Thread: Astrologian 5.0 Discussion

Originally Posted by MooceJuice

I was thinking something similar to this actually. It would even be nice too if it were something simple like:

Melee cards-
Balance (solar): Damage buff
Spear (celestial): Critical buff
Arrow (lunar): Cast/Recast/GCD reduction

Ranged cards-
Bole (solar): Damage buff
Spire (celestial): Critical buff
Ewer (lunar): Cast/Recast/GCD reduction

Doing it this way preserves the current ShB system of 3 cards for melee classes and 3 cards for ranged classes. Additionally it returns some of the uniqueness of the old card system by featuring 3 of the old DPS increase card effects.

Solar cards: damage%
Celestial cards: Critical buff
Lunar cards: Cast/Recast/GCD reduction

With the old card system there was always a problem with balance fishing. I feel like the new Divination ability though already naturally encourages card variety. Even if there is a problem with balance fishing in the future then simply increasing the potency of divination should fix it. Devs could increase Divination potency and decrease Balance/Bole potency for example.

I don't mind the current system but it's not very engaging to fish for cards that all have the same effect. It's a bit like eating the same thing for dinner every night. Technically it's a livable existence but there's no zest to it. I think adding even a little variety to the card system could go a long way.

(First FFXIV forums post, please be gentle!)

You may as well remove Balance, Spear, Arrow, Bole, Spire, and Ewer and just turn them into Solar, Celestial, and Lunar cards. There is no point for there being 6 cards if they share 3 effects. Splitting them into melee and ranged just makes it so that you get bad results if the matchmaker does not give you melee and ranged classes instead of just one or the other. If you want 6 cards then each needs to grant its own individual effect.

The old card system balance fishing could have been fixed by just changing the balance card specifically to something less universally applicable like Direct Hit. Not to mention balance fishing was only a major thing at the savage raid, ex trial, and ultimate levels. While the rest of the content made use of everything.

Divination at current does not encourage card variety, as there is no card variety. You get your seals and then minor arcana everything for the 3 min cooldown. Which is a far cry from the options that the old card system had with Spread, Royal Road, and the old Lord/Lady of Crowns which let you manipulate your card buffs to make them better in different ways or affect everyone.

It also does not help that the card buffs and divination itself have too short durations. This hurts especially bad because of Celestial Opposition no longer extending buffs and Time Dilation no longer being a thing.