AST changes for 6.0: Let's forget 5.0 happened, and just fix what was wrong with 4.0

[Gemina]

The RNG aspect of AST cards is what makes it a self-defeating mechanic. Because of this, we can never revert the cards back to 4.0. If we want to provide valuable feedback/suggestions, we need move forward, not backwards. This does not mean we cannot see the return of abilities like Royal Road and stun returned to CO, but RNG based utility is gone and not likely to return. For that previous mechanic to work, encounter design would need to be changed, and I don't see that happening.

That said, AST has the most interesting and engaging mechanic of all the healers. Despite how 'meh' it is, it remains the best example to improve the other healer gauges, and implement a new one with the 4th healer. I predicted that with 5.3 changes, AST high APM would be reduced. I was correct. My next prediction for AST is they are going to put the cards on the GCD to reduce the APM even further. This dev team is all about accessibility, and AST remains a job and a healer with a high skill ceiling. I wouldn't let this cause despair though, because the current track record for this dev team is that when they put abilities on the GCD, they are vastly improved. So it would be interesting to see what they would do with the cards in this case.

The biggest problem I have with AST right is how it is the catapult loader/damage buff turret I refer to it as. AST is the most selfless of all the healers because it gets the least amount of return for the work put in. Everyone else benefits from a skilled AST, while one of lesser skill will get more personal enjoyment out of it. Rectifying this issue should not come by reducing the benefit everyone receives from AST, but rather bring the enjoyment level up for the AST that plays with a high skill level while giving incentive to the lesser skilled player to improve. Until this changes, my AST will continue to be benched.

I would feel more comfortable making suggestions for this job if I ran relevant savage encounters. The job itself is a wildcard, anomaly, third wheel, red-headed step child, the new cat in the house already claimed by two other cats. I know what I would like to see with the job, but have no clue how to get there, and perhaps the savage encounters would broaden my perspective. Alas, I would only take a job I am comfortable playing inside savage, and AST is not one of them.

[Side-Eye]

The biggest problem I have with AST right is how it is the catapult loader/damage buff turret I refer to it as. AST is the most selfless of all the healers because it gets the least amount of return for the work put in. Everyone else benefits from a skilled AST, while one of lesser skill will get more personal enjoyment out of it. Rectifying this issue should not come by reducing the benefit everyone receives from AST, but rather bring the enjoyment level up for the AST that plays with a high skill level while giving incentive to the lesser skilled player to improve. Until this changes, my AST will continue to be benched.

This could be somewhat remedied by providing the AST a small personal DMG+ buff when playing a card to buff another person... and that personal buff would be a bit higher if played on the ideal role for the card drawn (e.g. "melee DPS or tank" Spear).

Or introduce "Major Arcana" and each time a card is played to buff another person, it produces a King or Queen of Crowns, either a free nuke or free heal, similar to how the old lord/lady did.

Or each time a card is played to buff another person, the next heal cast causes X amount of damage to the heal recipient's target.

[Gemina]

This could be somewhat remedied by providing the AST a small personal DMG+ buff when playing a card to buff another person... and that personal buff would be a bit higher if played on the ideal role for the card drawn (e.g. "melee DPS or tank" Spear).

Or introduce "Major Arcana" and each time a card is played to buff another person, it produces a King or Queen of Crowns, either a free nuke or free heal, similar to how the old lord/lady did.

Or each time a card is played to buff another person, the next heal cast causes X amount of damage to the heal recipient's target.

The idea rolling around in my head is through Divination, and making it a nuke and buff extender. I've been playing a lot of jobs lately, and something common among them is they have their own personal damage buff that they will squeeze their strongest attacks into; sometimes even multiple windows such as MCH heat blast + wildfire wombo combo. While I am not asking for anything this complex, what I would like to see with AST's card game is they would want to get up as many damage buffs as possible in preparation for Divination, that way when it goes off not only does the AST cause a certain amount of damage to the enemies, it also adds a time extender depending on the seals the AST has acquired for a maximum of 15 seconds extended to the buffs they applied prior to using Divination.

Well, that's what my brain cooked up after taking my AST into Shiva unreal. Not a relevant savage encounter, but the best I could do^^

[Side-Eye]

The idea rolling around in my head is through Divination, and making it a nuke and buff extender. I've been playing a lot of jobs lately, and something common among them is they have their own personal damage buff that they will squeeze their strongest attacks into; sometimes even multiple windows such as MCH heat blast + wildfire wombo combo. While I am not asking for anything this complex, what I would like to see with AST's card game is they would want to get up as many damage buffs as possible in preparation for Divination, that way when it goes off not only does the AST cause a certain amount of damage to the enemies, it also adds a time extender depending on the seals the AST has acquired for a maximum of 15 seconds extended to the buffs they applied prior to using Divination.

