What AST cards are you guys using on what roles in your party?

I'm really enjoying this job but I don't want to be a derp about it. I'd like to establish good habits early instead of getting to 50 and going "...d'oh. why wasn't I doing that?"
Thus, I'd like opinions on what you more experienced ASTs think should be used when/on who.

I've been using (I'm 39):

Bole (damage reduction) = Tank. Duh?
Balance (dps increase) = DPS, but maybe tank at beginning of pull to help establish hate if they're having issues.
Arrow (attack speed increase) = Been using it on dps but I had a tank demanding it in Qarn so now I'm confused.
Spear (recast reduction) = I feel like this one is more useful to RR than to use...But I guess it could be useful on tank if early in pull, before they blow their cooldowns?
Spire (TP cost reduction) = DPS or tank. Usually dps.
Ewer (MP cost reduction) = BLM, WHM, me, or Royal Road if I or the WHM is fine and there's no BLM. I don't see it being useful on SMN/SCH because of Aetherflow.

Bole: Tank. Or save it for later with spread if a boss is coming up. But I'd rather spread Balance/Arrow,
Balance: DPS. I sometimes use it on the tank. Or I save it with Spread.
Arrow: DPS. Or I save it for later with Spread.
Spear: Royal Road. The "Expanded Royal Road" buff in a party is great. I use it on myself when I'm soloing because the RR is useless. Spear is the "worst" card.
Spire: Tank or DPS, depending on who needs it. During trash I RR it.
Ewer: Myself if there is no BLM or SMN. When I start doing 8-man stuff I'll see how the other healer manages their MP and decide by that, if there is no BLM or SMN. BLM + Ewer is great. Otherwise I RR it.

This is just a generalization though, since it really depends on what RR buff I have currently, if I already have one saved and what the situation calls for. I'm almost level 45 and Shuffle will be great when I get a card I don't want/need.

Bole: Tank, easily.
Balance: Tank at the beginning. Most geared DPS after that though that depends on the situation. BLM or WAR getting first priority for big pulls.
Arrow: A DPS. Casters preferred.
Spear: Yep I usually Royal Road that too. It's too situational. it can be good on the tank if you get it before a major pull though.
Spire: Depends on what classes I'm working with. WAR gets first priority unless someone died and just got rezzed. WAR > PLD > everyone else
Ewer: Depends on the situation. Myself normally. Rezzed people, unless it's a BLM, gets a higher priority of course. If it's a situation where i know I can manage my MP then WHM gets the next priority. If the same applies to them then BLM/SMN. With big pulls the BLM gets more priority.

Agree with other the OP so far. I am told machinist is crazy hard on tp so I'd suggest using spire on them.

U mm your dps should be getting the non damage down debuffs. Why would a take need atk speed, or atk+? They need to learn to tank if they are having issues. As a Blm I love the mp cost down as it gives an additional fire in my rotation.

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Originally Posted by Urielparadox

U mm your dps should be getting the non damage down debuffs. Why would a take need atk speed, or atk+? They need to learn to tank if they are having issues. As a Blm I love the mp cost down as it gives an additional fire in my rotation.

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I have to agree, the tank does not need balance at all that's strictly a dps card. Ewer is also good for DK tanks and any job that burns thru mp. The thing about astro is every card is useful people saying x card sucks and so on well yea. The thing is some cards may not be useful at that particular time. It's a game with in a game. I like to pull cards right after a fight RR it to see what buff I get, if it's spread then I fish for the card that the situation calls for.

This is what I've been doing, but I'm definitely still learning! :]

Bole = Tank or if hate is lost, I'll use it on the person the mobs go to.
Balance = DPS
Arrow = Usually DPS, sometimes tank when they're establishing hate.
Spear = Usually Royal Road..I like that aoe lol, but sometimes on someone before a boss fight starts. Also sometimes use it on myself to lower mp refresh cooldown sometimes.
Spire = DPS, sometimes tank. I'd say very good for WARs and aoeing melee/physical ranged dps.
Ewer = Myself, DRK tank, or mage dps. The dark knight tanks usually get it from me on trash pulls..it seems their mp goes down quick, but if I'm getting low I'll use it on myself and if neither of us need it, then I'll throw it to the mage. I haven't done any huge pulls yet, but I can see how this would help the BLM for that.

Can someone clarify something for me? When I use The Arrow, the buff that shows up on people basically says all their recast times are reduced. So wouldn't that make it the same thing as the Spear?

