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

[Geardagas]

How isn't it a necessary requirement?

How does redrawing the same card not completely negate the entire purpose of using shuffle?

[NorthernLadMSP]

How isn't it a necessary requirement?

How does redrawing the same card not completely negate the entire purpose of using shuffle?

It is a necessary requirement. Shuffle is probably the most annoying aspect of AST, as (at least for me), the same discarded card is drawn again at least 50-60% of the time.

[Cynfael]

Good to see people still falling for the illusion of strategy in AST lol

This is one of my biggest gripes with some in the "AST is fine, nothing to worry about here!" crowd. I feel like they have yet to recover from the initial glow at low levels, back when it was easy to be wowed by all the buffs you had, and when it was easy to imagine that they made some class-defining difference and that you were making great strategic decisions by timing your cards "just right" on the "right" person.

The reality is that the AST card system is full of insignificant and outright false choices with little room for true strategy and skill due to the mostly weak effects of the cards and the unpredictable timing of when you acquire them. Also, the psychological reward of happening to Draw a card you want to use soon, Spreading it, and whipping it out with desired Royal Road effect at the ideal time is very much not in line with the actual reward that execution provides in gameplay terms....

[Ghishlain]

How isn't it a necessary requirement?

How does redrawing the same card not completely negate the entire purpose of using shuffle?

The question I counter with is "how is it necessary"?

I know I'm playing devil's advocate here but consider the tooltip:

"Return the currently drawn arcanum to your deck and draw another."

If you take this literally, this means

1. Return card to deck
2. Shuffle deck
3. Draw new card

Dev's could say "this is working as intended" and leave it at that. Is it annoying? Most certainly so, but is a necessary change? Not in my mind, but that's just my personal opinion.

[DarkerOrange]

Yea, taking the time to get an Enhanced/Extended Arrow/Balance can take 60/90 secs or more, and when you do get it, a SCH's DPS is still far better needs big changes IMO.

[Khalithar]

For fixes for AST, I'd rather see a buff to Diurnal stance and make AST the healer that specializes in HoT's with some burst healing here and there for when it's needed.

I have no idea how to fix the cards though outside of possibly making them all 6 separate active abilities, maybe not have the cooldown start until you've used all 6? Make it all about comboing two every 15 seconds with Royal Road.

[Pentacus]

The question I counter with is "how is it necessary"?

I know I'm playing devil's advocate here but consider the tooltip:

"Return the currently drawn arcanum to your deck and draw another."

If you take this literally, this means

1. Return card to deck
2. Shuffle deck
3. Draw new card

Dev's could say "this is working as intended" and leave it at that. Is it annoying? Most certainly so, but is a necessary change? Not in my mind, but that's just my personal opinion.

it's pretty fitting with the class's lore too, as Jannequinard explained it, shuffle is delaying a reading for another time (maybe that's why everyone gets tons of spires? shuffle is screwing over future-you? :P), so perhaps redrawing the same card is fate saying "no, you're using this card NOW."

it would be nice if redrawing the same card gave us SOMETHING as compensation for wasting our CD though (eg, reducing the CD of Draw if you play it instead of discarding it (or perhaps a heal buff or refresh for "playing along" with fate))

[Alahra]

It seems unlikely that we'll see full control over which card buffs we have at a given time, if only because of the logistics involved. Most classes (AST included) are already facing ability bloat issues, which greatly limits the ways in which they can give us control. They can't give us five additional Draw abilities (one for each card, plus the original Draw being assigned to one as well) without making Action Bars quite unwieldy for AST.

The best option I can imagine would be for Shuffle to be largely redesigned. Put it on a short cooldown (5 seconds or something), and allow constant redraws until we get what we want. They could even, for extreme control, put it on a miniscule cooldown (0.5 seconds, like Mudra, perhaps). But that doesn't really make the job play fluidly at all, as you'd run around trying to squeeze in constant Shuffles while healing.

I think if we see major card overhauls, they'll be more along the lines of expanding the usability of existing cards (such as by giving each of them a secondary effect that is more general--a HoT effect, for instance) so that we're less likely to feel the need to throw away a card that isn't especially useful at a given moment.

[Assirra]

We need an overhaul.

Tonight i did some scholar to help an fc mate with some trials and dam it was depressive.

I actually felt like a complete class once more.

-i had fairy to help me out with heals and could buff on command
- i had my own shields in all sizes and clolors, from single target shield to party shield to aoe bubble.
- i had mitigation tools like virus and eye for an eye
- when stuff went bad i lustrate on command and i could pop rouse+ fey illumination if it was a lot of damage over some time rather then spiky.

Comparing this to my ast
-lower heals in general
-the only oh shit button is at least for me almost used on cd
- a funky lolrng buff system that i swear someone trolled me by putting like 6 extra spires in
- no healing cooldowns

My scholar on 50 felt a lot more complete then my ast on 60.

[Vlady]

Shuffle timer being on par with draw timer is probably the right balance along with preventing double draw of the same card. The buffs in itself are not an issue as they are strong enough to merit an astrologian with the group. Most teams seem to suffer from lack of strong cooldowns for the astrologian which I hope they will focus more on then increasing potency that is not needed.