A question for ASTs

[Raldo]

Last night in my leveling roulette, I got an AST healer in Stone Vigil (lv42 or something). The party setup was me (DNC), SMN, DRK, AST. By boss two, I had noticed that the AST only ever put cards on the tank. I wanted to say something, but I haven't touched the job since ShB hit, so I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough to criticize.

Side note: I swear I saw at least one Bole and one Spire on the tank, which is just patently wrong, so they probably just sucked at their job, but I digress...


I understand that the changes to the cards means that some cards are better for certain roles versus others, but generally tanks and healers do less damage than a DPS, so my question is this:
Even if the appropriate melee/ranged DPS isn't available, is there ever a reason to play a card on a tank or healer?


Thanks for the answers!

[BahamutxD]

It is not optimal to give tanks cards but seeing how depressing the whole job/card system is right now I wouldn't blame him. Most don't even bother using cards on low level content.

[Crushnight]

4 cards give melee dps/ tanks 6(balance/arrow/spear)/8%(Lord) while non tanks/melee get half.

It is best to always put on good dps before tanks since 3/4% on them is worth more than 6/8% on a good tank.

But i have come across this, that the tank was the best dps or felt like it so the cards would be more beneficial on them

[Raldo]

Cool, that all makes sense! I just wasn't sure if there was some other mechanic or bonus for the AST if they played the cards on the proper role. Looks like there isn't, thanks!

[Vid]

1) They could've been partners. Fairly common to find a couple that goes into roulettes and buffs each other. Seen it happen more so with a dancer/tank or dancer/healer lately though, kinda sucks when you're playing a dps class and get stuck with these 2, but it is what it is.

2) The Astro was just being lazy. Typically in dungeons you're only ever targeting the tank and mobs if you plan to dps, so out of laziness they'd just throw cards on the one thing they've been targeting the entire time.

3) They have no idea what the cards even do other then give a damage bonus. I'd almost say the majority of people in game don't read patch notes for other classes and more often than not their own class half the time. Which I can understand, you don't play it often enough, so what's the big deal? Still with major class changes all around this expansion you'd think they'd do a little research.

4) A mix of all of the above, they're partnered, they only target the tank, and to hell with what the cards do, they help my tank buddy!

[Raldo]

I actually queued with the tank, so it definitely wasn't that, otherwise I probably would've assumed the same. I was asking him in a linkshell "Why does this AST keep giving you all the cards" (he's mains WHM, so I thought he might know) and he responded with little more than ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It didn't occur to me that the healer generally has the tank targetted (obvious, in retrospect), and this was low level content so who cares, so it would make some amount of sense to just throw all the cards on the tank because of laziness. At least it's better than no cards at all.

[Forever_Learning]

Yeah, I get that. I actually queued with the tank, so it definitely wasn't that, otherwise I probably would've assumed the same. I was asking him in a linkshell "Why does this AST keep giving you all the cards" (he's mains WHM, so I thought he might know) and he responded with little more than ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For a second, I thought you were talking about me because I restarted my level 56 AST yesterday and I was doing the exact same thing.

I dislike the idea that people like me are lazy, and you certainly don't need a conspiracy theory about me and the tank to explain it.

Truth be told, I read every card, the most recent guides I could, and even discussed the seals with my novice network.

Came out of it with the concept: blue to melee and tank, purple to range and healer.

I was far more focused on the interaction between the seals and divin.

Reading this thread, I understand the logic and I will adjust, but this notion that I'm lazy, not reading tooltips or guides, is really unfair.

I also don't consider myself stupid for doing a mistake which I suspect will be fairly common.

I am simply, as always, forever learning, and please appreciate others are likely doing the same, especially in a levelling roulette that is below level 50!

[Vid]

Snip

To be fair we're all learning, and I wish more people in general were like you that took the time to look things up and ask questions. There's a fine line between Stupidity and Ignorance, and being ignorant isn't a bad thing, staying ignorant is. Ignorant is not an insult, although I know some people use it that way.

The notion of laziness I implied in my response was due to the fact the healer in question would only use cards on the tank and not the other classes in the party. While yes it's true the party was heavily ranged DPS, I'm almost certain the AST in question drew more then just melee based cards. I agree low level content isn't all that great of judgement of class playing, but you gotta learn the basics somewhere.

I am a little confused by your concept of Blue/Purple though. Blue/Purple Cards, or are you going by something else?

[galbsadi]

I typically don't play AST (SCH main here), but in my dabbling I've tended to give the tank 'melee' cards when there's only ranged/casters, with the idea being more about building my 3 seals.

That said, I didn't stop to think that DPS will typically outperform tanks outside of trash pulls generally to the point that half the potency is still better spent on DPS, and may need to adjust next time I toy with AST (which will be a ways away, b/c I'm far more interested in Eden and other classes atm).

[Taika]

I had a DRK in LotA today who was the top DPS in my party. She got all the cards.