Please return AST card gameplay.

[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.