Hi SE, can we get rid of the current card system in next expansion, pls?

Need a defense card, like really -.-. Also Collective SameThing needs to do different things in each sect. lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rasikko

Need a defense card, like really -.-. Also Collective SameThing needs to do different things in each sect. lol

---

I was running a dungeon as AST yesterday (there's still instant queues btw) and got teamed up with not a very good tank, I thought to myself "I could really use a Bole right now".
AST gameplay is now 50% fishing for seals and getting angry at 3x!Redraw giving you Arrow Spire Arrow Spire, and 50% thinking about how much better the class was a few months ago.

Geez, I wonder why so few people play it.

Oh hey, speaking of which!
Did you know that AST is now the strongest healer in raids, and that AST+SCH is the strongest healer comp by a large margin? Now, did you know that AST is the least played healer, and AST+SCH is the least used comp? Well now you do!
And to make things even funnier, AST is the least played healer across all lv80 content!


please square do something you still have the time to realize your mistakes

That really only proves that the great majority of people don't care about numbers if the gameplay is poop [and/or aren't as motivated to level AST to 80 because solo content as healer is even more poop]. Let that minority of people enjoy the new AST, but don't give your back to everyone else and say the job is fine when it's clearly not.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rasikko

Need a defense card, like really -.-. Also Collective SameThing needs to do different things in each sect. lol

---

CU used to do different things in each Sect back when AST was first implemented in HW. Diurnal CU was only regen and Noct CU was only mitigation. It sucked and they changed it.

I don't think we will ever see the old system. There's a few things that we just don't have anymore.. TP being the biggest one. So unless you want TP back - I don't- then the old system will never be here 100% like it was. Plus all people did was fish for balance anyway. - points to Mr. Happy's many opinions on it.-

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by monk-dps

I don't think we will ever see the old system. There's a few things that we just don't have anymore.. TP being the biggest one. So unless you want TP back - I don't- then the old system will never be here 100% like it was. Plus all people did was fish for balance anyway. - points to Mr. Happy's many opinions on it.-

---

They can replace TP card with a direct hit buff instead. A "Very" small majority of players fished for balance aka "Parse runners" Mr Happy wouldn't know whats good for astro if it hit him in the back of the head. They managed to give bard back it's utility even if it's small. Taking away it's lore, it's MP regen and the fun out of it for those minority of players is what killed the astrologian player base. If they can't fix it then the only healers you'll see are WHM and SCH. I really love AST but the fact remains is that its not fun for the amount of work, strategy with planning your OGCDs with mechanics that you have to go through in a fight/raid. Yes have all my cards boost damage.... It's honestly lame and I am ashamed of anyone who thought this was a good idea.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by monk-dps

I don't think we will ever see the old system. There's a few things that we just don't have anymore.. TP being the biggest one. So unless you want TP back - I don't- then the old system will never be here 100% like it was. Plus all people did was fish for balance anyway. - points to Mr. Happy's many opinions on it.-

---

If anything, the old system would be better served with TP gone, as it arbitrarily separated casters from physical damage dealers while all other effects worked on the entire raid (even if not quite equally well on each).

More pivotal would simply be to give MP back to everyone else, ideally without dependence on Invigorate or Lucid Dreaming (as these are only used on CD anyways). At that point, Ewer could restore MP over time while Spire could significantly reduce MP costs, allowing for bursts of activity that favor healer AoE heals (over Ewer and potentially over Bole), melee utility (e.g. ranged attack usage), all AoE slightly, and BLM AF phase bursts.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by monk-dps

I don't think we will ever see the old system. There's a few things that we just don't have anymore.. TP being the biggest one. So unless you want TP back - I don't- then the old system will never be here 100% like it was. Plus all people did was fish for balance anyway. - points to Mr. Happy's many opinions on it.-

---

You can literally just change the effect of old Spire. They did it with Spear in 4.x. Citing “no more TP” is a poor reason to give with regards to not returning the old card system. And Balance fishing was only a thing in top-tier play—anyone who didn’t care about parsing or speedkilling didn’t care to always Balance fish, and this is coming from someone who does care about at least one of those things.

Even as a raider, I’d give anything for Ewers to give MP again, and for a nicely juicy Bole in dungeons to give the tank during a large pull.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

You can literally just change the effect of old Spire. They did it with Spear in 4.x. Citing “no more TP” is a poor reason to give with regards to not returning the old card system. And Balance fishing was only a thing in top-tier play—anyone who didn’t care about parsing or speedkilling didn’t care to always Balance fish, and this is coming from someone who does care about at least one of those things.

