Has anyone quit healing?

[Suishouhime]

Not that I'm the biggest fan of the card system as it's current iteration but what was super engaging about balance fishing? Like yeah, I enjoyed the old cards a bit more for sure, but it's not as if the new one is an overwhelming downgrade especially when you consider the other new tools we gained on AST like neutral and CI.

Because only bad ASTs reduced the class to Balance fishing, and, even so, Balance fishing was limited to parse-obsessed Savage raiders. Shockingly, some people used AST outside of weekly prog.

For example, I got plenty of use out of the other cards and their unique effects: Spear was fantastic when you had a party with a MNK or BRD, because the increased crit had a tangible impact on their rotation, and it felt good to know I was making their gameplay more enjoyable by proccing their skills more often; Arrow was fun to give to a NIN or MNK with a fast connection, so you could wind them up and watch them go ham; Bole was clutch in some of my tenser min-IL runs; Ewer saved some Alliance raids from wipes, giving me the MP I needed to solo-heal in the face of my co-healer deciding to tank mechanics or play green DPS in lieu of ressing the 3 dead in the party; even Spire was useful for a tank doing big dungeon pulls, or when DPS neglected their TP regeneration abilities.

I liked the versatility of the secondary card skills, as well. Lord and Lady of Crowns were excellent supplementary cards that saw active use for either extra DPS in the face of a suboptimal card or as a saving, healing grace to my dwindling MP. I enjoyed knowing which Royal Road buff was best for what situation, too: buffed potency Bole for a big dungeon pull on an undergeared tank, increased Spear duration for a MNK that's doing exceptionally well with their rotation, and so on.
The most that needed changing was Spire, to accommodate the removal of TP, and maybe a nerf to Balance.

Now, all of my gameplay is dedicated towards fishing for Seals, and I have literally nothing else to do and no variety of playstyle for different types of content. Is this the Seal I need for Divination? Yes? Cool. I'll play it, and give someone a buff to damage dealt. Is this not the seal I need for Divination? Cool. I'll flip it, and give the flipped card to someone to give them a buff to damage dealt. Just gotta collect the different colours like a child mashing coloured blocks into plastic holes, only to press yet another button that does the exact same thing as the other 2 buttons: a buff to damage dealt. The cards even tell you who to give it to in the tooltip, ranged or melee. No need to think about what classes would suit each card best, because they all do the same damn thing. Just a buff to damage dealt.

While I'm at it, I miss the buff extension skills, as well, and my stun, and the old Collective Unconscious. I miss the whole class, because what I have in 5.0 doesn't resemble AST at all.

[Side-Eye]

Because only bad ASTs reduced the class to Balance fishing, and, even so, Balance fishing was limited to parse-obsessed Savage raiders. Shockingly, some people used AST outside of weekly prog.

For example, I got plenty of use out of the other cards and their unique effects: Spear was fantastic when you had a party with a MNK or BRD, because the increased crit had a tangible impact on their rotation, and it felt good to know I was making their gameplay more enjoyable by proccing their skills more often; Arrow was fun to give to a NIN or MNK with a fast connection, so you could wind them up and watch them go ham; Bole was clutch in some of my tenser min-IL runs; Ewer saved some Alliance raids from wipes, giving me the MP I needed to solo-heal in the face of my co-healer deciding to tank mechanics or play green DPS in lieu of ressing the 3 dead in the party; even Spire was useful for a tank doing big dungeon pulls, or when DPS neglected their TP regeneration abilities.

I liked the versatility of the secondary card skills, as well. Lord and Lady of Crowns were excellent supplementary cards that saw active use for either extra DPS in the face of a suboptimal card or as a saving, healing grace to my dwindling MP. I enjoyed knowing which Royal Road buff was best for what situation, too: buffed potency Bole for a big dungeon pull on an undergeared tank, increased Spear duration for a MNK that's doing exceptionally well with their rotation, and so on.
The most that needed changing was Spire, to accommodate the removal of TP, and maybe a nerf to Balance.

Now, all of my gameplay is dedicated towards fishing for Seals, and I have literally nothing else to do and no variety of playstyle for different types of content. Is this the Seal I need for Divination? Yes? Cool. I'll play it, and give someone a buff to damage dealt. Is this not the seal I need for Divination? Cool. I'll flip it, and give the flipped card to someone to give them a buff to damage dealt. Just gotta collect the different colours like a child mashing coloured blocks into plastic holes, only to press yet another button that does the exact same thing as the other 2 buttons: a buff to damage dealt. The cards even tell you who to give it to in the tooltip, ranged or melee. No need to think about what classes would suit each card best, because they all do the same damn thing. Just a buff to damage dealt.

While I'm at it, I miss the buff extension skills, as well, and my stun, and the old Collective Unconscious. I miss the whole class, because what I have in 5.0 doesn't resemble AST at all.

Just gonna quote this whole post, since it states all that is true with AST past and present. I mean honestly, I do more "fishing" now for Seals than I ever did for Balance before 5.0.

[Saefinn]

Just gonna quote this whole post, since it states all that is true with AST past and present. I mean honestly, I do more "fishing" now for Seals than I ever did for Balance before 5.0.

I concur with that. I end up doing quite a bit of fishing at times trying to get a perfect divination and give up and go for a weaker one sometimes.

Yet the solution for card fishing was remarkably simple IMO.

Keep the old card system exactly as it was.
Change Minor Arcana to examctly what it is now.
Got a card you can't use? Turn it into a weaker version of the balance. Balance used to be 10% if I recall, Lord/Lady of crowns is 8% on the right match.
We'd still have Royal Road instead of Divination, so we'd not need to fish seals for a stronger AoE buff.

Also, talking of non-Balance cards, when I'd queue AST pre-ShB, I used to give Enhanced Arrows to a MNK friend whose motto as MNK is "gotta go fast". And that made a tangible difference to his play. Cards like the Bole and The Ewer, which always felt situational were still useful Royal Road cards.

[Gravagar]

I concur with that. I end up doing quite a bit of fishing at times trying to get a perfect divination and give up and go for a weaker one sometimes.

Yet the solution for card fishing was remarkably simple IMO.

Keep the old card system exactly as it was.
Change Minor Arcana to examctly what it is now.
Got a card you can't use? Turn it into a weaker version of the balance. Balance used to be 10% if I recall, Lord/Lady of crowns is 8% on the right match.
We'd still have Royal Road instead of Divination, so we'd not need to fish seals for a stronger AoE buff.

Also, talking of non-Balance cards, when I'd queue AST pre-ShB, I used to give Enhanced Arrows to a MNK friend whose motto as MNK is "gotta go fast". And that made a tangible difference to his play. Cards like the Bole and The Ewer, which always felt situational were still useful Royal Road cards.

I stopped caring about trying to always get perfect Divinations too. I used to enjoy the feeling of getting a lot of good draws, to go with the salt of getting multiple bad draws. Nowadays, there aren't really good draws to break up the monotony of being apathetic towards firing off a 2moon 1sun Divination, due to your draw and redraws getting you Balance -> Bole -> Balance -> Bole.


The Spire would need to be adjusted due to a lack of TP to regain, but idk, maybe buff DH instead? But otherwise I like that idea, that any card can be arcana'd as insurance against bad luck. That would make sense as an ability that an Astrologian in the world of Eorzea would develop, as opposed to developing a sudden case of selective amnesia towards all time mage-related abilities...