Potential AST Rework: Cards = Heals

[Mansion]

The current system, as boring as this forum may find it, is honestly the best compromise between consistency and randomness we can achieve. While there is certainly a thrill behind pulling the best possible card for the given scenario, there was always a risk of unfavorable draws giving you useless effects (aka those joke videos about constantly pulling Spires)

While this current system is still a luck based system of highs and lows, the best and worst case scenarios are not as severe of a loss as they used to be. You will always have your guaranteed effect (the damage boost), with the rng affecting the amount of said damage boost as opposed to either giving you increased damage or nothing.

At this point I believe the best thing is to streamline the process and make it more controller friendly as opposed to tossing it away and bringing back the old inconsistent system. An example I see alot that I agree with would be Minor Arcana automatically playing the appropriate Lord/Lady from the drawn card.

If there should be any additional effect, I'd go for 500 MP on every draw, which would give AST an active mp source akin to WHM's Assize and SCH's ED.

But outside of feeling bland and boring to play, isn't it also a problem that AST rDPS with cards is still behind the other healers? I think that's a good chunk of the problem too.
Healing wise, AST is okay, it does not really need more tools in that regard.

[ForteNightshade]

I don't understand why they didn't just nerf balance or buff the other cards. Even if you get bole or ewer when you didn't want to you could royal road them so it wasn't a waste.

Supposedly, they overhauled the card system because people complained about getting "useless" cards. I'd really love to know where they got this feedback because I can't for the life of me recall any real mention of it. Not to mention, no card was truly useless because Minor Arcana existed. The issue wasn't just balance though. White Mage suffered the Samurai syndrome where it was intended to be "Black Mage" of healers yet was weaker in nearly every capacity, including damage. That wouldn't be the case now. FFlogs also going the rDPS route also changes things since what made Balance even more desired is it was downright required if you wanted those pretty numbers.

[MPNZ]

Largely, the major problem with this is the creation of redundant healing spells and combat encounter & job design that is wholly out of touch with each other like WHM from 3.0-5.0 (healing role design). It would be more interesting to design them to alter changes how the job heals or mitigates/nulls damage like, if hit: current remaing hp will be the difference between damage recieved and the player's max HP with a two second invincibility to help mitigate large pulls

[Brandedblade]

But outside of feeling bland and boring to play, isn't it also a problem that AST rDPS with cards is still behind the other healers? I think that's a good chunk of the problem too.
Healing wise, AST is okay, it does not really need more tools in that regard.

Boredom and blandness are ultimately opinions. However, the lower rDPS is merely a matter of tweaking numbers, whether it's the potency of the cards or the AST's own damage spells. Do keep in mind, however, that the scaling on cards will only get stronger as players gear level increases. I do admit that it seems SE is currently scared to make the pDPS of buffing jobs too high, bit I can at least understand where they come from.

Healing wise, all AST needs is for Nocturnal Sect to not feel like garbage compared to Diurnal. Fortunately that is something SE has flat out admitted they're planning on addressing this upcoming patch so I'm staying optimistic.

[Reynhart]

A thing that, in my opinion, could be more interesting is having a "card reading" system. Basically, you choose a party member, and you draw up to three cards to buff him/her.

The first card would dictate the damage bonus, the second card the duration, and the third, how far the effect would spread. The catch would be that drawing the same card multiple times would decrease the overall effect, so it would be for the player to decide if s/he want to draw all the cards, of if s/he want to apply an incomplete buff at full power.

Example : Basic buff is 4% damage, for 12 seconds, on 2 yalms.
Balance, Arrow and Spear would add either 4% damage, 4 more seconds or 2 yalms, and the effect would be doubled on melee jobs (So, 8% dmg, 8 seconds or 4 yalms)
And the other three cards would work the same for ranged.

Now, if you draw the three cards, you end with a fortune :
3 different cards, good fortune, effects are applied as they are (So, at best, 12% dmg boost for 20 seconds on 6 yalms around the target)
2 of the same cards, mild forturne, all effects are reduced by half
3 of the same cards, bad fortune, all effects are reduced by 3/4th

And the arcana system (With increased CD) could be used to make sure that you wouldn't draw the same card by converting it to Lord/Lady. You could even have an ability that would ensure that the next card would be properly aligned with the job of your target.

[MitsukiKimura]

Boredom and blandness are ultimately opinions.

Coming from an Astrologian main, it is "Very" boring and uninspiring. I loved having multiple choices on cards I'd use, faster attack speed, more crit, more damage, etc I loved having that ultimate choice on what play style I wanted to go with. Pure damage on all of my cards with no uniqueness even having them all named differently is upsetting honestly. I feel like this was rushed without realizing what they "Really" took away from the class. Trying to dumb things down to simple basic logic only turns people away. There's still the element for fishing for seals and you can still get RNG'ed if you need a ranged card and you draw nothing but melee boosts so we go from fishing for balance to fishing for 2 more things. Trying to fish for that 3rd different seal for that 6% is such a time waste and you need to get your divination off in your light speed opener so there's a good chance you won't even get it and will have to stick with either a 4% or 5%. Balance may have been the better choice in cards but I can assure you a lot of people liked using other cards as well.

[Mansion]

Boredom and blandness are ultimately opinions.

The way I worded it, yes. But there is a significant simplification between :
"Drawing one card that will be DPS up while keeping an eye on Seals and melee or ranged"
and
"Drawing one out of 6 effects, reflecting on how to use it properly, considering jobs around you, the fight itself, the possible Royal Road you will have, or if you want to burn that card which way of getting rid of it would be the better option (redraw or Minor Arcana), or if you want to keep it for another setup (Spread)."

Maybe not universally "boring and bland", but certainly there is far less to think about. Which is arguably something people liked about AST's former card system.

[LariaKirin]

The way I worded it, yes. But there is a significant simplification between :
"Drawing one card that will be DPS up while keeping an eye on Seals and melee or ranged"
and
"Drawing one out of 6 effects, reflecting on how to use it properly, considering jobs around you, the fight itself, the possible Royal Road you will have, or if you want to burn that card which way of getting rid of it would be the better option (redraw or Minor Arcana), or if you want to keep it for another setup (Spread)."

Maybe not universally "boring and bland", but certainly there is far less to think about. Which is arguably something people liked about AST's former card system.

Do you not have to think about how to properly use the card? Do you not have to consider what jobs are around you? Do you not have to consider the fight?

If seals and "melee or ranged" is all you see, then you are well on the pathway to mediocre card usage.

The change to 15 seconds duration alone makes target selection significantly more nuanced than old Arrow vs Spear vs Balance.

[Reynhart]

If seals and "melee or ranged" is all you see, then you are well on the pathway to mediocre card usage.

What do you do with a card that don't match well your divination apart from changing it into an Arcana ?
Or if you already have the seals and Divination is on CD ?

[Mansion]

Do you not have to think about how to properly use the card? Do you not have to consider what jobs are around you? Do you not have to consider the fight?

If seals and "melee or ranged" is all you see, then you are well on the pathway to mediocre card usage.

I'm most likely stressing the adaptation based on what you draw. You did not put a Bole on someone whenever you felt like it, or an Arrow to a MCH or stuff...

My post sure is minimizing the optimization that lies in the current card system, but most likely because I consider every job has its own field of optimization. That and the generic rule of cards, which is knowing when a card is most beneficial to whatever job. Now the DPS up is a safe guard, in the end of the day you did buff dps of your party member. While the other card system required much more involvement to get optimal benefits.