Quote Originally Posted by HyoMinPark View Post
I can’t speak on KB+M users, as I have always played this game on controller, but I always thought that they would have the benefit of mouse-over macros for this, which would be significantly smoother than an entire macro-hotbar setup. I could be wrong, but I saw ASTs play with mouse-over for cards even back in HW and SB. I figured that such would be the same with ShB.

However, that still doesn’t excuse that it’s terrible on controller users, thereby supporting the notion that the system itself is flawed. You can’t say a system is not flawed simply because it works well on a KB+M setup. It doesn’t work well on the other system—a system that the developers try really hard to flow as smoothly as possible compared to the other setup—thereby making it imperfect. Controller users have to supposedly set up an entire macro setup to use AST’s main gimmick in an optimal fashion; meanwhile, KB+M users get to have a single macro (mouse-over) by comparison, with no carpal tunnel of the thumb involved. How can you say that’s not an inherent flaw in the system?

This is to say nothing about Sleeve Draw and how awful it can be on controller, and that optimal execution still requires one to activate Lightspeed (for both KB+M and controller users), thereby taking the skill away from being used in a more versatile fashion (e.g., movement, MP conservation, faster Raises + MP conservation, etc.).

The Draw system before ShB was never this convoluted to manage on a controller scheme. Even when one was deploying a single-target card or using the old Minor Arcana.
TBH, I have never used macros outside of specific, one time use abilities like rescue. The delay to macros make them too unreliable. It's one of the reasons I cannot stand the current iteration of AST, if it requires macros to do its primary job, it is failed design, because macros are much too unreliable in this game. I know it's preference, and people can and have worked around them in the past, but the only way around the constant swapping of targets is through the use of a macro, so either way you're doing something that is asking for too much, or you're doing something that has a chance to not work when you need it to and forced to clip. This is what makes the current iteration of AST a failure in my eyes. I personally don't mind the whole, everything is balance (though I do sympathize with people that hate that design, and I do want it changed back because those people were the ones who mained AST from the start) but I cannot stand the constant swapping of targets and/or the reliance of macros.