AST Card cycles help

[Rongway]

3) I'll only use TP/mana cards on users when they really need them. (usually longer fights). And often I'll prefer royal roading them if I feel like group wide buff outweighs the benefit for that one user (which I feel is almost always, short of a healer being OOM or there not being enough time in a fight to take advantage of another draw)

If you have physical DDs, you can throw Spire at them during trash pulls, before they need it.

Ewer on BRD, even if MP is almost full, is a thing if at least 1/3 or 2/7 of the other party members is magical.

I understand that speed on the group could mean increased use of mana/TP. But that's kind of a non-issue as it's still preferable to no buff at all.
Maybe it screws up some rotations? I'm not sure.

From 50 onward, a surprise Arrow on a BLM during trash mobs will throw him off and have him sitting there doing nothing for 3-6 seconds because of the cooldown on Transpose. If he's expecting the haste, he can avoid this by inserting a Freeze, but he has to expect it beforehand.

I feel like I'm painting myself in a corner but at the same time I have a hard time seeing how applying a card (even royal road buffed/longer) to a single player outweighs a group wide one.

In a light party, Extended Anything gives you the greatest effect per Draw out of any Royal Road effect. 200% effect on one optimal target is better than 200% effect distributed among the group including non optimal targets, and is 100% effect per Draw.

In a light party, throwing away even a single card to fish for Expanded Balance/Bole/Arrow reduces the effectiveness to 89% per Draw at best (292% effect with Celestial Opposition and Time Dilation, over three Draws). Extended Balance/Bole/Arrow is 100% effect per Draw, without blowing Opposition and Dilation. A single card with Opposition and Dilation is a whopping 183%(Balance/Bole/Arrow) or 266%(Ewer/Spire) per draw.

In a full party, if you throw away a single card while fishing for Expanded Balance/Bole/Arrow; this is 133% effect per Draw. Throwing away two cards would reduce this to 100% effect per Draw, in which case you might as well have used an Extended Balance/Bole/Arrow on an optimal target or even just a single card.

In a full party if you have Celestial Opposition and Time Dilation available, you can throw away three cards and still be at 112% effect per Draw; however, Extended Balance/Bole/Arrow with Opposition and Dilation is 141% effect per Draw, which beats Expanded Balance/Bole/Arrow if you throw away any more than one card while fishing.


So don't worry about that perfect setup. If you're out of combat and still getting ready to start, of course it's better to fish. But once combat has begun, you can get more out of the cards with less fishing and more using, even if the cards you're using are just single cards.






Here are some maths. A few combinations are not useful, or absurdaly situational, but they're included for completeness. Spear calculations are not included, and fall somewhere between the Balance/Bole/Arrow and Spear/Ewer effectiveness.

Light Party Maths

Any single card [100% effect]
Extended (1 target × 200% duration × 100% potency = 200% effect) [100% per Draw]
Expanded (4 targets × 100% duration × 50% potency = 200% effect) [100% per Draw]
Enhanced (1 target × 100% duration × 150% potency = 150% effect) [ 75% per Draw]


--


Balance/Bole/Arrow with Time Dilation

Single card [150% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration × 100% potency = 250% effect)
    [125% per Draw -- worse than single card]
        
Expanded (4 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration ×  50% potency = 225% effect)
    [112% per Draw -- worse]
        
Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration × 150% potency = 225% effect)
    [112% per Draw -- worse]

        
Ewer/Spire with Time Dilation

Single card [200% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration × 100% potency = 300% effect)
    [150% per Draw -- worse]

Expanded (4 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration ×  50% potency = 250% effect)
    [125% per Draw -- worse]

Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency = 300% effect)
    [150% per Draw -- worse]

        
--


Balance/Bole/Arrow with Celestial Opposition

Single card [133% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  33% duration × 100% potency = 233% effect)
    [116% per Draw -- worse]

Expanded (4 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 4 targets ×  33% duration ×  50% potency = 266% effect)
    [133% per Draw -- equal to or worse than single card]

Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  33% duration × 150% potency = 200% effect)
    [100% per Draw -- worse]


Ewer/Spire with Celestial Opposition

Single card [166% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  66% duration × 100% potency = 266% effect)
    [133% per Draw -- worse]
    

