Yoshi-P's Interview with Famitsu includes a few comments about AST

[YuiSasaki]

I disagree. Keeping our healing the same as it is now but making one card buff our healing? Trash. Increasing our healing by 5% for 20s everytime we use Draw? Very nice.

Why not create a stacking buff with draw that gives 1-2% of let's say increased healing, and stacks up to 3-5 times (depending if it gives 1% (->5times); if it gives 2% (->3times)) on a duration that barely suffices. Like 32-35sec (server lag might need to be taken into account). Therefore one would encourage players to use draw on CD.


Edit: rephrased stuff

[SuzakuCMX]

Why not create a stacking debuff that gives 1-2% of let's say increased healing, and stacks up to 3-5 times (depending if it gives 1% (->5times); if it gives 2% (->3times)) on a duration that barely suffices. Like 32-35sec (server lag might need to be taken into account). Therefore one would encourage players to use draw on CD.

That seems really boring and doesn't really do anything for Noct while it makes Diurnal exponentially more powerful due to their HoTs.

I'd rather one of the two happen:

1. Synastry becomes a permanent buff that you can place on your allied party member; while Synastry is on that member, their healing output is increased by 15%. That way AST as a solohealer isn't strong, but in a duo group they become much more powerful. By displacing their extra healing onto the other healer, they now have time and MP to DPS and throw out card buffs.

2. Switch the stance buffs; Diurnal now gives 10% Healing Potency and Nocturnal gives 10% Attack Speed. In addition, Diurnal regenerates 2% of their MP when using Draw. Nocturnal Stance gives +50% effect to all card buffs (RR still counts it from the original potency though, so Enhanced Balance gives 15% + another 5% from Nocturnal and expanded balance is +10% to everyone hit).

This way, Diurnal is now the sustained healer half of Astrologian while Nocturnal is for when you don't need the healing and want more damage/buffs to be thrown out.

Celestial Opposition and Collective Unconscious would still need to be changed, though.

[Neophyte]

You're not talking about strategy here. The first dumbass can understand when it's time to up damage or attack speed or to give pt/mp when someone need it.
The thing is the random aspect make the job strategic 'cause you have to know or think to how optimize the card you just drew

But that's just adaptability. Which is heavily bound to the max. use of the random given card (which may be non-existent in some situations). While other classes are adaptive all or most of the time.
You can call yourself the greatest strategist or tactician in history... if you only have a big box full of things, pulling random (sometimes useless) stuff and thinking about the best use of this random item in the given situation... you won't make it into history books (except maybe for the laughs).
I mean...

for exemple if i get a spire card does it worth right now to use it on one of my teamate ?
does it worth to turn it in royal road to get the spread effect ?
In this way reducing the next card effect by 50% ?

Just a decision depending on actual tp-usage of players.
Since you don't know what you get next, your decision is only between TP+ (easy to say if good or bad in a situation) and AoE-something (hard to say if good or bad).

How much of my teamates ould be able to efficiently use the 5% dmg bonus i could use on them if i do that ?

If you draw it. It's just luck.. You have to decide if it's better to use a single spire or RR it and have the chance of 1/6 to get Balance and 5/6 to get something other.

Shouldn't i better instead focus my buff cards on one or two very good dps ? if so i shuffle the spire card i just drew... etc etc..

.... and get another spire, now AoE. With two mages and a WAR tank. Great.


You can't adapt to every situation, while every other class can (within their framework). If your 'general' (i.e. raidleader) tells you to boost the dps in a given situation, dps will use strong CDs/Buffs, SCH will use Selene, while Astro may or may not contribute something useful.
Usually a class know if a action is good/useful before they are using it. Astros often only know that after using it (RR).
That's the main difference in buffing between Astro and other classes.

Think of a SMN who can't affect which Egi they summon.... would you call that 'more strategic'?


I think Miius approach may be a good one.. drawing 2-3 cards and deciding which to use/hold would keep the RNG-factor but players could way better weigh the pros and cons of their actions.

[DarkerOrange]

Good to see people still falling for the illusion of strategy in AST lol. There is no strategy at all in the cards, because certain cards will always go to certain people. Strategy usually implies planning and fore-thought, which you simply cannot do in the current card system.
What we have now is a luck system, with buffs that aren't powerful enough offset the RNG, and our only mitigation against this RNG can still leave us with the same useless card that we threw away in the first place.

I know we will end up with a decent healer in the end, but please don't go around telling everyone that AST is ok, and that people who say otherwise 'just don't get it', it just ends up showing that you are the one who doesn't get it.

[Mclyde]

Yea you got it :

that's just adaptability

thinking about the best use of this random item in the given situation

Just a decision depending on

You have to decide if

your decision is only between TP+ and AoE-something

may or may not contribute something useful

It's exactly why this job is so cool ! Every 30 sec (or less thanks to the store skill) you have decision to make that can't be known beforehand. Combine that to different group make-ups and different boss mechanics and you never fall asleep 'cause of knowing classic cycles.

While other classes are adaptive all or most of the time.

[Miiu]

In general I get why you like the random aspect. But randomness is not sustainable in an evironment where others have to rely on you.

[Neophyte]

It's a decision like 'Do I pick heads or tails?" in coinflipping or 'Do I take the door with the car/holiday or the envelope with the secret price.'

And so, no real decision (founded on facts), rather a decision on gut feeling. Which has nothing to do with strategy.

If you draw wrong cards in a row your strategy will always be: I'll hope for a better one. That's no real strategy.

[SuzakuCMX]

*snip*

You seem to misunderstand what strategy means, so here's a quoted dictionary definition for you:

a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim

Which is why AST can't really have a strategy to cards. Say my overall aim is to increase DPS....but I draw Spire/Ewer first and shuffle it into a Spear or vice versa. Spire/Ewer are useless because half or more of the regenerated resource are going to be wasted since people are at full, and Spear is now useless since everyone used their CDs before I placed it. I could Royal Road it and get Extended, or I could Spread it and save it for later when people use CDs...but Spear is really the worst of the 3 "Increase DPS" cards so I might as well not use it at all in case I draw a Balance or Arrow during a phase that doesn't need it, since those are better buffs I would want to save. Instead I choose to RR it since I don't need Spear now or later.

Now next time I draw I have no Shuffle. I draw Spear again. The worst DPS card. Now do I waste my Extended buff on the weakest of the DPS cards or do I just waste the Draw and click off the buff so I can get a Draw faster?

It's an illusion of choice. Except in very specific circumstances, you will want Balance/Arrow/Ewer. Balance goes on top DPS, Arrow goes on self or top caster, Ewer goes on whichever healer has less MP.

These are split second decisions you know before battle; any other card you draw will either be Shuffled, RR'd, or clicked off depending on if it's the card you wanted or not.

And even then, in the overall scheme of the battle, you will have to know your cards did nothing significant in the battle and you were better off going SCH for the ability to directly DPS, have infinite mana, and give a consistent Attack Speed buff to your team.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

As of now, there's nothing unique about AST except for their (useless) cards.

If you think the AST cards are useless, you're really not playing the job properly.

[Geardagas]

If you think the AST cards are useless, you're really not playing the job properly.

Spear is literally useless, and arrow can be counterproductive on longer fights by running them out of tp. Bole, Spire and Ewer are situationally useful which doesn't work with rng, and even then bole's usefulness is extremely questionable. That leaves you with one card out of six, balance, that will never be a dead draw.