AST changes, where we're still weak, and why I'm not upset with Yoshi-P...

[Ghishlain]

Though, I maintain that we had to have at least one card that we don't want to draw regularly.

In general, that's the nature of the beast when it comes to mechanics like these. No matter how they balance it, there will always be "one thing in the pool of potentials" that is less desirable than the others. The challenge is making it so all the "potentials" will still be functional and acceptable regardless of their optimal-ness level. In this case, being RR Fodder is still better than a person staring at the card and blanching, so I find it acceptable in my mind.

Agreed in full (we were basically writing up the same post at the same time, heh...).

If you feel ambitious, Ghishy, you can try mathing out the overall benefit of a Spear reducing a CD vs. a Spear adding 30 seconds to one of the big three buffs.

We can probably determine exactly which buffs would be more beneficial to Spear if we had values of healing done.

Also, they could simply buff Spear just by making it also reduce CDs that are ALREADY ticking and then it wouldn't be situational at all...

LOL, oh God, I don't think I could Theorycraft that out in an hour, it'd probably take me sometime to figure out ALL the permutations of that. I could try to think up something but don't hold your breath on it any time soon, lol.

Though if they buffed Spear like that, it would certainly make Spear significantly more desirable. I got a feeling actually programming that in though is much more difficult than us discussing it is.

[EDIT]
Some food for thought since Richard brought it up and made me think about. Let's discuss Spear over the duration of one minute:

Ninja can Ninjutsu 3 times in a minute for a total of 1,080 Potency in that time frame.
Assuming you draw Spear twice in a row and do it just as their Ninjutsu goes on CD, they'll get Ninjutsu's going off every 16s seconds. Effectively they'll get four Ninjutsu's in 64s, giving them a 360 Potency Increase in that about one minute time frame.

Ninja's most damaging combo is their Aeolian Edge combo, which is a total potency of (150 + 200 + 320) = 670 Potency. Assuming no haste, no poisons, no slashing debuff, no buffs, absolutely nothing - Ninja can perform this 670 Potency combo every 7.5s for a total of 5,360 potency. Add 10% from double Balance (or Extended Balance) and you get an additional potency of 536 which is much better than what double Spear can give your Ninja DPS. This also doesn't include the fact that Raiton itself will be affected by Balance as well and you'll up with an additional 108 Potency over those 60s.

Just a bit more food for thought in terms of probability:

Drawing two Spears in a row is a 2.77% chance of occurring (Extended Spear is not the same as double Spear due to how the spacing of Ninjutsu - spear would wear off after the third Ninjutsu and push the 4th Ninjutsu to 68s)
Drawing two Balances in a row is a 2.77% chance of occurring. Drawing Spear and RRing it for Extend then drawing Balance is also 2.77% chance (you'll probably end up using Arrow unless TP is tight at the time) - this effectively makes drawing double Balance / Extended balance a 5.54% occurrence.

Neither of these probabilities take into account the usage of Shuffle.

[RichardButte]

In this case, being RR Fodder is still better than a person staring at the card and blanching, so I find it acceptable in my mind.

Unless we've already got one RRed, which seems to happen a great deal, heh...

Though if they buffed Spear like that, it would certainly make Spear significantly more desirable. I got a feeling actually programming that in though is much more difficult than us discussing it is.

True, though I think I'd still like to see this change.

I think EVERY card should create a debate in the AST's mind: "Do I use this, or do I RR it?"

Spear is a no-brainer. If by some chance I'm about to use a CD, I use it on myself, unless there's a ninja, then I always dump it on the ninja. Otherwise, I RR it. CDs tend to either be used in a rotation and therefore instantly or in the event of an emergency, and neither of those are situations where a CD can be held off for a Spear.

If it reduced existing timers, it'd be perfect: you could fire it off on anyone and odds are that you'd give them some serious benefit because they either will have a CD to cast in the next 20 seconds or they'll have existing abilities on CD.

Maybe they'd need to make it so you couldn't double dip or something (ie an ability cools down faster while under the effect of spear and you use it again).

Another idea would be to make spear last 60 seconds and have 2 charges, where each CD used spent a charged and reduced it by 20%...

I'm just saying that without considering Spreading the card, there a lot of situations where the 15s window of the card drawn and waiting can be used on you to reduce at least one of your healing CDs.

If you're in a situation where you're rotating healing CDs for big mechanics, yeah, spear SHOULD always be useful there.

Also, you can make a post, then edit it and paste in your post and save to bypass the character limit.

I don't know why they have it, TBH...

[Ghishlain]

Another idea would be to make spear last 60 seconds and have 2 charges, where each CD used spent a charged and reduced it by 20%...

I really like this idea. It also makes the target think about how they want to use Spear too.

[RichardButte]

I really like this idea. It also makes the target think about how they want to use Spear too.

And it would let them do it at their own pace, when they're ready to fire the CD instead of feeling pressured into firing it.

b) As the buff is now 30s, I can change my rotation ever so slightly to not clip my buffed CT ticks, giving me a huge boost in DPS

Spear's duration hasn't changed: it's still 20 seconds.

And the problem is more from an AST's perspective: if one of the classes that it's good to throw Spear on isn't in our party, then we have a harder time using the card.

Also, which is better: More CD usage, or 30 more seconds of 10% damage?