PLEASE REVERT TO THE OLD ASTRO CARD SYSTEM PLEASEEEEEEEEE

[Kvasir]

Other than the new system being clunky and awful to play (especially sleeve draw), the new system doesnt even make sense VISUALLY. Like you got a card that's obviously for MP but it gives damage. The new system is just soooo unimaginatively done I really dont understand how anyone thought this was a good idea.

[BahamutxD]

What hurts me more is that it really feels like they didn't plan/design or put any effort into it.

[CupidCrux]

I’m curious if they changed the lore for new AST going through the mission quests. When I went through in HW, each card had a meaning and explanation in the stars. She flat out says Bole gives defense to the weak. Now does our mentor just say in the log oh hey, it’s another dps card btw.
Side note I always loved that balance card foretold the coming of Dancer. Or if not coming, it’s existence in the realm.

[Noitems]

I’m curious if they changed the lore for new AST going through the mission quests. When I went through in HW, each card had a meaning and explanation in the stars. She flat out says Bole gives defense to the weak. Now does our mentor just say in the log oh hey, it’s another dps card btw.
Side note I always loved that balance card foretold the coming of Dancer. Or if not coming, it’s existence in the realm.

Considering how the entire joke of getting Gravity(at it's current level) doesn't make sense anymore in AST's job quests I'd assume it was left the same.

[Kurando]

We know why they did it, to remove synergy of one particular job bringing so much, that's how good SB AST was before. Though this replacement wasn't exactly thought through enough, essentially 8 cards all doing the same thing and silly seal balancing, just seems messy.

[RoseyDevlin]

Well it was to be expected new cards will take some time to learn as we gotten too used to old cards. In my opinion sleeve draw does not feel clunky or awful to use, its just fast forwarding cards 3 times while giving buffs and getting right seals, I like using it after divination to give pt more dmg buff in that short time.

I love horoscope skill but it really needs slight healing buff for getting the second stage after casting helios. Celestial opposition nerf needs to be buffed, for such a long cd you get so little, we need stun or slow along with it...Divination should last atleast 30 seconds with 12% dmg buff with right seals for a 3 minute cooldown.

I'm fine with having low dmg/heals than other healers but atleast don't nerf our buffs. I hope they give us back mp skill in case of emergency where ast needs to solo heal, we already need to spam 2x more heals just to get right amount of heals like other healers can do in one insta cast.

[Sanghelios]

We know why they did it, to remove synergy of one particular job bringing so much, that's how good SB AST was before. Though this replacement wasn't exactly thought through enough, essentially 8 cards all doing the same thing and silly seal balancing, just seems messy.

I get your point, but this statement of them is absolutely stupid, simply because Ninja still has Trick Attack, wich remains to be the most powerful Raid DPS increasement by a large margin. Its so powerful that EVERY other job builds their rotation and opener around trick attack windows. This means Ninja will still easily outclass Monk & Samurai in every 8 man raid. It just boggles my mind why they nerfed ASTs raid utility by a good 90%-95% (That number is quite accurate and potentially even higher with the loss of spread, extended cards, the ability to have a spread card ready at pull alongside cards duration now only lasts half as long) and at the same time they keep Trick Attack untouched. To make it even worse, the card nerfs are so intense that the average AST, who doesnt know how to properly weave cards will be a 100% guranteed dps malus for the group. As soon as a AST starts clipping their cards (for example by using them after benefics or by using draw/play right after another without a malefic in between) its a dps loss and literally pointless to even bother with the cards. This means right now the skill ceiling with the card system is absurdly high and no AST other than the higher skilled players can make real profit with it. For every average and below AST it will sadly be a pointless thing to bother with and i am sure this shouldnt be the goal of the job.

[Semirhage]

I get your point, but this statement of them is absolutely stupid, simply because Ninja still has Trick Attack, wich remains to be the most powerful Raid DPS increasement by a large margin. Its so powerful that EVERY other job builds their rotation and opener around trick attack windows.

Just picking this bit out of the rest of your point- this isn't exactly true. Ninja has been meta for a very, very long time, no contest, but Trick Attack isn't nearly the boogeyman people make it out to be. Bard and Dragoon both brought more rDPS than NIN last expansion for one. It's also basically the only thing Ninja has going for it at the moment. It has terrible personal damage and the threat shifting utility it had in SB has been rendered moot by tank changes. People don't so much "build their rotations around trick", it's more that all major raid damage boosts happen on multiples of 60 seconds and trick is a visible, well-known one to set the timer by.

