Ast cards 6.0 rework

[Malmstrom]

Better yet just change balance to a Determination % buff
Balance would be 10% Determination buff
Bole 10% defense
Spear 10% crit buff
Spire 10% Direct hit buff
Arrow 10% faster attack/spell speed
Ewer card can be a HoT regen instead of an MP regen
Each time you draw a card you earn 300mp
This allows each card to offer something, allowing MP gain through its main gimmick and changing the balance card.

So fish for Spear or Spire, then.

[MitsukiKimura]

I don't even know why you're here with a response like that

[Malmstrom]

I don't even know why you're here with a response like that

Because that's exactly what it is.

You don't seem to be thinking the concept through if you keep throwing out cards that are going to be 100% superior to every other card.

That's what leads you to the current card system.

[MitsukiKimura]

Because that's exactly what it is.

You don't seem to be thinking the concept through if you keep throwing out cards that are going to be 100% superior to every other card.

That's what leads you to the current card system.

Or maybe you're just so negative about the subject or any ideas towards it. Us healers or those who "Actually" play them don't feel happy with this current card system. I don't know why you come to these threads in the first place.

[Rai_Takara]

Better yet just change balance to a Determination % buff
Balance would be 10% Determination buff
Bole 10% defense
Spear 10% crit buff
Spire 10% Direct hit buff
Arrow 10% faster attack/spell speed
Ewer card can be a HoT regen instead of an MP regen
Each time you draw a card you earn 300mp
This allows each card to offer something, allowing MP gain through its main gimmick and changing the balance card.

Same issue as the previous system, except, I'm pretty sure 10% Crit is the best damage buff so it would just be fish Spear.

Once again we're back to "x card or bust", precisely what we fixed with ShB and what we can't have any longer.

Or maybe you're just so negative about the subject or any ideas towards it. Us healers or those who "Actually" play them don't feel happy with this current card system. I don't know why you come to these threads in the first place.

I played AST for 4 years and the cards were just as monotonous then as they are now. 9/10 you played balance if you were an AST worth your salt, and the 1/10 you reluctantly played spear. Once in a blue moon you might have to recover and then by chance you draw the card you want and you maybe save a run or help recover, but this was an exception, not the norm. The truth of the matter is, the rarely, if ever, mattered in the run when you wanted to save it. That came with being a good healer that could triage well and keep the party going.

I messed around with AST this expansion a bit and aside from sleeve draw shenanigans, it seems to have a good foundation, but it could use some work. Namely the seals need to be expanded upon as they are very barebones atm, but I believe SE plans to do this as it's the most obvious place to expand on the job. It's sad we lost the time aspect of our job but that I can see why they decided to remove it and can agree with it.

I'm curious to see if they do anything this patch and if they don't, it would just cement this iteration of AST till next expansion when they have to make that decision again.

[AdamFyi]

I liked the idea someone brought up (not sure if it was posted in this thread) where we keep the current Seals and Divination system and bring back the old Major/Minor Arcana system but weakened slightly to accommodate the changes. If I remember correctly, they suggested that Arrow be changed to a Direct Hit buff because haste buffs are detrimental to a lot of jobs with all the new stuff, and change Spire to a Healing Potency Up buff. That way, in order to get the best value out of Divination (changed to 1/3/6%), you are forced to play at least one of each seal, and each pair of the three seals has one utility buff and one damage buff to give players options if the rare opportunity rises.

Edit: I mean, obviously not the best solution. You’d always try to fish for the damage buffing cards, but at the least it changes the gameplay from trying to fish for one specific card to fishing for three different specific cards. I liked this suggestion the most because you’d probably have to think strategically when using cards since playing only one card would screw over Divination’s potency, and being too greedy with fishing damage buffing cards would mean that it would delay your Divination pretty badly if you get unlucky making you lose potential uses. Unsure how viable this would be though.

Just for clarification, there was mention that for card values (single target/aoe) too. Can’t seem to find the post at the moment but from what I remember:

Balance dropped to 6/3% damage, Spear dropped to 8/4% crit, and Arrow set to 10/5% dh.
Bole remains at 10/5% mitigation, Ewer potency halved, and Spire changed to 10/5% healing potency.

[MPNZ]

1. Divination stays activated for as long as caster is alive

So fish for Spear or Spire, then.

Um, arrow is better for ranged casters, and it lessens the DPS loss when they move.

