Yoshi-P's Interview with Famitsu includes a few comments about AST

[Geardagas]

How isn't it a necessary requirement?

How does redrawing the same card not completely negate the entire purpose of using shuffle?

[NorthernLadMSP]

How isn't it a necessary requirement?

How does redrawing the same card not completely negate the entire purpose of using shuffle?

It is a necessary requirement. Shuffle is probably the most annoying aspect of AST, as (at least for me), the same discarded card is drawn again at least 50-60% of the time.

[Ghishlain]

How isn't it a necessary requirement?

How does redrawing the same card not completely negate the entire purpose of using shuffle?

The question I counter with is "how is it necessary"?

I know I'm playing devil's advocate here but consider the tooltip:

"Return the currently drawn arcanum to your deck and draw another."

If you take this literally, this means

1. Return card to deck
2. Shuffle deck
3. Draw new card

Dev's could say "this is working as intended" and leave it at that. Is it annoying? Most certainly so, but is a necessary change? Not in my mind, but that's just my personal opinion.

[Pentacus]

The question I counter with is "how is it necessary"?

I know I'm playing devil's advocate here but consider the tooltip:

"Return the currently drawn arcanum to your deck and draw another."

If you take this literally, this means

1. Return card to deck
2. Shuffle deck
3. Draw new card

Dev's could say "this is working as intended" and leave it at that. Is it annoying? Most certainly so, but is a necessary change? Not in my mind, but that's just my personal opinion.

it's pretty fitting with the class's lore too, as Jannequinard explained it, shuffle is delaying a reading for another time (maybe that's why everyone gets tons of spires? shuffle is screwing over future-you? :P), so perhaps redrawing the same card is fate saying "no, you're using this card NOW."

it would be nice if redrawing the same card gave us SOMETHING as compensation for wasting our CD though (eg, reducing the CD of Draw if you play it instead of discarding it (or perhaps a heal buff or refresh for "playing along" with fate))

[DarkerOrange]

Yea, taking the time to get an Enhanced/Extended Arrow/Balance can take 60/90 secs or more, and when you do get it, a SCH's DPS is still far better needs big changes IMO.

[Khalithar]

For fixes for AST, I'd rather see a buff to Diurnal stance and make AST the healer that specializes in HoT's with some burst healing here and there for when it's needed.

I have no idea how to fix the cards though outside of possibly making them all 6 separate active abilities, maybe not have the cooldown start until you've used all 6? Make it all about comboing two every 15 seconds with Royal Road.

[Alahra]

It seems unlikely that we'll see full control over which card buffs we have at a given time, if only because of the logistics involved. Most classes (AST included) are already facing ability bloat issues, which greatly limits the ways in which they can give us control. They can't give us five additional Draw abilities (one for each card, plus the original Draw being assigned to one as well) without making Action Bars quite unwieldy for AST.

The best option I can imagine would be for Shuffle to be largely redesigned. Put it on a short cooldown (5 seconds or something), and allow constant redraws until we get what we want. They could even, for extreme control, put it on a miniscule cooldown (0.5 seconds, like Mudra, perhaps). But that doesn't really make the job play fluidly at all, as you'd run around trying to squeeze in constant Shuffles while healing.

I think if we see major card overhauls, they'll be more along the lines of expanding the usability of existing cards (such as by giving each of them a secondary effect that is more general--a HoT effect, for instance) so that we're less likely to feel the need to throw away a card that isn't especially useful at a given moment.

[SuzakuCMX]

*snippity snap*

I don't really want full control, because why would I ever pick anything other than Balance except in extreme cases? I'd rather they buff all the other cards to make up for it. Right now the RNG is bad because anything except Balance/Arrow and sometimes Ewer really feels like the impact didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. If the other cards actually felt like they had an impact, I wouldn't mind the fact that I didn't get Balance/Arrow at any point in the fight.

So maybe if they made Shuffle so you could recast it 3 times in the next 10 seconds, so you get 5 chances at getting the card you want (Draw + Shuffle + 3 recasts)?

Technically, a group with an AST healer could probably forgo a BRD/MCH allowing for a little more party DPS. It's just that there isn't a good enough reason for players to make the mental change given the overall powerlevel of AST currently.

Maybe if AoE Spire/Ewer wasn't awful and it wasn't up to RNG.

[Alahra]

I don't really want full control, because why would I ever pick anything other than Balance except in extreme cases? I'd rather they buff all the other cards to make up for it.

I agree, honestly. But the idea comes up in just about every AST thread at this point. Outside of potential balance concerns (oh hey, a pun), there's just not a simple way to pull it off logistically within the current framework.

[SuzakuCMX]

I agree, honestly. But the idea comes up in just about every AST thread at this point. Outside of potential balance concerns (oh hey, a pun), there's just not a simple way to pull it off logistically within the current framework.

I've been thinking more and more and maybe the best thing to do is give AST better mana management and healing so they can contribute to DPS, and then reworking Balance to be an indirect DPS increase like Spire/Ewer/Arrow/Spear are. Maybe make it raise Crit Rate? Then they could buff the cards a lot more and they are all a lot more comparable, and it doesn't feel like you got shafted everytime you draw a card that isn't Balance.