Even as a raider, I’d give anything for Ewers to give MP again, and for a nicely juicy Bole in dungeons to give the tank during a large pull.

---

I really hope SE goes the bowmage route again, keeping AST horrible for two years before admitting their mistakes and reworking it for 6.0 into something that's universally loved.

Because right now what I'm afraid of is seeing AST gradually buffed into a state of accepable mediocrity, something that works but is nothing but a shadow of its former self.
And it's what's happening. AST still feels as bad as in 5.0, but now it's top tier again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lodi

I really hope SE goes the bowmage route again, keeping AST horrible for two years before admitting their mistakes and reworking it for 6.0 into something that's universally loved.

Because right now what I'm afraid of is seeing AST gradually buffed into a state of accepable mediocrity, something that works but is nothing but a shadow of its former self.
And it's what's happening. AST still feels as bad as in 5.0, but now it's top tier again.

---

As a bandaid fix for 5.X, I'd just like to ditch the seals. The interaction with Divination is problematic in openers, it "forces" Lightning speed to be paired with Sleeve when it should be a MP tool before anything.
Yesterday I got Lakshmi normal mode in a roulette, and I contemplated how stupid it is to be so out of synch with every raid buff as I couldn't blast Divination in the opener.

So yeah, just making Divination a 6% buff with a fixed CD, and perhaps Minor Arcana should become a separate Draw with a longer CD, or returned to what it used to be (although it's not worth burning card now I guess). That's be okay. Still won't save the sinking ship but well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mansion

As a bandaid fix for 5.X, I'd just like to ditch the seals. The interaction with Divination is problematic in openers, it "forces" Lightning speed to be paired with Sleeve when it should be a MP tool before anything.

---

Better off having the MP reduction removed from Lightspeed and AST MP costs reduced across the board to compensate.

And, honestly, I'd rather keep Seals and Divination atop varied card effects than the old Royal Road interactions (i.e. if they refused to balance them). At least it'd further help to give relative weight to the normally situational card effects.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lodi

I really hope SE goes the bowmage route again, keeping AST horrible for two years before admitting their mistakes and reworking it for 6.0 into something that's universally loved.

Because right now what I'm afraid of is seeing AST gradually buffed into a state of accepable mediocrity, something that works but is nothing but a shadow of its former self.
And it's what's happening. AST still feels as bad as in 5.0, but now it's top tier again.

---

Honestly, them buffing AST’s potencies was good for the job. Because if it remains firmly last place in terms of healers—and if the gap between it and WHM and SCH remains as substantial as it has been—then that means the reason it’s so underplayed is not because it’s weak: it’s because the core gameplay is flawed. So far, AST is still far behind WHM and SCH in terms of uploads.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

Honestly, them buffing AST’s potencies was good for the job. Because if it remains firmly last place in terms of healers—and if the gap between it and WHM and SCH remains as substantial as it has been—then that means the reason it’s so underplayed is not because it’s weak: it’s because the core gameplay is flawed. So far, AST is still far behind WHM and SCH in terms of uploads.

---

I have to agree with you there, AST is massively underplayed. It's been the case since 5.0 because it went through major changes and was underperforming in everything, but even with all those buffs it didn't bring players back.

Going through the website that shall not be named, it appears that in all lv 80 content and 4.x Ultimates, AST is played 3 to 5 times less than WHM.
And that's not even to mention the generally lower healer population.

But I don't think SE will do anything until 6.0, they'll find another DPS to rework in 5.2 instead. And in 5.3. And 5.4. 5.5 too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

Better off having the MP reduction removed from Lightspeed and AST MP costs reduced across the board to compensate.

And, honestly, I'd rather keep Seals and Divination atop varied card effects than the old Royal Road interactions (i.e. if they refused to balance them). At least it'd further help to give relative weight to the normally situational card effects.

---

I don't think you can have 6 card effects and the seals system.
Maybe three effects and then keep the card duos?
I'm thinking practical, I guess it would be easier for them to remove things and consolidate existing things rather than re-balancing new card effects and stuff.

Removing the MP reduction of Lightspeed is weird. Essentially it would end up being an AST flavoured "triple cast" but it would be far more beneficial for classes with long cast times, which is not AST's case at all. It's valuable because of the load of oGCDs to be weaved from time to time in AST's cycle, but paired with Lucid Dreaming I think it's quite an efficient MP tool. But as Hyomin said, it ends up being used for weaving rather than MP economy.

