Can we talk about AST cards?

[Rasikko]

It is hard to play it on a controller at first.. but you feel like a God/Goddess when you go into sleeve draw, and toss cards while dealing damage in between and you hit all the right people flawlessly.

[Yencat]

I actively played AST since it came out until the job I always wanted (Dancer) was released and while I never hated the old card system, I also never found it to be super interesting? I never felt like there was all this cool on the fly decision making or a complicated puzzle to solve because it was already figured out. The impact of the utility cards, while flavorful, was so small that realistically it didn't matter all that much. If you needed a Bole to save someone stuff was already going **** up, Spire & Ewer were nice for after a res but otherwise Royal Road fodder, Arrow threw off some jobs' rotation, original Spear CD reduction was just awful and clunky. Balance was always good and Lord & Lady were nice in a pinch.

That said the system we have now while a bit less RNG is probably worse from a 'class fantasy' aspect so maybe they should take the whole job back to the drawing board for the next expansion.

[DragonHunterG]

I don't mind the RNG of the cards. The thing I don't like is them not knowing what they want with the job. I'll probably level it up eventually, but I kind of feel like what's the point of learning AST or some other jobs when they're just going to up and change things -again- by removing abilities or changing what they do and how the job is supposed to perform. I'm not interested in sticking with it to get better at it either. I'm not saying some changes can't be good, adding new abilities that mesh with the current stuff, but job overhauls are annoying.

[SinSilverwing]

I rather enjoyed AST in HW and SB.

I liked the cards having different effects and used each one as effectively as possible, it was engaging and kept me focused on what I needed to do.

Unlike the group of people just fishing for that Damage Buff one that everyone did. Which got us the mess we currently have.

ShB AST feels clunky with the cards and honestly boring, I fall asleep playing it.

I dropped it, and healing in general, from my list of played classes. I keep it leveled and geared now only for the sake of helping new players out, and in the small hope of getting something like the old card system back.

[SieyaM]

It is hard to play it on a controller at first.. but you feel like a God/Goddess when you go into sleeve draw, and toss cards while dealing damage in between and you hit all the right people flawlessly.

Really? Because I feel more like a vending machine.

[EaMett]

it's kinda the opposite. The new card systems basically removed a lot of the rng that made the class fun. It's more predictable now but it cost the job a lot. Both in terms of gameplay variety and lore.

[Miziliti]

RNG was never gone, not even one bit.

HW + StB ver. list of RNG:

1. Get the right card for AoE royal road
2. Get Balance for optimal dps result
3. Optional: play cards how you want

ShB ver. list of RNG:

1. Get the right card for your melee
2. Get the right card for your range/caster
3. Get your sun seal
4. Get your moon seal
5. Get your third seal that's not sun or moon for divination.

Did I hear someone say the amount of RNG is reduce in ShB?

Also,

Before: With one card I can buff all!
After: The dev wants you to send your regards to your party members via this deck of cards to each of them ONE BY ONE.

These are pretty much the reason I decide to put my cards in garbage can instead.

[Allegor]

Expect a major overhaul by 6.0. With such a negative reception AST got I would be shocked if they leave it like this.

Also, wanna know what's worse than getting Spire? getting 4 Spires... in a row

[ElciaDeiLinus]

I've the opposite opinion on AST than you OP, I think there being only two buffs with so many cards is extremely shallow. The main appeal of the class at least in theory was the RNG element, something that anyone that doesn't want to contend with can avoid by being scholar and white mage, which gives you access to a regen or a shield healer.

If it were my choice, I'd have designed it so every card had actual different effects. At a time when healers have been too streamlined to avoid balance issues and RNG- I don't think the direction is to remove yet more of what makes different jobs interesting but to instead expand on it. As long as you aren't in a situation where having a scholar makes content trivial and having an AST makes it's impossible, but I don't think we're anywhere near having so massive a gulf in healer viability right now, and some differentiation would help.

[ErryK]

Card system is fine, so is the RNG.

I'm just glad Spire and Ewer are actually useful now.