An idea for revamping the AST card system

[KisaiTenshi]

But the biggest correction to the Card system IMO, is that the person that gets the effect has to know what it does. Nobody has to know AST to know the effect its receiving. (pointing the buff icon and reading the description mid-battle is not the optimal solution). People should receive a popping message with the effect instead of the name, like "TP cost down", "ATK up" or "Speed up".

I think this is the biggest bugbear with the cards. So far, while playing other classes (specifically BLM) I get AST's who use all cards on themselves, or use cards not-so-intelligently on other players.

There is a REALLY easy fix to this
Color cards Red for cards intended to use on DPS-only
Color cards Green for cards intended to use on Healers-only
Color cards Blue for cards intended to use on Tanks-only

But the cards themselves kinda don't fit those categories:
"The Balance" - Should be used on DPS (red)
"The Bole" - Should be used on Tanks (blue)
"The Arrow" - Should be used on DPS or anyone in a DPS stance (red/white)
"The Spear" - Should be used on anyone, but is probably best used on the DPS (white)
"The Ewer" - Should be used on Casters, AST, WHM, SMN/SCH, but probably not BLM. Also DRK (yellow)
"The Spire" - Should be used on Non-casters, except DRK. (purple)

Also the DRK messes this up since they have MP based skills.

[Roxas_Andrade]

There is a REALLY easy fix to this
Color cards Red for cards intended to use on DPS-only
Color cards Green for cards intended to use on Healers-only
Color cards Blue for cards intended to use on Tanks-only

I agree that the color mechanics needs to be changed. Having three blue cards is kinda confusing. Either the way you say is ok, or they could change the ewer effect to pink (like the other mp skills) and the spear effect to other color (brown/white/purple, whatever) so we can tell one of another easier.

[RichardButte]

You can say that it "doesn't matter if the buffs are OP because the only chance to Draw them is 17%", but to me, that doesn't justify it.

Then you don't understand just how unreliable these buffs truly are.

Either these buffs are LITERAL game-changers, or there will never be any reason to bring an AST over SCH/WHM.

As people have pointed out in other threads, a SCH DPSing between heals brings more benefit to a party than an AST with all of their buffs right now, not to mention reliable heals, AoE coverage and emergency buttons that can prevent wipes.

Every hardcore progression group would just roll an Astrologian trying to fish for those lucky 4 Spears in a row to use HG to let tanks cheese tank busters that they wouldn't ordinarily survive

And they would very likely still be wiping long after groups running WHM/SCH had cleared it.

As I said, the numbers can be tweaked, but AST buffs NEED to be of a caliber that people are willing to take an incredible risk to bring one into a raid to get them because they are GIMPING THE CRAP out of their healing potency by bringing an AST.

As to your comment about the Ewer/Spire, no one said that they're useless, but some TP/MP usage reduction isn't worth bringing a healer who can't heal anywhere near as well as the SCH/WHM can.

Again, the buffs had better be AMAZING to compensate for the inherently weaker heals.

And no, we don't need even need to see the raid content to know the differences: the healing potency numbers are on the tooltips of each class, and if the healing requirements for these raids are so low that you could use an AST to heal them, then a WHM or SCH would absolutely DESTROY the healing requirements.

I hate to say it, but maybe AST should've been a DPS class that brings slightly lower DPS to the table but has these buffs to compensate (ala BRD). There are far less stringent requirements on a DPS class whereas a healer will need to maintain a certain level of healing in order to fill their role...

[Kitria]

Then you don't understand just how unreliable these buffs truly are.

Either these buffs are LITERAL game-changers, or there will never be any reason to bring an AST over SCH/WHM.

I'm all for discussing changes to Astro, because I could think of a couple off the top of my head, but how can you possibly say to someone with a level 58 Astro that they DON'T understand how unreliable the buffs are. From what I'm seeing, you're not even showing yourself to be familiar with the class with your profile that has no evidence of even starting one.

Keep up the discussion sure, but don't be so arrogant to state outright you know better than someone who's clearly invested time and has experience in the class.

[Krixus]

You arnt the only one disregarding what Richard says, he clearly hasn't played the job yet. He keeps saying astros healing potency is MUCH worse, over and over. But the complaints from current 55+ astros are about the card system and emergency cures, not the general potency.

