A question for ASTs

[Forever_Learning]

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

Thanks for the earlier comment, and I agree there is a difference between being ignorant and choosing to remain that way.

Yes, I was referring to the cards. Before I began playing, I did a little table to help me remember where the different cards go.

Did that before drawing a card, and when I did, my reaction was 'oh, the card has an outline of blue or purple, and shows my the type'

So mentally it became 'blue to melee/tank', 'purple to range/healer', and kept an eye on the diversity of the seals in hope of three different kinds.

[Vid]

Did that before drawing a card, and when I did, my reaction was 'oh, the card has an outline of blue or purple, and shows my the type'

So mentally it became 'blue to melee/tank', 'purple to range/healer', and kept an eye on the diversity of the seals in hope of three different kinds.

Speaking of which - how hard should I be working for three different seal types? In other words, how eager should I be to hit the redraw button or play minor arcana instead?

I'm going to be honest here, I didn't even realize the border was different. I've mained Astro for half of Heavensward (had to wait for the buffs) and all of Stormblood, so I got used to the concept of what each card did and when they changed it this expansion, for me personally it was all the DPS type cards went to melee, and all the Supportish cards went to ranged. Again that's how I saw it, but your way is actually easier to remember. Sadly I'm too set in my ways to see it differently, but I can help others remember it with your method a lot easier then my method.

As far as the Divination buff goes you always want to strive for 3 different seals. At the beginning of a dead pull (all cooldowns are up) you potentially will have 5 cards you can draw. Although it seems convoluted this all happens in my brain in a matter of seconds but this is my typical checklist.

1) Draw first card immediately upon entering an area, starts the cooldown, and you can decide who to give it to, when you're "in combat" (keywords here)

2) Use 1st card, draw 2nd card, same symbol?
a) Yes - Redraw Once - Same Symbol? - Yes - Minor Arcana
b) Yes - Redraw Once - Same Symbol? No - Use it
c) No - Use it

3) Sleeve Draw

4) Under the assumption you have at least 2 different symbols, use the rest of your redraws to try to get that last symbol, using Minor Arcana to buff party members as needed. If you don't get the symbol you need by the last card, make sure to use the card by itself without Minor Arcana. Or if you're quick on the draw (no pun intended) and see a card that was the 1st symbol in the line, you can use that and then just hope for the last symbol on another card. Example: 1 Crescent Moon, 1 Sun, 1 Blank, you draw another Crescent Moon, you use that card to give you three and hope for the last symbol to pop up to overwrite your first crescent moon and give you 3 different symbols.

5) You now have roughly 5 buffs out and hopefully 3 symbols, but at the very least 2 different symbols. Pop Divination.

I do this for two reasons, one it starts the Divination cooldown early so hopefully I'll be able to use it multiple times during the fight (ex. trials and upcoming raids for sure, not so much dungeon bosses). And two the Trick Attack window, most groups will typically have a Trick Attack window in the beginning, anywhere from 10-12 seconds into the beginning of the fight, where most cooldowns are used in conjunction with a ninja's trick attack ability, granting a big spike in DPS during that time frame. The ideal time to use Divination would be at the start of this window, and then try to line it up again when it finally comes off of cooldown.

If for whatever reason RNG hates me and I keep getting the same symbol 3-6 times in a row, I'll save Divination instead. Extremely unlikely and to be honest I believe it's only happened once in a dungeon when Sleeve Draw wasn't up and I just wasn't paying attention to the symbols in general. I have seen plenty of 2 symbol overlap though, annoying but not uncommon.

[Forever_Learning]

snip

That was just brilliant, thank you.

I had edited out the question in my post because It dawned on me the work needed for a proper reply, and it felt unfair, so I went off to try to find the answer.

Your little guide here was better than anything I could find, and wow, so good. Thank you so much for this.

[Seraphor]

Obvious redraw to get a ranged card, but if you get stuck with a melee, which is likely, then 6% on a Tank is better than 3% on any DPS. Simply because Tanks do more than 50% of the damage of a DPS.

[Alfric]

As Forever Learning said, the cards are colour coded. The blue goes on melee damage dealers(including tanks) and pink or purple goes on ranged(including healers) so I have an idea of where I want the card before I actually have it. There are a lot of times in dungeons that I will put a blue on the tank if it’s a Warrior or Dark Knight especially and if we don’t have melee DPS. But in dungeons I know we can make it and I think it can be kinda fun for the tank as well to she the bigger numbers . In raids and stuff I do put more thought into who will benefit the most but in dungeons I think it’s fine. Plus in 50+ dungeons, I’m more worried about getting Divination up with all three seals so I give the tank a little something too.

[NanaWiloh]

There are times when I want to give a tank the royal FLUSH!!!

[Schan]

I think most people have pointed out reasons as to why an AST would slap a card on the tank.

I would like to add that sometimes when you a have a fully ranged party (and that happens way too often lately) redraw likes to do stupid s^&$ like Balance -> Spear -> Balance. Both Balance and Spear give extra dps to Melees and unfortunatly you're stuck with all ranged DPS. You've burned all your redraw charges so now you either play it or minor arcana it and both will give more damage to a malee which is basically the tank. Sure you can give a gimped buff to the ranged DPS but tanks' dps is nothing to sneeze at as of late.

Otherwise the AST is all about fishing for the 3 different seals to maximize Divination dmg buff.
If i need the seal then there's a debate of.. do i slap this on the tank an get the seal now or do i redraw and hope for a card that boosts ranged with the seal i need?

[Shinkage]

Honestly, I sometimes put cards on tanks just to change things up because it doesn't really make a difference in low-level dungeons, and it breaks the monotony if there is only one melee DPS in group.

[Evanoel]

If all DPS were melee I'd put the Bole/Ewer/Spire on one of DPS. (Cause I rarely dps especially if it's big pulls. Heals>Cards>Dps for me)

If all the DPS were ranged, I'd put Spear/Arrow/Balance on the tank.

[glamazon]

Theyshould make it so if you play the rift card on the righty person the ast also gets the buff