What dps/utility buttons old or new would you add to your healer?

[Vinal211]

I never was an AST under the old system (pre SHb) so perhaps I completely misunderstand how this would work

However, I have a few misgivings - One point is that a "strong aoe attack" is of limited benefit - granted good if you have multiple mobs but otherwise? Second point - to summarize- dot management (personally not a fan) - now this is RNG as well, spread of those dots (limited use again).

Personally I would prefer that dot management and spread (bane) - if brought back- was brought back to SCH, AST could have its own skills. With SCH,RNG doesn't factor into dot management or the AOE use of dots, I miss having them under SCH.

i think everyone wants the old DoT management of SCH instead of what we have right now, but for AST there could be a couple of ways to lower the RNG factor. Redraw going to the next set of cards that you don't have a stamp for, having a trait that lets you redraw twice each draw, sleeve draw coming back and using it makes you pull out a card of a stamp you haven't gotten yet...
i could argue that WHM has only an AoE attack for their lily gauge, but that's ignoring that I've also wanted to add other things to use the blood lily on and expand the gauge to house more than just lilies as a sort of odd stance system. (imagine Glare, Dia, and if they don't bring back AoE DoT's, Holy turning into Quake, Tornado and Flood.) so i can see where you're getting from with an AoE only skill for using reverse stamps on being odd against a single target. maybe do something like what we have right now with Divination and Astrodyne, and two buttons to use your reverse stamps on, one for AoE, and a semi-stronger one for single target?

also, the old card system was fine, but it was also a lot of fishing for balance and spreading it. if it wasn't balance for outright damage it was spear for upping crit rate. which is why i think that the stamps being a part of the system still would at least, if not outright remove the fishing, lower it to only specific points in fights so you're still going for stamps to buff everyone/yourself and deal damage.

[ty_taurus]

funnily enough, the document I've been working on with all of my ideas for changing around AST does semi bring back the old card system, but with Spire being a regen effect instead of recovering tp. oh, and actually there is another idea i was thinking about too.

AST cards are basically Eorzea tarot cards, so why not have an ability that "Reverses" the effect, similar to how real life tarot have both an upright and reversed meaning for positive and negative? with the old card system, it would be something like 2 cards dealing damage, 2 cards being debuffs, and 2 cards being dot's, and bringing spread back could make it AoE effects. keep the current system of gaining a stamp every time you use a specific set of cards. using the reversed versions gives you a reversed stamp, and collecting 3 (either of just 1 or of all 3) gives you access to a strong AoE attack?

The primary issue with the card system is that it's incredibly difficult to establish 6 different effects that are each different and yet also consistent and balanced at the same time. While the concept of having Reverse effect cards makes sense and would be thematically fitting, you've doubled the already almost impossible to accommodate 6 effects into 12: 6 when upright and 6 when reverse. It's just not feasible.

The current system is in desperate need of an overhaul, certainly, but just going backward is not only not the solution we are likely ever going to see, but also not the solution we need either. Jobs having some RNG is not a bad thing, but the old system was too inconsistent, and half of the cards are things that hold very little value when you can only use them randomly when drawn. Like mitigation is needed at specific points in fights, and doesn't really help much when used outside of that.

[glamazon]

Why can’t they just take the rng away? Any lore answer makes no sense when they have ignored lord when hitting the variety of cards.

Gameplay should supersede lore or just change the lore. Comics do this all the time why can’t ff14?

[Vinal211]

The primary issue with the card system is that it's incredibly difficult to establish 6 different effects that are each different and yet also consistent and balanced at the same time. While the concept of having Reverse effect cards makes sense and would be thematically fitting, you've doubled the already almost impossible to accommodate 6 effects into 12: 6 when upright and 6 when reverse. It's just not feasible.

i can understand that, but at the same time i feel like it would only take a bit of extra work to keep the cards balanced...but i can also understand that a lot of people don't really have high hopes for that extra work. either way, let's build a theoretical card system for an AST at level 100, with new abilities for the reversed cards, returning some old abilities for RNG minimizing, plus possibly bringing back ShB Lord/Lady as their own thing as a new ability as well:

Cards split into 3 sets of 2 that gives a different sigil for each set when used.
Balance/Bole (grants a sun sigil upright, solar eclipse sigil reversed)
Spear/Arrow (grants a moon sigil upright, lunar eclipse sigil reversed)
Ewer/Spire (grants a star sigil upright, void sigil reversed)

activating a card using Play grants a sigil, and drawn cards can be reversed by using the ability Misdirected Fate, which stores the reversed card in its own "sleeve", and can be activated using the ability Reversal Play.

using Draw or Sleeve Draw gives Clarifying Draw, which can be used on Redraw. up to 3 stacks of Clarifying Draw can be "stored" with each use of Draw/Sleeve Draw. Sleeve Draw also gives a card from whichever set you don't have a sigil of yet, and if you have all three, it chooses between Balance, Spear, or Ewer.

Redraw cycles through each set of cards (Ex, sun cards to moon, moon to star, star loops back to sun).

using Minor Arcana to turn the card into a Lord/Lady of Crowns does not give a Sigil when the minor arcana activates. bring back Royal Road, have one for both upright and reversed cards (abilities named Steller Ascension and Stellar Descension respectively), and have it double the potency of card effects, but not give a Sigil.

bring back Spread to store an upright card, and change the ability to Spread Release while a card is stored to use it.

the gauge would expand to house Spread cards on the left, Minor Arcana cards on the right, and Reversed cards underneath, with the cards graphic flipped on Reversed cards for extra clarity.

Upright Balance/Bole gives a Damage Up/Vuln Down buff to an ally. Reversed gives a Damage Down/Vuln Up to an enemy.

Upright Spear/Arrow gives Crit Rate/Direct Hit Rate Up to an ally. Reversed deals damage, either single target (Spear) or AoE (Arrow).

Upright Ewer/Spire gives Mp/Hp regen. Reversed plants a DoT of either single target (Ewer) or AoE (Spire) that stacks with Combust.

(1/2)

[Vinal211]

Perhaps also having Divination on the sigils (with a percentage increase of 2%/5%/10% depending on how many unique upright sigils you have, with Astrodyne able to be given to another person, and the mp recovery being switched out for a dps buff that's double Divinations, and the potency/percentage of each part of the Astrodyne buff increasing with how many unique upright sigils you have.

having 3 reversed sigils gives you access to using Celestial Downfall (AoE) and Grand Starfall (Single Target), with potencies of 500/700/900 dependent on how many unique reversed sigils you have (500 for 1, 700 for 2, 900 for 3)

granted this doesn't completely remove the RNG factor of the cards, but it does hopefully heavily lower it to manageable levels. plus tbh i kinda did love the RNG factor for the cards. don't like the card you pulled, or need a different sigil? Sleeve Draw your desired card/sigil, and redraw it to the next sigil in the line if that somehow didn't work. and if that doesn't work? Minor Arcana, Misdirected Fate, or Stellar Ascension. also note these potencies are off the top of my head lol

(2/2)