AST: Optimizing current card system

[Seraphor]

In the job actions preview it was very convenient that three separate seals were drawn. Unless my math is wrong that will only happen 22% of the time. The simplest way to make it so that we don't have to repeatedly redraw to get the appropriate card is to make redraw return a card with a seal we don't already have for divination.

It already gives us a card we don't have, so your chances of redrawing the same seal is only 20%.


I’m one who thinks the current cards aren’t that bad, and there’s a valid balancing reason why we lost Crit and Speed, and why we lost the healer toolkit skills in Bole and Ewer.
But there is one suggestion I’ve seen that I kinda liked, and tweaked a little below.

Balance/Spear/Arrow: All give a 5% damage buff. Minor Arcana’s into Lady which gives a 10% defence buff.
Bole/Ewer/Spire: All give a 5% defense buff. Minor Arcana’s into Lord which gives a 10% damage buff.
Seals are maintained as they are.

This way, party composition doesn’t change anything, but you have a valid choice between attack or defense for every single card you draw.
Your mitigation skill is always present if you need it, and the RNG only changes whether it’s a 5% or 10% buff.
The difference between 5% and 10% is greater than 6% and 8%, so your decision between Seals and Potency is more impactful as well.
In addition, having an almost constantly available defense buff means that the ASTs inferior regen and shielding capabilities could actually work instead of being an arbitrary gimp.

[CupidCrux]

Balance/Spear/Arrow: All give a 5% damage buff. Minor Arcana’s into Lady which gives a 10% defence buff.
Bole/Ewer/Spire: All give a 5% defense buff. Minor Arcana’s into Lord which gives a 10% damage buff.

I wouldn't mind these (anything is better than what we have now) but it makes my eye twitch that the AttkUP cards would turn to defense Lady and the defensive/utility cards would turn Lord AttkUp% lol Like how current arrow isn't for, you know, ranged...........

[Seraphor]

I wouldn't mind these (anything is better than what we have now) but it makes my eye twitch that the AttkUP cards would turn to defense Lady and the defensive/utility cards would turn Lord AttkUp% lol Like how current arrow isn't for, you know, ranged...........

I get it, but it's the only way I think it'd be balanced enough to include it.
No matter which card you draw, you'll have the option of one or the other, meaning that skill is technically always available, and the RNG tradeoff is between Seal or potency.

[Iscah]

I wouldn't mind these (anything is better than what we have now) but it makes my eye twitch that the AttkUP cards would turn to defense Lady and the defensive/utility cards would turn Lord AttkUp% lol Like how current arrow isn't for, you know, ranged...........

Arrow not being for ranged definitely seems odd, but the logic seems to be elemental/lore-based - if you look at the elemental wheel (in Eureka or the chart shown during MSQ) the elements are grouped in two triangles of three - Wind/Fire/Ice and Earth/Water/Lightning - the corresponding cards being Arrow/Balance/Spear and Bole/Ewer/Spire.

So it makes sense on the larger scale, and you can also memorise it as "attack cards" vs "support cards" in the old system.

[TankHunter678]

Arrow not being for ranged definitely seems odd, but the logic seems to be elemental/lore-based - if you look at the elemental wheel (in Eureka or the chart shown during MSQ) the elements are grouped in two triangles of three - Wind/Fire/Ice and Earth/Water/Lightning - the corresponding cards being Arrow/Balance/Spear and Bole/Ewer/Spire.

So it makes sense on the larger scale, and you can also memorise it as "attack cards" vs "support cards" in the old system.

The cards were never elemental based, always constellation based and the effects of the cards were always constellation based. The card coloration was to make them easy to identify from each other back when every card had its own unique effect, being able to know at a glance what benefits you just pulled is important.

That being said the melee/range split only exists for the sake of not reducing the number of cards available. If they did not put it in then with the seal system they would have reduced it to just the DPS cards with Bole, Ewer, and Spire tossed out as they no longer have a purpose at all. Of course that would cause even more issues with the class not matching up to the lore and some of the class scenarios calling for particular cards. The seals system also pretty much only exists to prop up card count. So they literally just split it down the middle and made the left be for melee and the right be for ranged without caring if the card choices would actually make sense. The seal choices make a bit more sense at least.

[Iscah]

The cards were never elemental based, always constellation based and the effects of the cards were always constellation based. The card coloration was to make them easy to identify from each other back when every card had its own unique effect, being able to know at a glance what benefits you just pulled is important.

They absolutely are elemental-based - it's spelled out clearly in the lore, in multiple ways.

Each constellation is the gate to an elemental heaven.

The legend of each constellation references the two gods associated with that element (as noted in the character creation where you choose your guardian deity).

The cards themselves are represented not only by 'colours' but their elemental symbols: a tree (earth), sun (fire), lightning-bolt, gust of wind, water-jar, snowflake.

There are unique visual elemental effects as you play each card.

And it's directly written in a table of information about the arcana in the lorebook.

The original card effects also seem directly inspired by the elements, and the constellations probably invented to fit them:
Earth = defence
Fire = attack
Lightning = recharge
Wind = speed
Water = refill/refresh
Ice = ??? (sharp spikes = crit?)

Certainly that's how I learned to associate the cards with their effects.

Of course that would cause even more issues with the class not matching up to the lore and some of the class scenarios calling for particular cards.

Would you like to point out where those issues actually are? Have you actually gone back and reviewed the story, or are you just going from memory?

Nobody answered me the other day in the discussion about AST lore when I asked for specific examples... it fell utterly silent as soon as I posted the actual descriptions for all the cards - as they were both before and after 5.0. Four are unchanged, the Bole minimally, and only the Ewer altered to reflect its new effect on physical ranged fighters.

I've played the story twice, three times for 30-50, and read through it a lot more than that. Besides the initial battle-tutorial text (which has been removed), I can't think of a single instance where we were asked to use a specific card. It's all "cast Aspected Benefic on the injured civilian".

Again, Garland Tools has the entire script. If you think there's a problem, find the quotes and show where the altered lore clashes with them - if they haven't already fixed it.

And I still have the saved text from 4.4 if you're certain there was something that used to be there, and isn't now.

[finnegandadaeon]

It would not change anything, u would still keep to give the card basing your decision on dps buff because buffing 10% dps would be too important to give it to a tank for a tankbuster or similar, also giving something on what u have to theorycraft won’t get ast job less busy and at the moment is soook busy with cards that keep dosing and healing is pretty hard. Defence buff would likely be good in the old system where Ast didn’t have all these cards to throw singularly

[TankHunter678]

It already gives us a card we don't have, so your chances of redrawing the same seal is only 20%.

With how often one can wind up burning all of their redraws trying to get a different seal it feels closer to 80%, especially if you are trying to fish for the last seal. Gets worse when you are trying to fish for not only the right seal but the right range buff for your party composition.