Thread: Everything wrong with 5.3 AST sleeve draw [Translated JP duplicate thread]

So, what should be done?

A quick dirty fix could look like:
- Simply reverting to 5.2
- Bring back 5.2 Sleeve as a separate skill with a shared cooldown, and multiply the effect of 5.3 Sleeve by 2~2.5x (*1).

A more fundamental change could look like reverting to 5.2 Sleeve and:
- Allow players to randomly distribute three cards by hitting Sleeve Draw again
- Allow players to toggle an auto random-cardplay mode synonymous to old Arcanist Sic

The basic idea here is to maintain the number of cards available and allow the player to choose how many decisions they want to make. Changes like these will be a major QoL improvement for players that find cardplay difficult while preserving the optimization experience for higher level players.

I gave just a few example potential solutions, but the point I want to stress most through this thread is that there are many possible methods to improve QoL without hurting the optimization experience. It is my hope that for future adjustments you pay more attention to views of players that enjoy optimizing battle, and to not treat QoL and complexity like a tradeoff but rather concepts that can coexist.


(*1) My personal take is, simply reverting to 5.2 is best. I suggested shared cooldowns here to keep both versions because I understand that this revamp came from a decision that QoL improvement was needed. Effect multiplication for 5.3 Sleeve is there to alleviate the difference of DPS contribution between the two versions, as such a large difference may pressure players that prefer the new version to unwillingly use the other.

P.S. If nerfing AST DPS contribution was part of the decision-making process for this revamp, then to me simply nerfing Malefic 4 seems to be most appropriate for reasons already given.

While I'm at it, I'll also translate what I posted on the JP counterpart
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Thanks for quoting me in your post. I am in total agreement.


There are few thoughts I want to give regarding Divination Seals, a stress factor you raised as partially responsible for this problematic Sleeve Draw revamp.

It is true that prior 5.3, Seals in my eyes had the following issues:

1. With the old skill set, namely Draw, Redraw and Sleeve Draw, there was an unavoidable luck factor of varying degree (depending on party timeline) involved during opener in whether or not you were able to hit 6% divination at optimal timing.
2. There were times mid-fight when you could never get the Seal you wanted no matter how many times you spammed Redraw. In particular, it felt terrible when by spamming Redraw you started looping between the same cards.

The concept of a skill that restricts the Seal of your subsequent (re)draw, like the one SE implemented with 5.3 Sleeve Draw, actually is a viable solution these stress factors. Of course, as you have described in detail, revamping Sleeve Draw for this purpose was problematic in many ways but had this been a Redraw revamp I feel this would have been much more popular.


Concrete implementations could look like:

1. Transfer new Sleeve Draw’s Seal search effect to Redraw, and revert Sleeve Draw to 5.2 (this is an oversimplification of the job imo)
2. Add skills like Redraw II: Redraw a card with your missing Seal(s), Redraw III: Redraw a card with opposite Melee/Ranged properties with 180s~ cooldowns
3. Allow to redraw cards with your missing Seal(s) after spamming Redraw n times without Play.

The point is giving the player an option to obtain a desired Seal when in absolute need without changing the number of cards available to the player, and the above are only a few possible specifications of an idea that could take many forms. I feel a Redraw revamp in this direction will improve QoL and give players a wider range of options for optimizing cardplay at the same time.

SE Devs, if you are going to reconsider 5.3 Sleeve Draw in the near future, it would be great if you think about reworking Redraw as well.


P.S. This is not directly about Seals and I am sure I would be the billionth person to say this since launch of Shadowbringers, but Devs while you’re at it please disallow looping between the same cards when spamming Redraw? It feels terrible.