Expanded (4 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 4 targets ×  66% duration ×  50% potency = 333% effect)
    [166% per Draw -- equal to or worse than single card]

Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  66% duration × 150% potency = 250% effect)
    [125% per Draw -- worse]
        
        
--


Balance/Bole/Arrow with Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition

Single card [183% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  33% duration × 100% potency = 283% effect)
    [142% per Draw -- worse]
        
Expanded (4 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration ×  50% potency
        + 4 targets ×  33% duration ×  50% potency = 292% effect)
    [146% per Draw -- worse]
        
Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  33% duration × 150% potency = 275% effect)
    [137% per Draw -- worse]

        
Ewer/Spire with Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition

Single card [266% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  66% duration × 100% potency = 366% effect)
    [183% per Draw -- worse]

Expanded (4 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 4 targets ×  66% duration ×  50% potency = 383% effect)
    [192% per Draw -- worse]

Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  66% duration × 150% potency = 400% effect)
    [200% per Draw -- worse]

Full Party Maths (same as light party except for Expanded cards)

Any single card [100% effect]
Extended (1 target × 200% duration × 100% potency = 200% effect) [100% per Draw]
Expanded (8 targets × 100% duration × 50% potency = 400% effect) [200% per Draw]
                                              [Discard one card:  133% per Draw]
                                              [Discard two cards: 100% per Draw]
Enhanced (1 target × 100% duration × 150% potency = 150% effect) [ 75% per Draw]


--


Balance/Bole/Arrow with Time Dilation

Single card [150% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration × 100% potency = 250% effect)
    [125% per Draw -- worse]
        
Expanded (8 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration ×  50% potency = 425% effect)
    [212% per Draw -- better]
    [Discard one card: 142% per Draw -- worse]
        
Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration × 150% potency = 225% effect)
    [112% per Draw -- worse]

        
Ewer/Spire with Time Dilation

Single card [200% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration × 100% potency = 300% effect)
    [150% per Draw -- worse]

Expanded (8 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration ×  50% potency = 450% effect)
    [225% per Draw -- better]
    [Discard one card: 150% per Draw -- worse]

Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency = 300% effect)
    [150% per Draw -- worse]

        
--


Balance/Bole/Arrow with Celestial Opposition

Single card [133% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  33% duration × 100% potency = 233% effect)
    [116% per Draw -- worse]

Expanded (8 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 8 targets ×  33% duration ×  50% potency = 533% effect)
    [266% per Draw -- better]
    [Discard one card:  177% per Draw -- better]
    [Discard two cards: 133% per Draw -- equal to or worse than single card]

Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  33% duration × 150% potency = 200% effect)
    [100% per Draw -- worse]


Ewer/Spire with Celestial Opposition

Single card [166% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  66% duration × 100% potency = 266% effect)
    [133% per Draw -- worse]

Expanded (8 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 8 targets ×  66% duration ×  50% potency = 666% effect)
    [333% per Draw -- better]
    [Discard one card:  222% per Draw -- better]
    [Discard two cards: 166% per Draw -- equal to or worse than single card]

Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  66% duration × 150% potency = 250% effect)
    [125% per Draw -- worse]
        
        
--


Balance/Bole/Arrow with Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition

Single card [183% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  33% duration × 100% potency = 283% effect)
    [141% per Draw -- worse]
        
Expanded (8 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration ×  50% potency
        + 8 targets ×  33% duration ×  50% potency = 558% effect)
    [279% per Draw -- better]
    [Discard one card:  186% per Draw -- marginally better than single card]
    [Discard two cards: 140% per Draw -- worse]
        
Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  50% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  33% duration × 150% potency = 275% effect)
    [137% per Draw -- worse]

        
Ewer/Spire with Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition

Single card [266% effect]

Extended (1 target  × 200% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration × 100% potency
        + 1 target  ×  66% duration × 100% potency = 366% effect)
    [183% per Draw -- worse]

Expanded (8 targets × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration ×  50% potency
        + 8 targets ×  66% duration ×  50% potency = 716% effect)
    [358% per Draw -- better]
    [Discard one card:  238% per Draw -- worse]

Enhanced (1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  × 100% duration × 150% potency
        + 1 target  ×  66% duration × 150% potency = 400% effect)
    [200% per Draw -- worse]