Well, that's what my brain cooked up after taking my AST into Shiva unreal. Not a relevant savage encounter, but the best I could do^^

Honestly I wouldn't fight against anything that gave AST a bit more complexity back. It's like I said before, there *is* a heal job for those who need a softer initiation, but there should be at least one choice for those who crave a steeper learning curve.

Maybe if we toss enough ideas around, try to see the good in each idea, and support those doing the same, Squeenix will be willing to test out some of those ideas. As far as the card system and job gauge are concerned, almost anything would be better than what we have.

[KDSilver]

Can we think of something original, rather than "let's forget 5.0 and return to bad design"?

RNG utility is not utility.

As much as I never had any issue with the RNG and enjoyed it, I can understand that feeling.
But that's indeed a valid point.
You couldn't for example make The Bole part of your strategy (except if you kept Spread for that, but the end results was a less damage buff, and it mean that if you drastically needeed it, either something's wrong or bringing a WHM would be a better answer - OR really rare specific scenario).

I would like if the cards didn't give a dps buff.
Something like
Balance: returns 1% damage to attacker
Bole: 10% damage resist
Spear: 20% physical damage resist
Arrow: 10% increased healing
Spire: 20% magical damage resist
Ewer: MP regen
And the minor Arcana changes
Lord: 200 pot damage
Lady: Diurnal Sect 250 pot heal and shield
Nocturnal Sect 100 pot heal and 100 regen for 15 seconds

It would be even worse.
Cause if you don't need any form of mitigation or extra healing (which already happen), you'd fish for Balance again or just minor arcana into Lord everything.
I'd be 4.0 with even less option.

Because of this, we can never revert the cards back to 4.0. If we want to provide valuable feedback/suggestions, we need move forward, not backwards.

I agree. I prefered the old card system. But if 5.0 AST is the way it is, this is because devs got feedback to do so.
So just going back wouldn't be the answer.

We need to take the best of both world and indeed, move forward.

I wonder if it wouldn't be possible for both damaging and support card to works together without having to sacrifice the other part to use them.
Or maybe removing the RNG part and getting a set sequence of card such as Balance - Ewer - Bole - Spire - Spear - Arrow, and minor arcana granting the opposite effect.
But I guess it could kill the fun of the old system and it might not work well for the current fishing seal system.

[Gemina]

I agree. I prefered the old card system. But if 5.0 AST is the way it is, this is because devs got feedback to do so.
So just going back wouldn't be the answer.

We need to take the best of both world and indeed, move forward.

I wonder if it wouldn't be possible for both damaging and support card to works together without having to sacrifice the other part to use them.
Or maybe removing the RNG part and getting a set sequence of card such as Balance - Ewer - Bole - Spire - Spear - Arrow, and minor arcana granting the opposite effect.
But I guess it could kill the fun of the old system and it might not work well for the current fishing seal system.

A big problem I see with bringing in any elements from the old system are those who will see it as nothing but a half-arsed version of it. The only way I see going forward is to build off of the current system. Every time I try to figure out how to make the varied effects work, I just end up chasing my tail. While I can admit that I am not very creative, I would imagine the devs likely had this issue as well.

The solution is absolute, and either all the cards buff damage, or none of them. The latter would boot AST right out of prog for sure. I suppose another possibility is to do both and add an effect along with the dmg increase, but I don't think the devs would ever go there. That is where I feel I lack the experience to know how something like that would play out. I think they would avoid this though because of their 'increase accessibility' mindset, as that would also be a pretty complex system.

Another idea I did have that kinda-sorta-not-really uses elements from the old system was something similar to NIN mudra where draw place three random cards on the hotbar, and the AST uses them at will, but they are on the GCD. They cannot draw another three until Draw comes off of CD, or they use Redraw/Shuffle (I don't know maybe once or twice per draw?). With this system, there would also be wildcards (the new-old Minor Arcana) that could be drawn that does random dmg (potentially stupid damage) to the enemy, or a heal, but does not grant a seal. The AST cannot play one or two cards and then Redraw. It would not work that way. It's either the three they have, or a new set of three. This alone would make the AST think about which cards to play based on the number of seals they have, which seals they have, or foregoing a seal completely in favor of damage that can tickle to nuke, or a really timely heal.

With this system, you would have an RNG element, all the cards are useful, and the AST truly has an element of choice due to the addition of the wildcards. The seals still grant divination, and divination does exactly what I pointed out earlier.

I would play this AST. Definitely. Would others? I have absolutely no idea.