AST fix ever?

[Ilenya]

Precisely the point.
SCHs Sacred Soil is a regular cooldown. Bole was RNG. You can't balance around having it, you can't balance around not having it.
Imagine if Sacred Soil just occasionally didn't work.

Wasn't there a time period where it didn't actually give the buff until a second or so after it was activated?

[Leareaux]

As far as card effect variety goes, what we have now is also a result of player feedback. Devs have consistently been told that a player does not like having to choose between a damage buff and a utility buff.

[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.

[Crushnight]

If there is going to be a change it will be 6.0 and only 6.0 that'll do it. There has been plenty of feedback over the current card system, some good some bad, 6.0 will determine whether the system will remain in place and no one other than the devs can say with certainty whether this system is here to stay or a 1 and done expansion, like bow mage was.

[Hanayumi]

Yeah, devs already mentioned there is no plan for any major card changes, theyre fairly content with how they are now, next patch changes are primarily mp changes. As for the boring-ness, pretty much all job got reduced to a dull, barebone standard, but this at least gives them a balanced platform to expand on the jobs so well shall see next expac.

[Nhala_Levee]

It was not perfect. It was broken AF. It was a convoluted mess of RNG, and methods to shave away the layers of it.

It was only broken for those, who didnt had creativity to use the other side of the cards. 1 single card had 3 diferent effect to use it. If you couldnt think out of anything from them, it is only your fault and not the games fault.
I always could used every of the old cards. Every one of them had they own uses and they combinations. TP was useless, maybe yes. But you forgot that The Spire card had 2 other side to use. If you cant come up anything with 3 diferent effect, than this game is not for you, sorry.

[Brandedblade]

It was only broken for those, who didnt had creativity to use the other side of the cards. 1 single card had 3 diferent effect to use it. If you couldnt think out of anything from them, it is only your fault and not the games fault.
I always could used every of the old cards. Every one of them had they own uses and they combinations. TP was useless, maybe yes. But you forgot that The Spire card had 2 other side to use. If you cant come up anything with 3 diferent effect, than this game is not for you, sorry.

Your spire example is exactly what people here are talking about, the fact is the card was so bad it's only use was to buff the one good card, or the two acceptable but not as good cards, or toss it away for a minor arcana

[Gemina]

It was only broken for those, who didnt had creativity to use the other side of the cards. 1 single card had 3 diferent effect to use it. If you couldnt think out of anything from them, it is only your fault and not the games fault.
I always could used every of the old cards. Every one of them had they own uses and they combinations. TP was useless, maybe yes. But you forgot that The Spire card had 2 other side to use. If you cant come up anything with 3 diferent effect, than this game is not for you, sorry.

Lack of creativity is what has caused issues for AST in the first place. Instead of creating a true third healer, they decided to make AST a job that could fill in for whatever the group needed. Since this was done poorly, AST were left in the dust for prog raid content. In order to get more players to use AST, they once again showed a lack of creativity and just overtuned it to the stratosphere.

No, no. If you want use creativity as your angle, then I would trace it all the way back to the roots. Players have always shown an exceptional amount of creativity in mmos, and because most follow the path of least resistance; if there is an exploit to be found, they will find it. Yet, AST card mechanic remained, and basically remains the same: Draw the right three cards in order to boost everyone's damage. Any, and I do mean any utility from the cards other than DMG boosts was not desired by your party members. If your fishing resulted in something other than the Balance, then you use it if the situation warrants it, and if not then you just used minor arcana instead. Another broken ability back then because you did not always need the heal.

I am also not sure what you're talking about with each card having three different effects. Each card had one effect that could be augmented three different ways, but those augments were the same for every card: 50%potency+AoE, 200% duration, or 150% potency iirc. From those, you would always aim to get the AoE, despite how nice the other ones were.

