Astrologian Cards Can't Be a Coin Flip: A petition

[Kirsi]

Before the changes were announced: "GUYS HURRY UP AND PULL YOU'RE WASTING MY BALANCE"

After the changes: "SE oversimplified my job by taking away the card buffs that I never wanted to use"

I don't know what "decision making" you guys are talking about but the cards were too random to rely on for things like an EXTRA COOLDOWN or MP to begin with.

The option to buff crit will be missed though...

[Seoulstar]

The cards were always a coin flip, now they're just less of a annoying coin flip. Having to fish for balance was never fun and with the way the new cards work it gives AST more consistent and reliable utility.

But that was the fun part. You really didn't know what you were going to get and often times not getting balance worked out for something else. Healer died and you got ewer? Help them get some of their MP back. Tankbuster coming up and you have bole? Toss it on them. Crit buff? Can work too. I've seen some even enjoy having faster attacks. If you played AST and just looked for balance, then, of course, you're going to find it annoying and unfun. But now it's just..boring. They took the most entertaining part of the class and completely ruined it.

[DamianFatale]

They ruined my favorite job. They took all the variety of it, and then watered it down.

[xxvaynxx]

Shadowbringers plans to strip all variety from Astrologian cards to the point it won't feel like you're even drawing from a deck anymore, but flipping a coin.


Bole / Ewer / Spire: "Increases damage dealt by a party member or self by 6% if target is ranged DPS or 3% for all other class types"

Balance / Arrow / Spear: "Increases damage dealt by a party member or self by 6% if target is melee DPS or 3% for all other classes



Each set of 2 cards has a color that stacks on a new job gauge. Once you have 3 separate colors you can activate an ability on a 180 second cooldown that increases your group's damage in an aoe around you by 3-6%.

The only time you think about which card to use, is once every 180 seconds, where your reward is to get an AoE Balance. Yes. Your reward for thinking about which cards to play is the same effect as the cards themselves.



No longer will you have to decide to use a Ewer for mana regen or as a dps increase. No longer will you have to decide to use a Bole on the tank to give yourself more room to dps, or to burn it for a royal road effect for your dps classes. Should you use an Arrow to give your black mage cast speed? Or risk rerolling it into a spire for the chance to get a Balance? Doesn't matter.


There's no reason to use spread, because, there's no effects to save. Every card can just be auto-used. I was excited to see redraw getting more power, but what is the point of buffing redraw when there's no longer a reason to use it?

This is not Astrologian. Astrologian is the only class I play because I love juggling the different card effects. Shadowbringers would remove the flavor from the class to the point of it being stripped of its key feature.


I feel cheated. It's like turning the Scholar fairy into a totem that has literally no spells, but increases healing done by a flat amount when it's active.

This is just my input but nobody really cared about any other card other than balance. When you get something not a balance you just redraw or royal road it.
Nobody liked arrow other than samurai's and Blm but even then, balance was better.

everything else is situational and never really ever use it, more so at high level.
You don't need bole, spire which every astro in their mom meme'd on how much they get it, arrow , spear is okish but still rather have a balance, ewer was ok but didn't really need it as well.

[RokkuEkkusu]

I think the current AST changes are mostly because of people favoring "The Balance" more than other cards. FFXIV has become a DPS-centric game for a long time. Until people stop over-relying on Balances to make their strength known in certain websites we shall not name, we'll have to see how AST players apply the cards to the DPS teammates with the hands they are dealt during Shadowbringers.

I'll reserve judgment on how AST functions until I actually play the role on the upcoming expansion.

[Xelanar]

From all the discussion we can take away the following:
People who care mostly about party dps optimization are happy with all the changes to Astrologian, and players who like having situational support available(if card draw is being generous that is) are not. Before 5.0 it was the other way around, so really it's impossible to make everybody happy at this point.

[Allegor]

The thing is, turning all the cards into 8 flavors of Balances makes the whole theme and niche of the job redundant. If balance is SO much ungodly better, why not just remove it from the normal arcana, put, idk, bonus det or dhit instead, and make "Balance" the big AoE thingy once the 3 seals are gathered [It already is pretty much a RR'd Balance anyways].

Bonus raid damage is still there, and the "small buffs that nobody wanted" A.K.A, the job identity, is left intact.

[Lersayil]

Overall I like the changes. Some flavour was lost (I like the current Arrow and Spear), but the gains from RNG were somwhat normalized with the removal of non dps cards. They still kept the RNG aspect though, as you need the specific melee / ranged arcana depending on party composition while collecting the 3 different seals.

I never liked Royal Road and Spread though so I guess rip to those that did.

[Razard]

It's a shame how the DPS is the only utility that matters crowd killed ast cards :/

This isn't picking on you specifically, but the mindset.

Whose fault do you think this is? If, as another poster rightfully pointed out, the vast majority didn't reduce the class to "Balance- By any means necessary! with maybe spear being a consolation prize."

I just think maybe people should get some perspective and have the self awareness to ask themselves "Did I cause this?"

[Xelanar]

This isn't picking on you specifically, but the mindset.

Whose fault do you think this is? If, as another poster rightfully pointed out, the vast majority didn't reduce the class to "Balance- By any means necessary! with maybe spear being a consolation prize."

I just think maybe people should get some perspective and have the self awareness to ask themselves "Did I cause this?"

It is caused by different players with different styles, mentalities and mind sets, where most of the time 'dps first' is what is perceived as what the majority wants and therefore focused on. As of 5.0 ALL the games jobs will cater to this mindset, disregarding those who prioritize non-dps-related utility. Astrologian was the only job that was different in that sense, and players who were drawn to it because of that(like me) can no longer play the kind of job they prefer. There is no alternative to switch to, while players with a 'dps first' mindset have every job to choose from.