Thread: Astrologian 5.0 Discussion

Originally Posted by Cyrocco

In all honesty, after four years with the same card system, was anyone actively thinking about what they were doing with the cards?

Does this matter? Familiarity with the class doesn't mean the system isn't still complex and versatile - the cards had different purposes, and knowing which situations in which to apply them, or which cards would be a good draw for that moment, or what you would use each card for if you draw it is still part of the fun. It was great when I was struggling with a dying party in a 24-man and was begging for a Ewer to help me out, or at least hoping I flipped into a Lady of Crowns to buy some time for my mana to regen, or for Lucid/Refresh/Mana Shift/Lightspeed to be up. Even being able to supplement TP for some more AoE rotations for the tank or a neglected DPS felt cool. I've saved several runs with stacking a Bole over a shield that wouldn't've be possible otherwise.

Hell, even the functional DPS increases still made us feel like we had options in how to play them. It was cool to see a party of casters and know that Arrow is going to see more use than it would usually, or to see a BRD in a dungeon and rubbing my hands and hoping for a Spear over a Balance to help smoothen their rotations.

Being able to make those quick, on-the-fly decisions with the cards feels great because we put in the work to know which cards worked when, and had become so familiar with the system that we didn't have to think anymore - we made those decisions instinctively and felt good about it.

Were we solving complex equations every time we drew a card? No. Nobody would say that, either. The fun isn't in staring at your party vs your drawn card and engaging brain for a few seconds; the fun is in having your hard work towards memorising the card effects/classes they work with pay off by being able to rail off cards like a machine gun and feel like you were playing more efficiently because you know the cards so well.

It felt like we mastered something. Now, there's nothing really to master. Every card does the same thing, and the tooltips/UI tell you where to place them.

Originally Posted by Suishouhime

But why does that matter?

This matters because raid healers only use damage utility and new healers don't know how to adapt to situations.

Astrologians who regularly matched a buff to the proper Job were likely in the minority.

Originally Posted by Suishouhime

As I've been saying throughout this thread, high-tier raiding isn't the majority of the content in the game.

From the highest tiered content to the lowest leve, once you're used to it, you don't need situational. This is how XIV works.

Originally Posted by Suishouhime

high-tier raiding isn't the majority of the content in the game.

What a coincidence, Ewer, Spire, and Bole usage aren't the majority of cast cards, should I just ignore them?

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Originally Posted by Cyrocco

I don't really like that they've all been made into the same thing, there's definitely a better way to have gone about it,

Originally Posted by Suishouhime

...fun in its versatility, not something that should be purged.

I'm not really going to entertain an argument on this point, because I haven't stated an opposing opinion, so I don't know who this is directed at.

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All things said and done, you prefer the old system, and I'd like to see what SE can do the the new one, and because

Originally Posted by Cyrocco

there's definitely a better way to have gone about it,

I hope to see the cards changed from pure DPS buffs, to something other than cards that saw pitiful amounts of use.

Originally Posted by Cyrocco

This matters because raid healers only use damage utility and new healers don't know how to adapt to situations.

This presupposes that Savage raid healers are the only players that matter, and that Savage raid content is the only content that matters. I disagree. I think content outside of Savage raiding also matters and that it's silly to remove a system which still saw a lot of versatile use outside of Savage.

Of course there's an adjustment period where new ASTs sub-50 are still learning the class, but I'm not sure why that's relevant, considering that applies to every single class's rotation and I'm sure nobody would argue that we should remove Aetherflow or Bahamut just because new SMN players need some time to adjust to their rotation and feel out the flow of it.

"New people need to learn their class" is hardly an indictment of the class's mechanics.

I'm also not sure what pug ASTs you were encountering, but I've rarely had a problem with ASTs not applying the buffs correctly. I've also never encountered AST mains who suddenly become too confused by anything other than damage utility when they do pug content after Savage raiding for a while.

Originally Posted by Cyrocco

From the highest tiered content to the lowest leve, once you're used to it, you don't need situational. This is how XIV works.

Unfortunately, that's not quite how words work. Those cards are still situational, and are still useful in those situations. Knowing how to adapt to those situational changes doesn't suddenly make them not situational changes - it's just proof of how skilled you've become at adapting to them.

Originally Posted by Cyrocco

What a coincidence, Ewer, Spire, and Bole usage aren't the majority of cast cards, should I just ignore them?

This is a nonsequitur. The majority of content isn't Savage raiding, and therefore there's still plenty of content where those cards are still played and still have functional utility.

Just because you don't personally use those cards a majority of the time doesn't mean that they lack use in general - they still have a wide array of uses, in fact, which I--and other users--have explained in this thread, and which you consistently seem to be ignoring in favour of talking about the one situation of Savage raids.

You're perfectly at liberty to ignore those cards if you want, though, I guess.

Originally Posted by Suishouhime

Being able to make those quick, on-the-fly decisions with the cards feels great because we put in the work to know which cards worked when, and had become so familiar with the system that we didn't have to think anymore - we made those decisions instinctively and felt good about it.

This though! This so much!
This is excalty why I played and loved Astro. Mini-Decision making between healing and dps-ing.
You sum it all up so well.