AST card and divination idea

Hi guys,I am new into this game started in Shadow Bringer, after lvled up White mage to lvl 80,I am switching to Astrologian because I like to be supportive ,but the current card system is none lore friendly that bugging me, every time Leveva taught me that each constellations have their own power blessing. Thus I researched and tried to balance each card and got these result, here we go!


1)The Bole
+10% healing potency, and 5% damage reduction for 15 second,6% damage up if the target party member is a healer.

2)The Balance
+10% damage reduction for 15 second,4% damage up if the target party member is a tank or melee DPS

3)The Spire
Reduce mp cost by 25% and cast times for spell for 1 second with a duration for 15 second,4% damage up if the target party member is a healer or ranged DPS

4)The Arrow
Increase critical hit by 8% and 8% skill speed for 15 second.2% damage up if the target party member is a melee or ranged DPS

5)The Ewer
Same as the old system The Ewer card that recover 25 potency mp for 15 second.6% damage up if the target party member is a healer or ranged DPS

6)The Spear
Increases direct hit rate by 15% with duration of 15 seconds.4% damage up if the target party member is tank or melee DPS.

The card won't stack each other on one target member, the newer card played will be replace the older card.

These idea might be stupid tho. But bringing the spell "Spread" back is quite good for keeping some utility cards in additional "Spread" card slot. Add the spell like "Card Swap" something to swap the card between "Spread" and the base card slot. Thus some utility card like the boles and the ewer can be safe keeping for later use or when in needed.

As for the divination, I made it related to lord of crown and lady of crown and separated them from the card system!
The base Divination AOE buff is 4% damage buff.
We will have a slot for either lord of crown(converted by the balance, the spear and the arrow) or lady of crown(converted by the boles, the spire and the ewer),the card only be converted in the base card slot not the "Spread" one.
After converted, the divination will have additional effect depends on which crown
1)lord of crown=additional 2% damage buff, deals AOE damage by potency of 200 and stun for 3 second.
2)lady of crown=additional 2% damage buff, AOE heals by potency of 300.
The cooldown might remained the same as 120 second.



And that's all! I am really really hoping that each card have their unique lore friendly bless like older card system, this is so sad I could never experience how old card system played.
Astrologian is a job to research constellation,draw and read each card powered by constellation to tell the fortune
depending on which card drawn, if the cards have the same fortune then why the Astrologian drawing and reading the card for? And why researching the stars? And what the job does? This current card system keep having me questioned.:confused:

Optional
The "Royal Road" spell make it back.
Making it increase the durations of the card effect by 6 seconds with a cooldown 40 seconds

Malefic IV reduce the potency of 250 to 240

Just saying - this isn't balanced at all.

Bole, Spire, Ewer, and Balance will not be desired and thus redrawn. Because they don't provide damage (in balance's case, very little damage).
Spear is worth a lot more than Arrow (Spear being worth 25%, and Arrow ~14-15%)
Divination will also only be used with Lord.

Because when the choice is between damage or mitigation, damage will always be preferred as damage is the only metric to killing bosses sooner.

Haven't read this in its entirety but I do have to comment on one funny thing, Loyal Road, lol.

Sorry it's funny because in JapaneseRoyal Road and Loyal Road would be the exact same words, since R/L are the same in Japanese. Sorry I thought it was a bit funny.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

Haven't read this in its entirety but I do have to comment on one funny thing, Loyal Road, lol.

Sorry it's funny because in JapaneseRoyal Road and Loyal Road would be the exact same words, since R/L are the same in Japanese. Sorry I thought it was a bit funny.

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Sorry I edit it right away!

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Originally Posted by YusiKha

Just saying - this isn't balanced at all.

Bole, Spire, Ewer, and Balance will not be desired and thus redrawn. Because they don't provide damage (in balance's case, very little damage).
Spear is worth a lot more than Arrow (Spear being worth 25%, and Arrow ~14-15%)
Divination will also only be used with Lord.

Because when the choice is between damage or mitigation, damage will always be preferred as damage is the only metric to killing bosses sooner.

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Alright I edited a bit , see how it goes :p? but seriously 30s cool down for 25% direct hit is quite unbalance compare to other job and would be fishing target as well.

