AST Minor Arcana need to be changed back!

[Rongway]

While I still hate the current card system with the constant swapping, I'll take the small QoL change they did, and I'd much rather they didn't go back. The less I need to do with how much target swapping AST needs, the better. If they could make the cards not require you to constantly swap targets, then I'd be fine to going back to old minor arcana.

This will mostly help KBM players, but here.

Play:

/ac Play <mo>
/ac Redraw
/ac Draw
/ac "Sleeve Draw"
/micon Play

Divination:

/ac "Minor Arcana" <mo>
/ac Divination
/micon Divination

With no card drawn: Play uses Draw or Sleeve Draw. Divination uses Divination.

With card drawn, with mouse over someone: Play plays current card on them. Divination plays Minor Arcana on them.

With card drawn, with mouse not over someone: Play redraws. Divination uses Divination.

[Billythepancake]

This will mostly help KBM players, but here.

Play:

/ac Play <mo>
/ac Redraw
/ac Draw
/ac "Sleeve Draw"
/micon Play

Divination:

/ac "Minor Arcana" <mo>
/ac Divination
/micon Divination

With no card drawn: Play uses Draw or Sleeve Draw. Divination uses Divination.

With card drawn, with mouse over someone: Play plays current card on them. Divination plays Minor Arcana on them.

With card drawn, with mouse not over someone: Play redraws. Divination uses Divination.

Yeah, I'm aware of the macros to help with AST, but I choose not to use them because I've been burnt by macros and their delay too many times. IMO, the main mechanic of a class should not have to rely on macros to be usable or to be played at an optimal level.

[Rongway]

Yeah, I'm aware of the macros to help with AST, but I choose not to use them because I've been burnt by macros and their delay too many times.

These aren't heals or attacks; they are card draws and plays. They don't cause any safety-critical concerns like healing macros might, or significant DPS loss concerns like attack macros.

IMO, the main mechanic of a class should not have to rely on macros to be usable or to be played at an optimal level.

The mechanic doesn't rely on macros. You can hard target people and press five different buttons to do all the things if that's what you want to do.

As targeted party buffs, there isn't really anything they can do to make using cards any less involved. The only way it could be made to require no target swapping at all would be to make all cards AoE, which is bad for obvious reasons. Minimizing target swapping would require something like a second Synastry or Dance Partner mechanic, which wouldn't work for multicard moments e.g., Play-Draw-Play or Sleeve Draw-Play-Play-Play.

[Cyrocco]

able to see the actual visual effect

I mean, it does feel like they're slowly stripping Astrologian of it's animations.

[KDSilver]

No.

It was an unnecessary step, the ability to weave that was too much.
Now it feels smoother and faster.

[Billythepancake]

These aren't heals or attacks; they are card draws and plays. They don't cause any safety-critical concerns like healing macros might, or significant DPS loss concerns like attack macros.


The mechanic doesn't rely on macros. You can hard target people and press five different buttons to do all the things if that's what you want to do.

As targeted party buffs, there isn't really anything they can do to make using cards any less involved. The only way it could be made to require no target swapping at all would be to make all cards AoE, which is bad for obvious reasons. Minimizing target swapping would require something like a second Synastry or Dance Partner mechanic, which wouldn't work for multicard moments e.g., Play-Draw-Play or Sleeve Draw-Play-Play-Play.

Which is why I argue this card system is flawed. The old card system didn't have this problem because you spent most of your cards on AoE, and when you did single target a card, it wasn't very often as opposed to doing it on the opener on here for 3 cards, and doing that every time sleeve draw is up. God help you if you need to do literally anything else during that sleeve draw window too. The fact that this card system is near unplayable without macros, especially on controller, makes it a failure, despite whatever dps benefits it gives, and that, imo, is why AST has tanked in people who are willing to play it. Through all of SB, while WHM was considered useless, it was never as unpopular as AST is right now, because it wasn't complete ass to play, or require macros.

