Quote Originally Posted by Side-Eye View Post
Funny you should say that, because while seasoned AST players didn't mind RNG, it was primarily the DPS crowd who wanted *no* randomness and were primarily the reason that Squeenix killed the variety of buffs we used to have, in favor of a watered-down DPS buff for every card.

IMO, including RNG in the job's toolkit was what justified a few of those 'random' abilities to be powerful, was why there were tools to deal with the cards drawn which weren't useful at the moment, and ultimately, why astro could be so satisfying to play.
AST mains constantly talk about this. While I am not being incredulous, it doesn't change that if you weren't fishing for Balance, you weren't playing the job correctly. I thought AST was pretty fun too back in those day, until I became painfully aware of this, which stripped the job of any enjoyment for me. Trust me, the only player in your party who cared about the other buffs was the AST. All in all, you are echoing what I've been saying, and the meta is to blame for the way things currently are.