I've been wondering if there was a way to fuse both systems, here is a rough idea for it,

Seals remain tied to their current cards
Spire changed to Healing received + 30%
Balance changed to DH + 10%
Ewer gives 1,500 mp instantly
All other card effects returned
Spread, RR, old minor arcana returned
Seals cannot be gotten outside combat
Saving cards can be done outside combat
RR does not give seals
Saved cards can give seals
Lord/Lady fixed like current card system but give flat dmg/heals instead
Sleeve Draw reverted back to 4.X version except no Lord/Lady
Divination buffed to 10% dmg up
New ability "Royal Flush" changes Draw to Balance, Spread to Arrow, RR to Spear, MA to Bole, Redraw to Ewer, Sleeve Draw to Spire, Player picks a card and this card replaces "Royal Flush" 120s cd.

This system is by no means perfect and probably way overtuned with what would actually be acceptable but I wanted to try and keep the idea of divination that it forces to not fish for a single card in tact, yea there would still be a "best" card scenerio but the 10% dmg up on divination would keep people from only fishing for crit/dhit up while also adding a way to get that last seal quickly with "Royal Flush" etc.

Now for discussion, honestly i think the new AST card system is being treated like BLU is by SE, it is one of the developers 'baby' and they will fight against(metaphorically ofc) anyone disagreeing with it and not worth changing even when it is the majority of people who played with it/used to play it.

AST numbers are still way too low and that is after being made no1 healer, SE need to see it is a fundamental gameplay change that caused this, not numbers or we will end up with 3.4 AST again and that was broken mess(more fun than now but was definitely broken) which i don't think any respectable healer would ever want repeated especially if their goal is actually balancing healers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mansion

I don't think you can have 6 card effects and the seals system.
Maybe three effects and then keep the card duos?

---

You can just as easily as you keep 3 card effects and have 3 seals or 12 card effects and 3 seals... The one is irrelevant to the other except in that the larger should be a multiple of the smaller. Adding Seals merely down-tunes Balance-fishing to make the other reach breakpoints for viability more often.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mansion

Removing the MP reduction of Lightspeed is weird. Essentially it would end up being an AST flavoured "triple cast" but it would be far more beneficial for classes with long cast times, which is not AST's case at all.

---

Counterpoint: Having MP reduction on a skill that could otherwise be saved wholly for mobility or weaving, where they produce a far more tangible and gameplay-related benefit, is weird.

If the developer’s intentions for Lightspeed were to be movement and weaving related, then they need to give AST another way to recover MP. Especially if they were to remove the MP reduction from the skill. AST is decidedly last place in terms of mana economy—it’s not uncommon to end up MP negative after using Raise or a death. WHM and SCH can recover significantly better than AST.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

If the developer’s intentions for Lightspeed were to be movement and weaving related, then they need to give AST another way to recover MP. Especially if they were to remove the MP reduction from the skill. AST is decidedly last place in terms of mana economy—it’s not uncommon to end up MP negative after using Raise or a death. WHM and SCH can recover significantly better than AST.

---

The need for a further MP-generating skill is of there own making, unless you consider AST's having greater effective MP costs likewise a necessity. SCH's AF contribution to MP economy is minimal and without any thought or gameplay in and of itself. Would it be so wrong for Thin Air to be unique in wanting high-cost spells pooled over its duration, rather than AST needing yet another copy, while AST would just be given more reasonable costs instead (and its related skills left instead to synergize better with its unique areas of its toolkit)?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nanami_Naniwa

But what about all the people who like it the way it is?

---

Make an in game, 1 answer per acount, survey ?
IMHO they should do that everytime they consider a drastic change on a jobs (DOW/DOH).
Create and in game survey. People who feel concerned will give their opinion, the others....welle they did not vote so that means they don't care and see what the majority want.

That's how I see the dev process for a MMO, hand in hand with the players. I get it the game is the dev's one, but it's also our's.
They gave life to it, but we keep it alive by playing it s it should be a team effort

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

Counterpoint: Having MP reduction on a skill that could otherwise be saved wholly for mobility or weaving, where they produce a far more tangible and gameplay-related benefit, is weird.