The point I'd make here is not that claiming to de-emphasize buff synergy while leaving Trick alone is silly. It's that claiming to de-emphasize buff synergy while creating a buff vending machine like Dancer seems suspect.

[Nimloth]

Well it was to be expected new cards will take some time to learn as we gotten too used to old cards. In my opinion sleeve draw does not feel clunky or awful to use, its just fast forwarding cards 3 times while giving buffs and getting right seals, I like using it after divination to give pt more dmg buff in that short time.

I love horoscope skill but it really needs slight healing buff for getting the second stage after casting helios. Celestial opposition nerf needs to be buffed, for such a long cd you get so little, we need stun or slow along with it...Divination should last atleast 30 seconds with 12% dmg buff with right seals for a 3 minute cooldown.

I'm fine with having low dmg/heals than other healers but atleast don't nerf our buffs. I hope they give us back mp skill in case of emergency where ast needs to solo heal, we already need to spam 2x more heals just to get right amount of heals like other healers can do in one insta cast.

Objectively, sleeve draw is extremely clunky to use. Ideally, you will use sleeve draw right after draw goes on cooldown, which means that in order to optimally use it you need to play 3 cards after draw comes off CD each time. The problem with this is that in order to manage proper seals, you will need to redraw or convert to minor arcana. All of these require oGCDs, and no matter how you handle it you will likely clip multiple GCDs. Alternatively, you could choose to not clip GCDs, but then you are effectively extending the cooldown on draw, which reduces your efficiency. This isn't even to mention the fact that you also have to play the cards you are drawing, in addition to all of the other things going on. It requires way too much attention and GCD clipping with hardly any reward. Sleeve draw either needs a redesign, or the card system needs to be redesigned.

[HyoMinPark]

I get your point, but this statement of them is absolutely stupid, simply because Ninja still has Trick Attack, wich remains to be the most powerful Raid DPS increasement by a large margin. Its so powerful that EVERY other job builds their rotation and opener around trick attack windows. This means Ninja will still easily outclass Monk & Samurai in every 8 man raid.

Perhaps, but currently for Titania and Innocence EX, there are only 3 of the top 10 speedkills with a NIN (the rest have MNK or SAM) for Titania EX, and none of the top 10 speedkills currently ranked are taking NIN for Innocence EX. NIN is suffering a lot in terms of personal damage, and if Trick’s rDPS contribution isn’t enough to bridge the gap between SAM’s personal damage and MNK’s personal damage + Brotherhood, they might not be meta. For the first time since they were added in 2.4. We will see when Savage releases just where NIN falls.

For the rest of your post, I’m curious to see how AST’s rDPS will pan out in Savage. Currently in the EXs, they are severely underrepresented (I believe less than 20% of all uploads contain an AST right now). There are speedkills that have double WHM comps if they aren’t WHM/SCH. Personally, I don’t think that AST’s rDPS will be enough to compensate for how strong WHM is right now; nor do I think its current healing is strong enough compared to SCH. It can still do the content—it’s not unviable by any means in terms of healing or damage, and it has certainly seen worse days—but it is the weakest of the three healers. I think my static’s AST is going WHM for our group unless there’s some changes to AST’s potencies at the very least.

Objectively, sleeve draw is extremely clunky to use. Ideally, you will use sleeve draw right after draw goes on cooldown, which means that in order to optimally use it you need to play 3 cards after draw comes off CD each time. The problem with this is that in order to manage proper seals, you will need to redraw or convert to minor arcana. All of these require oGCDs, and no matter how you handle it you will likely clip multiple GCDs. Alternatively, you could choose to not clip GCDs, but then you are effectively extending the cooldown on draw, which reduces your efficiency. This isn't even to mention the fact that you also have to play the cards you are drawing, in addition to all of the other things going on. It requires way too much attention and GCD clipping with hardly any reward. Sleeve draw either needs a redesign, or the card system needs to be redesigned.

The way around this is to hold Lightspeed for Sleeve Draw + Divination windows to allow for the double-weaving without clipping your GCDs and losing damage. That said, it removes the versatility from LS, which before could be used for heavy movement and for healing intense moments to conserve mana.