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

[Shalan]

are you really telling me you're going to actually miss the RNG? OR are you just pissed cause you feel like the class is being made too casual and it's a pride thing? I'm just asking. Cause I don't think it's being dumbed down honestly.... like all they did was take the RNG away and cards that will no longer be of use.

Yes, I will miss the RNG. It was an element of uncertainty that made the act exciting and entertaining to me.
The lows of pulling a "useless" card were countered by the highs of a "desired" card, and those lows and highs were reliant on each other. You can't know what a high is without the low, and vice versa. So now, with every card being a "desired" (nerfed Balance) card there's nothing to distinguish the card and make it exciting or enjoyable to have pulled. It's just another flat boost, like all other five cards for 15 secs. Whoopie.
It's boring as hell and I'm going to miss the variety that we have now, even if said variety comes with less than stellar draws.

And yeah, Spire and Bole may not be useful with other changes, but that's only two out of six cards. Why not just change those instead of changing all six into a boring copy of the same card?

[Nihility]

I'm not saying astro is going to be terrible im just not happy with the directional choices.
manipulating cards was like half the job and was really fun. As much as elitists like to be snarky there are other cards than balance and they do have impact

and they just completely gutted it out of the job. Now cards are basically all the same and the minor arcana are more of the same and the 3 minute cooldown your shuffling around cards for to get 3 different seals is more of the same. the cool unique time manipulation skills got gutted out too

And the class is getting white mage-ified even more than it already was. celestial opposition got turned into an assize with a longer cooldown, two of the new spells are copies of divine benison and plenary indulgence

When they talked about giving healers better identities i wasn't expecting astro's to be "the class that sort of copies WHM and makes up for it's crappy personal dps by giving short small boosts to other jobs at random about half the time" I was expecting them to embrace the time and space manipulation aspects of it like delayed heals and overheals. With as well liked as earthly star was as a skill you'd think they'd take a hint...

[Insertcoins]

Yes, I will miss the RNG. It was an element of uncertainty that made the act exciting and entertaining to me.
The lows of pulling a "useless" card were countered by the highs of a "desired" card, and those lows and highs were reliant on each other. You can't know what a high is without the low, and vice versa. So now, with every card being a "desired" (nerfed Balance) card there's nothing to distinguish the card and make it exciting or enjoyable to have pulled. It's just another flat boost, like all other five cards for 15 secs. Whoopie.
It's boring as hell and I'm going to miss the variety that we have now, even if said variety comes with less than stellar draws.

And yeah, Spire and Bole may not be useful with other changes, but that's only two out of six cards. Why not just change those instead of changing all six into a boring copy of the same card?

And you think the devs didn't wonder that themselves? Heres where the problem lies right? What do you change those cards into? Tanks already will have the best defeneses to date and they got even more, MP won't or shouldn't be of much issue since that has been changed for most of the magic jobs, and they flat out will killed TP. So without changing those things and keeping dancer - the real reason astro was nerfed- the same as it will be. What and how do you change those cards so that they aren't memed and useless? Cause I can't think of anything without changing the background systems in place and dancer. :c

[Enjuden]

its not about power level, its about choices, playing the card minigame, and using the right cards at the right time. I could care less who was the top heal class in a savage raid. They could give whm a pearl spell which pulse dps every time they heal for all i care. This just gutted one of the most entertaining parts of the class.


Balance/streamlining for duty/savage is ruining the game

It's funny being literally the only person preaching something ridiculous and hyperbolic, isn't it? Without that balance, Bard would be the only dps class from all the way back to 2.0 til now for the sake of 'not balancing for raids'

That said, onto the OT, changing to one stat only feels really bad for AST, but at the same time, you only drew for Balance regardless in an optimal environment, so the only difference is less damage. You either got dead draws (Ewer/spire unless you need spread), okay draws (Spear/Arrow), or draws that break the game over their knees (Bole/Balance). Still, I think they are going toward a better direction where AST can use both sects at once in combat. They're doing what they can to streamline the game stat wise for ALL players, not just raids (raiders adjust to most things for the sake of doing maximum output). Give it at least the first raid tier instead of jumping for pitchforks.

[Kaedan]

I wish people would think about things before complaining about them.

The TP card was becoming invalid due to removal of TP.
The MP card was becoming invalid due to changes in MP.
The Bole was becoming invalid due to the way they were changing tank and party defense utility.

That only leaves Damage, skill speed and spell speed.

The way they changed it actually makes a lot of sense. Out of the remaining cards, Balance was the only one that ever saw widespread use. And those claiming that Balance isn't the primary card people try to draw now are just lying. So having all cards boost damage is not a bad thing.

The question was how to split up the damage buffs. They could have done Melee, Caster, and Ranged, and possibly even Tank, but that doesn't line up well with the Seal mechanic (which is the primary new mechanic of cards anyway). So keeping it simple at melee and ranged was what they decided. For the balance pass after release, they may split ranged into Caster and Physical, but overall the mechanic is no worse than what we have now (with half the cards not even used anyway).

