How is new AST feeling?

[Liam_Harper]

I strongly disagree. This mechanic results in steady DPS increases for the party or yourself, conditional DPS increase to self, MP restoration, and a downtime tool. How this mechanic is not seen as anything but beneficial is entirely beyond me. The element of luck only affects the AST now, and is a matter of how much benefit they get from it. Not getting the best result should not be looked at as a 'loss'. Those who do will not enjoy this mech on AST.

Astrodyne doesn't buff your party. I'm not talking about regular cards, which are perfectly fine (although some will argue dps cards are bland, I'll stay neutral on that). Nor am I talking about RNG, which is fine if triggered often enough (for example, DNC has rng and works). I'm talking about Astrodyne, Redraw and the new Seal system.

Essentially, all Astrodyne does is restore MP and add roughly 80-180 potency worth of self-buff on a long 90 sec cooldown. It's not worth playing the seal-juggling mini-game for. Astrodyne, Redraw, Minor Arcana and Crown Play combined are 4 dps buttons that don't even contribute to 5% of your damage output. That's what I'm saying is a waste of hotbar space. Busy for the sake of busy with no real reward.

My question for Astrodyne is should I be prioritizing cards to their respective class (ranged / melee) and then using the skill regardless of what seals I have, or should I prioritize getting all 3 seals?

Always use it on cooldown regardless of what seals you have. Especially never use Undraw for 3 Seal. Remember the 3rd seal effect is only a 5% damage increase on you, the weakest dps in the entire group, while a regular card is 6% on a damage dealer. 3 seal is really that weak.

[Matt_Renard]

Always use it on cooldown regardless of what seals you have. Especially never use Undraw for 3 Seal. Remember the 3rd seal effect is only a 5% damage increase on you, the weakest dps in the entire group, while a regular card is 6% on a damage dealer. 3 seal is really that weak.

Yeah, that's the most optimal way to play AST right now, and it is really bad. No real way to manipulate the seals you get, no real reward when you get 3 seals. Why even bother...

[Gemina]

Astrodyne doesn't buff your party. I'm not talking about regular cards, which are perfectly fine (although some will argue dps cards are bland, I'll stay neutral on that). Nor am I talking about RNG, which is fine if triggered often enough (for example, DNC has rng and works). I'm talking about Astrodyne, Redraw and the new Seal system.

Fair enough. However, the cards have to be drawn and played to access Astrodyne so even the regular cards are very much part of its mechanic, which makes the steady DPS increases given to the party valid in the point I am trying to get across when it comes to Astrodyne's overall effectiveness.

Essentially, all Astrodyne does is restore MP and add roughly 80-180 potency worth of self-buff on a long 90 sec cooldown. It's not worth playing the seal-juggling mini-game for. Astrodyne, Redraw, Minor Arcana and Crown Play combined are 4 dps buttons that don't even contribute to 5% of your damage output. That's what I'm saying is a waste of hotbar space. Busy for the sake of busy with no real reward.

If we want to look at just the effects of Astrodyne, I have addressed this many times now with how the seal configuration and rewards should work. But to reiterate the MP restore, that should just be an additional effect, and not have anything to do with the seals. The seals should be about how much of a damage increase is granted to the AST, which I think should work like slots with how things are currently set up. This would require the least amount of rework from the dev team.

They could go crazy with the seals where the different combinations of seals all do different things. Kind of like: 1,2,3 or 1,1,2 or 2,3,3 but that would be nuts. And the return of the old system is completely off the table. It just has to be a simple system, with simple mechanics, and simple rewards. I can't stress enough that two glaring issues with AST is its high APM, and button bloat. It does not need a sophisticated and deep mechanic on top of this, and measures need to be taken to reduce these issues as things are now.

[ZedxKayn]

At least I really don't like the new stars. Placing it where it needs to be when it pops was part of what made AST's kit fun for me and now that's gone. Can SE please stop lowering the skill ceiling for no good reason.

[MintnHoney]

Can SE please stop lowering the skill ceiling for no good reason.

On the bright side, you can think of it as lowering the skill ceiling for the other party members, rather than yourself.
Because they really do need all the help they can get, sometimes.