Suggestion for Astrologian

[Vogue]

While I enjoy some changes done to this class, like the Seals and Divination idea and losing some of the "unwanted" effects on some cards, I still think that right now, the class is way too complex and it takes too many steps to buff other players.

Right now the sequence is, draw a card, check for the type of card (if aimed to melee or ranged for that extra damage buff) then look at the seal that card will provide, decide if the card will mess up your seal sequence or not, if it will, then turn it into lord or lady, pick the party member you want to give the card to, and play the card.

Repeat the above enough times until you get 3 different seals, then get another lord or lady card ready before Divination, apply the lord or lady, then draw for another one fast and apply it to another dps.

Lots of steps that need to be done mentally, this does work on easy content just fine, but when it comes to hard content, then you need to add healing tanks or dps making mistakes and almost dying, or doing mitigation at the right times, plus doing mechanics and dodging aoes.

And while on the other hand, you have white mage (no hate to whms, love you all) dpsing their heart content and doing an instant heal if needed.

I do not have a lot of experience with Scholar view on healing, but as of now, Astro seems like it is a lot of work for such a small outcome, and my suggestion is to simplify the card system a little bit. Here we go!

First, Divination seals sequence is static, which means, using 2 cards back to back that are the same seal won't affect the sequence, only 1 of those seals will apply.

Divination can be activated with 1 seals, 2 seals or 3 seals, each giving their respective buff potency, leading to the astro to decide if they should pop the skill sooner, or wait for the missing seals to get a stronger buff from it.

By doing this change to seals, it leads to the healer to have a breather on having to decide if the drawn card will mess up the seal rotation or not, still, the astro will aim to get the different seals from each drawn card, since that will end on a stronger Divination buff, but it is not so punishing if they happen to make a mistake and give the wrong card before transforming it into lardy or lord, and messing up their seal sequence.

Second, Lord and Lady cards, since their use to avoid destroying the seals sequence wont be needed, what if they acted differently, one of them could be a higher damage single target buff (Example the single target intended cards, Balance, Spear and Arrow), while the other can be a aoe lower damage buff to party (the remaining long range intended cards, Ewer, Spire and Bole) This will still make them really useful and highly important to pair them with the Divination buff, to get that extra burst damage, also by keeping the melee and ranged groups intact, it will be easier to remember what the cards effect will be when turned into Lord or Lady.


I understand that going back to the old system is not an option, and truly, I do not think it would be the answer to making astro fun again, but to me, astro feels like a lot of work for such small results, it would be nice if giving out card buffs didn't require so many mental steps and decisions.

Thank you for reading.

[ty_taurus]

So I actually also wanted to come on here to post an Astrologian suggestion. I'm totally unfamiliar with this setup, and wasn't sure if I'm supposed to post my own version of the same topic, but I assumed piggy-backing off yours was ideal. If this isn't kosher, or you don't like this suggestion and want to segregate it from yours, just say the word and I'll delete it and repost it as a separate thread.

Anyway, I know like a million people and their mothers are all raving about Astrologian, and I don't want to just add to the noise necessarily, but there are a few reasons why I wanted to bring this up now. First of all, there is so much back and forth revolving around Astrologian. The old cards were way too chaotic and inconsistent and needed change. Some players realize that and are enjoying the reliability of the new cards. Others hate that the new system took away the cards individuality. I would love for there to be a solution that can make all players happy about the direction of Astrologian.

Secondly, I do think that I might be onto something with an idea I came up with. I've thought a lot about these cards and have transitioned through many different iterations to try and regain that uniqueness of the former cards while retaining the consistency of the new ones. Many of those ideas had a lot of the same issues on one side or the other, but I truly believe this one could be the key to solving the equation. I don't want to imply that this system is EXACTLY what we must do. Maybe it is, or maybe it can be further tweaked to be even better. All I hope is that someone sees this and can make this work. So with that all explained, let me elaborate...

The Old-New Cards

Players miss the unique effects of the old cards, but they were inconsistent and unreliable. Perhaps there's a way we can return their unique effects, or similar ones at least, while removing the inconsistency aspects. Currently, we use Draw to randomly pull 1 of the 6 primary cards. Let's change this: Draw, Undraw, and Redraw are abolished. In their place...

Solar Draw - Draw either The Balance or The Spear.
The Balance increases the target's direct hit and applies a Solar Seal.
The Spear increases the target's critical hit and applies a Solar Seal.
NOTE: These are the cards you want to place on DPS party members.

