Rework to AST card mechanics (Idea)

[Ariel_Valmont]

Personally I think the rng to the cards is integral to the theme of the job, something they could do is give us a stacking buff similar to warrior's wrath, where every time we cast a card we get a stack that increases healing potency, shield strength, card duration/potency or something else that I haven't mentioned. It could be connected to the sect you are in.

[Yhisa]

Personally I think the rng to the cards is integral to the theme of the job, something they could do is give us a stacking buff similar to warrior's wrath, where every time we cast a card we get a stack that increases healing potency, shield strength, card duration/potency or something else that I haven't mentioned. It could be connected to the sect you are in.

NONONONONO........... please stop thinking of other jobs and try and mimic there skills and place it to us ... im already tired that people are trying to make us too similar to WHM and SCH..

[Dyvid]

snip

Interesting idea. Maybe add a trait, 10% chance of potency buff when you draw, to cover all 3 bases of royal road. Also I would prefer to change cards into something like this:

Spire Card = Increase healing potency - gives a buff to all healers, not just us
Ewer Card = Restore MP and TP - we shouldn't be a replacement for BRD/MCH and most classes now have a way to restore resources so I don't want to tie up two cards for these
Spear Card = Enhances target players abilities - not sure if it's possible to do this but spear is broke right now since it can't speed up abilities already on cooldown


Just an off idea but when you use Celestial Opposite it adds an effect that the next card drawn would be a debuff for enemy.
CO: Spear Card = Diminishes enemy abilities
CO: Balance Card = Decrease enemy damage dealt
CO: Arrow Card = adds slow effect to enemy
CO: Bole Card = Decrease Physical Defense
CO: Ewer Card = Decrease Magic Defense
CO: Spire Card = Decrease enemies HP - a DoT attack i guess lol

[Ariel_Valmont]

I'm not suggesting making us like a whm, or a warrior for that matter, all jobs have similar characteristics most seem to have a coupe dot abilities, whm has shields (protect stoneskin) sch has regen (whispering dawn) I was merely using the way wrath works as an example. Imagine you cast balance on a target, you get 1 stack of a buff that does something akin to what i mentioned earlier. Now every time that you cast another card you get another stack, up to a certain limit. This doesn't make us like a warrior, and it keeps our identity intact. It adds more utility to our cards and could be used to boost nocturnal sect, which many people seem to have a problem with.

[Geardagas]

Not a big fan of most of these suggestions. Royal Road drawing a card would defeat the purpose of royal road. Why not just automatically apply the rr buffs to draw if that was the case?

And you didn't even suggest the most obvious and effective fix that could happen to ast - shuffle being prevented from redrawing the same card.

[AlphaSonic]

Not a big fan of most of these suggestions. Royal Road drawing a card would defeat the purpose of royal road. Why not just automatically apply the rr buffs to draw if that was the case?

And you didn't even suggest the most obvious and effective fix that could happen to ast - shuffle being prevented from redrawing the same card.

If Shuffle had the same cooldown as Draw I wouldn't mind if I redrew the same card. Shuffle is like a second opportunity and some times destiny sucks, the problem is that second opportunity to draw a card has 1 minute cooldown.

[Ahlah]

NONONONONO........... please stop thinking of other jobs and try and mimic there skills and place it to us ... im already tired that people are trying to make us too similar to WHM and SCH..

What are you talking about? At least 50% of AST skills are borrowed version of existing healing spells/ abilities. Don't want to be similar to WHM or SCH? Then stop casting any spell with regen or shield effect. Essential dignity is somewhat similar to Lustrate with longer cooldown. Lightspeed = weaker version of presence of mind. Synastry is the only truly unique healing ability whcih breathes some fresh air into the job.

The card system is supposed to make us special but fail horribly due to its clanky mechanism and lackluster effect.

[Shurrikhan]

What are you talking about? At least 50% of AST skills are borrowed version of existing healing spells/ abilities. Don't want to be similar to WHM or SCH? Then stop casting any spell with regen or shield effect. Essential dignity is somewhat similar to Lustrate with longer cooldown. Lightspeed = weaker version of presence of mind. Synastry is the only truly unique healing ability which breathes some fresh air into the job.

The card system is supposed to make us special but fail horribly due to its clanky mechanism and lackluster effect.

If the other parts are all painfully borrowed, wouldn't that make Yhisa's not wanting to borrow additional other-job mechanics to slap onto AST's only unique portion, cards, all the more understandable??? These suggestions are all aimed at making the card system powerful enough to be less clanky and/or less lackluster.

I see your point and don't get me wrong I am 100% for remake of card system.

ASTs who embrace borrowed (weaker) version of healing spells/abilities and reject copied mechanics with pontential benifits to the card system just sound hypocritical to me.

I think that's only because there are plenty of much more (1) unique or (2) straightforward ways to buff them. And in the end, a borrowed cure/shield is... kind of hard to avoid. And even if we give AST so more unique design to play with on its more obvious (healing) benefits, we run the risk of being "too complicated".

For instance, here are some concepts that I felt could play into AST (and in a couple cases WHM or SCH):

• Variable Shield: Any shield that absorbs only a portion of incoming damage, instead of as much as it can. It can be a set amount (e.g. 10%) or conditional (based on % health that would be taken). It is more akin to a buff than an increase in maximum health. (The majority of AST shielding)
• Regenerating Shield: Any shield that regenerates its health or coverage (% absorption) over time. May or may not be removed upon reaching zero effect or health. (As below)
• Living Shield: Any shield that regenerates its health and/or coverage (% absorption) over time. Will be removed or at least change states if it loses all its health. (Bole, Collective Unconscious - Nocturne, etc.)
• Shared Shield: Any shield with a maximum health shared across multiple party members. (Collective Unconscious, Helios - Nocturne)
• Group Buff: Any buff that gains stacks or some other form of power increase per party member who shares or otherwise contributes to the buff. (Starry Sky, Orion, Sagittarius)

Playing around with some job revision ideas, I used these primarily to make the Sects, (Aspected) Helios, Aspected Benefic, and especially abilities like Collective Unconsciousness more unique, while changing Combust and Combust II (renamed Pulsar) to make use of the 'theoretical sun' concept, adding an actual draw-in effect to Gravity, and putting light/dark attachments to the Sects' effect on Helios (for obvious reasons I would have liked to have renamed Noctural Sect Helios to his sister Selene but cannot...). But even with all that, making AST more of a tactical, support... curasa seems an apt description... healer who tends towards either keeping everyone at a sort of level status quo or creating centers of activity (of gravity, even, if you forgive the pun-like word-y-thing) around which to act -- a true niche of its own -- I can't honestly say that it will necessarily be more fun to play.

[Ahlah]

If the other parts are all painfully borrowed, wouldn't that make Yhisa's not wanting to borrow additional other-job mechanics to slap onto AST's only unique portion, cards, all the more understandable??? These suggestions are all aimed at making the card system powerful enough to be less clanky and/or less lackluster.

I see your point and don't get me wrong I am 100% for remake of card system.

ASTs who embrace borrowed (weaker) version of healing spells/abilities and reject copied mechanics with pontential benifits to the card system just sound hypocritical to me.

[Lastelli]

I read this a lot...reduce draw cd. Imho that whould be a terrible idea.
Cards micromanagement reduces the healing output of an AST which is already quite weak when compared to other healers'. This is because managing cards will clip with the GCD, reducing the time you can actually use to heal. It's not like we can use AB twice or thrice when we need to draw-shuffle-use the card or spread. A 30 seconds cd is fine, what needs to be buff is the cards' effects.