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Originally Posted by January1997

Sorry I edit it right away!

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Awe, you mean it was a typo. T.T

Now I feel like a douche. I honestly thought it was a new skill as a play on words.

Any system that uses a common resource for damage and utility will see every possible effort taken to convert utility into damage. Cards will be redrawn in hopes of damage. Aetherflow will be spent on Energy Drains. Assize will be used on CD rather than being held for healing.

Your proposed system has damage and utility effects. If it were implemented, I would do everything in my power to turn those utility effects into damage effects.

My analysis of each card as an AST main raider:
Bole — Worthless. When planning out healing before the fight I cannot rely on RNG healing boosts. Even if I do draw it during a healing check, I have already planned around not having it, and thus do not need it. Redraw 100% of the time.
Balance — Potentially useful during add phases that feature multiple adds. Otherwise, worthless. RNG mitigation suffers the same drawbacks as RNG healing boosts. Convert to Lord or Redraw unless fighting several enemies at once.
Spire — Useful for BLMs entering fire and maybe during prog if MP is a problem. Worthless outside of that. Redraw no BLM in party and stable on MP.
Arrow — Damage card. Universally useful, but might make some classes' rotations drift if they take advantage of the speed boost. Would need to discuss with party members before using it. I'll be fishing for this, but might convert to Lord if I don't get any Balances and Divination is almost ready.
Ewer — Likely better than Spire if low on MP. I could see its value if my cohealer or myself dies. Redraw unless struggling with MP.
Spear — Damage card. Universally useful. I'll be fishing for this.

Edit: Bole might be useful in situations where one healer has weakness and wouldn't provide enough healing to survive a healing check. Throwing Bole on the healer without weakness may be enough to avoid a wipe.

This has been my suggestion for quite some time

Bole: When drawn the target player receives 10% reduced damage for 15 seconds
Balance: Target player receives 5% increase damage boost for 15 seconds
Spear: Target player receives 10% crit buff for 20 seconds
Arrow: Target player receives 10% increased weaponskill, cast time reduction 20 seconds
Spire: Player Receives Direct hit increase of 10% for 20 seconds
Ewer: MP Refresh potency of 30 for 10 seconds

Balance is nerfed and other cards provide buffs, reflect lore without being over the top

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Originally Posted by Jaelommiss

Any system that uses a common resource for damage and utility will see every possible effort taken to convert utility into damage. Cards will be redrawn in hopes of damage. Aetherflow will be spent on Energy Drains. Assize will be used on CD rather than being held for healing.

Your proposed system has damage and utility effects. If it were implemented, I would do everything in my power to turn those utility effects into damage effects.

My analysis of each card as an AST main raider:
Bole — Worthless. When planning out healing before the fight I cannot rely on RNG healing boosts. Even if I do draw it during a healing check, I have already planned around not having it, and thus do not need it. Redraw 100% of the time.
Balance — Potentially useful during add phases that feature multiple adds. Otherwise, worthless. RNG mitigation suffers the same drawbacks as RNG healing boosts. Convert to Lord or Redraw unless fighting several enemies at once.
Spire — Useful for BLMs entering fire and maybe during prog if MP is a problem. Worthless outside of that. Redraw no BLM in party and stable on MP.
Arrow — Damage card. Universally useful, but might make some classes' rotations drift if they take advantage of the speed boost. Would need to discuss with party members before using it. I'll be fishing for this, but might convert to Lord if I don't get any Balances and Divination is almost ready.
Ewer — Likely better than Spire if low on MP. I could see its value if my cohealer or myself dies. Redraw unless struggling with MP.
Spear — Damage card. Universally useful. I'll be fishing for this.

Edit: Bole might be useful in situations where one healer has weakness and wouldn't provide enough healing to survive a healing check. Throwing Bole on the healer without weakness may be enough to avoid a wipe.

