AST Card, between utility and optimisation

[Blueyes]

There was an idea that I pitched long ago as a suggestion for how the card system could be revised. It may need to be updated in light of recent changes, but the gist of it was that we would have three cards for offensive support (examples: damage, crit. rate, crit. damage) and three cards for defensive support (examples: damage reduction, healing received, regen). In the event you draw something that you don't want, like a defensive card when you need offense, you can use Minor Arcana which would "flip" defensive cards into Lord of Crowns and offensive cards into Lady of Crowns. The objective behind this proposal was twofold: Bring back variety in card effects while simultaneously achieving consistency with results. If you want every single card to contribute damage, you can do that. If you want every card to assist with healing, you can also do that. Or you can play both and adjust to the situation as needed.

This system would probably not work the best with the existing seal system which, in my honest opinion, should be scrapped. I didn't like it when it was announced and it never grew on me. It feels bad when you draw Balance back-to-back, but you shouldn't play the second Balance because it matches the seal you just received. If they want to keep the seals, I would suggest having cards grant us a seal we don't have regardless of what card was played. Once you play three cards, you'll have one of each seal. Always. No more "fishing for seals."

[Gemina]

This system would probably not work the best with the existing seal system which, in my honest opinion, should be scrapped. I didn't like it when it was announced and it never grew on me. It feels bad when you draw Balance back-to-back, but you shouldn't play the second Balance because it matches the seal you just received. If they want to keep the seals, I would suggest having cards grant us a seal we don't have regardless of what card was played. Once you play three cards, you'll have one of each seal. Always. No more "fishing for seals."

The seal system kind of invalidates the need for six different cards, and would only need three cards to work; but they addressed that by making the AST pay attention to whether your card needs to be given to a ranged or melee player. This is ok, but definitely not as intricate as six different cards, with six different effects. If I am to retort that, I would say that in the old system, three of those six cards all translated to an increase in damage, so this was illusionary. TP was eliminated, and the defense and MP refresh effects were both very niche.

I've tried multiple times to revise a card system that utilizes six different effects. This along with also trying to keep RNG mitigation in the system just had me ending up back on square one. It was insolvable. The only way I have been able to circumvent the issues with having a freakin card deck as a mechanic is to reduce the number of effects it grants and eliminate any and all RNG mitigation. The seal system is actually this mech saving grace. Without it, I don't know how they even keep the Divine Deck in the game, and they would have to redo AST from scratch. The lore and everything.

[Shurrikhan]

...the gist of it was that we would have three cards for offensive support (examples: damage, crit. rate, crit. damage)...

Without any variance in their RRs or MAs (between the individual cards, not just the offensive set as a whole or defensive set as a whole), though, those are all just... damage, except in that crit rate is wasted on certain jobs at certain times and that damage and crit damage can't affect healing -- making them just objectively worse if not tuned higher than crit rate.