AST Cards are boring

[Valence]

I suppose I am in the minority as I enjoy this current iteration of Astro. Old Astro especially during HW was horrible even though I played the class the most it had an identity crisis and the cards were tedious and not as impact full as they are now. Stormblood brought some QoL changes but ultimately I think the changes to pure damage based on card role was the best choice. It means less time focusing and recalling each cards mechanic while actually focusing on a raid mechanic.

This is the best example of the unbridgeable divide between new players and veterans, right there. The former don't want to focus on anything else than DDR mechanics, the latter want to go back to more intricate rpg mechanics.

Riddle me this why does bard/dancer/dragoon/monk who are dps classes that actually contribute and give their entire party buffs and ast must be doing this annoying thing of single target scrolling? My favorite of bard is their dh buff they give the entire party and when Big crit hit with phelgma as sage hitting like an eyeball popping 55k critical direct hit rate.

On topic its very pitiful and stale that all the cards do the same thing where the 4 dps I just mention seem to make that measly 5% flat damage a joke. Let me even give sch on a praise on this part as well since chain strat makes entire members (not sure if it also counts for alliance members or just for the sch party they are with, again this makes ast cards a clown meme.

Another example I can point out is let's look at a light party dungeon you have 2 samurai, both is full 665 gear with their relic or savage 665 wep, both know their rotation (pretty much twins). At this point the ast maybe is just gonna scroll down and hit the person on the third spot(i have my party set up as myself first tank second and dps last) which give a feeling of useless whereas sch you press chain strat and you, tank and your 2 dps is all hitting bigger damage more than ast boring 5% card and do not have to be playing scroll battle of the hmm who do I give the card to because they both doing the same damage so ill just pick who looks prettier/cooler at this point.

Again those who complained or find stormblood ast too much to handle, the simple solution was play turn your brain off whm. The fact they gave pvp ast 3 cards its old stormblood effects proof that SE under the quiet knew that stormblood ast was perfect else instead they maybe would have given them shadow bringer effects card for pvp.

The current cards are an abominable homogenous boredom, but saying that a constant +5% on a single target is meaningless is akin to saying that the dance partner mutual buff is irrelevant, which isn't the case. On top of it, handing out a 5% solo target buff doesn't lose any power in a light party unlike a full party buff that is literally cut by half due to party size.

Chain Strat like all AoE party buffs only affect the party.

AST also has Divination as an AoE party buff. The cards are something on top that much like Dance partner is to DNC's technical finish.

I do agree that the resurgence of all those old abilities in various pvp jobs kits is very ironic to see, and not just the AST cards.