Astrologian 5.0 Discussion

[MooceJuice]

Draw: Unchanged
Play: Unchanged
Sleeve Draw: Unchanged
Redraw: Unchanged
Undraw: Gone because you should never do this.
Spread: New, OGCd 30?s cooldown, makes the next card played AoE (Expanded Road effect).
Minor Arcana: Revert to 4.55 behavior
Divination: Gone, or gives a Dodge/Evade AoE buff for damage avoidance.

Seals: Gone or made Red/Green/Blue and obtained by Single Target carding DPS, Healer, Tank, respectively. We've had three role colors for yonks, we already did The Game in Deltascape 3, it's only natural to use this. This encourages spreading the cards around.

Cards last 20-25s?
Balance: 10% / 5% AoE Damage buff
Spear: 10% / 5% AoE Critical buff
Arrow: 10% / 5% Cast/Recast/GCD reduction. Should have some similar similar +Speed effects to Greased Lightning level
Spire: 10% / 5% AoE Determination buff
Bole: 10% / 5% AoE Damage Reduction buff
Ewer: 10% / 5% AoE MP regen buff.

I was thinking something similar to this actually. It would even be nice too if it were something simple like:

Melee cards-
Balance (solar): Damage buff
Spear (celestial): Critical buff
Arrow (lunar): Cast/Recast/GCD reduction

Ranged cards-
Bole (solar): Damage buff
Spire (celestial): Critical buff
Ewer (lunar): Cast/Recast/GCD reduction

Doing it this way preserves the current ShB system of 3 cards for melee classes and 3 cards for ranged classes. Additionally it returns some of the uniqueness of the old card system by featuring 3 of the old DPS increase card effects.

Solar cards: damage%
Celestial cards: Critical buff
Lunar cards: Cast/Recast/GCD reduction

With the old card system there was always a problem with balance fishing. I feel like the new Divination ability though already naturally encourages card variety. Even if there is a problem with balance fishing in the future then simply increasing the potency of divination should fix it. Devs could increase Divination potency and decrease Balance/Bole potency for example.

I don't mind the current system but it's not very engaging to fish for cards that all have the same effect. It's a bit like eating the same thing for dinner every night. Sure you're eating every night but it's not very exciting. For some people eating the same food/drawing the same effect every time might be okay, but currently I'm just drawing a card every 30 seconds because it's off cooldown. The thrill of picking a card and deciding what to do with it is gone. I think adding even a little variety to the card system could go a long way.

(First FFXIV forums post, please be gentle!)