Overriding Ast Cards.

[Morningstar1337]

You know of Royal Road and its 3 effects? AST has another move (Time Dilation) that replicates one of these effects; extension of buff duration.

I propose there be a counterpart to Enhance and Expanded Royal Road. One that increased the buff potency and another that works like Deployment Tactics.

The kicker? they are based on Sect.

What do you think? Would something like this work to help Noct Stance or not? And if so what buff would it get?

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Overall I am quite happy with AST, if I would change anything it would be to be able to place Collective Unconscious like you can with bards Flaming Arrow.

[Teraluna]

It really doesn't.

Out of all the problems AST has, the cards are actually the one thing that they got right. Don't call for fixes where they aren't needed, please.

The OP raised a problem of the cards, showing that they do need fixing. That's just one issue.
When you see people going through the entire dungeon not bothering with them at all - and the group still successful - it shows they are an unsuitable mechanic for a fast moving and hectic group encounter.

You can say these people aren't playing the class to it's full use. I would say, so what?
These card buffs (with the terrible rng manner around them) weren't needed before with the likes of the WHM. The Ast uses the same re-skinned proven core skills plus a couple of others, so of course it should get the group through with them.
The cards with the pot luck mechanism are slot filling extras, put there to pad the class out.

If people aren't using skills it's normally one of two reasons:
1 - They are ignored because there are better ones to select in the limited time available.
2 - The mechanism is ill-suited to the encounter environment.

The cards fail against both criteria, with players forced to have a quick attempt in the middle of a fast moving battle to see if luck's on their side, then either spamming a not needed buff just for the sake of using it, or ignoring them.

[Nicobo]

...If anything I've had more annoyances by giving out a Enhanced (15%) Balance and extending it to a target and it get overrode with an Expanded (5%) Arrow or such to a target. So aggravating...

Sorry to OP , I think overriding is a good and appropriate design.

[Miste]

The OP raised a problem of the cards, showing that they do need fixing. That's just one issue.
When you see people going through the entire dungeon not bothering with them at all - and the group still successful - it shows they are an unsuitable mechanic for a fast moving and hectic group encounter.

You keep trying to make it that AST's main mechanic is supposedly the cards. It isn't. AST main mechanic is healing (just like the other two healers since SE doesn't count healer DPS when they create content).

An AST not using cards is like a SCH not DPSing when they have time or not using a fairy, a BRD not using songs, a NIN not using Huton,a DRG not using heavy thrust, a BLM not using enochian, a WHM not using any DPS spells when no one is taking damage. Can you complete the dungeon? Of course! It isn't using the job to the full potential, but this game isn't tuned hard enough outside of savage raiding for that to matter.

So really your gripe seems to be more about the lack of difficulty than the cards. If you want the cards to make a difference between success and failure then the content needs to be way more difficult where every bit of damage/TP/MP/defense/cooldowns counts. So you'd have to turn all content into savage raid level difficulty or maybe even harder...

"it shows they are an unsuitable mechanic for a fast moving and hectic group encounter." I'd like to know what content you did as an AST that brought you to this opinion? I play AST in current savage raids and I make plenty use of the cards. So they haven't been unsuitable for me.

Anyway, what OP is asking for is not a whole rework of AST or their cards. Only simply asking about making it so you cannot overwrite cards so you are bringing this thread off topic. You could just post your own thread or bump your other thread in which you already said all of this before.



I think there would be issues with OP's suggestion if it wasn't properly implemented. Like for example say I was in a group as AST with another AST and they AoE a card half way into the fight. Now my MP starts getting low and I pull an Ewer (thank god right), but I still have the other ASTs card on me....if it doesn't let me overwrite then I cannot even place my own card on myself. Another example would be if the other AST AoE or uses Ewer on players who do not need it and I draw a better card like Balance or Arrow...some of the DPS don't need Ewer but I can no longer overwrite any of them to give them an actual beneficial card. I'm just not sure if this can be implemented properly ><

Why not? Two SCHs already get penalized with non-stacking barriers.

SCH does get non-stacking barriers but you do get a bonus of having both fairy types and each of them as automatic Embrace healers. One SCH summon Eos and other summon Selene and then you get both buff pools (or you could have both summon Selene on Obey and trade off using Fey Wind for a practically constant speed boost). It pretty much makes up for the non stacking barriers. Plus at 60 SCH has way more direct healing utility to make it so double SCH isn't really penalized that bad. Emergency Tactics and Idom are really awesome.

[LunaFaye]

Rather have AST's overwriting their own or off healers cards, than standing around doing nothing. After 20 minutes in the dungeon at least it's getting entertaining, because both of them will scream at each other, name calling, initialing kicks etc. I wouldn't like to see that change under any circumstances.

