I don’t hate the new Astro changes

[gman1311]

I never understood the hate for Astro’s new card system. Half the cards are situational at best and the other half were simply better.

The Bole - A very situational and never comes out at the right time, and wasn’t very good as a royal road. I usually slap this on the tank if I didn’t have any other choice.

The Ewer - A really good card if another healer just died or lucid dreaming is still on cool down, if not, I burn it.

The Spire - Nothing like drawing this card the third time in a row! Useful in dungeons if running with melee or a warrior, if not, burn it. I personally hate this card with a passion because of the rng gods giving me this card the 4th time!

The Spear - it’s alright.

The Arrow - BLM’s wet dream.

The Balance - Best card in the deck! Every Samurai’s, Blackmage’s, and Warrior’s wet dream. The card that is universally loved by all!

Balance = this is the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Other cards = meh

Seems like Astro is going to play the same, but I got to be more mindful who I give these cards to.

[HyoMinPark]

I feel like people who say the other cards are worthless have clearly never tried to play AST at a higher level, or they think that Balance is the only one that matters because they haven't considered the niches of the other cards.


In the end, nothing can beat a pure damage buff. Numerically speaking. But that doesn't make the other cards useless. Honestly, the only real useless one was Spire, since TP became a non-issue outside of AOE situations where one DPS is doing all the work. But they could have changed that to something else (like perhaps Direct Hit).

AOE Boles can be useful for progression in raids, as the extra mitigation can allow one to survive to see more mechanics should things not be going as smoothly as they should. My UwU prog had plenty of these because we were just trying to see more mechanics.

Spear is a wonderful card on any job that loves Crit - BRD especially. AOE Spear has been better this expac due to Crit scaling on all the jobs. It's only really useless on WAR because of how IR works (but only during their IR window).

Balances are always AOE'd. In the event one draws another Balance and already has one in their spread, they are supposed to give it to the highest damage dealer OR a job that is currently in a burst window. Not necessarily a SAM or BLM automatically.

AOE Arrow is kind of meh, in my opinion. It can really mess with the rotations of some jobs (MCH, NIN, PLD), and only effectively works on a few (BLM, SAM). If a person has a higher GCD, it can also cause clipping (never forget when an AST gave me an enhanced Arrow while I was in Army's Paeon - at 4 Repertoire, I had a 1.74 GCD...no thanks).

Ewers are nice for progression as well, either for the AST or their co-healer (or a RDM who has been Raising or recently died). It's handy to have on AST since we struggle so much with MP. Especially if things aren't going well.


I really dislike that the developers took away any semblance of planning or thought process behind the cards, as that was what attracted me to the job back in Heavensward. I also do not like the idea of padding a single person with cards. The issue was clearly just Balance...but instead of addressing it, they changed every card into mini, weaker Balances... I can't quite understand this decision.

[PyurBlue]

I really dislike that the developers took away any semblance of planning or thought process behind the cards, as that was what attracted me to the job back in Heavensward. I also do not like the idea of padding a single person with cards. The issue was clearly just Balance...but instead of addressing it, they changed every card into mini, weaker Balances... I can't quite understand this decision.

I have no doubt that you're a better AST then me and most likely have a deeper understanding of the changes than I do, but I don't feel like much was lost. The more varied card effects in SB were good, but they're being random kind of spoiled planning as far as I'm concerned. Maxing the number of cards played was usually better than holding onto specific cards, and while the Balance got a lot of attention as the broken card, the Spear and the Arrow weren't all that different as far as the AST drawing them was concerned. They were just Balance but slightly different. Bole and Ewer were the more interesting cards (and Spire in the 1% of situations where TP mattered), but because of the way the game works you could never actually count on them to be available when you wanted them.

I think the cards should have kept their old attributes, except Spire obviously, and become something like passive buffs on players that the AST could activate later. Essentially instead of using Spread to store cards, you store them on different players. This would allow ASTs to build a specific combination of cards and control exactly when and how they were used.

Also, I don't feel like we're really feeding cards to one player with the new system. I think I've been dividing them pretty equally among party members in dungeons and having to target specific party members instead of defaulting to AoE spread in most situations is more engaging.

[gman1311]

I never said the other cards were useless(expect spire), they never came up at the right time to be useful.

[HyoMinPark]

I never said the other cards were useless(expect spire), they never came up at the right time to be useful.

