Quote Originally Posted by ForteNightshade View Post
Unfortunately, I think the dev team overreacted to a very some amount of complaints. Astro's only major problem was its sheer dominance over White Mage due to its utility. I won't speak for everyone but I almost never saw people decrying the old card system on either here or reddit. You'd see some mentions about Arrow but that was about it.

People forget illusion of choice isn't always a bad thing. Getting Balance felt rewarding because it was RNG. Without said RNG... the cards feel far less impactful because, well, it's the same thing every single target. And people anyone points out you now have to think about burst windows and etc. No, you actually don't. Assuming everyone is of comparable skill level, you will always prioritize BLM/MNK outside the opener. If you don't have a MNK? Go down the list from SAM, DRG, NIN.
I don't understand the angle of the ones arguing about the old cards being "worthless" because it is an illusion of choice. What makes ASt's so-called illusion of mitigation with Bole or mp regen with Ewer any less valid than the illusion of a SMN's choice to apply DoTs before going for the bursts? (SMN here being my only significant DPS investment) Sure the big numbers kills things quicker and that may be argued as being enough to establish it's validity, but you're going to be dealing damage regardless as a DPS whether the choice to optimize it is made or not, just as ASTs are going to heal and buff(or not, because they had so much more to do but this choice was the point!).

And to your mention of the argument that now for AST to be effective, it would have to keep a rapidly growing mental map of every move and manner of each team member otherwise it is underperforming. I thought the changes were made to be accessible, not make it so that only AI neural network can play it to great effect, or barring that, top-tier players who can galaxy-brain every single battle.

I don't mean to drag DPS or any other class, I only want to know why the same concessions DPS gets are suddenly a point of contention against ASTs. An illusion of choice is as valid as any in a videogame literally programmed to provide illusory choices. Thank you for bringing these points up as it shines a light on how the new cards vs the og cards were perceived.