---

Yeah but movement (and weaving to a certain extent) is less of a problem for AST, as it has weaving into Malefic (and Aspected Benefic, Benefic and Combus), and Malefic + slidecast offers more movement flexibility than any other healer (or caster).
Whereas the only MP recovery tool within AST kit is Lightspeed. That's more valuable than the movement / weaving tool as AST needs the latter less (except for Sleeve Draw windows).
In the end, that's another ability that changed a lot compared to its original iteration (where AST had 2.5sec+ casts), and that's a problem in AST's current flow.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

If the developer’s intentions for Lightspeed were to be movement and weaving related, then they need to give AST another way to recover MP. Especially if they were to remove the MP reduction from the skill. AST is decidedly last place in terms of mana economy—it’s not uncommon to end up MP negative after using Raise or a death. WHM and SCH can recover significantly better than AST.

---

Adding a "Recover 400 MP" to Draw would be a simple way to have an Assize or Aetherflow-like gimmick. It would encourage the Drawing as part of the general rotation too. Of course it needs to be balanced because its CD is shorther than AF (1 000 MP per minute) and Assize (500 MP every 45 seconds).

The card aesthetic is the only reason I played Astrologian.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mansion

Adding a "Recover 400 MP" to Draw would be a simple way to have an Assize or Aetherflow-like gimmick.

---

We actually had this in PvP for a while (albeit for 1k mana since mana pools deplete quicker in Feast and obviously we don't have Lucid Dreaming, because in PvP you actually heal.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BloodRubyXII

We actually had this in PvP for a while (albeit for 1k mana since mana pools deplete quicker in Feast and obviously we don't have Lucid Dreaming, because in PvP you actually heal.)

---

PvP has a lot of things I'd love to see in our PvE kits. Actual cards, little to no redundant skills...

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...emember_us.jpg

You can add Lady and Lord, even Royal Road, Spread, old Sleeve Draw effect, Time Dilatation, old Celestial Opposition effect.

I love you, OP. I have the same issue. I didn't actually realise it was different for gamepad & mouse/keyboard. (It really sucks on gamepad, I can't play it on harder content, it's just too much. I think it's really inefficient and not user-friendly.[Or perhaps not gamepad friendly.)

Though, I think waiting till next expansion would probably be too long. If they could just go back to the original card system, it shouldn't take that long, right? The old system was fine, there was no need to change it.

But if we do have to wait for another year and a half, then so be it I guess. (But I'm already getting healing withdrawals and I don't like the other two healers. /plays tiny violin for self xD)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

You can literally just change the effect of old Spire. They did it with Spear in 4.x. Citing “no more TP” is a poor reason to give with regards to not returning the old card system. And Balance fishing was only a thing in top-tier play—anyone who didn’t care about parsing or speedkilling didn’t care to always Balance fish, and this is coming from someone who does care about at least one of those things.

Even as a raider, I’d give anything for Ewers to give MP again, and for a nicely juicy Bole in dungeons to give the tank during a large pull.

---

Even if it's a poor excuse, It's most likely one of the reasons they changed it in the first place. All I'm saying is expecting a return to form 100% isn't likely due to said changes and SE isn't going to go back and revert all the changes. I'd even go as far as saying that if anything instead of asking for the old system back which I don't think is ever happening. What should be asked is a NEW system. You'd have better chances of that happening then asking for something to return when half of the reason it worked in the old patches was cause the battle system was completely different. One of those being TP. I guess changing the one old TP card to something else, but that doesn't solve anything either. Honestly like it or not.. but I still say blame the top people for the change as clearly they were the ones who got to talk to SE and give feedback that was listened too. - points to the cards being damage up cards now-

Hmm... I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but what about having 2 decks of cards? Much like how AST has 2 Sect stances, why not there being 2 Card Decks? So you have Deck 1 being the old card system from Stormblood, and Deck 2 the current card system now in Shadowbringers.

Perhaps the devs could comply by giving both old and new card system and the player can choose between which card system they want to play with. Then maybe everyone is happy hopefully? So 2 new abilities given that allows the AST to switch their card system decks.

Storm Deck, and Shadow Deck :o

You name the decks however way you like. I've only given these names from the expansion they came from. :p

Oh and I guess rework the Spire card to not give TP since that's gone. So maybe another defensive card like the bole card. :o

Something that might help controller users struggling with AST cards: Macros. I know macros are the devil's crutch, but manually-targeting cards felt awful so I made an exception and it has helped me to actually enjoy the card mechanic.

