Their heart was in the right place with AST.

[SakiKojiro]

Let's be honest about this. The new actual FLOW of the job is better. It feels better to have more cards to throw. You feel more impactful, and being able to throw the cards onto who you want instead of always fishing for AoE balance feels GREAT.

The idea of essentially having an AoE balance on demand every 2 minutes without it eating up your other buffs is awesome, and the idea of wanting to fill out a pool properly by manipulating your draws is a great idea. It really makes you think, and feel good about your choices when you succeed.


The actual issue is the complete lack of Flavor. As I've described it before, it's like going to a Restaurant, the waiter is amazing. Somehow they know exactly when to refill drinks, exactly when to leave, when to chat. Service is spectacular. Oh man, Atmosphere is AMAZING. What a classy and unique dining experience. The company you decided to bring is awesome. You REALLY hit it off, chatting the night away. You really feel a bond. Wow what a wonderful time overall. Except...the food is bad. The food being bad kind of ruins the night a bit, doesn't it? It's like the most important thing for a Restaurant.


The cards just need to go back to giving the buffs they gave before, but keep all the new stuff. Make spire give Dhit now, maybe nerf balance just a tad, and we're GUCCI. Wanting to fish for specific seals may even make you more likely to actually throw out a bole or another buff too. Imagine having an actual reason to make the tanks life easier by hitting him with a defensive cooldown which gives you the last thing you need to set off a sick aoe DPS buff.

You can just make minor arcana increase the effectiveness of your currently drawn card by a little and not override your seals just like it does now.

[TankHunter678]

I find the flow to be worse, I am throwing more useless cards that have no feeling of impact just to get 3 seals for an ability that does not feel like it has an impact unless I also use another ability to just toss out as many cards as I can in a short while in order to have a kinda sorta discernible feeling of something working all while burning my own damage buff just trying to pass all those cards around before the party buff wears out. I also think a lot less when handling the system which leads it overall to just not be engaging. It has lead to frustration when I need that last seal and wind up burning all my redraws and not getting that seal, or only getting melee cards when I have no melee DPS.

Then again I was not one of those people who did nothing but fishing for aoe balance, so if you were one of those who only fished for aoe balance then I probably used a lot more cards then you. Though each card had a role and I could feel the impact. Be it a tank taking less damage then expected thanks to that bole I tossed out, my co-healer getting over 50% mana very fast after they had just been raised, or that BLM who is visibly casting far more faster or that SAM pulling off sooner midares, or seeing a Bard go ham as their procs cascaded.

Though I do have to say, Minor Arcana being stronger then Major Arcana is backwards. There is a reason why something is a Major instead of a Minor because a Major is supposed to have a greater effect then a Minor.

[Shawnerz]

For me Sleeve Draw is what I dislike most. I'm sure it's just a matter of getting gud as they say, but every time it's up I tend to tunnel pretty hard on dealing out cards and not other things. Aside from that I feel it plays pretty well/functions well enough. The flavor and uniqueness is definitely missed when it comes to the cards themselves. The naming of Minor Arcana bothered me a bit as well but I looked into the definitions and it... kind of? makes sense:

Major Arcana: This refers to the first 22 cards of the tarot deck. These cards are usually considered to be the key cards of the deck.

Minor Arcana: The subsequent 56 cards in a tarot deck. These cards provide support and nuances to the 22 cards of the major arcana in a tarot reading.

If the cards providing a seal is what makes them "key cards" then that is what makes them "major". Not the % damage increased number. Just my interpretation.

[gumas]

they try to simplify the AST cards but i think they over simplify it lol

[Lodi]

The flow is nice, I'll agree with that. Giving every spell a cast time shorter than 2.5s is a very nice touch and makes the entire job feel a lot better than on 5.0 release.

But man, the impact isn't there. We lost buff extension, a major aspect of the class, and our damage spells are SO weak that Gravity is almost stronger when you obtain it.
And the cards just feel like you're flailing your arms around to encourage your team. They are incredibly short and laughable compared to what they once were, and the seals can be completely ignored.

