The Divining Deck: Card Mechanics Discussion

I know there are a lot of topics on Astrologian going on lately, but I want to set aside a corner for people to talk about the card mechanics specifically. A place for aspiring Astrologians to find help and advice on how to master the divining deck as well as a place for players to provide feedback on the system and how they think it can be adjusted or improved.

There's quite a lot to talk about, such as the potency of card buffs and what not, which I'll leave for others to talk about, but for me there's one thing in particular that came to mind in regard to the Spread ability that I want to bring up. As far as I can tell I feel like it would be a perfectly viable suggestion to have the recast timer on Spread completely removed. That might sound strange at first, but when you really think about it it's not that crazy. With the current system, because of the way Spread puts Draw back on recast, if you were to use both cards at the same time you would have to wait 90 seconds (60 seconds for Spread plus 30 seconds to Draw a second card) before you are able to perform that same action again. If Spread had no recast timer and the scenario was the same (obtaining and executing two cards simultaneously at the earliest opportunity) you would be able to do so once every 60 seconds. A reasonable and fairly minor buff considering the rate at which cards are drawn doesn't change, but the real advantage to having no recast timer on Spread would be having greater control over when you can use it. Draw a Spear card and want to put it on Spread, but it's still on cooldown? That wouldn't be a problem anymore. I can't think of a strong justification for why Spread needs to have a recast timer.

And to take a moment to talk about some of the other abilities, I think we can all agree that when using Shuffle it should not pull the same card you just put back. I know realistically it makes sense for that chance to still be there, but this is a case where gameplay should take priority. Even when you learn the ability it's explained that its purpose is to set aside a card "destined for a later time" and to draw something more beneficial to the immediate situation. Make it happen SE, but another thing I want to comment on is the recast timer for Shuffle. When we first learned about it I was hoping we would be able to use Shuffle once with every card draw to help mitigate the RNG aspect. I think most would like to see it brought down to at least 60 seconds, but would being able to use it once with every card draw be too much?

I also think it's necessary to talk about Royal Road and whether there should be change in the way it functions. I have seen a few comments requesting a Discard ability so we don't have to manually disable an active card, but what I realize is that the only reason such an ability is asked for is specifically because of Royal Road. If Royal Road didn't exist we would be using each and every card that we draw. Instead we end up in certain circumstances where we intentionally dismiss cards entirely. I can't imagine this was their intent was they designed Royal Road which makes me think that the ability is fundamentally flawed. Unfortunately I'm at a loss for ways to suggest how Royal Road could be changed in such a way that would make it an improvement over the current design.

Anyway, feel free to share your own thoughts, ideas, and feedback regarding the card mechanics!

Interesting comment regarding RR,

But I personally feel instead of RR 1st, then hunt for the perfect card to use the RR effect on, why not do the opposite?
If you get the perfect card you want 1st via Spread, then only hunt for the RR suitable for it :).

1/6 chance to get the "Perfect Card", 1/3~1/6 chance to get the desired RR.

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Originally Posted by DreamWeaver

Interesting comment regarding RR,

But I personally feel instead of RR 1st, then hunt for the perfect card to use the RR effect on, why not do the opposite?
If you get the perfect card you want 1st via Spread, then only hunt for the RR suitable for it :).

1/6 chance to get the "Perfect Card", 1/3~1/6 chance to get the desired RR.

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I normally do it this way ^

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DreamWeaver

Interesting comment regarding RR,

But I personally feel instead of RR 1st, then hunt for the perfect card to use the RR effect on, why not do the opposite?
If you get the perfect card you want 1st via Spread, then only hunt for the RR suitable for it :).

1/6 chance to get the "Perfect Card", 1/3~1/6 chance to get the desired RR.

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This is what I usually do. For example:

I Draw the Balance, I'm not in a dps check at the moment > I spread The Balance
then I Draw and with Shuffle I try to get Expanded royal road, but anyway also Enanched or Extended is always better then a normal balance.

Spear Priority IMHO :
SMN > DRG/NIN > everything else.

Don't bother Spearing the tanks, if the tank is worth their salt, they should have their CDs planned nicely for the entire fight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DreamWeaver

Spear Priority IMHO :
SMN > DRG/NIN > everything else.

Don't bother Spearing the tanks, if the tank is worth their salt, they should have their CDs planned nicely for the entire fight.

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Very rarely do I spear anyone but myself if healing is a struggle. Otherwise I spear my wife who sits beside me and go "BURN ALL YOUR CD'S GOGOGO!"

First, thanks for starting this discussion.

Something I'll address in the guide I'm writing up, is how AST utilize their deck abilities. As is I think a lot of people are looking at our abilities as ways to game the cards to get off the "best" combo; a notion that's probably misleading many AST players, most of which are newer to healing. For example, I believe it's safe to say that our buffs run on a priority system based around party makeup and known (or expected) mechanics. It's not a game of ultimate combos, but knowing that a 4-man with TP heavies will want Spire in drawn out fights. We know we can sac Ewer for Royal Road, as the only person who could use it is ourselves. We can still sac Spire for RR, but we know that unless things get out of hand for us, Ewer sits at a priority of 6.

Our buffs are very bursty. We can play 1 card every 30s, a boosted card every 60s, 2 cards every 60s or a RR card + a typical card every 90s.

(stupid limits)

This is the best set up that I've come up with playing AST:

I use RR on any Spire or ewer cards which gives me the Extended RR.

Spear gets the Spread because you can use it on yourself to lower cast time on LA and Swiftcast. In normal situations, you can't tell when a DPS needs it unless you pop it on them right before a boss fight.

That leaves Bole, Arrow, and Balance which will always be used on the proper target.

Now, in diurnal, pop Aspected bene and aspected helios. Put bole/arrow/balance on your target and then time dilation AND celestial opposition. You've just maxed out the buff for the longest duration possible.

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Originally Posted by lagata

Now, in diurnal, pop Aspected bene and aspected helios. Put bole/arrow/balance on your target and then time dilation AND celestial opposition. You've just maxed out the buff for the longest duration possible.

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If you did this all on the tank with Bole, congrats! You can now freely DPS for a bit since they will have about 1k+ HoT on them for a little less than a minute. Lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lagata

If you did this all on the tank with Bole, congrats! You can now freely DPS for a bit since they will have about 1k+ HoT on them for a little less than a minute. Lol

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And lets not forget if you did this before a fight, so you hit them with Noct AB for shields, and then swapped to Diurnal for HoT before everything went crazy.

My personal suggestions for some card fixes are:

Royal Road decreases the next Draw recast to 15 seconds.
Putting a card in Spread reduces the chance of it being a Draw Card. (Imagine we have only 2 of each card in the deck, so taking one out would reduce the chance)
Shuffle reduces the chance of it being the Draw Card. If the Draw Card and Shuffle Card are the same, there is a 0% chance of Drawing that card. (in other words, Shuffle and Draw takes both cards out of the deck)