Thread: 5.3 AST Changes

Originally Posted by Gemina

If they start adding in ways to shave away RNG layers, then we start dealing with elements from the old card system that are only detrimental rather than beneficial. What actually has to happen in this regard is Divination values reworked. Two of one type of seal is the lowest common denominator, and should provide the least benefit. Getting three of one type of seal isn't any easier than getting three different types. It's just such a flawed system from the ground up

As far as Sleeve Draw, I was thinking that giving two random seals, and also drawing a card to be played might be possible. I also think they might do something with it way out of the box. I guess we just have to wait and see.

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.

Would hate for sleeve draw to just give 3 seals. I understand the controller issues, but part of the fun of AST for me is the quick thinking and playing of cards. Would really hate for it to be watered down even more.

I'm really hoping with the mention of sleeve draw and MP off of lightspeed that we might see our MP regen tied to cards, making playing them feel much more rewarding for the astro.

Originally Posted by Xiun

Would hate for sleeve draw to just give 3 seals. I understand the controller issues, but part of the fun of AST for me is the quick thinking and playing of cards. Would really hate for it to be watered down even more.

I'm really hoping with the mention of sleeve draw and MP off of lightspeed that we might see our MP regen tied to cards, making playing them feel much more rewarding for the astro.

I’m with this guy, so far AST have been trivialized with this nerf it will sand off AST to its basic form. AST is already bogged down from 4.0. Is 6.0 just gonna do away with cards? Because it’s a few steps away from it

The more that I use Sleeve Draw the more niche it feels. It's designed to give me 3 chances to build a max % buff seal for divination. For the opener it's great as usually not much is going on mechanics wise.

Fast Forward to the next sleeve draw and i'm dodging AOE, healing, DPSing, and probably selecting a party member to get rid of a minor arcana so that my sleeve draw isn't messed up. Just a lot going on usually.

Now with all that overlapping into my sleeve draw I sometimes have this flusterd moment where i'm like OMG is that melee or ranged?! Where is the damn ranged!? OMG there isn't any MELEE!??? *throws at tank*

The timer for sleeve draw is now ticking down and pushing my next divination further back. This must be the drift your talking about?

Sleeve draw needs to be a straight up 1 of each seal and change the CD to 240sec, so then you get 1 sleeve draw every other divination. Not to mention buff on demand for lining up with raid DPS better, just depends which end of the raid dps you want to stand on. Pop divination at the start for HIGH dps, or wait for the lower end to supplement for more even consistent DPS from start to finish.

This means your next manual build has to be RIGHT out of divination pop to line up the 120sec CD from manual build to sleeve draw.

Redraws I feel will just be the nature of the beast and balance out the class a little keeping that RNG feel.

Lately I have been using sleeve draw coupled with a manual built divination. This supplements the 6% with another 6% from minor arcana. So it goes like this: Manual build seals -> divination -> sleeve draw -> minor arcana to respective party members. It can be tricky to pull off but works great. Just wish I still had time dilation or celestial opposition still worked the same way. I used to do this in stormblood all the time. Then it changed. *kicks dirt* Loved seeing 1 min of uptime on my buffs lol although I can't remember if both skills worked for minor arcana.

Originally Posted by Side-Eye

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.

I honestly LOVED the RNG of Astro. When I picked it up it was my first healer, so i didn't have anything to base it off of. When I got spread and royal road it made "Fishing" for a card FUN! Nine times out of ten the party wanted spire/balance. But there were times when nobody cared. So I look at the party make up and bole/spear on a monk,nin,sam. Or balance/balance a dragoon or balance/bole a tank to give me a slight break in healing for more DPS.

I understand why they made everything the same, but at the same time it took away a lot of what made astro fun. And that was really coming up with fun and interesting ways to play your cards, with time dilation, and celestial opposition. I doubt they well ever go back to this in 6.0, if anything it will just become the next monk.

Originally Posted by Side-Eye

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.

Originally Posted by Gemina

Considering that you brought up two of AST biggest issues, I'm quite sure the change is going to alleviate some the high APM, which in turn will also remedy the problem for controller users. If they want to get more players using AST, this would likely be the best route without reworking the cards entirely, which won't come until 6.0. Pairing two abilities isn't unheard of in this game, but this is intentional and light speed has other uses, so this really needs to be fixed.

As far as how they rework it, your guess is as good as mine. I don't raid with my AST, and it is this content where they will look at Sleeve Draw the most. There is also the issue that AST have no means to use Divination on-demand and the ability can drift. I would imagine that this can cause an issue with lining up with raid buffs, or other jobs have to hold onto their CDs waiting for the AST. I think this was the original intention with Sleeve Draw, so if I were to guess, Sleeve draw will now just grant you all three seals, but they will still be random.

You get 4 cards between every divination. Your opener and using Sleeve Draw on cooldown gives you more seals as well. There's no reason why Divination should ever drift, it should be available on cooldown; if it isn't you aren't counting your cards properly or aren't using Draw on cooldown.