Using an Arrow on yourself helped you with both damage and healing, and it was amazing. Throwing a 30% mitigation for 55s on your tank felt so much better than anything this class can currently do.
The decision making that surrounded the card system made up for the lack of interesting damage rotation, and even though AST wasn't my favourite healer, I miss this system a lot.


Expansions are supposed to add interesting stuff, not turn a class into a blend of another class and a shadow of its former self.

[Gemina]

All I know is I am enjoying AST a hell of a lot more now than I did in late HW and SB. I don't even mind bringing it into lv50 content now that Gravity's level was reduced to 45. I honestly could not stand the previous card mechanic, and 4.0 AST was too OP for my tastes.

[Wawachume]

For me Sleeve Draw is what I dislike most. I'm sure it's just a matter of getting gud as they say, but every time it's up I tend to tunnel pretty hard on dealing out cards and not other things.

It's not just you. It's actually very unusual to see a mechanic like that, that focuses you on your own rotation, on a healing class. Normally that kind of thing goes to DPS classes that can afford the tunnel vision better.

[DawnSolaria]

I find the flow to be worse, I am throwing more useless cards that have no feeling of impact just to get 3 seals for an ability that does not feel like it has an impact unless I also use another ability to just toss out as many cards as I can in a short while in order to have a kinda sorta discernible feeling of something working all while burning my own damage buff just trying to pass all those cards around before the party buff wears out. I also think a lot less when handling the system which leads it overall to just not be engaging. It has lead to frustration when I need that last seal and wind up burning all my redraws and not getting that seal, or only getting melee cards when I have no melee DPS.

Then again I was not one of those people who did nothing but fishing for aoe balance, so if you were one of those who only fished for aoe balance then I probably used a lot more cards then you. Though each card had a role and I could feel the impact. Be it a tank taking less damage then expected thanks to that bole I tossed out, my co-healer getting over 50% mana very fast after they had just been raised, or that BLM who is visibly casting far more faster or that SAM pulling off sooner midares, or seeing a Bard go ham as their procs cascaded.

Though I do have to say, Minor Arcana being stronger then Major Arcana is backwards. There is a reason why something is a Major instead of a Minor because a Major is supposed to have a greater effect then a Minor.

None of what you described is flow, it's impact that you were looking for and that's not what op was saying.

[TankHunter678]

None of what you described is flow, it's impact that you were looking for and that's not what op was saying.

Let's be honest about this. The new actual FLOW of the job is better. It feels better to have more cards to throw. You feel more impactful, and being able to throw the cards onto who you want instead of always fishing for AoE balance feels GREAT.

The OP was talking about having more cards to throw and feeling more impactful instead of just aoe balance fishing. Which I countered on that, because I never tried to fish for balance I was throwing out plenty of cards but the new cards do not feel impactful because they are weak while the old cards never felt that way. So instead I am throwing out more useless cards that lack impact rather then useful cards that do have impact.

So I was talking about the very same thing the OP was talking about.

I also mentioned the whole sleeve draw thing, which is something that heavily impacts the flow of the card system and in a negative way. Since I need to burn a time period where I actually join everyone else is doing more damage in order to throw out cards to make the buff I did throw feel worthwhile ultimately timing out my own increase in damage. While also mentioning the frustration I feel when I do not get the seal I need and only get cards for the opposite range type I have. As well as the lack of thinking with this new system, which was counter to the old system because thinking and planning was part of the flow of the old system as well. The decisions behind what card to spread, whether to royal road it to enhance your next card, or spin the minor arcana for an oGCD Heal or Attack were very important.

[Mikhaill]

It's not just you. It's actually very unusual to see a mechanic like that, that focuses you on your own rotation, on a healing class. Normally that kind of thing goes to DPS classes that can afford the tunnel vision better.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way.
Better than what it was.
You had to press a million buttons just to get your Divination set up. It took far too long.
Now this SD, at least you're pressing one button to throw the cards out.
What I do is just throw any card that I can and not bother redrawing anything.
It takes too much time trying to get the correct card on everyone when I need to heal.
At least now, it's easier but still tunneling. You have to be really quick about it.