Please let Astrologians Pick the First Cards outside combat within Raiding Instances

[ShaneDawn]

While I am neither on the dev team nor someone who would actually want this to happen, a sadistic solution to this player-created problem could be to only let ASTs draw cards after combat has commenced, or something equally frustrating. Be careful what you wish for.

Honestly I would even be fine with the cards being locked out before entering combat. My gripe is , that Spread Balance is obviously a very powerful buff to have during the pull, and no serious team would ever think about pulling without one. What you proposed is one solution to the delayed pulls caused by fishing for the "correct" cards. Although I'm pretty sure none of the ASTs would be happy with such a system in place.

It's something to think about, anyways.

[Midori_Nabooru]

While it is annoying to fish for that balance card, I do not think this change is needed. AST is already OP and taking the RNG out of our class is just making it even more broken.

[Singularity]

I cannot see how the OP's suggestion is unbalanced. All it does is reduce the amount of waiting between pulls. Class/job balance matters only in combat, so I would say that this is no more "abusable" than the cooldown reset on wipe we got in 3.4. In fact I think they should go further with regards to out-of-combat waiting around:

> All players should respawn with full MP and TP on wipe.
> SMNs and SCHs should respawn with the maximum number of Aetherflow stacks available to them at their current level. MCHs should respawn with 5 ammo.
> Redraw's cooldown reduced to 1 second outside of combat (this would be easier to do than adding a card selection system).
> Stoneskin II's cast time and MP cost removed and the skill made available to other classes that can cross-class Stoneskin.

I'm sure there may be other things that can be done as well. The point is - none of these changes would affect how a job performs in combat (and therefore the job's desirability) at all. It's just pure quality-of-life, the same as the standing there waiting for cooldowns that we mercifully no longer have to do.

[ToasterMan]

> Stoneskin II's cast time and MP cost removed and the skill made available to other classes that can cross-class Stoneskin.

And while we're at it lets just go ahead and remove WHM from the game

[Youkulm]

@OP You can pick your first card before you go into content so long as it isn't synced down to 1-59 ( that is the only time you lose buffs going into content ). I do it all the time. There is no need for this. Get your first pull ready before raid instead of waiting until the second you're inside. You know you're going to raid, you know you'll want that Royal Roaded Balance for your statics speed run, then take the time to prepare it.

If you're farming on speed pulls you shouldn't need this "between pulls" anyhow. You should be 1-2 shotting content. Now, if you're progging? You're just wasting time waiting for balances when people might die anyhow. Be thrifty with your cards during prog and during farming prepare during breaks and ahead of time instead of waiting until the last second. Shouldn't be any issue.

Allowing AST to pick their cards feels like it would take the fun out of the class for me. At that point why don't we just ask SE throw all the cards we don't want in the garbage so we don't ever have to pull them again at random.

I personally have a lot of fun with the RNG of AST, although I can see why it is infurating for people that only want "Good" cards. I myself am more thirfty when I play AST and only really throw away Spears ( Boo Spear )

[Clawbriar]

No. This is part of the skill and theme of being an Astrologian; being able to deal with what fortune gives you. Being able to sit on an AoE Balance the second you enter instanced content actively detriments both WHM & SCH, as well as taking away some of the skill and enjoyment from playing AST.

In a similar vein, this is equivalent to demanding Outlaw Rogues' Roll the Bones buffs to be what you want in Legion. The RNG aspect is what makes the class feel dynamic, why would you want to take that away?

[HaelseMikiro]

The best points I've seen in this thread are removing the decay timer for WAR stacks, and deleting Stoneskin II completely and reworking Stoneskin to operate as Stoneskin II when out of combat

[Exiled_Tonberry]

I'm sorry, but the last thing we need is to make cards more manageable. They're way too powerful to just draw whatever you want, inside or out.

[Edewen]

Prepull, if you have an ast, you are waiting for the balance or at very least the arrow. This is simple concept. This could be solved simply. Remove the cool-down on redraw outside of combat and outside of pvp. Simple solution for an issue that is nothing more than an annoyance to groups.

[BubblyBoar]

Saying that this will only affect the 1% speedrunners) isn't a valid reason for letting this be a thing. Even though it will only matter to them, it'll trickle down to the rest of the game, just like the whole "delete monk" meme and the issues with WHM and PLD. And it'll end up with groups refusing to start a fight until AoE balance is set up, even for content that doesn't need it. It's a problem our community has and I rather not make the issue any worse.