AST Card, between utility and optimisation

[Shurrikhan]

I think the big misconception of the old card system is that it was “always fish for AoE Balance.” Back then, yes, you’d definitely want that setup for raids, but we can no longer set that up in advance anyway, so it’s no longer the “issue” it used to be. The reality is that players want VARIETY. AoE Balance doesn’t help when you’ve just rezzed another healer with no MP - in that situation I’d want an extended Ewer. That helped SO many times, and it felt really good. Also, Enhanced Bole for tankbusters, or an extended Arrow for Ninjas, Enhanced Spear for Bards…there was so much we could do, and it fit with the lore of the job. Now we get one flavor of card, which is still a useful effect, but I’m my opinion it’s considerably less satisfying.

This. For the most part.

Yes, the other effects needed some tuning to better compete against Balance and Arrow in optimal conditions (or, by that same token, Balance probably should feel like the "not f'ing now card" or RR-fodder in progging anything particularly difficult but without a hard enrage), but there was nothing conceptually wrong with having cards fit different functions (the best offensive card, Balance, having no curative value, unlike the 2nd and 3rd best, Arrow and Spear, etc.).

Though, I think the change away from all that has been indicative of a broader issue: the devs are unwilling to allow for much variance in role-based outputs in a given moment outside of 'at the ready' oGCDs; using a 20s external buff like Empowered Bole to effectively allow for 20% more tank healing (by not having to deal said healing) just does not seem to be something they're comfortable with these days -- much like defensive stances on tanks.

If I'm correct in that assessment, though, I think one can easily argue that the devs' unwillingness to allow for that flex between more long-term (damage) and short-term (healing, mitigation) throughputs within tank and healer kits has done both job and encounter design no favors. I'd far rather have some moments I finally need to save healing abilities for, so that they feel deliberate rather than mere offensive GCDs saved by using said oGCDs quite nearly on cooldown. Heck, I'd love to see mechanics like Enhanced Benefic finally be of use, in prepping an auto-crit pre-heal to hit between a tankbuster and its trailing auto-attack. I'd love to have reason to Spread a Bole and even to redraw to a Balance/Bole for RR in the moments leading up to a massive tankbuster. (The problem there: we've got two tank personal immunities per ~6 minutes in any given raid party, so how valuable can big healer setup really be without be without seeming to just, far more simply, require a barrier healer?)

My rework idea for cards awhile back was focused on shifting away from fishing and instead made you manipulate a hand of cards you already had drawn in order to help hedge against RNG. That extra buffer allowed more RNG to be added with another solution I implemented, where Draw was made into a trait and multiple actions would use it automatically whenever you played a card. The key was some of these actions could only provide healing effects, and some could only provide DPS. Hedging against both required each draw to pull a card of a type you didn’t have in hand as another layer of protection, with an excess of charge actions just to function at all.

As in drawing 2 or 3 per minute instead of just the one per 30s (albeit it now on 2 charges)?

My own wonky suggestion: Two draw piles on a shared cooldown.

Cooldown starts upon draw, not on use, so you'd effectively have 3 charges. It'd essentially work like always having Spread available, since you could just draw from the one, see that you'd like to keep that card, and then just keep drawing from the other instead until you have reason to use the saved one. That said, it'd have a bit of RNG protection, too, as once you've drawn from the one side, the same card can't appear in the other. Redraw, Royal Road, and Minor Arcana would require two presses (to select the deck to use) if both sides had drawn cards at the moment but would require no additional animation lock.

It was a disaster. The OP you quoted and other likeminded players look at this version of AST with rose tinted glasses. They fail to mention the illusion of choice, and the ridiculous amount of layers of RNG involved with the card mech back then.

The extent of that "illusion" was itself often overestimated, too. Yes, competitors to Arrow and Balance were undertuned and/or situational but not nearly so greatly as you make out.