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Originally Posted by Alindra

Can someone clarify something for me? When I use The Arrow, the buff that shows up on people basically says all their recast times are reduced. So wouldn't that make it the same thing as the Spear?

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Spear lowers your cooldown timers, but only if you have Spear on you when you use them. Arrow is like a haste for your attacks and such.

Bole (damage reduction) = Tank
Balance (dps increase) = DPS in order of Mnk>Nin>Mch>Brd ( I haven't been grouped up with a Smn or Blm yet)
Arrow (attack speed increase) = Dps or myself when I need a little haste in casting.
Spear (recast reduction) = Tank (I use voip with my tank so I let him know when I have spear up) or RR when he doesn't need it
Spire (TP cost reduction) = DPS or RR if I get it early
Ewer (MP cost reduction) = Myself or my Drk tank to help slow down his MP draining stance

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Originally Posted by Alindra

Can someone clarify something for me? When I use The Arrow, the buff that shows up on people basically says all their recast times are reduced. So wouldn't that make it the same thing as the Spear?

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Arrow lowers the global cooldown and increses cast speed, and Spear lowers cooldown times for off-GCD skills, such as tank cooldowns or eye for an eye, if they're used while Spear is on.

Any of these can be used for RR, depending on if you really feel it is needed as rolling for RR is better in most cases unless an emergency requires a non-buffed card to be used on someone. A buffed Arrow or Spear is what you really want from RR more than anything in group content with the exception being specific situations that demand the other. What's funny is that I've ran into a weird bug where Balance gets the buff of Arrow and Spear and spreads to nearby party members even though Balance is not suppose to have that same buff. In that case Balance would be the best.

Bole: The situation varies. Tank, DPS, or healer. Basically in situations where the tank would need it more, use on tank. In situations where someone other than tank needs more, then use on them.

Balance: Tank or DPS. This can help the tank generate more enmity due to increase in DPS output, but can also help make a DPS job even stronger.

Arrow: Better used on DPS than tank in most situations. DPS casters > then other DPS.

Spear: Best choice for RR, otherwise use on tank.

Spire: This should be treated the same as Ninja's Goad. WAR > MCH > then other TP jobs.

Ewer: I assumed DRK, then healers, then BLM as lowest priority since BLM has infinite mana. But the priority might be the opposite depending on the situation. In example if the healing is not very intense, then BLM should be priority just to help get in more fire before blizzard.

Spear on a tank or machinist at the start of a fight, because machinist really needs his cooldowns. Mid fight you might not get value so rr or spread, which helps a ton giving this some value. Sure it's nice to have a dps card up your sleeve, but you usually won't save a dps card unless the fights about over, you'll just cast it.

Arrow/balance to the better dps generally, but some awareness to how dps works can help. Like I mentioned with machinist they blow it all early and then their damage falls off if they don't get procs so it might be good to throw balance on them early, but another dps mid fight. Smn too, you buff them right as the tank engages so they can put up the dots and bane, but if the dots are ALREADY all you're doing is buffing 80 potency ruin spam. Blm is better buffed with a lot of mana, because low mana means he's going to have to go umbral ice.

Endgame it'll be great for yourself/whms, but leveling I'm so happy when I get a blm for ewer. Above applies even moreso. You've got 15s to cast the card so consider giving him a moment to fill up first if you need too. No blm and this card is the bane of leveling astrologians everywhere.

Spire's about as bad early leveling, but should be amazing as you level to the point where people spam aoe.

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Originally Posted by h0tNstilettos

What's funny is that I've ran into a weird bug where Balance gets the buff of Arrow and Spear and spreads to nearby party members even though Balance is not suppose to have that same buff. In that case Balance would be the best.

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It's working as intended, you read the Tooltip wrong.

Using Royal Road consumes your currently Drawn Card and grants you one of three Buffs. These buffs will empower the effect of the next card you Draw.
For example, if I use Royal Road on Arrow, then the next card I draw; no matter what it is, will have the Expanded Royal Road effect.

