Why don't astro cards stack?

[HyoMinPark]

I would have agreed that stacking AST cards would be OP, however something has just occured to me.

You could have 30s of double strength Balance. (stacked Balance)
Or you can have 60s of regular Balance. (staggered Balance)

The net result is pretty much the same.
The latter is currently available with coordination...

So is it really that OP?
Of course with stacked you could also coordinate with other burst phases, which would increase overall DPS by more than staggered, but for the vast majority of players that wouldn't happen.

Having 30 seconds of +10% stacked Balance during a key period like the opening of a fight is more valuable than 60 seconds of +5% staggered Balance—mainly because the opening of the fight has a myriad of other buffs that stack with this +10%, and it is also the highest point of concentrated damage (in addition to “reopeners” where everything lines up again later on in the fight). You have to consider that, in addition to this +10%, you will likely also have buffs like Trick Attack, Battle Litany, Battle Voice, Foe’s Requiem, and Hypercharge (NIN/DRG/BRD/MCH is still the ideal comp for parse runs as far as I’m aware, with MCH being subbed out with SMN/BLM for speeds). Plus, people will be using Infusions for main stat gains during this time.

60 seconds of 5% staggered Balance would still leave the first Balance buffed by opening buffs and pots, which would inherently make it more valuable than the second round of Balance. This is already the case now when an AST will get a “double Balance” and give a COpp’d Balance in the opener (40 seconds) plus another 30 second Balance after that one falls off (for a total of 70 seconds)—the first Balance is a higher gain because it’s combined with so many other buffs; the second one is weaker because it’s usually naked, or paired only with 1-minute party buffs like Trick Attack (or 1-minute personal buffs like Fight or Flight and Internal Release).



The two are not equal to one another in terms of how much they would give a coordinated group; so no, the net result is not the same.