Astrologian: what is your understanding about it?

[ASkellington]

Like seriously how do you think StB AST would actually function now? People would lose their shit at you for any of the haste cards, the resource reduction cards are either worthless or straight up nonfunctional in the case of spire, and the bole as said before might as well be a dead card bc you can't play around having it for any given raidwide. They'd have to come up with a bunch of new ones, but if they don't do damage you'd literally never want to draw one over the balance. Even with royal road. And yeah making the best of the hand dealt to you is AST's thing but with how potent 2min windows are if you don't have the balance by then with its aoe 5% it's a HUGE dps loss and dps checks would have to be designed around that bc it adds up.

That's the Dev team's headache.

But honestly, Balance's buff would be replaced by Divination. There's the bloody standard buff that people wanted and now the other 6 cards can do something else.

HOW has many iterations some of which I said back in Shb:

• If we had Noct Sect we could toggle between the two: Half the cards in Diurnal, half in Nocturnal with one sect having the offensive cards and the other defensive.
• Keep with the idea of 3 different effects and split them between Melee and Ranged. Not ideal but a decent middle ground.
• Cards are now on a rotating wheel. When you press Draw/Play (however you wanna work it out) it stops on that card allowing you to mitigate RNG.
• You can Draw and then Hold a card, saving it for later. While being held the card in question is removed from the pool and you can then Draw from the remaining 5. More RNG mitigation (bonus points if you want to keep Redraw).

They had options. They chose to be lazy and take the easy way out.

RNG is part of the class and part of the fun of the class for many. If that isn't your cup of tea may I suggest the 3 other healers in the game?

[Aravell]

Like seriously how do you think StB AST would actually function now? People would lose their shit at you for any of the haste cards, the resource reduction cards are either worthless or straight up nonfunctional in the case of spire, and the bole as said before might as well be a dead card bc you can't play around having it for any given raidwide. They'd have to come up with a bunch of new ones, but if they don't do damage you'd literally never want to draw one over the balance. Even with royal road. And yeah making the best of the hand dealt to you is AST's thing but with how potent 2min windows are if you don't have the balance by then with its aoe 5% it's a HUGE dps loss and dps checks would have to be designed around that bc it adds up.

I want to first clarify that I never said to bring the SB system back wholesale, obviously cards will need to be adjusted. My point was mainly that SB cards were not as bad as people always make it out to be, as you said, the systems were different back then, so it works for that era.

As for how differing cards would work now, there's a few ways to make it work. You could give every card a base 3% damage up value with differing effects on top, or you could remove damage up and make every card strictly utility. But my own preference would be if they cut out some of the pointless healing OGCDs and dedicate part of the kit to cards with plenty of avenues for RNG mitigation.

Royal Road is a good example, you draw a bad card but you can use it to improve your next card. They could use more skills like that. Perhaps an altered Sleeve Draw where you get 10s of unlimited Redraws where the cards don't loop until you go through all 6. Spread was also good to allow RNG mitigation by letting you save a favoured card. Maybe they can separate cards into offensive and utility, then add in an ability that let's you flip the suit of the card from offensive to utility and vice versa (Spire to Balance for example).

A lot of people have come up with ideas to mitigate the RNG, I'd personally rather see RNG control rather than removal. All it takes is for the dev team to have some creativity and not just go for the easiest way.

EDIT: Also, that picture isn't a log flex if you think it is, I couldn't care less about logs, which is why I don't bother looking up other people, it's just to show the AST icon and the amount of kills without splitting it into 2 pictures. I'll always assume people are discussing in good faith until they do something to try and discredit me.

[Supersnow845]

You need to make the cards non offensive, non healing utility. Something like old ewer is totally fine for this, old bole is as well because while you aren’t going to play a tanks defensives around it 20% mitigation on the tank isn’t ever going to go astray. I don’t really like encroaching on SCH’s niche but a card that generates peleton is another one. A card that refreshes CD’s of non damage abilities could be another one. A card that generates a movement ability could be one

I’m just spitballing ideas here but what the cards need to be is all utility where interesting use of what card you get is how you differentiate yourself from others

[Kissune]

You could give every card a base 3% damage up value with differing effects on top, or you could remove damage up and make every card strictly utility. But my own preference would be if they cut out some of the pointless healing OGCDs and dedicate part of the kit to cards with plenty of avenues for RNG mitigation.

But my issue is that RNG mitigation can't be relied upon, and with how strict mitigation checks are in current fights that's seriously relevant. That's why I'm so averse to RNG healing/mit bc it can't be used as an actual plan. You'd need to plot out a plan that assumes you never get the card you need, with everything else just being a bonus.

Royal Road is a good example, you draw a bad card but you can use it to improve your next card. They could use more skills like that. Perhaps an altered Sleeve Draw where you get 10s of unlimited Redraws where the cards don't loop until you go through all 6. Spread was also good to allow RNG mitigation by letting you save a favoured card.

But what if you never draw a good card?

Maybe they can separate cards into offensive and utility, then add in an ability that let's you flip the suit of the card from offensive to utility and vice versa (Spire to Balance for example).

But then the optimal play is to always flip, and since you couldn't predict which of the 3 utility cards you'd draw, you couldn't add it to your mit plan anyways. Even if you intend to use the bole, what if you don't draw it? It's always better to just spit out dps.

A lot of people have come up with ideas to mitigate the RNG, I'd personally rather see RNG control rather than removal. All it takes is for the dev team to have some creativity and not just go for the easiest way.

The problem with RNG utility is that there are 3 other healers in the game they need to balance fights around, and having one that isn't able to call its kit when it needs it means that it is the only healer that can just wipe a party from a raidwide through sheer bad luck alone.