My personal favorite combinations are Expanded Balance/Arrow (Massive DPS increase/ First Priority)
Extended Ewer/Spire (Lengthy resource conservation / Second Priority)
Enhanced Spear/Bole (Best Utility / Situational / Final Priority)

To achieve this as often as possible I use Spread and Shuffle, as follows:

Draw: If Balance/Arrow -> Spread
If Spear -> Royal Road
If Else -> Use on the most appropriate target. Do not use Shuffle

After 30 seconds

Draw: If Balance/Arrow is Spread
->Arrow/Spear -> Royal Road, then use the Spread Card
->Balance/Bole -> Use it
->Else -> Shuffle, unless someone actually needs TP/MP
If Spear was Royal Roaded
->Balance/Arrow -> Use it
->Else -> Spread or Shuffle (The next card played will consume the Expanded buff, so you must either set the card aside or play something now)

Adjust these combos as needed to achieve any card combination you want. Remember what Levea said, an Astrologian cannot control the cards he or she Draws, but you can influence their behavior from there for amazing results.

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Originally Posted by Sabeta

snip

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It's not that I read it wrong. It's that SE does not have it worded very clearly as lots of people have brought this up in shout, but before I got RR I wasn't sure what they meant. So you mean to get the buff that is listed after certain cards in RR's tooltip, I have to sacrifice one of the 2 cards listed next to that buff to get that specific buff on the next card drawn? So in example if I wanted the buff that gives the ability to all nearby party members I would have to Sacrifice either Arrow or Spear, then which ever card comes up next will get the all nearby member buff?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by h0tNstilettos

It's not that I read it wrong. It's that SE does not have it worded very clearly as lots of people have brought this up in shout, but before I got RR I wasn't sure what they meant. So you mean to get the buff that is listed after certain cards in RR's tooltip, I have to sacrifice one of the 2 cards listed next to that buff to get that specific buff on the next card drawn? So in example if I wanted the buff that gives the ability to all nearby party members I would have to Sacrifice either Arrow or Spear, then which ever card comes up next will get the all nearby member buff?

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Yes. Arrow/Spear being consumed by Royal Road means if you draw and use Bole next, all party members in range receive Bole.
If you consume Ewer/Spire, then draw and use Arrow, the Arrow buff will last 30(?) seconds instead of 15(?).

The buff Royal Roaded and being applied to the next card is a blue buff on you. Expanded Royal Road = spreads to others, Extended Royal Road = longer duration, and I don't remember the name of the 150% buff one.

Am I the only one who Spreads when they draw the Spear? While it's hard to find a good place to use it in a pug, we do have some really long cooldowns ourselves, so being able to shorten them whenever we want is actually really helpful.

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Originally Posted by Alindra

Can someone clarify something for me? When I use The Arrow, the buff that shows up on people basically says all their recast times are reduced. So wouldn't that make it the same thing as the Spear?

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Spear lowers cooldowns not recast times. So for example spear will lower the cooldown of your swiftcast, your virus, lightspeed, anything that's not on a global cooldown and is off GCD that has a cooldown (long cooldowns) so your swiftcast will go from 60sec to 48sec IF AND ONLY IF YOU HAVE THE SPEAR BUFF BEFORE YOU CAST IT. It does NOT affect abilities that are already on cooldown which is why people say it's worthless because it's very very difficult to time this properly.
Arrow increases attack speed which means faster GCDs, faster casts, faster auto attacks. Everything is faster but your swiftcast will stay at a 60 sec cooldown.

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Originally Posted by Keydah

I don't remember the name of the 150% buff one.

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Enhanced.

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Originally Posted by Sabeta

It's working as intended, you read the Tooltip wrong.

Using Royal Road consumes your currently Drawn Card and grants you one of three Buffs. These buffs will empower the effect of the next card you Draw.
For example, if I use Royal Road on Arrow, then the next card I draw; no matter what it is, will have the Expanded Royal Road effect.

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I'm level 52 and I just realized this a couple hours ago. I thought Royal Road was bugged since level 30.

They need to put a better description in it though. =P

Someone linked this the other day, it really helped with learning the cards and what Royal Road buffs they give. I am not the original author or creator and I claim no credit for making it.

http://i.imgur.com/WhxemTI.png

Also, I'm thinking Spear may end up being best used on the AST themselves (faster cooldown on Luminiferous Aether and, I think, all the Card abilities). Assuming you aren't using it as AoE Royal Road fodder.

So far at lv 56:

Bole: multi group pull otherwise shuffle
Balance: spread and use with RR
Arrow: BLM followed by other DPS and self, RR in 8man
Spear: RR or shuffle for solo
Spire: RR
Ewer: Self or RR