Quote Originally Posted by Silver-Strider View Post
Personally, the cards should've never had Damage buffs as an option to start with since it's what ultimately shoehorned the entire class into its current design. I've never liked AST but the concept that I liked the most was how they interacted with their cards. Stuff like Sleeve Draw, Minor Arcana, Royal Road, etc. all gave you the feeling that you were actually trying to defy fate by stacking the cards in such a way that gave you the best possible outcome for a scenario. While I appreciate that the cards are all "unique" again, the fact is, you can't really interact with those cards in any meaningful way like you could before (the effects being dogwater don't help either).

I'd have much preferred that, instead of just giving you all the cards at once, they gave you some means to utilize cards in alternative ways. Obviously not Spread Balance because that's what caused the downfall but stuff like extending the duration of cards, making the buff more potent but at a slightly reduced duration, or giving the card a minor secondary effect would've probably been a better route to go.
I agree and disagree with you. There isn't really any other useful means to the cards other than damage. Maybe they could have made the cards like the OP said with crit, dh, and flat damage, but in the end, those are the only viable cards. In HW and StB, Astros only fished for the Balance card because that was the only one really that provided any real benefit. Speed messes with people's rotation and causes drift, TP does not exist, mana isn't necessary for anyone that knows how to manage mana or has the foresight to buy super ethers, and mitigation is redundant as are extra heals. If you were to ever ask a dps player what card they wanted should they have the choice to pick, I guarantee at least 90% would say the flat damage.


However, I totally agree with the idea of using the cards in other ways. That would be an engaging and interesting way to play the class, more so than this "press button get buffs, wait 1 minute".