phase faster.

Well I will just say that and buff is a buff and this update was primarily for AST. I think I might dust off my star globe and give it another go. ;)

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Originally Posted by AylmerOfFamfrit

Well I will just say that and buff is a buff and this update was primarily for AST. I think I might dust off my star globe and give it another go. ;)

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Oh definitely. The AST is no longer head and shoulders below SCH/WHM now. :)

AST just became equal to the others.....but not better!

just how it should be!

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Originally Posted by RichardButte

Bloop

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Ofcourse the other cards manage to be useful, they better be !

I wasn't arguing on the fact it's the only OMGWTFBBQ card, but rather that it's NOT the worst card and can ALWAYS be useful.

No sane AST will pop every oGCD when a Spear comes up. But over the duration of a fight like A1S (8m30) or A3S (13m30) you'll pop them one after another depending on the situation multiple times.

I was emphasizing on the fact that when a Spear comes up, with the amount of oGCD we have, there will always be at least one to use under the effects of the Spear. Hell, even if you already spent everything, the Spear will guarantee a 24s cooldown on Draw when using it.

Balance and Arrow are only considered better because you can see their effect immediately, where Spear takes some time to actually feel its presence.

As you said "In practice" i always had a cooldown to use within the 15 seconds of drawing a spear (and i mean cooldowns I have to use, not cooldowns I pop because I see a spear and don't wanna waste it). When you find a use for it 90% of the time, i don't call it situational anymore.

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Originally Posted by RichardButte

As much as I would agree, I think there had to be one BAD card in the deck and the Spear is definitely it.

Originally, AST was designed with one card that was a DEBUFF to whoever you cast it on. Spear is the spiritual successor to that card: while it's not completely worthless, it's extremely situational and probably the last card you want to draw.

Though, with the duration buffs to the other cards, we don't have to be as pinpoint accurate with when we want to use them any longer, meaning that spreading a Spear is now less of a bad idea so we could hold onto it to use BEFORE we fire off big healing cooldowns...

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Actually it was never designed that way. The "debuff" was just mistranslated in a development build.

I always enjoyed using Spear back pre-3.07 to give my DRGs, NINs, and MCNs a nice small buff to their DPS, or get me a bit more MP faster.

Now that Balance, Arrow and Bole are both 30s buffs I'd rather just RR Spear and take a shot at the following:

• 60s long Balance (effectively two Balances back to back)
• 60s long Arrow (effectively two Arrows back to back)
• 60s long Bole (indirectly reducing my MP consumption due to lesser healing requirement)
• 300 Potency Refresh via Extended Ewer (25% weaker than 400 potency Luminous Aether)
• 300 TP restored to a DPS (I believe Spire is 30 TP / tick)

As much as I love Spear, I don't think the effect Spear gives now compares to the massive list of buffs the above gives. Sadly, I'm pretty much going to regulate Spear to RR fodder outside of a few niche uses when the RNG just happens to land me with a Spear that I just didn't need at the time.