Please return AST card gameplay.

[Johaandr]

if we still had old card system and made it only use in combat then there wont be any fishing. And cannot use the skill outside of combat,.

[Bobsmiaw]

I love the old system.
For me, all card in the old system is useful.
If you get unwanted card, you can royal road and minor arcana.
Sleeve draw also match with the old syatem.
I like the way we have to think/decide for what we do with all of our card combination.

Current system just feel so dull and exhausting.

[Brandedblade]

New system is what finally made me prefer AST over SCH so I'm good. Its more fun to coordinate the card cooldowns with the group I run stuff with then just fire and forget Chain Stratagem. What's tedious to y'all is something to track and manage and optimize for me.

[Mansion]

New system is what finally made me prefer AST over SCH so I'm good. Its more fun to coordinate the card cooldowns with the group I run stuff with then just fire and forget Chain Stratagem. What's tedious to y'all is something to track and manage and optimize for me.

I'm not sure I'm following you. Cards in 4.X had the same 30s cooldown for everything, so you would still rotate around 30seconds cycles, which is the timeframe of most raid buffs. If anything, AST's current opener introduces some RNG to the timing/efficiency of Divination.

The only thing I prefer in 5.X system is having Draw's CD always cycling because it does not rely on you spreading, burning or playing the card anymore.

[Esmoire]

I have mixed feelings on the new system.

To start, with the cards themselves, I definitely liked the old effects more, barring Ewer and Spire. The new cards are just very boring.

What I do like about the new system:

• Draw CD not being held hostage.
• Being able to hold cards indefinitely.
• Redraw charges.
• The thematic appeal of Divination
• The death of Royal Road

This might sound odd but I actually feel the previous AST having three different ways of converting cards was very redundant, and symptomatic of a problem. If you were coming into FFXIV blind, Royal Road would look like a cool and interesting way of manipulating cards, but it was rarely an actual interesting decision. When Ewer and Spire could actually be useful it felt great but in most circumstances they were seen as a ticket to Expanded Royal Road and little else. Aside from that it was often used in situations like not being able to get value from Bole because you didn't have anyone tanking (common in alliance raids), or because a large stretch of time was impending and you simply wanted to do something with that card, of which the latter problem is not relevant anymore.

In the ideal world, every card you could ever draw would be useful and you would not need to convert it to anything, though realistically that often runs counter to more interesting design. 1-2 buttons to get value out of a Draw you didn't like is already a lot. To that end, one button to try to get a new card and another button to do something with it if you really just can't get anything with it is good and more than enough.

All that aside, I feel like it would have been more desirable to revise the old cards to be more competitive than ditch the system entirely. The cards did not have to be numerically equal, but merely feel like they could do anything at all. Not all attacks need to be crits, just like not all cards need to be Balance.

[Brandedblade]

I'm not sure I'm following you. Cards in 4.X had the same 30s cooldown for everything, so you would still rotate around 30seconds cycles, which is the timeframe of most raid buffs. If anything, AST's current opener introduces some RNG to the timing/efficiency of Divination.

The only thing I prefer in 5.X system is having Draw's CD always cycling because it does not rely on you spreading, burning or playing the card anymore.

What I'm saying is that I personally prefer the work of setting up Divination on ast then fire and forgetting Chain Stratagem on SCH. I play AST over SCH nowadays since the cards, for me, are something to track and optimize the use of compared to what SCH currently has. I like the idea of a decent chunk of my damage being from increasing the dps of others and having the hidden value of not clipping and extra mobility due to my shorter cast times on everything.

[Side-Eye]

What I'm saying is that I personally prefer the work of setting up Divination on ast then fire and forgetting Chain Stratagem on SCH. I play AST over SCH nowadays since the cards, for me, are something to track and optimize the use of compared to what SCH currently has. I like the idea of a decent chunk of my damage being from increasing the dps of others and having the hidden value of not clipping and extra mobility due to my shorter cast times on everything.

I might agree with this sentiment if the AST's "dps of others" contribution was visible without running an illegal parser to see that small bump in the numbers.

[MitsukiKimura]

I want my class to be fun playing. That's it.. It's not fun. It feels more like a chore. The "Only" thing I like is using Divination with a dancer's Tech step. Other than that... Cards are dull.. Astro used to be so much fun.. Throwing attack speeds on black mages, crit's on the bard so they could get more proc's.. It kills me on the inside.

[Kuwago]

I have mixed feelings on the new system.

To start, with the cards themselves, I definitely liked the old effects more, barring Ewer and Spire. The new cards are just very boring.

What I do like about the new system:

• Draw CD not being held hostage.
• Being able to hold cards indefinitely.
• Redraw charges.
• The thematic appeal of Divination
• The death of Royal Road

This might sound odd but I actually feel the previous AST having three different ways of converting cards was very redundant, and symptomatic of a problem. If you were coming into FFXIV blind, Royal Road would look like a cool and interesting way of manipulating cards, but it was rarely an actual interesting decision. When Ewer and Spire could actually be useful it felt great but in most circumstances they were seen as a ticket to Expanded Royal Road and little else. Aside from that it was often used in situations like not being able to get value from Bole because you didn't have anyone tanking (common in alliance raids), or because a large stretch of time was impending and you simply wanted to do something with that card, of which the latter problem is not relevant anymore.

In the ideal world, every card you could ever draw would be useful and you would not need to convert it to anything, though realistically that often runs counter to more interesting design. 1-2 buttons to get value out of a Draw you didn't like is already a lot. To that end, one button to try to get a new card and another button to do something with it if you really just can't get anything with it is good and more than enough.

All that aside, I feel like it would have been more desirable to revise the old cards to be more competitive than ditch the system entirely. The cards did not have to be numerically equal, but merely feel like they could do anything at all. Not all attacks need to be crits, just like not all cards need to be Balance.

I somewhat agree with you when it comes to having multiple ways to "manipulate" the cards with RR and MA but now using MA to a card feels nothing as it just increases potency. It doesn't even feel like an upgrade considering how it measly increases the potency by one 2%. I personally think that RR and MA could've been combined now that they replaced all cards with DPS buffs and MA brings back the old effects or something.

I'd rather have MA begone and RR stay because I can feel as though I can do something else with my cards than just increasing the DPS buff I give to my party.

[Its_Elodie]

Leveling AST, I really miss the old card system. I could always find a use for a card, and now it’s just me internally cringing every time I pull a melee/tank card and thinking “welp, i’m giving these only to the tank this dungeon, since I only have ranged dps.” It feels like such a waste compared to the potencies and abilities I used to have to be able to manipulate cards a bit with royal road, celestial opposition, and time dilation (and these abilities also created opportunities for some nice regens) before Shadowbringers hit.

Now, the cards just feel like fodder for divination. Which is more work than it’s worth imo. I’m also really missing being able to ewer myself when lucid dreaming is on cool down. Not having another backup resource for mp regen like whm has with thin air and sch has with aetherflow also stinks.

Granted, I’m only at 72, SB AST was so multifaceted and fun to play. I’m not a fan of this new iteration. I’d gladly take the SB one back in a heartbeat. Same for SCH.