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You are right, because Astrologian sacrificed a lot of own personal DPS, so fishing for DPS is very important, we only have one base card slot, RNG based utility most likely will be ignored and redrawn for DPS. I am so dumb, now only realized it, and rethought and edited again(Major changed!). Thanks for the advise u guys. ^^

Personally, I think the cards should maintain their original buffs—rather than the proposed changes in the OP (Balance being increased healing potency is just weird when it has always been a damage card). There’s no need to flip-flop the buffs around like that. MitsukiKimura’s suggestion is one I can get behind—it keeps the arcana relatively the same with regards to what they used to do, addressed the power of Balance, and changed Spire from TP Refresh to something else. Not sure if I would keep the 15 second duration or up it back to 30, personally. Depends on if the cards can also be AOE’d/affected by old Royal Road effects. I would be fine with 15 seconds if we could AOE them all again. I’d rather have that than Divination and the Seals, because I don’t really like that mechanic; but maybe both could fit into a new system to appease those who don’t care for Div/Seals and for those who like it.

I’d rather have the return of AOE party buffs (and just the old Royal Road effects in general). Not a fan of the single-target melee/ranged pad cards. At that point, the cards would go to your highest melee DPS (e.g., SAM) and highest ranged DPS (e.g., BLM/SMN) without much variance because it would be a bigger gain to pad them over the DRG or NIN, or the MCH/BRD/DNC.

I also think there should be only one damage reduction card, and no healing potency increase card. Healing potency isn’t really something the healers need right now—all three are pretty over-powered in that department. Splitting held arcana into 1 offensive type card and 1 defensive type card would also allow for things like MitsukiKimura’s Bole (10% reduced damage) or their Ewer (MP Refresh) to no longer have to compete with offensive card types (Balance, Spear, Arrow). The mitigation will, obviously, always be RNG—but I like the idea of keeping a held Ewer for myself if I need the mana. Because AST really needs a secondary method of MP Refresh.

Lord and Lady should also be what they used to be: Lord is free oGCD damage ability to weave in between Malefic casts; and Lady is a min-Tetra heal to toss out as needed. AST could use another single-target oGCD heal, and Lady was nice to have back in SB if the tank needed it.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

Personally, I think the cards should maintain their original buffs—rather than the proposed changes in the OP (Balance being increased healing potency is just weird when it has always been a damage card). There’s no need to flip-flop the buffs around like that. MitsukiKimura’s suggestion is one I can get behind—it keeps the arcana relatively the same with regards to what they used to do, .

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Sorry did I wrote something wrong? The balance is indeed not a increased healing potency to begin with, but a damage reduction card and damage buff if tank or melee DPS.The Balance represents the heaven of fire—a realm made prosperous by the blessing of the Traders, but at the same time, one whose equilibrium is maintained by the divine judgment of Azeyma, the Warden. Azeyma's might will empower those who would take up their blades and mete divine punishment in the name of the sun goddess.

And yes u and MitsukiKimura’s suggestion might be right, that I has posted almost the same idea last time before edited, but u see the comment above all saying will be fishing for damage up buff. And then I edited into this and you said its too OP confusing me. @@

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Originally Posted by January1997

Sorry did I wrote something wrong? The balance is indeed not a increased healing potency to begin with, but a damage reduction card and damage buff if tank or melee DPS.The Balance represents the heaven of fire—a realm made prosperous by the blessing of the Traders, but at the same time, one whose equilibrium is maintained by the divine judgment of Azeyma, the Warden. Azeyma's might will empower those who would take up their blades and mete divine punishment in the name of the sun goddess.

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What I was saying is we only need one: either just damage reduction or just healing potency. Personally, I think damage reduction would be better because the healers are already overpowered. I think the Bole should remain the damage reduction card as opposed to Balance, because Balance has always been an offensive card since AST was introduced in 3.0. It has never been a card to reduce damage taken or up healing potency. That’s not its lore.

These were the old card effects:

Bole: 20% reduced damage for 30 seconds
Balance: 10% damage increase for 30 seconds
Spear: 10% critical hit chance increase
Arrow: 10% reduced weaponskill/recast
Ewer: MP refresh
Spire: TP refresh

Change Spire because TP is no longer in the game, and adjust Balance to keep it from being overpowered. That’s really all that needs to be done. We don’t need increased healing potency on a card. And, as I said, I’m not a fan of the melee card/ranged card split. It promotes padding and I’m against that kind of play.

