the 10% damage debuff card is not great, especially when paired with lower healing...
Since RNJesus hates me, this sounds scary


EDIT / More info

Of all the new jobs, the Astrologian was the star of the show for me. It’s a job that specialises in healing, and it has a very interesting utility. First, Astrologians have two different stances: Diurnal Sect and Nocturnal Sect. The former adds healing regen, whereas the latter adds an absorption barrier to many of their abilities. It basically gives them the versatility of both a White Mage and a Scholar, but they don’t have the same throughput; it’s balanced.

Second up is their card system. An Astrologian can at any point draw a card - out of six possible - each with a unique effect:

10% increased attack speed
10% increased attack damage
20% TP reduction costs
20% MP reduction costs
20% ability recast time reduction
10% increased damage taken

You’ll notice that the last example explicitly says “damage taken”. During my playtest, this surprisingly could only be cast on allies. When I asked the QA staff present, they promised me that this was intended; essentially, it’s a bad card, one that’s designed to balance out the RNG nature of the draw system. The logical man inside of me however wouldn’t be surprised if this was just mistranslation from the Japanese client, and it in fact reduces damage taken.

But to be quite honest, I really like the idea of having a dud card.

The cards’ uses can be furthered with three other abilities. Shuffle will draw you another card on the spot, with a hefty cooldown, and it’s also possible you’ll just draw the same card. If you like a card you’ve drawn, but don’t want to expend it, you can cast Spread to put it aside for later. There, it’ll remain indefinitely until you use it - great for prepping before a big fight. Finally, you have Royal Road: an ability which puts your drawn card back in the deck, but boosts the power of the next card you draw. Boosted effects include an increased 150% potency (effects card 1 and 2), increased buff duration (effects card 3 and 4), or turning the card’s effect into an AoE for party members (effects card 5 and 6). With the latter boost, the power of the card's effect is halved to compensate for a party wide buff.

from: http://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fantas...iv-heavensward