Astrologian Cards Can't Be a Coin Flip: A petition

[Shurrikhan]

They went from Poker level interesting to Uno level interesting really quick.

Uno? This is literally Heads & Tails. And without any Rosencrantz and Guildenstern humor.

[Hash_Browns]

I hate this argument. You dont need to play it to know less options will suck. Ast is a balance bot plain and simple. Can the new system be fun? Possibly. I dont count on it.
And fate and chance are literally part of what makes Ast, Ast. People who didnt like that should never have played the class to begin with

Are you gatekeeping playing a class?

[Ceasaria]

Leaving this aside, 3 out of 6 cards gonna be useless just because the changes they're making to the combat system..

You tell me, I will never run out of mana ? Tank will never need additionnal damage reduction ?
Only Spire should have been reworked (plenty options available like "mini Mantra", Accelerate movement speed, give/reduce enmity, give instant cast, etc.) not all the cards system.

[Seoulstar]

To answer both of you on a gameplay being a balance machine is more about being consistenly able to put out a buff to your party instead of praying RNJesus. Seen plenty if not too many 1-2% enrage that could've been spared by an AST giving balances if only he had drawn one. Had a seiryu few days ago, was helping a friend, ast literally draw'd 1 balance in the whole fight. There was a lot of first timer, we still managed to get it to 1%. Now thats a case on a billion but if the changes were up, that would've been clear.

Leaving this aside, 3 out of 6 cards gonna be useless just because the changes they're making to the combat system.. I'm sorry to hear that this change ruined your class but SE balances things based on raiding content and how consistent a class can get, hell they even giving BRD straigther shot buff with barrage. All the changes in ShB has been made with this in mind. Also ShB isn't up yet don't jump to conclusion at least wait it to get released and try it before saying it got ruined!

I don't pray to RNGesus because I don't desperately search for balance cards. I use what I get. That is basically AST, it's not a balance bot class and if your party has to solely depend on a card to make sure you win the fight, then your party needs to work on their actual DPS and not actually depend on the AST getting the card and speaking of "useless" cards. Ok, so I'm running out of mana or my cohealer just was revived and need MP? Give them an ewer, Toss a bole on the tank so he'll take less damage so you can dps a bit more, give the bard extra crit, etc. Those cards are only "useless" because you don't know how to use them. You just depend on the balance card.

Also, yes ShB isn't up yet. But that doesn't mean I can't express my disappointment in what they've done to the cards. It's not like when it releases i'm going to be like "OMG! I love the cards! I love getting the same cards over and over again!" That is not what made AST fun to me, what made AST fun was I never knew what I was going to get, and what I got, I used it.

[Hash_Browns]

I don't pray to RNGesus because I don't desperately search for balance cards. I use what I get. That is basically AST, it's not a balance bot class and if your party has to solely depend on a card to make sure you win the fight, then your party needs to work on their actual DPS and not actually depend on the AST getting the card and speaking of "useless" cards. Ok, so I'm running out of mana or my cohealer just was revived and need MP? Give them an ewer, Toss a bole on the tank so he'll take less damage so you can dps a bit more, give the bard extra crit, etc. Those cards are only "useless" because you don't know how to use them. You just depend on the balance card.

Also, yes ShB isn't up yet. But that doesn't mean I can't express my disappointment in what they've done to the cards. It's not like when it releases i'm going to be like "OMG! I love the cards! I love getting the same cards over and over again!" That is not what made AST fun to me, what made AST fun was I never knew what I was going to get, and what I got, I used it.

All cards in the AST deck aren't needed, including balance - balance was simply hands down the best card, which is why people like myself would search for it.

Ewer isn't needed if people manage their MP, or don't die to mechanics.
Spire isn't needed.. just.. spire isn't needed.
Spear isn't needed because Balance exists.
Arrow isn't needed because Balance exists.
Bole isn't needed if tanks rotate/manage their cooldowns.

Having a Balance just gave extra DPS which would shave time off a kill.

[Veis_Alveare]

That is not what made AST fun to me, what made AST fun was I never knew what I was going to get, and what I got, I used it.

Then you're playing AST suboptimally.

This would be like someone saying that they stand behind bosses for everything even when they have flank positionals; an easily correctable mistake that gives less benefit than its worth. Sure, you're safer from maybe getting a bit too close to the front of the boss and getting cleaved and you can focus on mechanics more than hitting your positionals... but you should just do all of that anyways.

To be clear I'm not saying you should RR anything that isn't an AoE Balance. I've used cards for all these things before myself when I had no other option but to do so. What I don't understand is the idea that suboptimal card usage is somehow AST's identity. It very much isn't.

I also understand not everyone is trying to optimize their play, that's fine too! But we don't balance jobs around suboptimal play. At the end of the day this change let them normalize an AST's potential rDPS contribution in a raid setting which I can only see as a positive for healer balance. That's worth more than "utility" forced upon us by RNG.

[Colino]

At the end of the day this change let them normalize an AST's potential rDPS contribution in a raid setting which I can only see as a positive for healer balance. That's worth more than "utility" forced upon us by RNG.

In that sense it also greatly helps balance them with the other jobs since their contribution is predictable and easily calculable (not that they couldn't before, but that reliance on RNG made it a lot tougher).

[Eli85]

Then you're playing AST suboptimally.

This would be like someone saying that they stand behind bosses for everything even when they have flank positionals; an easily correctable mistake that gives less benefit than its worth. Sure, you're safer from maybe getting a bit too close to the front of the boss and getting cleaved and you can focus on mechanics more than hitting your positionals... but you should just do all of that anyways.

To be clear I'm not saying you should RR anything that isn't an AoE Balance. I've used cards for all these things before myself when I had no other option but to do so. What I don't understand is the idea that suboptimal card usage is somehow AST's identity. It very much isn't.
I also understand not everyone is trying to optimize their play, that's fine too! But we don't balance jobs around suboptimal play. At the end of the day this change let them normalize an AST's potential rDPS contribution in a raid setting which I can only see as a positive for healer balance. That's worth more than "utility" forced upon us by RNG.

I just wanted to quote this for emphasis. I am 100% in agreement on this, and all the players who are against the AST changes really need to read and understand these handful of sentences.

[Shalan]

But what's the point of even having cards if they all wind up doing the exact same thing?
It's not the seals, since we've got a three minute window to earn just three of those. That's something like 11 draws/redraws to earn three seals. Your chances of not making Divination in time is abysmally low.
Sure it's optimized, but it's going to be boring as hell and is a complete break away from the lore the class is based around.

You might as well just turn the card abilities into a flat buff with no cards beyond the animation at this point. You'll get the exact same results at the end anyways.

[Ceasaria]

I just wanted to quote this for emphasis. I am 100% in agreement on this, and all the players who are against the AST changes really need to read and understand these handful of sentences.

With the new cards system, you have no uncertainty, no choices, no real decisions, nothing to manage, nothing to mastery.
What the point to play with cards if you are sure to win everytime ?