Ast cards 6.0 rework

[Rai_Takara]

Anyone can pull up old information from the devs to reinforce their argument they are human beings they can have a very different mindset from 5+ months ago especially if they do take in feedback, if they are straight deaf (they are not else they wouldn't have said we know some of you don't like the changes) then take everything word for word.

Right, because an interview about 4 years ago is the same as the one from the previous live letter in this expansion. On top of that the more recent ones don't touch upon the cards at all for what I suspect are two reasons, A) nothing for them to do as it's working as intended, B) no solution to the issue so no reason to get anyones hopes up.

If they don't address your complaints about cards this live letter after a little over 6 months. Then it's next expansion, if at all. So we'll find out Thursday. I'm all for changes, but I'm against RNG damage buffs or other buffs at the cost of damage buffs. It simply won't work for balance.

Perhaps all 6 cards balance/bole/ewer/etc could be non damage cards and divination be the only damage source which is 2 mins guarenteed.

[Rai_Takara]

I have long suspected the dev team is very disconnected from everyone else involved. It would certainly explain remarks made by Yoshida like them not accounting for the Piercing debuff and what you've mentioned. Obviously, this is pure conjuncture on my part but there has to be some degree of poor communication going on, especially for healing design.

If nothing else, I do believe they've reached a point where they'll have to make a decision because the number of complaints from non-raid healers is growing. So either they make healing itself more interesting or give in to the DPS focus. Keeping this barebones design for another expansion I fear will cause even more players to abandon the role. Heaven help them if they don't add a fourth healer—or how they design it is very underwhelming.

The recent famitsu article with the battle designers showed that they dont take into account job capabilities when they design fights. Which makes sense given their track record. Though I suspect the job team tries to accomodate the fights wih buffs and nerfs prior to content releases.

This also the furst expansion where most balance issues are squashed in the first patch. Really only SMN and RDM need to be adjusted and one of them they addressed (RDM).

[MitsukiKimura]

Right, because an interview about 4 years ago is the same as the one from the previous live letter in this expansion. On top of that the more recent ones don't touch upon the cards at all for what I suspect are two reasons, A) nothing for them to do as it's working as intended, B) no solution to the issue so no reason to get anyones hopes up.

If they don't address your complaints about cards this live letter after a little over 6 months. Then it's next expansion, if at all. So we'll find out Thursday. I'm all for changes, but I'm against RNG damage buffs or other buffs at the cost of damage buffs. It simply won't work for balance.

The RNG nature of card buffs is exactly why they changed them. SE won't go back to it (rightfully so).

Yeah no, you can't literally say this then not forget what you said earlier. Doesn't work that way.
We'll keep voicing our discomfort and dissatisfaction toward this awful card system till they hear us

[Kaiserdrache]

Another card thread.

The mechanics are first good and fun to play with, if no RNG is involved, means whatever an effect a card has, it should do it always and whatever combination effects you can get, should never rely on random luck.
The redesign of the cards has solved only 50% of this, because SE didn't tugh the other half of the sick root problem that comes from RNG, because theres still RNG involved when drawing cards, so you never know what kind of seals you have, always needing to have to make the best out of what you get, players can't affect at all which cards they draw and thats the first thing that any real proper solution concept around the AST should reconsider to get anywhere near close to a lasting final solution, which doesn't need to get so quickly overworked again after that then

Its in our nature in or strife for perfection to try to use in any situation in a game always the most optimal skills to play our character as efficiently as possible, any kind of RNG there is counterproductive and works against that.

This being said, its clear that all effects of the cards, should they have individul effects, need to be either equally good or useful as the others and this for every section of the game, be it normal PvE content, instanced fights, Raids or PvP especially.

There are currently 6 Base Cards, 2 Lord Cards, so a total of 8 Cards and 3 Seal Effects to consider, making it a grand total of 11 Mechanics to overview.
The Lord Cards n Seals have at the moment no big meaning, other than being slightly better buffs and a requirement just to be able to give out a group buff, an absolutely unneccessary requirement that slows down only this job, making its gameplay feel like a pain in the A..


In my opinion should SE first get rid of the Lord Cards and RNG of seals the comes from the RNG of card drawing. Players need to get full influence on which cards they draw when and how, only then you can speak about player skill and not just pure luck.

Means the way and form how Draw and Play works, needs first to receive a fundamental rework to begin with, kinda like:


Draw & Play > Draw a Card of your choice, by choosing one out by keeping the button pressed until the card you want to play out has been marked by the game - rotates through the cards that are then part of the AST UI. One card further every 0,75s , so you can get through all 6 within 4,5s, should that take too loog, speed up just the Rotation Delay to 0,5s then -

This way can players influence which card they get when und that way has the Seal Mechanic no RNG anymore too, meaning that their effects can be designed around the various clear seal combinations to keep it simply stupid - K.I.S.S rule

The 6 most usefull effects that the cards possibly should have are:

1 > Party Increase for Crit/DPS by 5%
2 > Party regains 2000 MP and received Heals are increased by 5%
3 > Party One time Protection versus Damage via special Magic Barrier (Shell), protected damage gets absorbed as Heals
4 > Party Skill Recharger Effect for all Skills by 10s and Attack Speed Increase by 10%
5 > Party Condition and Crowd Control Protection/Removal
6 > Enemy AoE Damage with Stop Effect (who said Cards should be only Buff Skills?)