[Arcana]

Spear: reduced cooldown affects casted spells
Spire: TP regen (low potency is ok but regen plz!)
Ewer: MP regen (low potency is ok too)
Bole: Ok
Balance: Ok
Arrow: Ok

**Oh, and Shuffle has to draw a different card!


With these simple changes we would be happy

[RoseM]

My 5 cents:

1. Skill - Royal Road - AOE Effect: potency penalty 50% -> 20%, radius 10y -> 15y
2. Card - Balance: Now increase HEAL potency as well as damage potency.
3. Card - Bole: good as it is now.
4. Card - Arrow: Now affect DOT ticking speed. (this is debatable)
5. Card - Spear: Now affect abilities already on CD.
6. Card - Ewer: Mana-cost reduction 20% -> 40%
7. Card - Spire: TP-cost reduction 20% -> 40%
8. Skill - Aspected Helios: Radius 15y -> 20y
9. Skill - Light Speed:
Solution #1: Removed potency panelty
Solution #2: Now under effect of Lightspeed, GCD is reduced by 30%
10. Skill - Shuffle: Now would not get the same card again
11. Skill - Synastry: Now able to cast on self
12. Skill - Time Dilation: Now able to use on self

[TonberiScholar]

The cards need some buffs in numbers, definitely, and some usability changes would be nice.

Spire: Combine it with Ewer (so the new Spire gives -20% TP/MP Cost). Spire/Ewer are the only cards that take a massive usability dive if your party's a certain composition. You can always use Ewer on yourself and Spire on the tank if you really must, but it feels like a waste a lot of the time.

Ewer:Grant a 10% increased healing/MP Restoration/TP Restoration buff on the target. Gives AST a psuedo-burst heal cooldown as well as two ways to help others manage their resources, without stepping on Bard/Machinist's toes (since you'd still want one of those two in the group to maximize the card's effect).

Spear: It probably wouldn't be too overpowered if it applied to abilities that were already on cooldown when the card hit as well as abilities that are triggered during its duration.

All: Color-code each card. For the party's sake.

[RoseM]

Yes, it is a perfect situation. There are also a LOT of perfect situations with the cards.
People need to at least wait for the new Alexander raids to come out before completely ignoring them. Coil, to my logic, is not a good example as they are made with the knowledge that WHM and SCH would be healing it, not Astro. Take that how you will.
.

I can't see any point in waiting for raid come out. If I'm going to progress through Alex with this broken class, I'm pretty sure not only my teammates but also myself is going to hate me.
I'm going to level up WHM ASAP, so that if SE doesn't do anything about this class I will switch back to WHM for Alex.

[SuzakuCMX]

Spire and Ewer are fine. Use Spire on the tanks; they TP out fairly easily and generally don't get access to a TP regen move like most every DPS does. Ewer is good to use on yourself or on DRK: sure, 20% for 15 seconds isn't much, but if you keep getting Ewers it's going to add up. You complain about healing potency, but if you get an ewer on yourself you can start casting Benefic II and not go out of MP, and if you cast 5 spells in that 15 seconds, you've basically just cast a sixth spell for free. Don't use it on BLM though; it'll screw up their Astral/Umbral planning. Ewer makes Benefic II a lot more cost efficient than normal Benefic.


Spear I agree is pretty awful if you're not communicating on voice chat. Usually best to just use it on yourself and then use LA and ED, or just RR it to enhance the next card you get. Maybe if you see a SMN in your party you could use it on them to reduce the CD of their Aetherflow/Dreadwyrm Trance. But that requires coordination. I'd like it if they made it reduce current CDs by 20% though.

Balance and Bole are fine. 10% damage increase is basically just telling whoever you use it on to blow their oGCDs and go for damage. Bole isn't great but anything more than 10% on an unbuffed card will be ridiculous.

However I agree that Shuffle is kind of bad. Would make the CD 60s or make it so you can't draw the same card (or halves the chance of drawing same card).

Celestial Opposition is crap. It's only a 4 second stun and it only gives 5 seconds for 150s cooldown. I'd prefer if it was a channel like Collective Unconscious that constantly did damage/extends your card buffs while in effect and drained MP while up. That way if you knew you could get away with it, you could RR Balance your DPS and go Celestial Opposition them until you needed to heal again.

RR-AoE needs to be changed too. It's only useful on Balance because everyone but the healers will make use of a damage increase. Bole is dumb: 5% damage reduction in a small AoE isn't going to do much because if you have to rely on the RNG of getting an AoE Balance to survive a hit you're screwed more often than not. So it's basically just giving yourself a very small buffer for healing in most cases. The AoE is also really small. Change the potency hit to 20% and make the AoE 20y instead of whatever tiny range it has now. AoE Ewer is dumb because SMN/BLM don't really need mana, SCH/WHM don't really need mana, and 10% on AST/DRK isn't going to do much. AoE Spire is alright but it'd be better to do Extend/Enhance on a single target. AoE Spear is 10% CD but all CDs would have to be unpopped and lined up. AoE Arrow is I guess ok but it's hard to hit more than 2 people with it and you need to hit all 8 to make it better than Enhanced Arrow and 4 people to make it better than Extended Arrow.