Goodbye Astro

[Miziliti]

I...uhm...if you don't want that card, can I have it? Last time I checked 3% was better than 0%, I mean, that's like an almost-Dancer constant buff given for free. They are not really useless - they are less useful. They still have an impact.

Sure, take the whole pack. While you are constantly using 10 fingers to contribute with constant card throwing and weaving, the WHM/SCH next door uses 2 fingers to dps and manage to do the same or even higher party contribution with just personal dps.

Ask your BLM how many Fire IV he can manage to squish in that tight 15s window. I bet one can finish counting with just 5 fingers.

DNC Standard Finish is a 5% 60s buff with 30s cd that can be maintained forever easily. Cards aren't even a competition.

[Cain-Galeserpent]

It's the same with Bard, less Flavor to the job. Now they became a brainless random dps.
No more Buff..
SE is going the casual way, they have done the same with FFXI when they was close to abbandon the game. ������

P.s. sorry for the broken english. I main french language.

[IanFrench]

After YoshiP said there won't be much changes to AST's cards in future, I know this is time to say Goodbye to AST.
The design of the new card system is very unfriendly for console players and has been criticized overwhelmingly by players, and yet that's their decision.
So be it. I may continue play my DNC and GNB for some time but will not join healing anymore.

[Dnc]

After YoshiP said there won't be much changes to AST's cards in future, I know this is time to say Goodbye to AST.
The design of the new card system is very unfriendly for console players and has been criticized overwhelmingly by players, and yet that's their decision.
So be it. I may continue play my DNC and GNB for some time but will not join healing anymore.

Care to elaborate on how exactly is the new card system unfriendly for console players?

[IanFrench]

Care to elaborate on how exactly is the new card system unfriendly for console players?

target selection, you have to go through party list one by one, means multiple hits to select a target in the meantime judging his job is melee/ranged, and everytime I use sleeve draw, it just feel shit this is just too much work

[KanameYuuki]

target selection, you have to go through party list one by one, means multiple hits to select a target in the meantime judging his job is melee/ranged, and everytime I use sleeve draw, it just feel shit this is just too much work

At least before you would have a lot of breathing room being able to just self aoe the cards, now every 30s targeting back and forward, Sleeve draw window is a nightmare, the skill that used to be my favorite and felt empty running lv 70- content without now became something I dread using.

[Brarry]

That's what people have been referring to when they say the new card system is a clunky boring mess. Why not just have 2 seperate skills that buffs range and melee instead of this uninspiring draw system

[whiskeybravo]

I just wonder which group would be louder if they hadn't changed the cards at all.

[Sylve]

I just wonder which group would be louder if they hadn't changed the cards at all.

There would not have been another group to speak of f they hadn't changed them. People like me who only took up AST because of the card changes would have continued to ignore AST in ShB were it not for the change.

I abandoned AST back in Heavensward after I got it to 60 because cards were absolute garbage. Either I drew really well and got lots of Arrows/Balances or more commonly, drew nothing but Boles, Ewers and Spires.

Drawing luckily did indeed feel great. It was satisfying to drop a super long Balance on someone. But the sheer odds of drawing well was overshadowed by the odds of drawing badly.
Sleeve Draw, while fun to watch occur was also garbage 90% of the time I used it while playing AST in prep for ShB. I sure did love getting AoE Bole with a held Spire. Such fun.

New cards aren't perfect. But they're a damn sight better than they were in terms of sheer usability. They don't last as long, but that's because the uptime on any given card effect of the old variety was even worse. Or better, As it was pure RNG as to what you got.
We also no longer need to be concerned with cards becoming obsolete as we get further in the expansion.
MNK and NIN generally didn't enjoy Arrows because they already had the SkS breakpoint they needed and more would just throw off their rotation. Bole was worthless in farm content. Spire was worthless everywhere except mass pull AoEs and then only if your party had melee dps.
Ewer was also practically worthless unless you just so happened to draw at the exact moment a fellow healer just so happened to be raised. Which happened less and less often as content went from new to farm status.
The only card that remained powerful and useful in all content, all the time was Balance.

New cards will always be useful in every content every time they are drawn from now until 6.0. That alone makes them a world above the old cards.

[TankHunter678]

New cards will always be useful in every content every time they are drawn from now until 6.0. That alone makes them a world above the old cards.

Except for all the times where matchmaker gives you a configuration where you are getting none of the cards you actually need (which renders half your cards worthless and pointless) and refuses to give you the seals you actually need (which renders divination mostly worthless). Not to mention the fact that the effects are so weak and so short lived that the Old cards stomp on them in terms of gains.

Which is why AST is in such a terrible position that no one wants it except the people who only care about how high their personal numbers can get padded damn the rest.

I am going to be honest, I get far more worthless useless cards with the new AST then I ever got with the old AST. I also get frustrated far more often thanks to the seal system and the melee/range split. At this point if they want to stick with this simplified mess they may as well remove the card system entirely and just give us 3 buttons: A button that buffs a single target on a 30 sec cooldown, the 120 sec cooldown button that buffs the party, and a button that resets the single target buff button and grants 2 charges. Doing that makes the system achieve what the current card system was supposed to achieve while eliminating all of the current systems negatives. The lore of the class will still be destroyed, but at least we wont work harder then other classes who achieve similar results in far fewer button presses for their raid buffs.

In the old system Bole was useful in all content that was not optimized content, which is 95% of the content in the game. Ewer always had a use. In truth thanks to minor arcana all cards were never useless, never worthless. Spire simply needed a rework because it was too niche out of all the cards. I never heard of any card becoming obsolete.