Please return AST card gameplay.

[JowyAtreides]

I miss getting an Arrow as a black mage. I regularly opted for it over balance (call me crazy if you wish but Fire 4 was practically machine gun speed when coupled with ley lines)

[CadvasLirigon]

While I did like the old card system for dungeons, it was really just a fishing game in raids or trials. The new card system works better all around, though it is less interactive. A balance of the two would be nice, but probably not anytime soon.

[Mesarthim]

I don't see how fishing for seals for a paltry gain is supposed to work better but you do you.

[ForteNightshade]

Sorry to be the debbedowner, but this is their current stance on the card system


http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/402453
(00:29:01)
Q: Thanks for the adjustments made towards astrologian! Both the controllability and heal potency has increased and it feels much better. Do you have any plans to add new effects to the cards?
A: We are truly sorry about the initial issues with the feel of the job that resulted from various adjustments to reduce its party synergy.

Regarding card effects, they were changed to their current iteration because we received feedback from all regions that players did not want "useless cards." While the current iteration does indeed reduce the excitement of drawing a "good card", if we were to add various different card effects, then we would just return to fishing for the most favorable one, so we decided to simplify it. We plan on continuing with the current iteration for now

I would gladly take Old AST's card system with all its faults if i could but this is something we probably won't see again until 6.0 at the earliest. Keep asking for it maybe they'll change it for 6.0 but right now we need ways to deal with current AST too since we have nearly 2 years of it to deal with.

Operative words being "for now." Bear in mind, this interview came not long after Savage released. We're not nearly four months into the expansion and the Astro population is on life support. At least at a Savage level. I don't imagine it's much better in easier content given the sheer amount of complaints and the fact White Mage is laughably superior in dungeons. Unfortunately, the dev team is notorious for being quite stubborn. But they did do a complete 180 on both Monk and Ninja when the community basically dropped both jobs like rocks. Perhaps the lack of interest with Astro will help. Either way, 5.1 will be quite telling. If the Range get a negligible buff like 1-2%, then it's safe to assume the dev team isn't paying attention. If it's more substantial, they could be hope for Astro yet.

While I did like the old card system for dungeons, it was really just a fishing game in raids or trials. The new card system works better all around, though it is less interactive. A balance of the two would be nice, but probably not anytime soon.

Now I fish for Seals while mindlessly throwing cards on either Samurai or Black Mages because they're the best targets 90% of the time, assuming they aren't terrible players. In dungeons, I straight up don't bother touching Sleeve Draw outside bosses in a lot of cases because that busywork risks the tank dying since Astro lacks the tools to rapidly burst someone back up. It's just not worth throwing out a pathetic 4% until I know things are well managed.

[MuseTraveller]

You hate fishing for balances but you basically do the same now - you fish for seals instead and it's 3 times more annoying.

I tried the new AST with a very open mind, I was very optimistic about the changes. I'm at leve 75 now and I really dislike the changes. Leveled SCH and WHM to 80 already and enjoying them a lot more. I used to main AST in SB and miss it a lot. :c

[Campi]

The new Card-System ist better than the old

[Renka777]

I don't care about seals anymore,as long as i don't get 3 time the same seals

I highly rather fish for balance then those annoying things,also don't forget that you only get 5% on divination instead of 6% if you have 2 differents seals so you should save yourself some frustrations if you ask me

[Crushnight]

Operative words being "for now." Bear in mind, this interview came not long after Savage released. We're not nearly four months into the expansion and the Astro population is on life support. At least at a Savage level. I don't imagine it's much better in easier content given the sheer amount of complaints and the fact White Mage is laughably superior in dungeons. Unfortunately, the dev team is notorious for being quite stubborn. But they did do a complete 180 on both Monk and Ninja when the community basically dropped both jobs like rocks. Perhaps the lack of interest with Astro will help. Either way, 5.1 will be quite telling. If the Range get a negligible buff like 1-2%, then it's safe to assume the dev team isn't paying attention. If it's more substantial, they could be hope for Astro yet.

I wish i could be that optimistic to hope but if anything 3.X and 4.X has taught me about the job balance team and healers is they do not mix well, even when they have a semblance of balance they foobar it up(post 3.2 buffs to ast) or they just ignore the job that is hurting(Whm says high from SB) and as you say it seems to stem from a place of stubbornness to do anything about glaring issues that need to be addressed on all 3 healers.

[Vitreus]

Completely agree, I miss the old system so much. Not only is the current one less enjoyable but even the lore is completely screwed up. I can't imagine what new players have to be thinking doing the job quests as astrologian and seeing the discrepancy.

The old system, which I love, had two major flaws that were easily fixed without a rework. The first is that the cards were unbalanced and led to min-maxing savage raiders fishing for Balance. They just needed to tweak the numbers. Lower the damage buff Balance gave or increases the other values. Done.

The second problem was that you could get unlucky rng and draw utility cards (Ewer, Bole, Spire) too many times in a row. Utility cards weren't inherently bad because they could be consumed with Royal Road for the card buff. Well how about redesigning Redraw so that it only returns an offensive card (Arrow, Balance, Spear)? Of course Spire still needs a new role because TP is gone but they can just make it direct hit. So we'd end up with four offensive cards and two utility ones that can be consumed or used when needed.

I know they have the ability to reimplement the old system and I really, really hope they bite the bullet and admit the rework was a mistake and so. I will respect the ever living hell out of them if they do. The new system is so much less enjoyable even with Divination. It doesn't feel like an interesting job mechanic so much as a distracting minigame with less impact.

I mean even when I'm not playing Astrologian I miss the old card system. I miss getting 10% haste or 10% crit, especially the latter on my bard. It was so fun.

[ZeroFool]

Completely agree, I miss the old system so much. Not only is the current one less enjoyable but even the lore is completely screwed up. I can't imagine what new players have to be thinking doing the job quests as astrologian and seeing the discrepancy.

As one such new player, the departure from the lore was indeed as confusing and disappointing as you say. I came into 5.0 AST expecting a refreshing take on a support role having RNG mechanics to offset its amazing versatility, alongside it being the most thematically interesting to me out of all the healers. But aside from the admittedly beautiful effects and gorgeous aesthetic, it feels completely hollowed out.

Knowing what I do of the previous iterations of AST, it's almost insulting to see each card have a distinct visual when being casted despite having no such variety in its effect.

To think I could've played a class that was not only stunning to watch, but also incredibly involved and effective; to have all that in one was apparently too much.