The Great Astrologian Divide

[LukaRoselia]

They may as well just do that, yes. But the corresponding icon is displayed above the card so it isn't that confusing really.

[Kolsykol]

That's how I feel about it too. I don't hate the new system, but I don't like it either. It's boring and uninteresting. Drawing a card is now something I have to do, rather than something I want to do.

I feel the same, but I mostly feel like that's an issue of numbers rather than the effect of the cards.
While I did like the different effects from the old cards, lets be real here AST was mostly just fishing for the dps ones.

Divination feels pretty weak and underwhelming imo.
I think that it should just have a higher base damage increase and the amount of seals should increase the duration instead.

[AmurT]

They may as well just do that, yes. But the corresponding icon is displayed above the card so it isn't that confusing really.

It's a bit sad that the only reason they didn't delete the cards entirely was to preserve whatever is left intact of AST lore. The current card system is certainly more active, but I also derive a lot of my fun from lore and story elements, it's why I chose an FF game to play.

But like, take this excerpt from the official lore book for example, "Celestial Opposition: Considered to be the very essence of astromancy, this technique bjnds the astrologian's aether to the loftiest of heavens. A single tug on this celestial chord alters the patterns of fate, showering allies with fortune, and afflicting foes with sudden adversity."... what adversity? It's just a heal now l u l

I want the life and soul of AST back, I want everything I learned from reading the job quests and job encounters to feel like they actually mattered.

[Connor]

I don’t dislike the current card system. I don’t think the changes were necessary, but I wouldn’t quit playing Astrologian if they came out and said ‘it’s staying like this’. I do miss Time Dilation and the status buff extension from Celestial Opposition, and it’d be nice if we could at least get Time Dilation back.

That’s not to say that I would be against them going back to the original effects. Maybe they could even have the original card effects plus a small flat damage bonus like 3% so that it’s never a ‘bad’ card. Then keep Lord/Lady as the pure damage buff cards, Divination can stay the same and then Astrologian will have a lot of utility variety through base cards, consistent DPS buffs with Minor Arcana when needed and Divination for the ‘big damage buff’

[Ubbernaut]

The big issue with the current card system is that it does not at any point in time feel 'Impactful'

Old system, even if the numbers may not support it, it always felt impactful. A Bole was clearly felt, an Ewer gave plenty of mana, Arrow gave noticeable speed increase.

Now the flat numbers, which go to as low as 3%... (3% damage buff from a skill, my heavens that just feels pointless), don't have the Feedback of old.

The only time I do feel like I'm leaving an impact is stacking Lord/Lady on the DPS coupled with Divination for what feels like a grandiose damage boost! Moment to moment cards are there to just mostly kill time.

[ColaSama]

I want the life and soul of AST back, I want everything I learned from reading the job quests and job encounters to feel like they actually mattered.

AST before ShB release : "Look up at the sky young man, it's the Tree, those under it are blessed with its protective effects". Me : "That's neat, it's the tank card"

AST after ShB release : "Look up at the sky young man, it's the Tree, those under it are blessed with MOAR DEEPS BAITCH, EVERYTHING BECAME BALANCE AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-". Me : "Oh."

[RoseyDevlin]

Healing wise ast is doing fine now but the cards are still a mess. I spend my time trying to give card buffs to everyone as much as I can yet it still doesn't seem to be as effective as whm raw damage. Ast dmg itself suffers a lot when you need to heal and get cards right that you barely have time to dps. I really tried to make ast work in eden savage as its my fav class but their dmg buffs seems like it barely does anything, wiped a lot due to dps checks then I switched to sch and all went well and completed it.

[Kabooa]

Now the flat numbers, which go to as low as 3%... (3% damage buff from a skill, my heavens that just feels pointless), don't have the Feedback of old.

If you could go tell the Bards to quiet down about Foe's, I'd appreciate it.

[KanameYuuki]

And just thinking about SE's player base, the cards were perfect before because you were able to self aoe them a lot of the time, now every 30 you gotta target a party member while making sure to target your tank back asap, it is a nightmare on a controller, the single action of casting cards became a chore since you will never feel the payoff, even with Sleeve's "fix" it just doesn't feel good at all.

I like how clean those full seals look, that really is what the new system is, so they should go all the way and make it like that if there is no hope of making AST fun as it was before.

[Dyvid]

To me AST always felt like FFXIV attempt of the classic Final Fantasy Gambler job, about as close as you can get in an MMO. The first key issue with 3.0/4.0 cards was one card, The Balance, outshined everything else and you had the ability to manipulate the card mechanic to try and get that card. Divination fixed that problem. The second key issue was 3 out of 6 cards where good and the other meh. For the RNG to work you need cards that benefit at least one member in the group every draw plus you need one bust card. I have outlined several times in these boards that if you make the card boost main attributes with Tenacity replacing VIT, this would make the RNG nature feel better. Simply draw and use. In fact the only other you would need is a double down to either increase or decrease potency of the card.

As for Divination, it should just be a simple slot machine mechanic with you get what you get. The current form just moved the annoying card fishing game from one form to another.