Ast cards should stack.

[Cidel]

Ehhh, I dunno about "stacking" effects, but it would be nice if one AST's expanded card effect didn't overwrite another AST's preexisting extended or enhanced single-target effect, since those potencies are stronger. Somewhat minor, but there have been times when a co-AST single card buffs a party member (say, arrow on a BLM) and I have an expanded balance ticking. I think a card's relative strength should take priority between 2 ASTs, ie: Expanded < Normal/Extended < Enhanced. A normal/extended card wouldn't overwrite an enhanced card and an expanded effect can only overwrite another expanded effect.

You should know right off the bat that the DF already uses an algorithm so two of the same job are not paired together. If you are paired with another AST, it means that there are no other healers in the queue, or none that meet the requirements for the duty you are in.

Is this really an actual thing? Because there have been countless 24-man raids where I see one double healer party (or more) and looking at the other parties figure the algorithm should have just made a party with an AST/WHM each instead of AST/AST and WHM/WHM parties. Or AST/WHM and AST/SCH instead of AST/AST and WHM/SCH. Unless 24-man raids are the exception to this rule.

[Veis_Alveare]

...

Completely unrelated - your signature is one of the best things I've ever seen on these forums.

[Cidel]

Completely unrelated - your signature is one of the best things I've ever seen on these forums.

[Gemina]

Is this really an actual thing? Because there have been countless 24-man raids where I see one double healer party (or more) and looking at the other parties figure the algorithm should have just made a party with an AST/WHM each instead of AST/AST and WHM/WHM parties. Or AST/WHM and AST/SCH instead of AST/AST and WHM/SCH. Unless 24-man raids are the exception to this rule.

Indeed it is. Particularly in 8-man queues. For alliance raids, the algorithm is not perfect. Think LoTR when transporting locked out players are placed in the wrong alliance for the Atomos'. I've had those alliances as well where two of them have double of the same healer, but different from each other. Makes for some good lols. I actually don't mind it that much since I get to adlo the tank in the alliance without a shielder.

[Ilan]

As said above our cards should stack when u got 2 ast in a group 1 of us are worthless and might as well afk since we can be overlapped with cards even with just 1 we should be allowed 2 stack 2 cards on a person.

pretty much when i see another ast in party i dc myself and wait 2 be kicked because my cards don't matter when they either overlap or have theirs up

So you are disrupting the gameplay of other people on purpose. I know that something will come in your direction pretty soon

Stacking cards would be completly broken so no this is not a good idea. You can use your cards exactly like ninjas have to time their trick attacks to not overwrite the other trick attack.

[Brandedblade]

getting the ewer and the tp card over and over again even with redrae, cheat draw lol yes it can be extremely bad i literaly went through 1 dunguon and those 2 were all i drew until the last fight and i drew bole ao ya it rlly is

If only there was an ability that converted bad cards into free healing or damage potency... if only.

[Selova]

They should rework AST cards so that they are all personal buffs that only influence your own healing and dps. Introducing raid-wide dps buffs on healers was one of the single worst mistakes that the development team made.

I have no idea how you could possibly come to the conclusion that taking away utility from a support job would ever be a good idea.

[Lyth]

AST is functionally a better WHM with cards, but more specifically, there's really only one card that anyone truly cares about: Balance.

"Utility" is such an umbrella term that you can mean anything with it. Just swap in the word "useful" anytime you want to say "utility" and your meaning won't change. Raid dps buffs are their own kettle of fish, though. Because players (especially in NA and EU) care so much about their personal numbers, any job that can make those numbers look better is going to become very desirable. Gotta bring a DRG for piercing. Gotta bring a NIN for trick. I know you cleared on WHM, but would you mind switching to AST so that we can get some sweet, sweet Balance?

Balancing out jobs that carry these essential dps buffs against ones that just bring big numbers is a complex task. But it's much better to restrict that to being a DPS job balance problem. Healer and Tank balance can get complicated enough without having to worry about these sorts of things.

If anything, the present focus on dps buffing cards actually takes away AST's support focus. If your cards were all about defensive and support effects, it would be a different story all together. Then it would be less about always trying to get that one powerful dps boost for your group and more about trying to get the correct support tool for that specific mechanic. Like imagine if you could hand out a knockback prevention card, for example. That's real support. DPS buffs tend to be a bit one dimensional, and result in one card to rule them all. That's terrible for Balance, in both senses of the word.