Try:

-divination will stay active for as long as AST is alive
-reset timer increased to 12 minutes
-Multiple like seals will decrease buff by 7% of potency while multiple unique seal will increase buff potency by 12% potency (100% potency max of 12% damage buff)
-balance: restore selected target MP or HP pool percentile to highest percentile pool amount (-45% of percentile if all is in affect)
- spire: increase job gauge for three units (2 for all) per two auto attacks or one stack per four (five if all) and 3% mp restoration
-ewer: restore 65% of maximum MP value (45% all)
-spear: increase critical hit chance and proc-rates by by 12% (4% if all)
-arrow: if all: 7%
-bole: 20% percent dmg reduction (8% + one-time 35% damage nullification stack if all)
-ewer &spire can be sacrificed for all
-bole & balance can be sacrificed for an increased potency
-spear and arrow can be sacrificed to add weakness removal or 12% reduced OGCD timers

[MitsukiKimura]

Same issue as the previous system, except, I'm pretty sure 10% Crit is the best damage buff so it would just be fish Spear.

Once again we're back to "x card or bust", precisely what we fixed with ShB and what we can't have any longer.



I played AST for 4 years and the cards were just as monotonous then as they are now. 9/10 you played balance if you were an AST worth your salt, and the 1/10 you reluctantly played spear. Once in a blue moon you might have to recover and then by chance you draw the card you want and you maybe save a run or help recover, but this was an exception, not the norm. The truth of the matter is, the rarely, if ever, mattered in the run when you wanted to save it. That came with being a good healer that could triage well and keep the party going.

I messed around with AST this expansion a bit and aside from sleeve draw shenanigans, it seems to have a good foundation, but it could use some work. Namely the seals need to be expanded upon as they are very barebones atm, but I believe SE plans to do this as it's the most obvious place to expand on the job. It's sad we lost the time aspect of our job but that I can see why they decided to remove it and can agree with it.

I'm curious to see if they do anything this patch and if they don't, it would just cement this iteration of AST till next expansion when they have to make that decision again.

If you fished for balance all the time, you were sub par at AST. If you got balance by RNG and played it then good on you. Problem is people aren't complaining no where nearly as much about the seal system, what needs to change is how the card system plays, the cards abilities being all balance cards is really shameful and lack of thinking outside the box. With the way it's being played it is the most boring concept I have ever seen something be dumb downed to. Not fixing the core of the problem and trying to give it tweaks to other things, won't make it better and you'll piss off more people. Arrow was just as good for a black mage as a spear was for a bard. This current card system is just as worse, you fish for that specific card for your highest DPS in the group and you throw it on them, anything less is a waste outside of sleeve draw which forces people into playing a specific way just as back then when balance was obviously the best card. There's a problem with the system if it's making people quit. I rather see this card system burned down in flames before the seals get worked. That'll just show how much they pay attention to the healer community.

[Shalan]

I picked up AST again after having largely dropped it due to a massive distaste in how the new cards looked.

I've got to say, while I had my doubts about how enjoyable the new cards would be they actually turned out to feel even more pointless and boring than I was originally afraid of!
Instead of considering what the card is/what class most benefits from it, the royal road combinations, and the risk/reward of redrawing it, I can now just look at the card colour and seal before slapping it on someone. You don't even have to think or consider anything anymore, just a quick glance and presto. I've got to the point my draws/plays are robotic in nature and it's killing my enjoyment of this class (which is saying something since I've played it since it was trash early HW). It's boring and thoughtless as hell.

At this point I'm starting to wonder why they don't just straight up remove the cards, keep the animation and just make it a 30 sec CD Battle Litany like ability. I don't want them to do that, but it feels like it wouldn't change a damn thing if they did.

[Side-Eye]

Or maybe you're just so negative about the subject or any ideas towards it. Us healers or those who "Actually" play them don't feel happy with this current card system. I don't know why you come to these threads in the first place.

People like that are why we have the current card system, which most AST mains dislike very much compared to the old system with its variety that didn't always contribute directly to dps, but contributed more to our adaptability (which the class was really created for -- to be able to compliment WHM or SCH in a party setting), and more importantly contributed to our sense of being able to make any sort of group successful.

The other component of AST -- the time-related ones like buff extensions and AE stun -- were also important to the job's identity, and making us feel like we could contribute even if it wasn't through personal dps.

Folks who don't play the job, or who never played it enough to learn that "fishing for balance" wasn't as fun or productive as learning how to use the old card system, cannot fully appreciate how special AST used to be.