AST: Card rework alternative

[Alfric]

There's quite a few alternatives posted by people in the Forums to having Balance being the one and only card. And most of them still leave the AOE ability as the 'new balance' (including my own idea)

My personal one is here: Rather than turn everything into Balance

There's a few others scattered around in the Healer Roles forum.

*had to put my reply to you up here due to stupid forum posting limit *[/QUOTE]

No worries. I’m still trying to figure out the forums! Lol haven’t been posting long. Thanks for the link! I will check it out when I’m home

[RayThrust]

I'm not against the new card changes, but removing Balance and only keeping it for the AoE every 90 seconds (and maybe for Crown/Lady) seems like an even better idea. Make it 1 dps (that's not Balance) and one support card for every seal.
We gotta stop with the "I love to give crit to Bards argument" though, because they will not be as dependent on crit anymore.

[Rahspdoy]

I'm not against the new card changes, but removing Balance and only keeping it for the AoE every 90 seconds (and maybe for Crown/Lady) seems like an even better idea. Make it 1 dps (that's not Balance) and one support card for every seal.
We gotta stop with the "I love to give crit to Bards argument" though, because they will not be as dependent on crit anymore.

The "I love to give crit to bards argument" is valid till the 5.0 change take effect, and serves as a valid counter-argument against the "the only card worth useing is Balance" bs that is being spouted by the meta-players who 'only' care about eeking out every last 0.000001% of dps they possibly can.

The Meta players insist that no other card 'but' Balance was worth using, and every time one of us comes up with a "well i used this card in this situation" its gets waved away as "well it doesnt matter, that doesnt exist in 5.0". Well of course it doesnt work in 5.0, because those of you in the meta-field WANTED it to not exist anymore.

What we want is our card system back in a way that works WITH the changes in 5.0.

Not some gimicy UI system thats used as smoke-n-mirrors to hide the fact that Astro's core mechanic has been reduced to 2 single skills that both do the exact same thing. Only ones a slightly more powerfull version in AOE form.

[Pbuckley818]

Ok, I am about to say something to any and all none Astro Healers in this thread, that I hope you will see before complaining about Astro's wanting their card mechanic back. We know that we have a more flexible playstyle with more instant casts. (Which we got in order to give us more time to use the Card system mind you). Most of us know that other healers (Or a t least white Mages specifically) really should be given similar mechanics. Frankly I would LOVE it if the White Mage attack spells +cure functioned the same as Astro spells, (I don't feel Scholar needs it, as it has it's own alternative in the forms of Bio and Ruin 2, though I would like to have my other DoT's back... but that's another conversation entirely). The fact of the matter is that we shouldn't be attacking one another (Hell we shouldn't be attacking SE), we need to be constructive and try to facilitate a conversation about how much we as a community don't like the Healer changes, and that means creating threads and discussing every issue or complaint we have about said changes.

This Thread is about the Astro Card system and how many Astro's feel dissatisfied with seeing their ICONIC mechanic get lobotomized. Unless you are an Astro player who does not want them to change the system back, why the heck are you arguing about this? If anything you shouldn't want Astro to become the Balance bank as that is only going to make it MORE META, not less. So please be respectful of others and their desire for the class that they play. Furthermore I want to see more threads discussing more specific issues with he different classes, scholar's DPS being oversimplified and made incredibly boring, and White Mages time resource issues (They made Holy a freaking cast bar spell!) just to name a couple. SE won't know where they went wrong unless we try to communicate are opinions to them.

[Bedlaam]

The only problem with 'any' card system that has 1 or 2 cards that give a direct damage increase, is that those are the 'only' cards any of the 'meta players' will want. They will just go back to 'fishing for balance' again.

Your Bole, Spire, Ewer and Balance cards are good alternatives, but Anything resembeling 'balance' (such as your Spear/Arrow) will just bring us full circle to the 'fishing for balance' that's caused them to gut our card system in the first place

Wrong actually. Now that seals are in the game fishing for seals will always take priority for the aoe buff. So you are fishing for seals while simultaneously choosing carefully where your unique cards will go.

[Rahspdoy]

Wrong actually. Now that seals are in the game fishing for seals will always take priority for the aoe buff. So you are fishing for seals while simultaneously choosing carefully where your unique cards will go.

*Eddited*

Ok i miss-read that at first. What happens when i check the forums after just waking up

What i mean is that, if any single card has a direct-damage increase, The Meta players will STILL fish for that 1 card above all else in order to get 2 of their seals.

After that, thei'll just throw that first card that comes up with their 3rd seal on anyone so that they can then immediately cast their AOE buff which is the only thing they actually want.

It will be the same situation we are currently in, Just slightly different.

[Sylve]

Not some gimicy UI system thats used as smoke-n-mirrors to hide the fact that Astro's core mechanic has been reduced to 2 single skills that both do the exact same thing. Only ones a slightly more powerfull version in AOE form.

As of right now, AST cards are a coin flip.
I have a 50/50 chance to draw a damage buff of varying degrees of strength or draw burn fodder.

That's it. That's the sum total of the gameplay involved in those cards.
Did I draw a Damage buff? If yes, cool, throw it on someone.
If no, Redraw it. Still no? RR it so the next damage buff is better. Or dump it for a Lord/Lady. Either way, I want to burn it as fast as possible so Draw comes back faster.

Has Spire been useful sometimes? Sure. Same with Ewer. Somewhere, at some point, I drew a non damage card and it was 'useful' in the moment I drew it. But the vast majority of the time, I drew garbage that I dumped or burned.

And something that happens frequently and is oh so fun, is constantly drawing Spires and Ewers and Boles with a RR prepped. That's garbage. That's minutes worth of Draws wasted.

The new system blows all that garbage RNG out the window. Every card I draw is useful now. Rather than fishing for useful cards, I'll fish for the proper Seals to get the most out of Divination. Even drawing badly and not getting the right seals is less negatively impactful to my party than it is currently.
That sounds a lot more useful than wasting 5 Draws in a row getting Boles and Ewers before finally drawing an Arrow with a Monk and a NIN in my party.

[brahesTheorem]

If we're sharing ideas for how an AST card rework could have worked, I personally would have liked to see a change that struck a middle-ground between the flavor of the current system and the consistent homogeneity of the 5.0 system.

I think a solid approach would have been to simply give all cards two effects- one consistent DPS increase, and another, more flavorful secondary effect.
I.E.

Balance: 3% damage increase + 5% Direct Hit Rate increase
Bole: 3% damage increase + 5(-10)% Damage Reduction
Arrow: 3% damage increase + 3(-5)% Attack Speed increase
Spear: 3% damage increase + 5% Critical Hit Rate increase
Ewer: 3% damage increase + Refresh
Spire: 3% damage increase + 5(-10)% Healing received

Lord/Lady: 5(-8)% damage increase for Melee/Ranged, respectively.
Divination/Seals: Keep As-Is

Though I can't speak for how the exact numbers would play out, I think that dialing back the potency increases to justify secondary, more situation effects would go a long way towards inflating the feeling of player choice as to how cards are used.
As a final note, I'm actually pretty excited for how new AST will play, particularly for its new emphasis on DPS boosting, but I do think I'll miss the flavor that came with the original six-buff system.