[Nhala_Levee]

Lack of creativity is what has caused issues for AST in the first place. Instead of creating a true third healer, they decided to make AST a job that could fill in for whatever the group needed. Since this was done poorly, AST were left in the dust for prog raid content. In order to get more players to use AST, they once again showed a lack of creativity and just overtuned it to the stratosphere.

No, no. If you want use creativity as your angle, then I would trace it all the way back to the roots. Players have always shown an exceptional amount of creativity in mmos, and because most follow the path of least resistance; if there is an exploit to be found, they will find it. Yet, AST card mechanic remained, and basically remains the same: Draw the right three cards in order to boost everyone's damage. Any, and I do mean any utility from the cards other than DMG boosts was not desired by your party members. If your fishing resulted in something other than the Balance, then you use it if the situation warrants it, and if not then you just used minor arcana instead. Another broken ability back then because you did not always need the heal.

I am also not sure what you're talking about with each card having three different effects. Each card had one effect that could be augmented three different ways, but those augments were the same for every card: 50%potency+AoE, 200% duration, or 150% potency iirc. From those, you would always aim to get the AoE, despite how nice the other ones were.

Jesus girl you ever played AST?... dmg boost is the only thing that a party need? We talking about the same game? Final Fantasy 14? Defense and survivability far overpriority than dps as even mp regen as you cant do anything without mp or without life. Maybe in atom savage raids (what is meaningles even they existence) its works but in any other raid damage boost is simply useless. Dont have meaning for its existence in any way. AST always was an utility support healer, not a dps. And it was perfect in it. I saved whole groups even in roulette raids with an aoe bole card and keep up the aoe crit card for places where needs fast short burst in mechanic. Need to know the bosses and they mechanics to adapt with ast to it. Not easy, yes, for me needed years to learn all but then i already knew what use where. Even spire... when the bards and mchs depleted they tp in seconds in aoe burst. Now the cards not even worth to waste time with them. The boost they gives are worthless even in savage raids cause too small and too overcomplicatedly rng. If they dont want unique char then simply copy holy paladin from wow or druid. This is my point of viev and as i could used ast in every situation perfectly well, i wont change my mind for anything.

[elioaiko]

Jesus girl you ever played AST?... dmg boost is the only thing that a party need? We talking about the same game? Final Fantasy 14? Defense and survivability far overpriority than dps as even mp regen as you cant do anything without mp or without life. Maybe in atom savage raids (what is meaningles even they existence) its works but in any other raid damage boost is simply useless. Dont have meaning for its existence in any way. AST always was an utility support healer, not a dps. And it was perfect in it. I saved whole groups even in roulette raids with an aoe bole card and keep up the aoe crit card for places where needs fast short burst in mechanic. Need to know the bosses and they mechanics to adapt with ast to it. Not easy, yes, for me needed years to learn all but then i already knew what use where. Even spire... when the bards and mchs depleted they tp in seconds in aoe burst. Now the cards not even worth to waste time with them. The boost they gives are worthless even in savage raids cause too small and too overcomplicatedly rng. If they dont want unique char then simply copy holy paladin from wow or druid. This is my point of viev and as i could used ast in every situation perfectly well, i wont change my mind for anything.

As much I want the old cards back as the next person, this is a bit of stretch.

Spire was very much useless and honestly removing TP was for the better.

The real reason that AST's cards were a problem is that there was damage card mixed in with utility cards. You're right that damage mostly related to raiding and high end content.

But unfortunately this made it difficult for them to balance, as people would beg for the Balance card constantly.

What they should have done is made all the cars utlity based and keep Divination. There would be no best card as random utlity is subjective to the raid, but damage buffs? That is.

Keeping Divination with the old card system probably would have been a better way to marry the two systems (probably kinks to work out).

But to say that damage buffs aren't important to AST is kinda wrong. SE wanting to balance out the cards isn't wrong in itself. They just went about it the wrong way. It wasn't the system, it was divide between what they can do and what thay provided for the party.