Quote Originally Posted by Remilia_Nightfall View Post
That is why complaints should focus on cards, and not on healing / shielding potency. I assume that current Astrologians were drawn to the job by the cards, not by "Oh look I can be a WHM or a SCH!".

Honestly, it is common sense that AST cant be as specialized as the other two jobs. The focus is on cards: whine about that if you must, not about potency.
I agree with this and feel like our potency should be lower than the others in favor of the card system we bring. But that card system needs a review. I have been following this thread for for a bit and have wanted to reply with some ideas I have been knocking around in my head.
If you look at a job with a similar gimmick, such as Corsair in XI, they could pick their buffs, but the RNG aspect was the potency. COR could "roll the dice" after they picked a buff to try and make it better or possibly worse if they busted. Our roll of the dice is simply what buff we get so I feel the reward for the risk of not knowing what you are going to get should be that every card is useful on anyone and our decision is based on the current situation and the only reason to Royal Road or Spread is to try and set up a good combo or anticipate a part of a fight as a bonus, whereas right now we use them to sit on one of the few "good cards".
These are some ideas I had for the card effects and abilities:
-All cards should have the same duration. The fact that 3 have a shorter duration is proof that SE knew they were better or more useful and they felt the need to limit them. If you are going to make us play with RNG then they should all have the same duration, whether the 20secs ones are shortened (not what I would choose lol) or the 15secs ones are lengthened (yes please!).
-DRAW: Alot of ppl are clamoring for reduced cooldown, which I can get behind, but I think an interesting mechanic would be a way to reset the cool down similar to River of Blood for Bard, perhaps a % chance on Crit heal or something?
-BOLE: Earth, Damage reduced by 10%. I think this card is fine as is.
-ARROW: Wind, Attack speed increased by 10%. I think this card is fine as is.
-SPEAR: Ice, Ability Recast reduced by 20%. Currently only works if the ability is used while under the effect of the card. It has been said that it is a bug and that it should shorten recasts already running. If that fix comes through then I believe this card will be fine.
-SPIRE: Lightning, TP cost of weaponskills reduced 20%. This card is the one no one wants and I think that is a problem. The fact that this card just gets RR'd or Shuffled should speak volumes. The TP reduction should be rolled into Ewer as a resource cost reduction card and Spire should get something more in line with its element. I am thinking Crit Rate increase which would include healing crits. This would add a level of strategy to decide to give it to a melee for the DPS, a tank to help with hate (thru increased dmg) or ourselves to boost healing as well as possibly proc the reset on Draw proposed above.
-EWER: Water, MP Cost reduced 20%. This should have TP cost reduction rolled into it making it a blanket resource reduction card. Or possibly MP/TP regeneration as some ppl have proposed. This would again aid in the only useful instance or TP reduction right now which would be mass pulls as it would allow both melee and casters to go all out if is AoE'd as well as a healer to keep ppl up during this by helping everyone's resource on one card.
-BALANCE: Fire, Damage done increased 10%. I think this card should also be a boost to healing done. The card would effectively buff whatever the player's main stat would affect, ie Dmg for melee, magic dmg for a caster, and healing potency for healer. This would allow for a buff useful to anyone but again we must pick our targets for the moment we draw it.
Alot of these changes are also to address some of the missing links in AST arsenal such as a boost to healing done (which, if on a card could be given to another healer in an 8 man) and MP issues.
-SHUFFLE: I know alot of ppl want it eliminate the chance to get the same card again. While I feel that pain I think the very notion of returning a card and shuffling the deck should have the possibility to draw the same card. But I would not be against it lol.
-SPREAD: I know alot of ppl want it usable out of combat. I think this might be a little OP but there are ways to fudge it now (unlike RR a card stays in Spread through zones and entering DF) so they might as well just give it to us lol
-ROYAL ROAD: My only complaint with RR right now is that it is used on the next card so if you have a card in spread with a RR effect you want you stop Drawing effectively eliminating our gimmick. A solution may be to have a way where where we use a card then choose to RR the effect after. An example would be: Draw Arrow, RR, now we have the AoE option, Draw Bole, at this point would could RR Bole for Potency increase or use Bole, if we use Bole RR would flash similar to a combo'd move and we have a short time to decide to apply RR effect to the Bole we just used, if we do the RR effect overwrites the old one (potency increase, duration increase, or AoE with current duration transferred). This would make us think on our toes. If we don't use it within the time frame we maintain the RR effect for next Draw.
-SECTS: I am of the camp to allow us to switch in combat. I believe this would raise the skill ceiling on the job and make us more versatile.

This doesn't even get into the abilities as I am still leveling (AST 55)and haven't seen them all in action yet. I have done dungeons and trials as both AST and SCH and it really comes down to the party as well and how well they play. I have had crappy runs on SCH and great runs on AST and vice versa. Every healer has a gimmick and I think that is what needs to be balanced rather than the knee jerk to just buff the heals. Balancing the cards will make everything else fall in line and make the job come into its own.