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

[Auryan]

-snip-

I'm of a similar opinion. From the people that got to play AST at the media tour they mentioned that the job felt engaging and fun. MrHappy thought it was overall more interesting than the current version and GoldenTot had a blast running with it in the lvl 73 dungeon. I think the major difference between those two and people on the forums is that they got to play with the job in the appropriate context. And that judging changes to a job while not getting a chance to get hands on time with it doesn't provide a clear picture. I'm not saying that the concerned people are going to like the new version, some have already decided on not liking it no matter what, but you do owe it to yourself to give it a shot and make the decision for yourself. At least, that's how I'm approaching this and all the other jobs.

[Hash_Browns]

Okay, what's 'interesting' about it? Give 3% dmg buff to a melee or a ranged dps? With the option of getting 6%? I'll take the ewer over that, honestly.

Except that you can give anyone +3%/+6%/+8% dmg, and then use the new ability with seals to give a further +3%/+6% dmg. Meaning you can give 1 person +14% damage while giving the rest of the party +6% damage.

[ErryK]

Well have you 180 seconds with 3 redraw charges to get 3 seals. It's statistically highly unlikely you ever even have to try to get them.

How many times have I heard people say that yet RNG screws them over...

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

How many times have I heard people say that yet RNG screws them over...

98% HQ *NQ's 4 times in a row*

[Gihwezi]

98% HQ *NQ's 4 times in a row*

lmfaaaaaaaao

[SpiritMuse]

I'm feeling ambivalent on AST at the moment. I've always enjoyed its versatility, the ability to throw all these different kinds of boosts to the party. Yeah sure a lot of the time you're fishing for Balances - when things are going well. The other cards come in when things are going less well. Co-healer dies? Ewer. Many people die and you have to Rez a lot? Also ewer. Lots of aoe dps? Spire. Dps dies? Also spire. Have a bard? Use that crit card. A BLM? Use that speed card. There are a ton of situations that could arise that you could have an answer for. And now everything is just Balance I, Balance II and Balance III. I'm... not convinced.

[Freyt]

Basically it'll play out like this:

At the start of any instance the AST will immediately draw and play cards, along with Sleeve Draw. By the time the group actually gets to an encounter these cards will have expired, and depending on the luck of the draw the AST will be using the AoE versions or not during those times.

This goes against the XIV design philosophy, so there's no doubt it'll be changed. This is a problem inherent to the AST Gauge. That means any changes to it will likely happen for 6.0, unless they do the unpredictable and/or reverse these changes and bring back 4.x Gauge.

I'm fairly confident the majority of AST's are going to encounter MP management issues well and beyond that of either SCH or WHM, and that ties directly into Lightspeed being their only tool for MP management other than Lucid Dreaming. Healing spells functionally cost more MP, and DPS spells functionally cost less, generally across the board.

Essential Dignity reduces the cool down of Lightspeed by 10 seconds, but the trait to give ED 2 charges is the very last trait you receive at lvl 78. This means that with regular use of Essential Dignity, Lightspeed will have its recharged reduced by 40 seconds, to 80s, at level 78 or higher. Any lower and it's 20s reduced for 100s cool down. However this assumes you use Essential Dignity immediately upon activating Lightspeed, which you won't, as you'll either be casting Gravity while it's relatively safe to do so, or you'll be using the cost reduction for healing with GCD's. Otherwise, you'll be using Essential Dignity even when you don't need it, which also goes against XIV's design philosophy.

Before, an AST could extend the duration of Lucid Dreaming, which put it well within comfort range even while using the majority of their MP, and any excess or alternative scenarios could be dealt with by the chance Ewer.

Lucid Dreaming has had its cool down halved, which might be enough to off-set it, or maybe not. If the usage of Lightspeed is really meant to be so heavy, it'll create a skill gap for AST in regards to simple healing, and relatively inexperienced players will suffer a lot for it.

Despite using AST a lot and being used to little details like this, I myself forgot that Essential Dignity even reduced the cooldown of Lightspeed up until a couple of weeks before the last Live Letter. I have to imagine there will be many players who will never even notice.

[Ceasaria]

Honestly, the cards created a false sense of choice when really the only cards worth using were Balance, Arrow (on certain jobs) and Spear. Glad to be rid of them, the new system will be very interesting for AST players since they'll be playing cards now for their seals instead of the effects of the card.

So we agree that we could have only 3 cards with :
Balance : Grants Solar seal
Arrow : Grants Lunar seal
Spear : Grants Celestial seal

It would be totally the same, right ?

[ErryK]

So we agree that we could have only 3 cards with :
Balance : Grants Solar seal
Arrow : Grants Lunar seal
Spear : Grants Celestial seal

It would be totally the same, right ?

No, because none of those cards increase the ranged players damage by 6%. The main objective of AST's cards is to get the seals, while the secondary aspect is the group utility of AST by rewarding damage bonuses to players.

[Keddera_StormMoon]

Can't say I'm a fan - I took pride in knowing who should get what card, and flushing the bad cards into something useful with Royal Road or a redraw.

But - I'll give it a chance before I go all doom and gloom.