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

[winkf1ma]

At a bare minimum, here are four changes that would greatly improve AST:

(1) Disable makes no sense in comparison to Eye for an Eye. Instead of working on only a single hit, Disable should work for all hits on a single target for a set time frame.

(2) Draw and Shuffle need cooldown reductions. It would be really nice if shuffle was reduced to like 2-3 seconds so you could shuffle a few times off a single draw. This would greatly increase your chances of getting what you need off a single draw.

(3) Eternal Dignity makes no sense. Benediction heals a single target completely, and Lustrate can be used multiple times. Eternal Dignity's cooldown needs to be revamped to be an adequate heal for "oh shit" moments.

(4) The day stance should increase spell speed more and should also increase healing potency. The night stance should increase critical hit rate and spell damage. This way the night stance can be used to DPS and give better healing shields.

[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.

Reposting just as a comparison to show lacking we actually are. I didn't knew it before tonight.
That experience basically made me feel like i am playing half a class and now i am considering what to do next.

[Alahra]

I don't really want full control, because why would I ever pick anything other than Balance except in extreme cases? I'd rather they buff all the other cards to make up for it.

I agree, honestly. But the idea comes up in just about every AST thread at this point. Outside of potential balance concerns (oh hey, a pun), there's just not a simple way to pull it off logistically within the current framework.

[SuzakuCMX]

I agree, honestly. But the idea comes up in just about every AST thread at this point. Outside of potential balance concerns (oh hey, a pun), there's just not a simple way to pull it off logistically within the current framework.

I've been thinking more and more and maybe the best thing to do is give AST better mana management and healing so they can contribute to DPS, and then reworking Balance to be an indirect DPS increase like Spire/Ewer/Arrow/Spear are. Maybe make it raise Crit Rate? Then they could buff the cards a lot more and they are all a lot more comparable, and it doesn't feel like you got shafted everytime you draw a card that isn't Balance.

[Alahra]

I've been thinking more and more and maybe the best thing to do is give AST better mana management and healing so they can contribute to DPS, and then reworking Balance to be an indirect DPS increase like Spire/Ewer/Arrow/Spear are. Maybe make it raise Crit Rate? Then they could buff the cards a lot more and they are all a lot more comparable, and it doesn't feel like you got shafted everytime you draw a card that isn't Balance.

That might work okay, though honestly if they nerf Balance, people will probably just focus on Arrow instead. It's not as good as Balance, but it's fairly close (and it's possibly better than Balance on MNK/NIN since it synergizes really well with their high attack speeds, so long as TP costs can be mitigated).

[Geardagas]

You know, that's an excellent point that I haven't thought of. If they gave us full control over the cards, I would literally pick nothing but balance. There is no reason to pick anything else. As silly as it sounds, shorter fights = increased healing.

Even if they reworked the cards, you would still only pick one or two at all times. There is always going to be a 'best' card. Four or five of the cards would be rendered useless just because you can pick the best one at will.

The RNG must stay. There is no choice. Unfortunately, this means that we are most likely going to get what i've been fearing: spread 1, spread 2, and spread 3. Three slots for holding cards, and button bloat gets two bigger.

[Alahra]

The RNG must stay. There is no choice. Unfortunately, this means that we are most likely going to get what i've been fearing: spread 1, spread 2, and spread 3. Three slots for holding cards, and button bloat gets two bigger.

That's highly unlikely, as they are not generally in the habit of handing out multiple abilities per level, and they also seem pretty set on making sure all of the classes have the exact same number of abilities. They are also presumably aware of the tight squeeze people are dealing with because of the additional abilities in Heavesward.

[SuzakuCMX]

That might work okay, though honestly if they nerf Balance, people will probably just focus on Arrow instead. It's not as good as Balance, but it's fairly close (and it's possibly better than Balance on MNK/NIN since it synergizes really well with their high attack speeds, so long as TP costs can be mitigated).

I usually use Arrow on myself if there's no BLM since it increases cast speed and decreases the GCD = a little more healing.

I think the problem right now is Balance is the easiest to see an effect for and also the other cards are too weak to compare at all. Maybe if they buffed Spear/Arrow to be more noticeable it wouldn't be such a problem.

Maybe they could make it so each time we use Draw, we gain a stack of Fortune, and Shuffle costs a stack of Fortune? That way after a few dead draws you can Shuffle multiple times.

[YuiSasaki]

I think the problem right now is Balance is the easiest to see an effect for and also the other cards are too weak to compare at all. Maybe if they buffed Spear/Arrow to be more noticeable it wouldn't be such a problem.

Well, Arrow is indeed noticeable: Throw to many on a NIN/MNK and sometime soon you gonna listen to "OMG WHEREZ MY TP!?" via VoIP xD. Nevertheless I almost always throw Arrow on a DD, cuz out of the 6 cards we got it's the second best in terms of dps (iirc)

[Mclyde]

+15% attack speed is really enjoyable for the dps "quality of life". Casters would specially appreciate this during an aboudant aoe phase, they could preserve their Fire III instead of spamming Scathe.