AST fix ever?

[Gemina]

Difficult to say. I don't have a crystal ball, I'm afraid.

My own conclusion that I have arrived at is that this mechanic does not work in this style of mmo, and now they are stuck because they can't just delete it, or AST. I know very little of pre ShB MCH, but that particular job's rework has been well received. AST might be more difficult due to the lore surrounding, and identity tied to those damn cards. I don't think the devs have the same luxury as they did with MCH when it comes to a complete overhaul.

Basically, the job needs Yoshi-P to pull out another rabbit. If it does ever get fixed, it will be entirely different that what we've currently known it to be. That is for certain.

[Monsalvato]

My own conclusion that I have arrived at is that this mechanic does not work in this style of mmo

As much as I absolutely loved the old system with all of my heart, I think this is the real issue. Wish it weren't the case but it's a problem bigger than just AST itself.

I have to say though while the new system is nowhere close as cool and full of depth and decision making as the old one was, it's less "bad" than I expeted it to be.
You still have to choose between different cards for different roles (ranged/melee), you can "play" with gathering 3 different symbols for the full party power up, and then you have a Powered up version of each card that doesn't give you the just mentioned symbols.
I mean of course I liked the old system better, but I was honestly expecting much worse when they announced a homogeneization.
Maybe it's because of my extremely low expectations that in the end I'm not too pissed off about this new, inferior system.

[Gemina]

As much as I absolutely loved the old system with all of my heart, I think this is the real issue. Wish it weren't the case but it's a problem bigger than just AST itself.

I have to say though while the new system is nowhere close as cool and full of depth and decision making as the old one was, it's less "bad" than I expeted it to be.
You still have to choose between different cards for different roles (ranged/melee), you can "play" with gathering 3 different symbols for the full party power up, and then you have a Powered up version of each card that doesn't give you the just mentioned symbols.
I mean of course I liked the old system better, but I was honestly expecting much worse when they announced a homogeneization.
Maybe it's because of my extremely low expectations that in the end I'm not too pissed off about this new, inferior system.

I agree. My gripes with the current card system is not that it's bad; it just isn't fun. Yet, it's the closest to what I consider a true functioning job gauge. Especially in comparison to the other two healers. The jobs I enjoy playing the most right now have interactive gauges that feel rewarding to build up and use. Consideration has to be taken with these job gauges as making the wrong decision with how to use the resource will result in a loss to DPS.

Therein lies the difference. It is why I call ASTs the guys who load the catapults, while the guys who pull the levers get to have all the fun causing the damage. They build up this resource throughout the fight. This resource has one sole use: Divination. There is no decision making process with it. Sure it boosts your damage too, so have fun with that Malefic spam throughout its duration. Could use Lightspeed to ensure you get in all the GCDs inside of its window, but 'bloody 'ell'; you used it during your opener.

What I am getting at is there is no reason why a healer's job gauge cannot enable them to do more damage just like EVERY OTHER ROLE AND JOB IN THE GAME. Misery has been given to WHM, and despite having an entirely passive job gauge that they don't have to do anything to build up other than stay alive; it feels one hundred times more rewarding. If AST card mechanic let them launch some cool skill that does damage, I guarantee this wretched mechanic would immediately feel so much better.

While normally I am on the side of healers being more focused on healing and the devs need to find more ways to engage them as such; I am also aware that it is a bad, very bad idea concept to try and reward healers with more heals when they do good. You reward players in general (regardless of their role) with flashy cool skills that hit hard. This shouldn't be a difficult concept for the devs to grasp; this is quite literally how video game players have been rewarded as long as game's have been around.