Do AST cards feel clunky to anybody else?

[PlumpyMcduff]

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I feel like the Card System isn't meeting it's potential.


1) it feels awful to drop a card just to apply a Royal Road to the next.

2) it feels lame for Draw's CD to wait for the Card to be cast.

3) it'd feel much better if Spread permitted a 'bonus Draw' or cut the CD of the next Draw down to 15s.

4) Arrow feels very underwhelming (especially AOE Arrow).

5) the range on Royal Road's AOE effect feels terrible.

6) Shuffling & receiving the same card feels depressing.


PROPOSED REDESIGNS:


1) Royal Road now defaults to AOE version, has infinite range, & merely applies to next card cast (doesn't discard your Draw).

2) Spread now additionally reduces the cooldown of next Draw to 15s.

3) [New Ability] Sleight - 60s cooldown: doubles the duration of next card cast (old Royal Road option).

4a) Card potencies increased to to 20% (Balance, & Bole - up from 10%) & 30% (Arrow & Spear - up from 10/20%).

4b) Card durations decreased to 10s (Arrow, Balance, & Bole - down from 15s).

5) Draw cooldown now begins the moment a card is drawn (doesn't wait for cast).

6) [Removed] Royal Road's increased potency effect (potencies passively increased instead).

7) do not let us Shuffle into the same card.

BONUS: potential changes/improvements to Time Dilation (60s cool down, 10s effect?)


The reasoning for some sharp nerfs is in lieu of the fact of all the buffs... please picture these changes taken as a whole, rather than picking them out individually & critiquing them as such.

Also, seriously, Nocturnal Sect needs help.

And while I have your attention, please give MCH some visual improvements (esp. on Gauss Round, Heartbreak, & Wildfire).

[TatoRazzino]

Well, I read everything you said and I won't comment on the changes you proposed; not because they're bad, but because I don't think the system needs a change. Instead, I'll try to tell you how I use everything and maybe you'll see the cards a bit different.
First of all, the cards were never designed to save a group from drowning. If your group doesn't have what it takes to meet a DPS check or a tank check or a healer check without cards, it means they won't do it anyways. The reason is simple: the fights were designed to be beaten with any kind of group, and AST was never meant to be mandatory. So don't expect that the cards are going to pump DPS/Defense/Healing up, directly or indirectly, into an extent that a bad group could be carried by them. Cards are about utility and about reducing DPS loss, not actually increasing your dps out of proportion.

[TatoRazzino]

Now about the cards themselves and the skills: it's better to use a card than to RR it in almost all cases, simply because the more cards you use, the more buffs you get. RR was meant for you to burn cards that can't be used when you draw or that are not good for specific parties. For example, the Spear is very specific in its usage and the job that benefit most from it is Ninja. When you don't have one in your party, that card is very hard to use and it's not that valuable. For example: if you reduce the cooldown for a Jump, you'll take around 12s from it. it's very possible that the DRG is going to save the Jump when it comes out of Cooldown to line up with other skills he has, so the reduction was wasted even if it happened. This means that the Spear is going to be a RR fodder. This is good, because having a good card for twice as long is pretty much like drawing it twice. if you're feeling bad about burning cards, it means they're useful and should have been used instead.

[TatoRazzino]

About Arrow: it's a very tricky card. it does nothing for SMN and it drains TP from MNK and NIN instead of helping them. The best DPS to receive it are BLM, DRG, BRD and MCH. Those last three will prolly require a Spire later on if you use too many Arrows on them, but they won't run out of TP like MNKs or NINs do; this is because those two jobs already have speed buffs from GL and Huton. Expanding the card dilutes it's potency and makes the Arrow much like the Selene buff. It's also good for healers during some healing checks, but it can drain MP as well. Since it's tricky, you can use it for RR without losing too much. It's not surprising that the two most tricky cards (Spear/Arrow) give us the buff to double the next card we use; I think the change SE made to those RR effects (they used to give us the AoE effect before) were on point, since the double duration effect is too valuable and burning an Ewer or a Spire is out of the question during raids.

[Parawill]

I wish you did not have to click RR off in situations where you you want to use a card on a specific target and not expand it (I feel so bad for console players when it comes to this). The only proposed change I'd have would be to provide the option to use a Royal Roaded buff to apply some sort of healing CD for Astrologians, thus providing us an extra "oh noes button" while tying the card utility with our healing directly.

[TatoRazzino]

Maybe having the RR do something like this: if you burn The Bole or The Balance you get healing potency; if you burn The Ewer or the Spire, you get an MP Refresh; if you burn the Arrow or the Spear, you get a cooldown reduction to all your skills that are on cooldown. That would be a nice utility to have. But again: it's not NECESSARY; it would be nice to have.

[ArcheDragon]

But if the cards don't provide enough utility and power as to bring weaker groups through dps checks, why bring an ast at all? It's not as strong of a healer as either sch or whm and if the cards aren't very strong then there is no reason for it to exist.

[Rashammel]

I just agree whit the 1. I use RR only in the begining of the fight or when i got a ewer and everyone is full of mp, and have other card on my spread.
About Arrow my DRG friend love my Arrows.

[RazeLandale]

Speaking clunk and playablility, not balance issues per say like tweaking the numbers and such, it's pretty decent.

The spear stands out as clunky. There's situations where it's good. Start of a fight. Ninjas. If the stars align and it comes up with your luminous aether cd. But mostly you throw it out and hope maybe it does something or you do your best to avoid it.

Shuffle drawing the same card is the worst feeling.

Other than that everything's pretty smooth and plays well. You don't need to tear down the whole system and rebuild it or anything.

[chumsy]

I dont believe that its wise to make card drawing faster, in turn that makes the mechanic worse, because you'll end up spending a lot of your button mashing on Cards, and takes away the healing aspect your job should prioritize on. Always should be healing first, then card buffs, then dps. The right way to fix this job is to Buff Cards through either Duration of buff/potency/AOE, and increase the CD of Drawing. In turn your Draw buffs are meaningful, and not overpowered.