This guide helped me specifically

Some notes:

• For ease of use, make sure the target-selection macro actions are on the same trigger as the "Play" and "Minor Arcana" macros (so you don't have to change triggers, so using cards is faster and smoother)
• I personally added a "Go Back" macro among the target-selection buttons (on the opposite trigger) in case I accidentally hit Play or Minor Arcana and don't want to actually use a card.
• Just for fun (totally optional), I also added a macro to target my chocobo companion (also on the opposite trigger alongside "Go Back"). Use <c> to target your chocobo with a card.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Miu-Tiiu

Hmm... I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but what about having 2 decks of cards? Much like how AST has 2 Sect stances, why not there being 2 Card Decks? So you have Deck 1 being the old card system from Stormblood, and Deck 2 the current card system now in Shadowbringers.

Perhaps the devs could comply by giving both old and new card system and the player can choose between which card system they want to play with. Then maybe everyone is happy hopefully? So 2 new abilities given that allows the AST to switch their card system decks.

Storm Deck, and Shadow Deck :o

---

I can already foresee how this will go:

1 : even before it is live, dataminers will get all the cards values from the patch download ;
2 : with numerous calculations and excel spreadsheets, theorycrafters will answer this very question : what does more dps ? Using only balance with the SB deck ? Or using the ShB deck ?
3 : anything else than the previous more dps answer will be labelled as something bad, and the ASTs daring to use something else bad as well.

One of the problem of this game is that you think you have the choice, but in fact you dont XD

I went to go like the OP.
Apparently I already liked it.
-Pats my past self on the back.-

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by monk-dps

Even if it's a poor excuse, It's most likely one of the reasons they changed it in the first place. All I'm saying is expecting a return to form 100% isn't likely due to said changes and SE isn't going to go back and revert all the changes. I'd even go as far as saying that if anything instead of asking for the old system back which I don't think is ever happening. What should be asked is a NEW system. You'd have better chances of that happening then asking for something to return when half of the reason it worked in the old patches was cause the battle system was completely different. One of those being TP. I guess changing the one old TP card to something else, but that doesn't solve anything either.

---

TP being removed is not a reason they overhauled the card system. I doubt it ever played a factor in their decision making. It’s a common complaint that SE doesn’t understand how to balance or design healers, and I’d say their failure to understand what healer mains actually want is how the healers ended up in the state they’re in now. For AST specifically, it was changed purely because of this notion that Balance fishing was all anyone cared about—but that’s only ever a thing in top speedkills groups, which is hardly the majority of players.

How would asking for an entirely new system help AST? We got a new system in ShB and it is the most controversial aspect of the job. Newer ASTs don’t care as much since they never experienced the old system—but career ASTs that have played the job for 4 years did not receive it well. What makes you think bringing in another new system would fix this backlash? Unless it was catered specifically to what the majority of ASTs want—which there are far too many suggestions flying around, so one has to wonder if a third system would be designed to satisfactorily fulfill what the majority of the suggestions are asking for.

There were tweaks that could have been done to the old system—changing Spire with the removal of TP and adjusting Balance to not be overpowered were two of them. The solution of changing all 8 arcana into mini Balances with no variation aside from “melee card” and “ranged card” was not what should have happened, in my opinion. It removed variety from the job and made it boring and braindead to play (in terms of concept—in execution, it’s an incredibly active job with regards to CPM).

I don’t have issues with the way AST’s healing gameplay is. I actually enjoy the healing style, though I have suggestions for some of the stuff in AST’s kit and am not a fan of how MP strained it still feels. But I hate the card system. When I have more fun ignoring a job’s main gimmick, I’d say it’s a problem.

Quote:

---

Honestly like it or not.. but I still say blame the top people for the change as clearly they were the ones who got to talk to SE and give feedback that was listened too. - points to the cards being damage up cards now-

---

This doesn’t work when there were no big healer representatives at any of the ShB media tours. The people that were there were not ones that ever made a FFXIV career in maining/optimizing healers.

You cited Mr. Happy in your original post—I have nothing against the guy, but he’s not a healer main. The healer he’s been known to play has also been WHM, not AST. I won’t deny that Balance was essential in speedkills, but speedkilling is done by an extremely small percentage of the playerbase. I’d say more people clear the Ultimates than people who competitively speedkill.

Instead of fishing for balance, people now fish for seals.

As a controller player, AST card system gives me carpal tunnel due to the sheer amount of busyness and underwhelming impact

Getting rid of the current card system isn't likely to happen, and it is even less likely it will be reverted back to what it was. It will very likely undergo some changes though, and whether those or good or bad is yet to be seen. I'd honestly let go of the days that cards gave out varied buffs.

