Fix AST's Accessibility Issue

[Billythepancake]

I mean I play on controller and don't use macros for ast, it's not that hard to play any healer on controller for me anyway and I'm not some god of xiv

The problem stems when you try to do it optimally. As a k+m user, I can't handle AST when sleeve draw comes up, especially in the opener, it's just awful. I'd honestly hate to see anyone try and be optimal on a controller with the amount you'd have to target swap.

[Crushnight]

I mean I play on controller and don't use macros for ast, it's not that hard to play any healer on controller for me anyway and I'm not some god of xiv

Are you playing to be as optimal as you can be while on Ast or are you just playing Ast?

The former is where the issues are really apparent while the latter is where you barely notice it.

3 seal(different) Divination while up keeping gcds gets very messy with how controller players have to target players, play card, draw/sleeve draw, redraw if needed and retarget boss, all between the 2nd and 5th gcd between the 1st and 2nd are other weaves on top of the draw one.
-takes up to 4 dpad presses for people in party list
-then another x press for boss retargeting (God forbid you have x target be prioritise to players cus that is in you for those additional dpad button presses)
-only overwrite a card with lord/lady but even then it is your top opening busters and with card randomised to melee or ranged good luck as your dpad presses are randomised too.

And that is your opener, something you have to do every pull because let's face it only Godka and Neo ever made you immediately drop what you doing and burst heal within 5 gcds, even LL in ultimate gives you enough breathing room to do this opener.

You would be doing this for your raid session if in a group which usually range from 2-8 hours depending on group. Imagine how much pain your fingers are in after that oof. 2 hours of that opener is painful enough and I do mean actually painful I do not suffer any physical disabilities at all I am fortunate in that regard but after a few hours on Ast wiping to Titan phase 1 during a prog day nah not worth it so I decided then to use macros so my fingers don't hurt.

This is why I class ShB as poor design, it looks and feels fine on surface but once you get right into it and try to optimise it it gets ugly fast on controller.

Kicker is Ast isn't even the highest apm, I mained nin in SB so fast actions isn't something i'm adversed to just the sheer volume of it all(mostly the retargeting required) in under 12.5s that makes me hate it with a burning passion.

The only solutions to this is rework ast abilities to not require so much retargeting or rework the targeting system itself and it is something that needs to happen this expansion not 6.0

[Billythepancake]

I'd say a good way to help with the older card system. Have a way to mitigate RNG at some sort of cost. Say you can force a balance if you want, but the next 2 cards you draw are guaranteed to not be balance. Have that for every card.

[Aomine1992]

To be fair old AST card system was hard on controller as well not because of the cards themselves but the button bloat was getting out of hand lol royal road required an extra button for spread, enhance and extending properties. Also required undraw because of undesirable cards. Time dilation....I had ran out of space in SB.

As for the new system, it’s definitely not controller friendly as I play AST on controller and sometimes the cards become a chore to hand out so I tend to move my two dps to the bottom to select more easily because macro delay is garbage in end game lol

All in all they really need to come up with a better idea for AST in the future, but I will remain the minority I prefer the new card system cause I don’t have to really fish due to lady and lord or crowns.

[HyoMinPark]

I disagree with the previous card system being difficult on controller. I’ve always played on controller, and I had everything mapped just fine on my set up. Meanwhile, ShB AST now requires macros for regular arcana AND the Minor Arcana. Anywhere from 6 (4-man) to 14 (8-man) just to avoid wearing out your D-pad. When I do feel crazy enough to play it, I’ve stopped trying to optimize the card usage and just toss my cards arbitrarily onto the first melee in my list and the first ranged. Or a friend I’m running with. And I cry every time Sleeve Draw comes off cooldown. Sucks because I would like to actually play it optimally but I don’t want to deal with all the macros or manual selection. I miss just giving AOE cards so everyone benefits.

It’s far worse button bloat than SB. By a long shot.

And there is still fishing involved. It’s just moved from damage cards or AOE Royal Road to seals.

[QooEr]

the button bloat was getting out of hand lol royal road required an extra button for spread, enhance and extending properties. Also required undraw because of undesirable cards. Time dilation....I had ran out of space in SB.

i play on controller too. ast never had horrible button bloat; the only one i had problems in that regard was scholar.

royal road always used 1 button and undraw was deprecated since minor arcana exists. there was plenty of room for time dilation too (and with all the skills they deleted, i still have space for 2 other skills on my hotbar currently, so it definitely can come back)


however i think we all agree new ast is horrible on controller as you have to either use macros or mash they D pad like crazy every time sleeve draw comes off cooldown (and you cant even easily see who still has the card buffs and how long they have left either...)