Ast Cards

[Connor]

The numbers speak for themselves imo. The only time I see them not adding up to decent numbers is when you see ewer casts at like 3 per ancounter and spire at 1, or bole being used improperly.

I don’t think anyone’s disputing that the effects have uses though. They’re disputing the need for them in Astrologian’s toolkit when it already has abilities with the same effects as the defensive cards. Arrow is the only thing it actually added that Astrologian couldn’t do before. That’s putting aside the ‘rng’ aspects of the gameplay too

[Alice_Rivers]

That’s putting aside the ‘rng’ aspects of the gameplay too

The is a weaker but also slightly better Synastry, it's weaker in that it's only 10% but it's also slightly better in that it's all healing received rather than just your single target GCDs. That said, I still hold this is better than EW but worse than what I hear about SB.

[Ari_Calithiel]

The is a weaker but also slightly better Synastry, it's weaker in that it's only 10% but it's also slightly better in that it's all healing received rather than just your single target GCDs. That said, I still hold this is better than EW but worse than what I hear about SB.

This is something I don't understand. There are so very many people that have never played Stormblood and yet many of these people crave the card system from back then. Squenix basically gave us SB cards back with each card having a different effect and everyone hates it. Everything I have heard about Stormblood cards was that it was one of the worst iterations. Let me lay out why.

Here are what the cards did:
Balance: 10% damage for 30 seconds - this is nutty and what every AST fished for.
Bole: 20% DR 20 seconds - I guess this is okay, but tanks have their own mit and my argument about gear causing the usefulness of this to fall off still stands.
Spear: 10% crit 30 seconds - It's not bad, it just isn't as good as flat damage.
Arrow: 10% haste (basically) 30 seconds - If you want to piss off a DPS, give this to them. It will make all of their abilities drift outside of the 2 minute burst window.
Spire: Restores TP 15 seconds - This is useless now as we don't have TP. Even if we changed this to MP regen or a HP regen, it is still not an amazing card.
Ewer: MP restore 15 seconds - Why? We have Lucid dreaming, SCH have Aether drain, SGE their stacks, WHM thin air, and AST their cards that give mana. It could be funny to give this to a DRK during burst, but it is pointless in any other setting. We have Super-ethers if we truly need mana.

Now the abilities that EFFECTED the cards, that I can understand wanting back. That sounds like a ton of fun. But the cards themselves? Actual crap. I believe the reason they changed cards to be flat damage increases is because of the fact that most AST's fished for the Balance. What dps would want a 10% crit card where you MIGHT crit and hit really hard over a 30% dps increase on every attack? I guarantee you, a dps would ask for the flat damage over a 10% crit card in our current tier.


As I said in my initial post, FFXIV encounters are focused on the motto of everyone doing dps. The damage received is all scripted, so you only need to heal when the timer in the fight reaches that point and the rest of the time, everyone should be dpsing. This is why every card being a dps card works so well because that is the focus on combat in this MMO. It is not like WoW where damage goes out at random and constantly (ESO is even more similar to FFXIV in that you dps when nothing is happening) and you need a healer to be constantly healing.

While I could get completely off topic with how healing works here, I won't since the focus of this post is the cards. And honestly, the best iteration of the CARDS (not the abilities that effect the cards) was ShB and EW. People who think it was boring did not utilize the cards as they were meant to be used. Being a good AST in ShB and EW required knowledge of every dps and how their burst worked as well as a quick mind to adjust to the RNG you were dealt. AST was like if you combined a WHM and a DNC and it was beautiful.

Now... It is just a pale version of SB that everyone has been screaming for. We have it now, is everyone happy?

[Azurarok]

Now the abilities that EFFECTED the cards, that I can understand wanting back. That sounds like a ton of fun. But the cards themselves? Actual crap.

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Now... It is just a pale version of SB that everyone has been screaming for. We have it now, is everyone happy?

Isn't... isn't this exactly why people aren't happy?? You're calling it a 'pale version' of SB so it's pretty clearly not the version everyone has been screaming for. I don't think you can pull out a core concept of the system and say we have it.

[Ari_Calithiel]

Isn't... isn't this exactly why people aren't happy?? You're calling it a 'pale version' of SB so it's pretty clearly not the version everyone has been screaming for. I don't think you can pull out a core concept of the system and say we have it.

People have been crying for cards to have different effects. Squenix gave it to us. And people still aren't happy. That is the point I'm making. The cards are redundant and mostly useless. I'm with most other people in wishing for abilities that affect the cards. However, that was not what the majority were screaming for. They wanted unique effects.

[Azurarok]

People have been crying for cards to have different effects. Squenix gave it to us. And people still aren't happy. That is the point I'm making. The cards are redundant and mostly useless. I'm with most other people in wishing for abilities that affect the cards. However, that was not what the majority were screaming for. They wanted unique effects.

I agree I've seen more people ask for unique cards more than anything, but I feel that was under the assumption that it comes with the RNG and all the abilities to control it and affect the cards, because there doesn't seem to be much reason to have them if all the cards were either 'increase dps for melee' and 'increase dps for ranged'.

[Ari_Calithiel]

I agree I've seen more people ask for unique cards more than anything, but I feel that was under the assumption that it comes with the RNG and all the abilities to control it and affect the cards, because there doesn't seem to be much reason to have them if all the cards were either 'increase dps for melee' and 'increase dps for ranged'.

First off, assuming that the card rework would come with the extra bells and whistle that were not asked for is ridiculous. You don't get a hot fudge sundae with your burger if you don't order it. Why would Squenix go out of their way to give us things we did not claim to want?

Secondly, no one has been able to put forth any cards that make sense other than all dps cards. The utility cards are silly. The healing cards are bloat. The way the combat works in FFXIV is burst windows every 2 minutes with mini burst every 1 minute. So dps cards worked the best with the way combat works in this game. Unless Squenix changes the flow of combat so we are not bound to the 2 minute window, any other iteration of cards will be pointless at best, useless at worst. And the current ones are pretty useless.

I'm not really sure what card effects you think they could give that wouldn't be terrible other than buffing the dps. I will go so far as to list ones I've seen.
Healing: bloat, we have so many tools
Mitigation: pretty unnecessary currently, completely useless once people have gear
Heal pot increase: we have synestry if we need it, otherwise it is for scholar spreadlo and we may or may not have a SCH co healer and may or may not have the card available when they need it
Move speed: but why? We have sprint plus nearly every job has some form of movement capabilities now.
Mana regen: lucid dreaming, super-ethers (1.8k mana potion), plus each healer has their own kit for managing mana. If you are still oom after using all of this, you are playing wrong
Haste: If you want to piss your dps off, sure. It will drift their abilities so it no longer lines up with the 2 minute window.


So I ask again, what other buffing effect is available that actually provides aid to your party 100% of the time? I guess if the cards became another way for us to dps, but then we aren't really a support healer the way we are touted to be.