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And yes u and MitsukiKimura’s suggestion might be right, that I has posted almost the same idea last time before edited, but u see the comment above all saying will be fishing for damage up buff. And then I edited into this and you said its too OP confusing me. @@

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By giving us the option to hold 1 offensive card and 1 utility card, the latter no longer has to compete with the former. That was always the problem before: everything competed with old Balance and cards like Bole and Ewer were seen as “worthless”. Give us the option to have 2 Spreads—1 for offensive cards and 1 for utility cards—and that problem can be mitigated.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

That’s not its lore.


Change Spire because TP is no longer in the game, and adjust Balance to keep it from being overpowered. That’s really all that needs to be done. We don’t need increased healing potency on a card. And, as I said, I’m not a fan of the melee card/ranged card split. It promotes padding and I’m against that kind of play.



By giving us the option to hold 1 offensive card and 1 utility card, the latter no longer has to compete with the former. That was always the problem before: everything competed with old Balance and cards like Bole and Ewer were seen as “worthless”. Give us the option to have 2 Spreads—1 for offensive cards and 1 for utility cards—and that problem can be mitigated.

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It is,The Bole
This constellation is thought to be the gate to the first heaven—the heaven which holds the World Tree. Planted by the Matron and nurtured by the Keeper, the World Tree is the source from which all life is said to have sprung. The trunk of the World Tree, or the Bole, offers protection to the weak, defending them from harm. As u can see it is source from all life(which+healing potency),if you said they were healers are already overpowered? Why did u said that when there is a lot of thread that saying healers are weak or quitting healers, SE are busy slaughtering healers@@?
"By giving us the option to hold 1 offensive card and 1 utility card, the latter no longer has to compete with the former. That was always the problem before: everything competed with old Balance and cards like Bole and Ewer were seen as “worthless”. Give us the option to have 2 Spreads—1 for offensive cards and 1 for utility cards—and that problem can be mitigated."

Great idea! but the new problem is how to play the two "Spread"? new spell? new macros? swapping card? is this might be a problem for consoles player?

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Originally Posted by January1997

if you said they were healers are already overpowered? Why did u said that when there is a lot of thread that saying healers are weak or quitting healers, SE are busy slaughtering healers@@?

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Those threads aren't about healers being weak or underpowered. It's about them being boring as frick to play, because there's very little engaging about any of the healers' kits.
AST is the most engaging (and even then is kinda boring), but that's due to its immense amount of weaving and party selection rather than anything fun about the kit.

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Originally Posted by January1997

It is,The Bole

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Your post I replied to was talking about the Balance. Not Bole. You stated Balance—I replied about Balance.

I said there was no need to change Balance’s lore to damage mitigation when that’s never been its purpose in AST’s arsenal. The Bole was damage mitigation prior.

I stand by what I said about not needing a healing reduction utility. That would only be needed if healers were weak in terms of healing potency, which they are not.

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"By giving us the option to hold 1 offensive card and 1 utility card, the latter no longer has to compete with the former. That was always the problem before: everything competed with old Balance and cards like Bole and Ewer were seen as “worthless”. Give us the option to have 2 Spreads—1 for offensive cards and 1 for utility cards—and that problem can be mitigated."

Great idea! but the new problem is how to play the two "Spread"? new spell? new macros? swapping card? is this might be a problem for consoles player?

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I was thinking 2 Spreads. It would require an additional button. However, if AOE Royal Road effects return, the need to apply cards repeatedly only to single targets will be mitigated. The old system never required as many macros as the current one does. As a controller player on PC, I want something not cumbersome.

Sorry I never experienced the old system before,my suggestion is kinda a messy some.
I am sorry again about saying the healers being weak...

I really like the idea of having two spreads. Do you mean to have two different draw buttons, one for damage and one for utility, or still one draw button, but the old spead ability back, plus a second spread?
Either way, it's a nice solution to have support-type card effects for AST again, like defense or MP refresh. Together with Royal Road for AoE (and Sleeve Draw reworked to not being such a hassle to use on controller), it could be fun again.
I still think we should keep something like Divination for a direct damage buff, and have all the normal cards have other effects like critical hit, speed, and so on.