Astrologian buffs confirmed

[Cynfael]

I got the viewpoint from SE's response, actually. Lightspeed is its own pile of troubles, but Celestial Opposition and Collective Unconscious were confirmed to be buffed in an 'astrologian' like way. And further, that means enhanced effects with the Sects. If the cards were intended to be a core mechanic, then presumably, the changes would instead interact a lot more with card buffs instead. Off the top of my head, granting the Bole card to everyone in range, or adding additional healing to party members with beneficial effects on them, or something.

The tweaks to those cards would be interesting, but would it really change anything? Spire being a TP refresh would still be a throw away card in a mage heavy party. The full duration of that card right now is 100-150 TP saved I think, without anything else on it. Changing that to a flat 150 TP refresh leaves it open to overticking like Goad currently is if drawn at a bad time, but is still 'worthless' if the target doesn't need TP anyway. Same for the MP card. DRK Darkside makes them immune to MP refresh affects. The current Ewer is capable of bypassing that. The only one getting appreciable benefit then is the Spear change, but aside from the opener, the benefit would still be staggered. For example, on the MCH, it would reduce the CD of the Reload I just used, but Raging Strikes coming up after the effect wears off is SoL.

You would still have no need of them then, I feel. You would still not want to draw them in favor of the better cards. That's why I don't think any change to the cards but overbuffing them and leaving healing weaker would suffice. And at that point, AST might as well be a Support DPS because even with the DPS buffs, why would you bring it over the healing safety?

I don't think that the popular suggestion to add TP and MP refresh to Spire and Ewer is the correct fix, no. You're right; we would continue to feed them to Royal Road or attempt to Shuffle them out about as frequently as we already do. It's too bad that they are in the same pool with cards like Balance and Arrow, because I doubt anyone would complain if they were regular CDs rather than cards. As you've pointed out, both cards DO have their uses; it's drawing them when you have no use for them that is such a letdown.

When I consider how SE designed AST, I get that feeling of an itch that isn't quite scratched. They really did a nice job of trying to introduce a third healer that is viable, yet of a different flavor than the other two, and the cards are admittedly difficult to balance since RNG plays a major role in how they are used. Of course, if other aspects of AST become compelling enough (e.g. Celestial Opposition, Collective Unconscious, Lightspeed, and arguably the entire Nocturnal Sect being made more fun and useful), the playerbase might be less pissed on those days when it seems that Spire is the only card RNGesus wishes to grant.