[FoxyAreku]

There are so many problems with this new AST that, while they may make the job "more consistent", it outright guts the actual fun in playing it.

The damage increases are pathetically tiny so that you won't even notice them for the most part, and it requires no thought whatsoever. AST is dead to me in ShB looks like. I'd rather play white mage even, cos even if it's not as effective it at least is fun to play. Really disappointed.

I wish people would think about things before complaining about them.

The TP card was becoming invalid due to removal of TP.
The MP card was becoming invalid due to changes in MP.
The Bole was becoming invalid due to the way they were changing tank and party defense utility.

That only leaves Damage, skill speed and spell speed.

The way they changed it actually makes a lot of sense. Out of the remaining cards, Balance was the only one that ever saw widespread use. And those claiming that Balance isn't the primary card people try to draw now are just lying. So having all cards boost damage is not a bad thing.

The question was how to split up the damage buffs. They could have done Melee, Caster, and Ranged, and possibly even Tank, but that doesn't line up well with the Seal mechanic (which is the primary new mechanic of cards anyway). So keeping it simple at melee and ranged was what they decided. For the balance pass after release, they may split ranged into Caster and Physical, but overall the mechanic is no worse than what we have now (with half the cards not even used anyway).

Only the TP card would have required a change. Piety is changing to give MP regen, so it would actually make sense to keep an MP regen card as well, and 10% damage reduction wouldn't be at all invalidated as it's always something you can use.

[Darael]

From my point of view, to do what they have done, I would have directly changed the skill of "draw" for a skill called "Balance" with 3 charges and then another ability that is the same effect in area.

Because what you do is create a false illusion that there is something random, when it is totally false, because there are no longer 8 arcana, there is 1

And if it can be all the best that you want the new changes in the cards, but that is to take away 7 arcana, the one that you leave me instead of being the 10% of damage that was, is 6% that if I I want to throw myself is going to be 3%. What logic is that the astrologer is less affected by his cards?

The old arcane could not be all you would like but they provided variety and a fun minigame, depending on how you knew your cards and your companions and the dungeons you prepared them one way or another, it is not always Balance, what was very good? Yes, it was, but the rest were used, I understand that you want to nerfear me, but you can do the same thing that you have done with "the false arcana that you have left me" reduces the duration and the effect in half.

also that you put 3 beautiful Seals every 2 cards, that contribute something, is that with those seals apart from giving you the mark they would give something more, the astrologers that we liked the old cards would be happy.

[Hash_Browns]

After really looking at it, while I hate the fact that it removed some of the random chance, I can't help but feel the new card system will be better. I will miss being able to buff cards though, and being able to use different cards in different situations. It really all depends how MP management will work though, and we have no idea how it's going to be managed yet.

Truth be told, Ewer was only really useful when your group sucked, and required babysitting. Bole was only required when tanks didn't know how to use cooldowns. Spear was a discount Balance, unless you had a bard. Arrow was mostly useless, and a discount discount balance, and spire was only ever really used for spreading balance to everyone.

The luck of getting that AOE balance will be missed, as honestly it was fun sometimes, but fishing for balance does get annoying after awhile. It was a love-hate relationship.

Frankly, the only thing I'm really pissed about is that CO has become a basic heal. Although, they could adjust the numbers before the release to make it better, and the fact that one of the attacks only gets an MP deduction when getting upgraded, which might be an error.

its not about power level, its about choices, playing the card minigame, and using the right cards at the right time.

This is what I thought at first, but it wasn't really a minigame when looking back at it. It was more of a chore. Fishing for the right cards, and having to choose to give your party the crappy buff, burn it, or just delete it because it wasn't a balance.
It wasn't "fun" it was tedious.

[Dyvid]

And you think the devs didn't wonder that themselves? Heres where the problem lies right? What do you change those cards into? Tanks already will have the best defeneses to date and they got even more, MP won't or shouldn't be of much issue since that has been changed for most of the magic jobs, and they flat out will killed TP. So without changing those things and keeping dancer - the real reason astro was nerfed- the same as it will be. What and how do you change those cards so that they aren't memed and useless? Cause I can't think of anything without changing the background systems in place and dancer. :c

AST was also the closet we had to a gambler job in the game. RNG was the entire point and was the reason it could have good buffs. You had a 1 in 6 chance getting a card you need and 1 in 6 getting a card you didn't. Now it's an Oprah Card where everyone gets DPS.... If SE really has their heart set on changing the cards make them buff main attributes; VIT, STR, DEX, INT, and MND. Ewer can restore MP since all classes need it now. You can keep the divination thing in place where getting a straight DPS buff is the end goal.

[LaylaTsarra]

I didn't enjoy the rng nature of the cards. I prefer using cards that have more utility than to have to keep fishing for something I would want to actually use. Going to wait and see how the new additions actually play out in game.