Everything wrong with 5.3 AST sleeve draw [Translated JP duplicate thread]

[Gravagar]

I wasn't intending to post further, but since you've put this in a particular way I felt compelled to share my views on this matter... 4.x cards.

In your post you suggest that the old 4.x iteration of AST rewarded player skill more, but this statement is simply untrue.

I meant in relation to the other healers- the skill ceiling has totally collapsed on WHM and SCH, and there're just not many other mechanics to make up for it. Lilies and fairy gauge are fairly passive mechanics, more of a feeling like... "it's there when you need it and useless when you don't." Hell, someone at SE greenlit removing Energy Drain, so it's clear there's a general disdain for what healers consider skilled play.



Sorry for the misleading wording. And, I mean, putting it like that- I do understand a lot more about your dissatisfaction. Thank you for elaborating further. I've been wondering why my logs as AST haven't been as good as I think they should be, and you have given me some insights into that. I have some ideas to take into tomorrow night's reclears... I'm a bit conflicted now, since I view both systems as having the exact same intrinsic flaw (RNG- drawing only melee cards when you don't have multiple melee VS drawing only utility cards when you don't need utility... and drawing only single-target RR cards when you want an aoe VS that one seal you need not showing up for the rest of the fight), with the same % chances of screwing you up, but different extrinsic consequences (tossing bad cards into minor arcana VS less damage, I guess.)


Like, I get that it's strictly a promotion to have every card be the best card of the 4.x deck (but drastically weaker), and that it makes things more consistent, but at that point, why keep the old flaw if all the rest of the old stuff is gone? Why inherit the worst, most frustrating part of the job? I'll at least appreciate that the new sleeve draw mitigates that part, until whatever upheaval in 6.0 happens. Hopefully the job design team is +1 by then, with someone on it who isn't a barren creative wasteland when it comes to tanks+healers.

True, and I know you probably agree with this but to spell it out for others technical accessibility (especially latency) are issues that ideally should be resolved independently from your job toolkit. I've played myself on 300 ping once for a few years and boy that felt... not good, but I would rather them fix their networking than rework every job to cater for pings like that because it would ruin the game experience for everyone else.

Unfortunately, I think many of the ping issues might be here to stay. I'm guessing that SE office politics / overlords won't allow Yoshida to take any offer for data storage except the lowest bidder, despite FF14 basically keeping them afloat singlehandedly. The wording he used sticks in my head- he went as far as saying (around the... SB1 data center migration? unless it was HW, but I think it was SB1...) that NA pings will most likely worsen, but it's a sacrifice that players have to be willing to make. I do wish FF14 servers could be moved basically anywhere other than what might be the network congestion center of North America, since that would greatly improve my experience and the experience of many others...

[hiz]

Sorry for the misleading wording. And, I mean, putting it like that- I do understand a lot more about your dissatisfaction. Thank you for elaborating further. I've been wondering why my logs as AST haven't been as good as I think they should be, and you have given me some insights into that. I have some ideas to take into tomorrow night's reclears... I'm a bit conflicted now, since I view both systems as having the exact same intrinsic flaw (RNG- drawing only melee cards when you don't have multiple melee VS drawing only utility cards when you don't need utility... and drawing only single-target RR cards when you want an aoe VS that one seal you need not showing up for the rest of the fight), with the same % chances of screwing you up, but different extrinsic consequences (tossing bad cards into minor arcana VS less damage, I guess.)

You're welcome. Allow me to add a few remarks here. It is true that there are still RNG factors in the current card kit, but as I've implied in my prior post the factors, or "% chances of you screwing up" as you put it, are magnitudes smaller. I can run the numbers for you, but I want you to have a think.

Re Melee/Ranged RNG, this isn't really RNG as there are usually optimum options for both cards. This is an optimized sample E8S P2 opener cardplay (for my static) I posted previously in this thread. What I want you to notice is that the chances I hit Redraw once is already very small because pretty much every card can be played optimally in this context. Of course there are a few routes slightly better than others, but overall damage difference caused by this particular RNG is marginally small. The same goes with pretty much any card for any pull.

Re Seal RNG, sure this is purely RNG. However, what are the chances of not having three Seals with 5~8 cards (on old SD) + 3 Redraw stacks? Compared with the chances of not drawing RR or Balance on one draw+ redraw, repeat 14~20 times? This is again why many of us that optimize prefer this iteration.

That said, we have both agreed that looping between two cards feel terrible. Like I have mentioned already, I think what this kit needs is a Redraw rework (AND REVERT SLEEVE. Please.) more than anything else.

Unfortunately, I think many of the ping issues might be here to stay. I'm guessing that SE office politics / overlords won't allow Yoshida to take any offer for data storage except the lowest bidder, despite FF14 basically keeping them afloat singlehandedly.

Or they could just recode network protocol so you don't clip regardless of ping, for example. Easier said than done, sure, but I doubt SQEX has zero alternatives on software stuff that can be done re clipping.