Idea: Making Card Diverse and Reliable (Less RNG)

[Bobsmiaw]

I understand that you chose this for diversity. But in terms of target choice for optimization and overall gameplay, the raw damage increase we have now is better.

True, raw damage increase card will make optimisation and balancing easier.
Then, why don't we just get rid of major arcana completely?
Will it be much easier to only have Lord and Lady? (consistent % dmg increase, easier balancing and optimisation).
Shuffle/redraw will give the opposite card (Lord -> Lady, Lady -> Lord) which ensure every DPS get the optimum card.
And make divination a regular cooldown so it always have the same % damage increase and eliminating the seal fishing.
So the job will have almost no RNG

Let's say you want/need one of the Umbral cards for mitigation. You have 33% chance to get the one you want. Your currency is dps and you're paying for a chance to gamble for a card that may or may not be useful to you. The issue with your Umbral cards (and old AST support cards) is that they are random, therefore unreliable, and probably too weak. I don't know why you chose a 15s duration for Umbral Cards.

I already explained how to control the RNG:
Shuffle/Redraw LV. 40
Draw an opposite card from your deck
- Held an Astral Card -> Redraw -> obtain a random Umbral Card
- Held an Umbral Card -> Redraw -> obtain a random Astral Card
Cooldown: 30 sec (No Charge)

This will minimize the RNG. I want player to have a choice in card usage (offensive or defensive).
I just want a decision making flow maybe like Aetherflow: do we use ED to gain DPS and MP? or do we use it for healing?
So it become more like: do we buff the party damage? or do we reduce the incoming damage which can save someone from death?
This making card usage more situational and pushing us to adapt faster which I think exciting.

Other option will be deleting all major arcana card and focusing in minor arcana:
Lord of Crown: Increase target damage dealt by 10% for 15 sec
Lady of Crown: Reduce target damage taken by 20% for 15 sec
Honestly, I don't like it but seems a better choice for the sake of balancing the class

[LariaKirin]

I already explained how to control the RNG:
Shuffle/Redraw LV. 40
Draw an opposite card from your deck
- Held an Astral Card -> Redraw -> obtain a random Umbral Card
- Held an Umbral Card -> Redraw -> obtain a random Astral Card
Cooldown: 30 sec (No Charge)

This will minimize the RNG. I want player to have a choice in card usage (offensive or defensive).
I just want a decision making flow maybe like Aetherflow: do we use ED to gain DPS and MP? or do we use it for healing?
So it become more like: do we buff the party damage? or do we reduce the incoming damage which can save someone from death?
This making card usage more situational and pushing us to adapt faster which I think exciting.

Other option will be deleting all major arcana card and focusing in minor arcana:
Lord of Crown: Increase target damage dealt by 10% for 15 sec
Lady of Crown: Reduce target damage taken by 20% for 15 sec
Honestly, I don't like it but seems a better choice for the sake of balancing the class

Yes, you can control the RNG in the sense that you can get an Umbral Card whenever you want. You do not control which Umbral Card you get, which is why I said 1/3. Because if you want an Umbral Card, most of the time the one you want will be The Bole.

You can put the RNG into the dps increase cards in the form of melee (Astral) vs ranged (Umbral).
And you can put the consistency in support cards in the form of Minor Arcana.

So to put this as an analogy to Aetherflow: do we use this astral/umbral card to gain DPS? Or do we turn it into a mitigation card?
It's not quite the same kind of tradeoff, though. Lack of Aetherflow will lock the SCH out of its most powerful abilities, whereas AST will be just fine without the mitigation from the card.

Because AST's kit can currently handle anything without any support from cards, I don't see many scenarios where someone would choose to exercise this option. Or any choice where dps increase is an option.

I thought this could work when I wrote my previous post, but nah. I don't think anything will work as long as the support cards compete with dps increase cards. So my next idea would be to leave the dps increase buffs to divination only and make every Major Arcana a support card. It would essentially become its own minigame and it's purpose would be to make your life easier.

As for Divination, you can rework it into a tiered system that depends on the number of seals, rather than the type (e.g. 7%/8%/9%/10%). You have 4 draws between Divinations. Use them all and you get the 10%.

This is still lazy, though. It's just shifting the balancing work to the healing side of things. These card buffs will still have to be balanced with the other healers. I don't know ...

But I hope our exchange illustrates how difficult this is. Job design and balance is not as trivial as a large part of the population frequenting this forum would have you believe.