[Seraphor]

Something I posted in the AST 5.0 Wishlist topic, would seem to apply here.

New Spire effect: Reduces MP costs for target by 10%.
This would compliment it's counterpart in Ewer, while Ewer would recover lost MP, Spire would preserve MP, and with TP merging into MP this will benefit anyone.

Sects effect cards: Current effects are present in Diurnal Sect*, new effects for Nocturnal Sect target enemies instead of party.
Balance: Enemy deals 8% less damage for 15s.
Bole: Enemy takes 8% more damage for 15s. (does not stack with Trick attack)
Arrow: Enemy’s attack speed is reduced by 10% for 15s. (but certain special moves and phase changes are unaffected)
Spear: Enemy cannot deal critical hits for 15s.
Ewer: Inflicts a 50 potency DoT for 15s.
Spire: Enemy takes 10% of the damage they inflict on any party members for 15s.

The point of this is to allow dual-AST compositions to use their cards without worrying about overwriting the other’s effects.
The duration is nerfed to 15s for Nocturnal effects as they could be more OP than party buffs, with Bole/Balance nerfed in potency to 8% as well.
*Diurnal Balance and Bole also nerfed to 8% effect.

I think this would also see Nocturnal Sect favoured more over Diurnal in some ways, due to an Enhanced Bole being more effective than Trick attack. (12% more damage over 15s) Would be a neat way of improving the currently inferior Nocturnal Sect.

Some additional ideas for Noct Sect.

Nocturnal Sect Minor Arcana:
Queen of Coins: Bestows a HoT on target party member for 21s.
King of Coins: Inflicts a DoT on enemy for 21s.

Celestial Opposition additional effect: Extends debuffs inflicted by yourself by 5s.
Time Dilation additional effect: Resets the value of HP-shields.
(e.g. if a 3000 HP shield is erected, they suffer 2000 dmg, then TD would reset that back to 3000, but will have no effect if the shield is already fully depleted. Hopefully the indications that changes to the battle system UI will display HP shields will make this easier to manage.)

These would give Nocturnal Sect an extra HoT it can use but on RNG, and a way to modify its shields through TD.
I thought this was the most effective way to have you enhance the effect of Noct shields, but would be too OP to have two skills like this, likewise two skills extending the duration of debuffs would be OP if you could essentially stretch a Trick attack out to 25s.

I think this is markedly less overpowered than simply letting two Balances stack. Not only because my idea nerfs them down to 8% instead of 10%, but because the debuff wouldn't stack with Trick attack, meaning that meta party compositions would likely have to choose between dual AST and a NIN, and there will probably be other downsides to having Dual AST. But importantly when pugging, those Dual AST parties would benefit, but not be any more OP than if they happened to have a NIN with them.

[Seraphor]

AST is functionally a better WHM with cards, but more specifically, there's really only one card that anyone truly cares about: Balance.

"Utility" is such an umbrella term that you can mean anything with it. Just swap in the word "useful" anytime you want to say "utility" and your meaning won't change. Raid dps buffs are their own kettle of fish, though. Because players (especially in NA and EU) care so much about their personal numbers, any job that can make those numbers look better is going to become very desirable. Gotta bring a DRG for piercing. Gotta bring a NIN for trick. I know you cleared on WHM, but would you mind switching to AST so that we can get some sweet, sweet Balance?

Balancing out jobs that carry these essential dps buffs against ones that just bring big numbers is a complex task. But it's much better to restrict that to being a DPS job balance problem. Healer and Tank balance can get complicated enough without having to worry about these sorts of things.

If anything, the present focus on dps buffing cards actually takes away AST's support focus. If your cards were all about defensive and support effects, it would be a different story all together. Then it would be less about always trying to get that one powerful dps boost for your group and more about trying to get the correct support tool for that specific mechanic. Like imagine if you could hand out a knockback prevention card, for example. That's real support. DPS buffs tend to be a bit one dimensional, and result in one card to rule them all. That's terrible for Balance, in both senses of the word.

I don't think this could really work for the game in its current state.
Defensive support and healing has a plateau, once you're surviving the mechanics, all addition efforts need to be diverted into DPS. This would mean that once you've outgeared content, ASTs cards would become completely superfluous, that's where Balance/Spear come in.