[Kissune]

now the other 6 cards can do something else.

Do what?
Are they all utility? If so, what 6 pieces of utility are they? Are they healing? Mit? MP regen? Great, well, you can't play around any of them so they are no longer part of your core kit, and are instead just bonuses on top. Why even have 'rng cards in the game' if all the do is function like generic healing tools.

If we had Noct Sect we could toggle between the two: Half the cards in Diurnal, half in Nocturnal with one sect having the offensive cards and the other defensive.

Same issue. Offensive cards are always the better draw, and you can't play around the defensive ones.

Keep with the idea of 3 different effects and split them between Melee and Ranged. Not ideal but a decent middle ground.

Wdym 3 different effects? If they're not all damage buffs, same issue. One is always a better draw, the rest are useless.

Cards are now on a rotating wheel. When you press Draw/Play (however you wanna work it out) it stops on that card allowing you to mitigate RNG. You can Draw and then Hold a card, saving it for later. While being held the card in question is removed from the pool and you can then Draw from the remaining 5. More RNG mitigation (bonus points if you want to keep Redraw).

Didn't you literally just say two lines down that RNG is part of the class? At that point, why even have RNG at all.

RNG is part of the class and part of the fun of the class for many. If that isn't your cup of tea may I suggest the 3 other healers in the game?

May I suggest you actually read what I'm suggesting? I main this job, I clearly like the RNG, and having to think on the fly and have my knowledge of other classes rewarded. My biggest wish for the rework is that RNG cards are preserved. What isn't my cup of tea is having buttons that do fuck all in my kit, which is why I don't see how stormblood cards can work in the current design space. Having one card be the objective best is poor design, whereas with current cards the objective best is 'whatever card you currently need to fill out your seals or provide the most overall dps'. Which can be any of the 6. MP regen will never be the objective best. Mitigation will never be the objective best, bc if it is your mit plan is fucked. If you really like having your kit be a complete gacha, may I suggest World of Warcraft?

[ASkellington]

DO WHAT?

Again, that's the Dev team's headache. We've had plenty of people go up and down which are the best effects of the cards.

THERE IS NONE

There is always going to be a worst card and a best card. If all the cards are Offensive or Utility you may as well replace them with buffs then and remove the card system. The point of the class is to make the best of the card(s) you're given.

[Kissune]

You need to make the cards non offensive, non healing utility. Something like old ewer is totally fine for this, old bole is as well because while you aren’t going to play a tanks defensives around it 20% mitigation on the tank isn’t ever going to go astray. I don’t really like encroaching on SCH’s niche but a card that generates peleton is another one. A card that refreshes CD’s of non damage abilities could be another one. A card that generates a movement ability could be one

I’m just spitballing ideas here but what the cards need to be is all utility where interesting use of what card you get is how you differentiate yourself from others

Having the cards be all utility just means that the job is infinitely more boring in casual content where you don't need any of the things it provides. You turn the most interesting job in non-hardcore content to the least interesting bc it loses any need to interact with your cards at all.

[Supersnow845]

Having the cards be all utility just means that the job is infinitely more boring in casual content where you don't need any of the things it provides. You turn the most interesting job in non-hardcore content to the least interesting bc it loses any need to interact with your cards at all.

You don’t need to interact with the current cards in casual content either especially because half the DPS are doing less damage than you

Healer gameplay in casual content has a lot more problems than the card system but I know in casual content I’d much rather throw an ewer onto a RDM that just chain rezzed 4 people than throw a damage buff I can barely perceive onto a DPS that’s probably barely even pressing their 1-2-3

[Kissune]

Again, that's the Dev team's headache. We've had plenty of people go up and down which are the best effects of the cards.

THERE IS NONE

There is always going to be a worst card and a best card. If all the cards are Offensive or Utility you may as well replace them with buffs then and remove the card system. The point of the class is to make the best of the card(s) you're given.

Yeah, except right now there really is no best card. Right now? The best card in any given situation is always changing even from pull to pull, which would not be the same with StB cards. The card you need depends on your seals, and it depends on what role you either haven't carded or is cranking out the most DPS. It is not a coin toss. The class is unironically the most balanced it's ever been with its cards yet still requires quick thinking and reactivity to ensure that card goes to the right person, at the right time, and does the most for you. Sure, having them all be DPS cards is less complicated, but I'd say it's much less frustrating and punishing when you don't get what you want. It allows for optimization, without making your life hell if you have bad luck. Playing a card is always doing something, rather than just having literal dead draws. Worst case scenario a 3% damage buff with a seal you already have is still a 3% damage buff.

You're always going to have to make a healplan as if you never draw a lady of crowns. You make the best of the ladies you're given, but all they are is just a bit of extra. It's probably the ability with the most wasted overheal next to afflatus rapture/solace in the game. All bringing back stormblood cards would do is just take minor arcana and somehow make it even worse.

[Kissune]

You don’t need to interact with the current cards in casual content either especially because half the DPS are doing less damage than you

Healer gameplay in casual content has a lot more problems than the card system but I know in casual content I’d much rather throw an ewer onto a RDM that just chain rezzed 4 people than throw a damage buff I can barely perceive onto a DPS that’s probably barely even pressing their 1-2-3

Someone doing half your damage is still going to do more damage if you give them a card. And more dps = faster clear.

Yeah giving a chain rezzing red mage a mana card is nice but let's be real with ourselves. That rarely happens, and it still relies on you nailing the 1/6 chance of drawing it. I just as often meet red mages that don't even have verraise on their bar. With dps cards, I can at least put it on someone doing some semblance of damage. But hey, if you like having abilities that you just burn for mana and basically nothing else, why not play sage?