What I do know is that the card mechanic continues to give AST a very high APM. With healing as is, you would think that this would be favorable, but when a lot of those actions involve choosing different party members it gets real clunky real fast. I use a controller, but I would imagine even for KB+M players it still causes a slight delay between actions, which adds up over time.

I am guessing this issue is probably what will be addressed before doing anything different with the card effects, and a rework would involve designing the card system to reduce AST's APM. As a player who uses both SMN and NIN, I can say that the reduction to their APMs has really improved their playability and feel the same approach to AST would yield a similar result. I believe a lot of players would agree that it does make them more playable, but not necessarily more enjoyable, or that it feels slower. This is what I am expecting with 6.0 AST.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gemina

Getting rid of the current card system isn't likely to happen, and it is even less likely it will be reverted back to what it was. It will very likely undergo some changes though, and whether those or good or bad is yet to be seen. I'd honestly let go of the days that cards gave out varied buffs.

What I do know is that the card mechanic continues to give AST a very high APM. With healing as is, you would think that this would be favorable, but when a lot of those actions involve choosing different party members it gets real clunky real fast. I use a controller, but I would imagine even for KB+M players it still causes a slight delay between actions, which adds up over time.

I am guessing this issue is probably what will be addressed before doing anything different with the card effects, and a rework would involve designing the card system to reduce AST's APM. As a player who uses both SMN and NIN, I can say that the reduction to their APMs has really improved their playability and feel the same approach to AST would yield a similar result. I believe a lot of players would agree that it does make them more playable, but not necessarily more enjoyable, or that it feels slower. This is what I am expecting with 6.0 AST.

---

I won't stop until they realize it was those days that a majority of the community loved AST so much. BRD players got their utility back in their songs, now it's our turn

Brd got crap utility not reverted utility tho... their utility still sucks. : /

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Neela

Brd got crap utility not reverted utility tho... their utility still sucks. : /

---

Which is why I hope to dear Hydaelyn herself they don't repeat the same mistake with that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

This doesn’t work when there were no big healer representatives at any of the ShB media tours. The people that were there were not ones that ever made a FFXIV career in maining/optimizing healers.

You cited Mr. Happy in your original post—I have nothing against the guy, but he’s not a healer main. The healer he’s been known to play has also been WHM, not AST. I won’t deny that Balance was essential in speedkills, but speedkilling is done by an extremely small percentage of the playerbase. I’d say more people clear the Ultimates than people who competitively speedkill.

---

I never said TP was the big reason, but I'm willing to bet it was a reason. The big reason I bet was how it was being played at top levels. It doesn't matter if the top was smaller then everyone else. I never said it was bigger. I simply said SE only listened to the top players. The people who wanted nothing but balance, and it's clear thats who they listened too. I never said that part of the player base was bigger at all. I'm just saying it's their fault. Heck look at how they replied to it. Like I think the only one who didn't like it was Sly. Sadly SE isn't going to explain what and why they did any of those changes to Ast. My personal opinion is the cards should be abit better and maybe they will get fixed. I just don't see them reverting those changes cause again like it or not I bet a large amount of those changes are impossible now due to how they changed the battle system. I can't say that's a fact 100% but I'm guessing that's a piece of the puzzle that you can't just rewind. It's not that simple.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by monk-dps

I never said TP was the big reason, but I'm willing to bet it was a reason. The big reason I bet was how it was being played at top levels. It doesn't matter if the top was smaller then everyone else. I never said it was bigger. I simply said SE only listened to the top players. The people who wanted nothing but balance, and it's clear thats who they listened too. I never said that part of the player base was bigger at all. I'm just saying it's their fault. Heck look at how they replied to it. Like I think the only one who didn't like it was Sly. Sadly SE isn't going to explain what and why they did any of those changes to Ast. My personal opinion is the cards should be abit better and maybe they will get fixed. I just don't see them reverting those changes cause again like it or not I bet a large amount of those changes are impossible now due to how they changed the battle system. I can't say that's a fact 100% but I'm guessing that's a piece of the puzzle that you can't just rewind. It's not that simple.

---

Shire card which was the "TP" card could of "Easily" been fixed to Direct hit buff, you know this, we all known this. It's actually not impossible to revert changes, it's a more of a matter are they willing to listen to their community or the small majority, high end raider/parsers/speed runners. There's been others classes that have got some of their abilities back such as SCH with energy drain, we need to have Royal Road back with our lore restored. You know why they won't explain? I think we've already come to the conclusion with that answer as mentioned before. Using TP as an excuse doesn't answer as to why other cards such as Arrow,Spear, and our loveable MP card were destroyed.