Thoughts from a 60 AST & 60 WHM

[Alahra]

There is not a single class in the game that doesn't have abilities that are useless in dungeons. Dissipate, Eos, Sacred Soil, Asylum, Virus, TP/MP Regen Songs, Silences, Binds, Heavies, any "oh shit" button is generally useless if you are playing correctly. That doesn't mean they have to be changed to feel useful. Cards could feel better, I agree. They just aren't the primary problem with AST getting into progression groups.

You're making the argument that the class's core feature shouldn't need to be useful in one of the game's primary content modes, though. AST's cards not feeling useful is the equivalent of Ninjutsu or Greased Lightning not feeling useful in 4-mans (and MNKs have received adjustments so that Greased Lightning feels better both in 4-man content and 8-man content). For a healer-specific example, imagine if Eos/Selene weren't useful in 4-mans. Don't you think SCHs would find that a little strange? The faerie is a big part of what makes SCH unique, just as the cards are with AST, regardless of content.

I don't understand this statement, because whether or not card buffs feel useful in 4-mans AST is going to be worse than SCH/WHM in end-game.

Are you aware that there can be multiple concerns regarding a class at the same time? How can you not understand that AST needs work for *all* content, not just one narrow slice of the game?

[SuzakuCMX]

You're making the argument that the class's core feature shouldn't need to be useful in one of the game's primary content modes, though.

No, I'm not. I'm saying it's not their primary problem and it doesn't need to be as drastically changed as people are suggesting. They could feel better, yes. You don't always get useless cards in dungeons; the core feature is not useless.

Are you aware that there can be multiple concerns regarding a class at the same time? How can you not understand that AST needs work for *all* content, not just one narrow slice of the game?

I am aware. I am just wondering why everyone is focusing on drastic changes to the card mechanic when the largest issue is that AST cannot heal as well as it needs to be able to to complete end-game content satisfactorily, and that they have a lot of post-50 abilities that feel weak to use and Noct Stance is universally worse than Diurnal. Whenever I stated that, people jump on and start saying that if cards are changed AST will be fine.

[Alahra]

No, I'm not. I'm saying it's not their primary problem and it doesn't need to be as drastically changed as people are suggesting. They could feel better, yes. You don't always get useless cards in dungeons; the core feature is not useless.

I don't feel it needs *drastic* changes at all. There are a number of simple fixes that would make the cards feel useful without retooling the whole system. Ewer and Spire would be more generally useful if they provided resource regeneration instead of cost reduction, for instance. Spear would be better if it worked on already spent cooldowns (as is, it requires knowing that someone hasn't spent their cooldowns, which is a level of communication that's just not generally available in a split second)--but that would also be incredibly powerful, so they might need to rework that one. Bole, Balance, and Arrow are pretty much fine. Beyond that, Shuffle should probably not be able to draw the same card again.

Their healing side needs work too, but nothing drastic is likely to be needed there outside of potency tweaks, though Lightspeed probably needs a rework so it's actually a decent emergency button.

Ewer/Spire combination needs to happen, at the very least.

I'm not so sure on this one personally. They'd have to rewrite the class story, so they won't be doing this one in all likelihood. Each of these probably just needs to either provide regeneration or have a secondary buff associated with it. As is, they give one of the better Royal Road options, so they're not completely terrible. They just need slight changes to "feel" better.

[Rewind]

I am aware. I am just wondering why everyone is focusing on drastic changes to the card mechanic when the largest issue is that AST cannot heal as well as it needs to be able to to complete end-game content satisfactorily, and that they have a lot of post-50 abilities that feel weak to use and Noct Stance is universally worse than Diurnal. Whenever I stated that, people jump on and start saying that if cards are changed AST will be fine.

I don't think anyone is saying the cards are the sole problem.

Healing in Diurnal stance is fine - As stated before Diurnal stance is about sustaining the raid rather than specifically predicting damage (SCH) or reacting to damage (WHM).
Healing in Nocturnal stance needs to be addressed - I'm not sure what exact buff it needs. Maybe it is a pure potency increase on all spells but at the same time I think it should be reworked completely - Maybe some channelling high potency spells like a healing chain between players.

Also DPS does need to be slightly addressed to make AST viable in 4 mans (as there are people that don't raid). Gravity should put up a 4 second reduced mob attack damage, and 2 and then 1 second just as holy works but as an alternative to stun.