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

[LariaKirin]

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Reverse is just diversity for the sake of diversity. The reality is that support cards will always be reversed into dps cards.

What you're all ignoring while you come up with all these ideas is the reality on the ground.
AST is currently too strong to justify ever using a support card if you have the option to use a dps card.

Any system where a dps card competes directly with a support card results in the support card being ignored.
RNG support is not support. You need to be able to access a specific support card at a specific point in the fight - on-demand or through build-up.

Separation is the only way. I'll rehash some thoughts from a while ago based on several suggestions that came about at that time (not going to track down the old posts):

Draw/Play (DPS): 2 DPS cards - melee/ranged
Draw/Play (Support): 4 support cards (ideally, 4 equally useful non-dps effects)

Redraw (has an effect on the last card currently in your hand):
- If on a DPS card, gives the opposite card (melee -> ranged, ranged -> melee)
- If on a Support card, gives a different support card that you have not seen yet (like current Sleeve Draw). Using 3 Redraws cycles through all available support cards. Draw resets the pool of cards.

For example, you could do something like this: Draw (Support) -> Draw (DPS) -> Redraw(DPS) -> Play (DPS) -> Redraw (Support)

Divination:
- Base 4%
- 4 slots for DPS cards: 1% better divination for each card, going up to 8%.
- 1 slot for a Support card: functions as the activator. Fill this seal by sacrificing any one support card and you can cast Divination.


Some things to consider for more interactivity:

Divination could give an additional 1% for each pair of different cards: 3 melee + 1 ranged (9%), 2 melee + 2 ranged (10%). Maintain the Balance, so to speak. There is a problem with this - you'll want use up to 2 Redraws to ensure that 10% Divination, in which case you're giving up reliability on the Support side.

In the interest of making Support cards even more reliable, the Support slot in Divination can function as Spread did in SB. Essentially banking one support card for later use, giving you access to two support cards at any one time. You can save this Support card for use at a more opportune time, but you'd have to make sure another Support card is sacrificed so that Divination is usable when it goes off-cooldown.

[ASkellington]

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Not a fan of Draw/Play (DPS) being split if for no other reason than having melee vs ranged when they do the same thing is dumb. That said, it fixes the problem of <insert stat here on a card is 100% better in all cases> so it'll have to be something I live with.

As far as Divination goes, personally mind you, I'd rather scrap the seals system entirely, keep your idea of DPS and Support Draws, and have Divination be a button to use on cooldown (same as now or increased) as it is in pvp. True your idea does give more interactivity especially with the seals balance idea, but I'd rather have AST's interactivity be kept more with the cards themselves than with seals.

Ignoring my bias dislike to the seals system (I'll take your card system over the current one any day) what are your suggestions with the support cards? I assume any stat that indirectly increases dps (skill and spell speed for example) would be off the table? Bole's old effect may be nice to have, but with the tools AST currently has, I'll be honest I don't see a good use for it. Old Ewer you can make and argument for as while AST has less mana issues now than it did before, co-healers could use it. PLD/DRK maybe if there's no BLM. And of course BLM. But would it be worth having over something else, if there can even be another effect?

[LariaKirin]

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Melee/ranged is to have it be somewhat of a dynamic choice (like current system), instead of dumping it on the same person every time. The seal balance thing will require some Redraws (2 at most), leaving you with 2 more Redraws in a 2 minute window. So this means you won't be able to access every single support card (4 support cards, cycling through 3 of them if you use 2 Redraws for DPS). Which I'm not completely happy about because I think you should be able to access every support card (e.g. "I know that I will definitely find Bole 1m30s into the fight at the latest").

I think one of the more important things is the "Spread" idea on Divination. Allowing you to store a card and use it later. For example, I'm looking for Bole 45 seconds into the fight. I can dump all of my redraws on that and guarantee that I will have it. If I get it too early, I can just store it in divination. And now I see a scenario where I'd want Bole 2m15s into the fight and it would be pretty annoying to handle (Divination would sacrifice the card). So Maybe we could change the Divination slot so that you can swap the support card inside Divination with the one in your hand instead.

As for Support cards, yes, anything that increases DPS is off the table. I think it would require alot of thought to make them all realistically useful. Some quick ideas:
- Party-wide 10% mitigation for 10s.
- Single-target 10% mitigation for 30s. Mostly for tank autos.
- Single-target 20% mitigation for 5s. For TBs with strict timing.
- Some sort of delayed effect (say 6s) that snapshots a party member's HP/MP on cast and reverts it to the snapshot when timer expires.

I'm sure others can think of some neat ideas that can make all of them useful - they would no longer compete with DPS cards.
My main concern is the separation of dps/support and reasonable availability of support options.

[MintnHoney]

Any system where a dps card competes directly with a support card results in the support card being ignored.

Not necessarily.
In fact, the only scenario where a DPS card would completely negate the usefulness of a support card, would be a situation of absolute optimization. By that point, however, Support, or healing in general, has likely been made obsolete, so you're really saying "any system where DPS competes directly with Healing results in the Healer being ignored."
I suppose, when you look at the game's current state and how the developers have been interacting with us, you're totally right.

If you must look at everything through DPS, consider that the Bole used to be more opportunities for an AST to focus on DPS, since it reduced all incoming damage for a time, meaning it lessened the need to heal. This was the same in solo content and in party content. With regards to the job itself, it was a boon. It just wasn't a direct boon to the DPS jobs.

[ty_taurus]

Not necessarily.
In fact, the only scenario where a DPS card would completely negate the usefulness of a support card, would be a situation of absolute optimization. By that point, however, Support, or healing in general, has likely been made obsolete, so you're really saying "any system where DPS competes directly with Healing results in the Healer being ignored."
I suppose, when you look at the game's current state and how the developers have been interacting with us, you're totally right.

If you must look at everything through DPS, consider that the Bole used to be more opportunities for an AST to focus on DPS, since it reduced all incoming damage for a time, meaning it lessened the need to heal. This was the same in solo content and in party content. With regards to the job itself, it was a boon. It just wasn't a direct boon to the DPS jobs.

The problem is that those are niche situations, and the majority of the time, the old cards giving you utility is actively hurting your performance. I'm a fan of the old system in terms of how fun it was, but pretending it didn't need to be adjusted is just ignoring the problem. Things can be optimized AND fun at the same time, you know.

Really, the cards just need to be redesigned from scratch into a system that does separate DPS support from utility support with preferably less buttons needed to manage the whole thing. AST shouldn't have as many buttons as it does dedicated to this card system. Moreover, it would make a big difference to move that DPS support potentially from the cards onto the GCD so that AST can be the support healer who's damage comes almost exclusively from buffs. Naturally those numbers need to be balanced around that and they should probably not be percentage based and just flat potentiates, but both the old and the new systems are ultimately not where they need to be in the slightest.