AST: Optimizing current card system

[finnegandadaeon]

August’s live letter confirmed us that devs do not intend to reverse current card system, however basics solutions can be applied to optimize it and let it not be so in conflict with damage and healing mechanics. atm ast probs with cards are:

-high efforts low rewards
-fishing for seals can be difficult when u be also to dps and heal
-the combo draw play checking seals and minor arcana

Well some changes I suggest:

Malefic- istant

Benefic -instant

Draw - name changed into “major arcana”- cooldown shared with “minor arcana” skill

Minor arcana-effect changed- using the skill now assures the draw of lady or lord

Card effects duration- extended to 20 secs

Divination- buff changed from 6/5/4% to 8/6/4% - ranged changed from 15y to 30y- duration buffed to 35 secs

Sleeve draw- effect changed- grants u 3 charges of redraw and refresh your minor arcana or major arcana cooldown- cooldown reduced to 70 sec

So basically fishing for seals won’t totally get away but With divination buff it will be more worth than what we have now, once u ll get all the seals u need, u ll stop drawing your card directly from major arcana skill but from minor arcana skill. I’m not so good with rebalancing feedback, what do u think ? And what would u do ?

[TankHunter678]

If we were to keep the current desired approach of not having useless cards and not having to fish which was the stated reasons for changing from the old system then...

-Remove Undraw, Play, Minor Arcana, Redraw, Seals, Melee/Range split
-Draw now automatically applies the damage buff to target party member/self, card appearances remain for the sake of flavor but individual cards are no longer drawn
-Divination remains as a 120 sec cooldown party buff
-Sleeve Draw remains a refresh of draw that also gives 2 additional charges

This removes all the useless cards based on party configuration, removes the problem of constant fishing, brings the effort level down to the reward level, and opens up 4 ability slots to be used for other things.

[Vitreus]

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.

[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.

[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

[IanFrench]

Current card system is such a failure. A huge amount of work and rewards just too low to accept!

[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.

[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.