[Shurrikhan]

Which is why I argue this card system is flawed. The old card system didn't have this problem because you spent most of your cards on AoE, and when you did single target a card, it wasn't very often as opposed to doing it on the opener on here for 3 cards, and doing that every time sleeve draw is up. God help you if you need to do literally anything else during that sleeve draw window too. The fact that this card system is near unplayable without macros, especially on controller, makes it a failure, despite whatever dps benefits it gives, and that, imo, is why AST has tanked in people who are willing to play it. Through all of SB, while WHM was considered useless, it was never as unpopular as AST is right now, because it wasn't complete ass to play, or require macros.

If the saving grace of the old system was that you only really had one choice (Expand and, only a bit less obligatory, Balance)... is that not at least as flawed a system?

Take any way of balancing the old system so it wasn't just Expanded-Balance/Arrow/Spear or bust and you have the same exact problem.

And spare the discussion this "especially on controller" misrepresentation. M&KB is scarcely if at all affected. It is quite purely a controller problem.

It is not, however, a controller problem unique to AST cards. Literally any other need to rapidly target an ally other than your target or target, single focus target, or an ally immediately above or below your last on the party list runs into this same issue on controllers. When my healers in a 24-man raid have both gotten themselves killed by standing in a one-shot mechanic and suddenly my party members and I are getting chain-oGCD-healed (tetra-bene-[gap]-Asylum in rapid fire, each onto the appropriate targets) to keep us over HP margins, I can be almost absolutely certain that supporting alliance healer is using a mouse and keyboard.

XIV controller support is not good, let alone on par with M&KB. It's just been marginally acceptable because so much of healing has been purposely held back into predictable intervals on predictable targets in order to keep controller-users from noticing its otherwise glaring issues. And given how much could be done to improve controller usage, our attention should be on that, rather than just maintaining, be it by fight design or job mechanics, low demands of our controls as to obfuscate the difference.

[Billythepancake]

If the saving grace of the old system was that you only really had one choice (Expand and, only a bit less obligatory, Balance)... is that not at least as flawed a system?

Take any way of balancing the old system so it wasn't just Expanded-Balance/Arrow/Spear or bust and you have the same exact problem.

And spare the discussion this "especially on controller" misrepresentation. M&KB is scarcely if at all affected. It is quite purely a controller problem.

It is not, however, a controller problem unique to AST cards. Literally any other need to rapidly target an ally other than your target or target, single focus target, or an ally immediately above or below your last on the party list runs into this same issue on controllers. When my healers in a 24-man raid have both gotten themselves killed by standing in a one-shot mechanic and suddenly my party members and I are getting chain-oGCD-healed (tetra-bene-[gap]-Asylum in rapid fire, each onto the appropriate targets) to keep us over HP margins, I can be almost absolutely certain that supporting alliance healer is using a mouse and keyboard.

XIV controller support is not good, let alone on par with M&KB. It's just been marginally acceptable because so much of healing has been purposely held back into predictable intervals on predictable targets in order to keep controller-users from noticing its otherwise glaring issues. And given how much could be done to improve controller usage, our attention should be on that, rather than just maintaining, be it by fight design or job mechanics, low demands of our controls as to obfuscate the difference.

Even if you chose to single card in the old system it was not as cumbersome as this one. There 2 biggest offenders are sleeve draw and the seals. In the old system if you chose to single target, it was only once every thirty seconds, and you had time to figure out who to give it to. Because of the seal system, and because of sleeve draw, if you want to get divination out on time you have to constantly swap targets. Even on keyboard and mouse I hate it because it almost feels like mouse over is required and macros in this game are awful.

[LariaKirin]

Even if you chose to single card in the old system it was not as cumbersome as this one. There 2 biggest offenders are sleeve draw and the seals. In the old system if you chose to single target, it was only once every thirty seconds, and you had time to figure out who to give it to. Because of the seal system, and because of sleeve draw, if you want to get divination out on time you have to constantly swap targets. Even on keyboard and mouse I hate it because it almost feels like mouse over is required and macros in this game are awful.

No, you did not have time to figure out who to give it to. Every second you spent with a card in hand was a second delaying your next draw.

[Videra]

Astrologian is smoother to play now, stop complaining about good QoL changes. Also to the above; Mouseover macros work for healers in this game. They make it SO MUCH BETTER.