That are 6 cards that I'd consider as equally useful anywhere in the game, Stop would be changed for PvP to Slow
Based on effect would each card for balance reasons also different recharge timers varying for example between 10s and 30s plus if SE thinks, more is neccessary than 30s
Means players get full influence, but in order to make the game not too easy, cards need to get recharge times to keep their individual effects balanced.

With 6 cards like those, theres no need anymore for junk like the two Lord Cards, the skill/mechanic to change base cards to lord cards can then be either removed or reworked, if SE wants to keep them eventually then for an other purpose later.

Seal Effects are with 3 Seals basically

Sun, Sun Sun > The Party gets protected by a fiery Aura, that counters received damage with a burning DoT that intensifies itself so more you get hit for the duration of the Aura Effect.
Moon, Moon, Moon > Divination lets for the Party cost the next two Skills/Spells no MP.
Star, Star , Star > The next two Damage Skills for the Party are guaranteed critical direct hits.
Two Sun, Star/Moon > Divination causes a Sun Flash, a basically light explosion that causes big AoE damage that blinds all targets for a good time
Two Moon, Sun/Star > Divination causes a Moon Eclipse, a Party Heal that grants for a while also increeased Magic Defense by 10% and can put nearby enemies to Sleep
Two Star, Sun/Moon > Divination causes a Star Ocean (pun/trivia intended), with the effect of letting stars orbit around the party members, causing damage to targets they hit whily they follow orbiting around the moving players.

Literally 6 to 9 effects, based on it if the two Seal combinations are enough, if the last seal is just any different seal, or if each individual combo would have own effect, but simpler n more easy to remember is just the first option

TLDR Breakdown:
Thats how I'd like to see AST getting Cards n Seal Gameplay reworked, to a more offensive and supportive mixture, that is not based on any RNG with individual Card and Seal Effectts

[Malmstrom]

Yeah no, you can't literally say this then not forget what you said earlier. Doesn't work that way.
We'll keep voicing our discomfort and dissatisfaction toward this awful card system till they hear us

Which part doesn't work?

Because all I see is he said they won't revert it and that he agrees with that, but he wouldn't be opposed to changes.

You can voice your discontent all you want, but for them to go back to the old system is about as likely as Protect coming back in it's original form.

[Crushnight]

Which part doesn't work?

Because all I see is he said they won't revert it and that he agrees with that, but he wouldn't be opposed to changes.

You can voice your discontent all you want, but for them to go back to the old system is about as likely as Protect coming back in it's original form.

Bow mage says hi o/

[Malmstrom]

Bow mage says hi o/

Which has what to do with what? It was bad bow mage, then more bow mage, now it's not bow mage at all.

[Crushnight]

Right, because an interview about 4 years ago is the same as the one from the previous live letter in this expansion. On top of that the more recent ones don't touch upon the cards at all for what I suspect are two reasons, A) nothing for them to do as it's working as intended, B) no solution to the issue so no reason to get anyones hopes up.

If they don't address your complaints about cards this live letter after a little over 6 months. Then it's next expansion, if at all. So we'll find out Thursday. I'm all for changes, but I'm against RNG damage buffs or other buffs at the cost of damage buffs. It simply won't work for balance.

Perhaps all 6 cards balance/bole/ewer/etc could be non damage cards and divination be the only damage source which is 2 mins guarenteed.

I put that out as proof of how the devs can alter their state of mind after a period of time.

Remember 3.X debacle with ast going from undertuned to overtuned, yea history is repeating itself again, if Diurnal ast gets any buff outside mp for 5.2, i think you will need to face it that the devs actually have no clue what to do and are just sticking with whatever because they don't understand the very thing they are designing(1 nuke spam for 60% of casts in ultimate raids sounds fun right).

You know what I'll happily eat my words if that doesn't happen but we will see.

[MitsukiKimura]

Which part doesn't work?

Because all I see is he said they won't revert it and that he agrees with that, but he wouldn't be opposed to changes.

You can voice your discontent all you want, but for them to go back to the old system is about as likely as Protect coming back in it's original form.

As I've said earlier you shouldn't speak if you know what the development team is going to do or not going to do. Not saying it has to go back to the old ways but it needs to be better than what we have now.

[Malmstrom]

As I've said earlier you shouldn't speak if you know what the development team is going to do or not going to do. Not saying it has to go back to the old ways but it needs to be better than what we have now.

They aren't going to revert anything.

I know that.

And plugging your ears and pretending like you don't know that doesn't do you any favors.