Lunar Draw - Draw either The Bole or The Arrow.
The Bole decreased damage received and applies a Lunar Seal.
The Arrow increases healing received and applies a Lunar Seal.
NOTE: These are the cards you want to place on Tank party members.

Celestial Draw - Draw either The Ewer or The Spire.
The Ewer grants MP refresh and applies a Celestial Seal.
The Spire reduces MP costs and applies a Celestial Seal.
NOTE: These are the cards you want to place on Healer party members.

*EDIT* After some thought, and discussion elsewhere, I figured it would be more balanced to abandon the flat damage of Balance in favor of Direct Hit while Spear gets Critical Hit as both are on more even playing field. Additionally, Spear and Arrow were swapped because it fits Spear's lore more accurately as it relates to a critical moment. Also it means Solar is Fire/Ice, Lunar is Earth/Wind, and Celestial is Water/Lightning in terms of visual card effects, which is a nice touch that feels very appropriate.*

Solar, Lunar, and Celestial Draw all share a recast timer. This aspect allows the unique effects of the old card system to exist while being selectable as each group: Solar, Lunar, and Celestial, can always be chosen with a certain party member in mind.

Sleeve Draw removes the shared recast timer, allowing you to use each category of card in quick succession; however, you will not gain Seals while Sleeve Draw is in effect.

I'd like to, at this point, suggestion replacing Divination with Horoscope, as the concept of reading the Horoscope of your entire party will fit beautifully with this new new theme of party-wide buffing I'm going to suggestion. This doesn't have to be the case of course, should you prefer to keep Divination as the namesake of the effect. Regardless...
When all Seals are collected, and Divination/Horoscope is off Cooldown, you may use the ability.

Divination/Horoscope grants the effects of both Balance and Spear to every DPS party member in range, both Bole and Arrow to every Tank party member in range, and Ewer and Spire to every Healer party member in range; however, all these effects have halved effectiveness.

The reason I feel that Horoscope better fits this effect is because the idea of reading the Horoscope for all your party members fits in with an effect that changes depending on their role. It would add a lot of personality to the Astrologian's buffing power, which is a big focal point right now.

Lastly, let's discuss Minor Arcana.
In this concept, I imagine Minor Arcana to no longer consume your current card effect. Instead, it will sit on its own, separate Cooldown from Solar, Lunar, and Celestial Draw.
The Lord of Crowns will return to doing high potency damage.
The Lady of Crowns will return to being an off-Global Cooldown heal ability.
The trick to this is that rather than these cards being entirely random, the Lord and Lady will now always alternate when used. What I mean by this is that if you pull The Lord of Crowns, your next use of Minor Arcana will always result in The Lady of Crowns, which will return to the Lord and so-on. This gives the player a lot more time to plan for The Lady of Crowns and put good use to that healing since it can now be relied on.

To conclude, this concept will result in Astrologian's Card system consisting of these abilities:

Solar Draw
Lunar Draw
Celestial Draw
Play
Sleeve Draw
Horoscope
Minor Arcana

I want to reiterate that this suggestion is all about trying to find a way to make every Astrologian player, both old and new, happy. The freedom to choose between seals means players can consistently draw DPS cards throughout a fight while always having the option to choose Tank or Healer cards when the situation calls for it. Moreover, the requirement of seals to use Divination/Horoscope means that players will be encouraged to find those moments where Lunar cards and Celestial cards shine, and you're ultimately rewarded with a DPS gain, so you won't necessarily be pressured to know when Lunar and Celestial cards are best for the sake of optimization, meaning less experienced players shouldn't struggle with those.

Speaking of less experienced players, the segregation of cards-by-seal, and the connection those seals have to different roles will also make it very easy for new AST players to understand the different card effects. You'll know that Solar cards should be used on DPS, Lunar on Tanks, and Celestial on healers very early on in your Astrologian journey, so the pressure to memorize will be softened as well.

I know there's a lot of yelling all over the place with Astrologian. I know there are a million different people who all want to make suggestions, and that it's easy for this one to simply get drowned out by the noise, as well as just seem no different than the rest. But I truly thing there's something very powerful about this concept, and that perhaps something can be extracted from this to create the Astrologian that will unite healers again. Obviously this is something that would take a long time to make a reality, as is any large-scale changes. All I want from this is for the seeds of change to be planted, and to hopefully influence a brighter future for AST players everywhere.

[Vogue]

I have no problems with you using the same thread to post your idea, even though, our suggestions do not fully work together, it is still good to a share all of our ideas with the admins, sometimes the information is very useful to them and even if the info wasn't used, it might lead to new improved ideas for them too.