Quote Originally Posted by TonberiScholar View Post
I like these ideas, but I don't think they'll be able to actually get rid of cards. We'll still need six (due to the lore and due to the way the class quests are structured).

We need to go more towards "every card at least does something to every potential target, even if it's not optimal". That way you're rewarded for playing the right card on the right member but not penalized as harshly for RNG being RNG.

My proposals:

Balance, Bole, Arrow - kept the same

Ewer: Combines current Spire and Ewer to give 20% TP/MP Cost Reduction. If this is too weak compared to new Spire, add a 10% healing buff.

Spire: New Spire grants 10% increased TP/MP Restoration including TP gen on autoattacks, Bard songs/MCN turrets and refresh ticks (but doesn't restore TP/MP in and of itself)

Spear: Stays 20% cooldown reduction, but applies to abilities already on cooldown when the card hits. This makes it easier to coordinate and use.

That way we keep two "resource-related" cards, but make them easier to use regardless of the party composition.
I'm not opposed to the idea of making all of the cards "useful", but I think that method is still too reliant on RNG. Draw Bole during a burn phase? Lel. Draw TP/MP reduction during a phase change, when the boss is invulnerable? Kek. Yes, Shuffle and Royal Road can "reduce" these likelihoods, but Royal Road forces you to sit idle for another 30 seconds before being able to Draw again, and Shuffle won't be up for every Draw that you do (and even assuming you CAN'T Draw the same card again, as I proposed, that's still only a 20% chance of Drawing the card that you want after Shuffling, whereas if we only had four cards total that would jump to 33%).

I appreciate the concern about the lore, but it wouldn't be hard to revamp the job quest to only give us four possible cards. Tie the other two heavenly gates into other skills, like an "oh-shit" heal button and/or another card manipulation ability. I love the lore in this game as well, but detest it when people use it as a shield for imperfect game design (RNG-reliant battle classes like AST and MCH, GC restrictions for Frontlines PVP, etc).