That’s how RNG works. You can’t always draw the best cards—but that doesn’t make them any less valuable. If you don’t need the card, they make good Minor Arcana fodder for free damage or a free heal. But, as I said, all decision making is going out the window in 5.0, and I don’t like the idea of padding one person with cards.

[guardin]

That’s how RNG works. You can’t always draw the best cards—but that doesn’t make them any less valuable. If you don’t need the card, they make good Minor Arcana fodder for free damage or a free heal. But, as I said, all decision making is going out the window in 5.0, and I don’t like the idea of padding one person with cards.

op is right the class is the same but more fluid and better. also decision making makes more sense and isnt as tedious. glad yoshi is making this game and not you or healers would be dreadfully boring

[HyoMinPark]

op is right the class is the same but more fluid and better. also decision making makes more sense and isnt as tedious. glad yoshi is making this game and not you or healers would be dreadfully boring

It's dreadfully boring to pad a single person with cards all the time. As with Forte, I also suffered with an AST in Alphascape who thought the best way to use her cards was to pad the MNK (even if he died) and give Enhanced Arrows to the PLD. Let me tell you how utterly garbage it feels to do everything absolutely perfect and walk away with a blue or green because this AST practiced favoritism so much. This is a terrible way to design a job.

Not to mention the other issues, such as Divination looking to be incredibly weak and lackluster for a 180s buff, and the seals guaranteeing you'll be Minor Arcanaing every card after you secure them. Such variety.

This new way of AST is braindead and devoid of decision making, and the fact that you continue to try and contest that tells me you don't even play the job.

Edit: you have a level 44 AST. Why are you trying to tell career ASTs that our job is currently designed to be boring when you’ve barely even started it? Try actually playing it first, then get back to me.

From what I’ve read, most you guys hate how they BALANCED the cards(see what I did there?).
As for the rest of the cards, I won’t miss them much (burn in Hell spire). I can at least enjoy keeping my party members damage up.

I hate the direction they're going of "pad a single person" (this even applies to DNC, which I plan to switch to since they gutted AST and removed the utility aspect from BRD that I loved so much—I disagree with single padding, and I think it will just lock certain jobs into groups rather that open them up more as the developers want), and the simplification of job mechanics. They did the same thing to my current main (BRD) just to lower the skill gap.

Some of us prefer jobs where we are juggling things and have to make decisions. And, as I already said, if the AST cards still pull ahead, it will remain meta, so not much was balanced if this turns out to be the case.

[ForteNightshade]

op is right the class is the same but more fluid and better. also decision making makes more sense and isnt as tedious. glad yoshi is making this game and not you or healers would be dreadfully boring

So you mean forcing more healing intensity while keeping the damage aspect would be boring? How about giving healers the bulk of utility so their downtime instead revolves around buffing their party? Yep. That definitely sounds more boring than spamming Glare, Broil and Malefic for 80% of most fights; assuming the outgoing damage remains at SB levels.

[Brandedblade]

That's the thing. Outside of the Balance, Spear, or Arrow. The other 3 cards where niche in their value. So while there was always a potential use for all of the cards, them being locked behind RNG meant you couldn't reliably use them, and in the situations you drew them and had no need for them? They were tossed for setting up a damage card. And even among the damage cards one of them had more value then the others due to being a straight damage buff.

I completely understand the fact that the old card system has that cycle of highs and lows that makes it very appealing to certain players. But the card rework is, too me, a nessecary evil for the sake of balancing the rdps contribution of AST.

[HyoMinPark]

I completely understand the fact that the old card system has that cycle of highs and lows that makes it very appealing to certain players. But the card rework is, too me, a nessecary evil for the sake of balancing the rdps contribution of AST.

If AST still has decent personal damage and the cards still offer an advantage over WHM, the meta will likely still be AST/SCH. WHM will have to beat AST in personal damage AND beat the raid contribuation to make it pull ahead. If it doesn't, then nothing was changed. That said, for pad runs, AST will always be preferred because WHM still doesn't offer any sort of raid buff.

I don't see WHM/Noct AST becoming a thing, because Nocturnal Sect still suffers from the same thing it always has: it's less efficient in terms of MP per healing potency compared to Diurnal Sect. If MP costs were reduced when in Noct, then I think it would maybe have a chance, but they seem to be staying the same. That said, there will need to be coordination because ASTs and SCHs regarding shields and Neutral Sect, since Galvanize won't stack with Nocturnal Field.