[Teraluna]

Miste - I have repeatedly stated that the Ast main mechanics (core abilities) are copy/pasted from the WHM, and the cards are not. How this can be intrepreted otherwise I don't know.

Lack of difficulty with the card? Absolutely miles off, to the point where I don't think you're actually reading my full posts before typing.
It is the RNG mechanism that I have consistently commented against.

Let's look at what they have done:
They introduce rng then mitigate rng they introduce - that is just a contratidictory series of actions, serving only to fill out slots in hotbars with a clunky pot luck gimmick.

Re the Ast's core capabilities - I have no doubt at all they can handle the content - they're modelled closely on the whm. There'd be a problem if those weren't doing the trick.

The cards are extras - and as such should be a straightforward quick selection, not an unnecessarily introduced rng mechanic. Ability by random luck has no place in character skills.

[Miste]

Lack of difficulty with the card? Absolutely miles off, to the point where I don't think you're actually reading my full posts before typing.
It is the RNG mechanism that I have consistently commented against.

The cards are extras - and as such should be a straightforward quick selection, not an unnecessarily introduced rng mechanic. Ability by random luck has no place in character skills.

If you want the cards to make a difference between success and failure then the content needs to be way more difficult where every bit of damage/TP/MP/defense/cooldowns counts. So you'd have to turn all content into savage raid level difficulty or maybe even harder...

I said the content difficulty not the card difficulty. So it is you that is absolutely miles off to the point where I don't think you read what I said?

The RNG cards is what SE wanted when they made AST. So you can keep asking for AST to be overhauled to something else but I highly doubt it will happen. If AST isn't what you like you can just play one of the other healers that you do like and wait for the next healer SE makes (maybe 4.0). Maybe the next one will be more your style? If you believe RNG should not be a part of your job then just don't play AST? WHM and SCH don't have RNG cards so you already have two other healer options that work for your personal style of "no random luck cards". So I don't see why you don't leave AST for people who like it how it was meant to be considering you have two options already (WHM and SCH) that conform to your personal opinion.

Considering almost every post I've seen from you is reiterating the same things you've said in this thread, in every other AST themed thread, and threads you made yourself I am sure SE has seen your feedback already. If they haven't changed it by now based on your ideas then they probably won't. They may use your ideas for the next healer job though. So maybe instead of months and months of insisting SE change the core of the AST job (and derailing every AST thread you find to your own personal agenda) just to suit your personal desires...maybe you should offer ideas for a new healer since you obviously don't like AST. I mean I hate DRG but I am not going to tell them to overhaul it completely just to suit myself. I know lots of players who like DRG a lot how it is.

I personally think the changes you suggest (either removing the cards entirely or removing the RNG) would kill the essence of what AST was supposed to be and also make it extremely boring to play. The idea behind AST was a healer class with fortune telling cards based on RNG to alter the fates of yourself or your party members; fortune telling is inherently random. The card you draw is random, but what you do with that card can alter your fate.

It is easy to see what SE wanted for AST to be. It was for players who like the RNG of it, not ones who hate it like you do. If you ever owned a tarot card deck and used it to tell fortunes you'd know that you cannot influence which card you will draw unless you cheat or purposefully order the deck in a certain way, but that ruins the whole idea behind tarot card reading. Your fate is supposed to determine which card will be drawn and fate is supposed to be something you cannot influence so it is therefore random, but the card you draw can be interpreted differently by each person to direct their fate to a better outcome. Making all the cards readily available on cooldown would be so boring. AST would become completely one dimensional and would remove the whole idea that AST was based on.

[Teraluna]

"Your fate is supposed to determine"? - Really?
So it's now reduced to some king of mmo karma tosh? Is that honestly a sound basis for pot luck ability in a class - sorry Astro you've just been given the wrong ability because Jupiter has entered Uranus...sounds about right for that argument.

RNG has it's place - the raft of Card games, Hearthstone etc show this - the problem is developers see something that works in one environment and mistakenly think they can port it over to a different one.
And that's where it goes wrong, when you throw it into a class environment that shouldn't be based on I'm lucky / You're not lucky, but on having output based directly on input. Deciding on which one of your class's skills to use should be the challenge - as it with the other classes, and in other mmo's. Not select the ability....and oops, look what's popped up! That's just laughable for any class.

[Ragology]

AST remains viable without having to draw a single card, just as Arcanist remains viable without proccing the spell speed buff from their pets, and how White mage stays viable without freecure procs. These are all bonuses. The classes are designed to function well without them.

Getting a bad card draw as AST feels nothing like the feeling of doom when your SCH fairy dies mid boss battle with swiftcast still on cooldown.

If RNG were attached to something essential to a class, like the third part of a tanks 1-2-3 enmity combo, then you'd have a sound argument because RNG has no place there. Sure the third hit can crit, but again this is a bonus and not a necessary for a tanks enmity combo to be viable.