Goodbye Shadowbringers

[Sorimachi87]

Its that time of the cycle again...
What an expansion you've been. Thanks. A. Lot. For. Everything.

Onto Endwalker we go!

Cheers.

You'll be missed big time. Especially 5.0 Story

[Anhra]

RIP Nocturnal Sect and AST Job identity, you will be missed as well. Maybe one day Squeenix will give you the rest of the old cards back and remove Neutral Sect.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

RIP Nocturnal Sect and AST Job identity, you will be missed as well. Maybe one day Squeenix will give you the rest of the old cards back and remove Neutral Sect.

AST main, I like neutral sect. Nocturnal stance sucks comparatively to diurnal and I too miss the old cards, it seems our new self buff will be filled with frustrating rng that we cannot mitigate with sleeve draw as well since it is gone.

[Gemina]

AST main, I like neutral sect. Nocturnal stance sucks comparatively to diurnal and I too miss the old cards, it seems our new self buff will be filled with frustrating rng that we cannot mitigate with sleeve draw as well since it is gone.

As it should be. The card mech is supposed to be a game of chance, and if you can just mitigate the RNG from the divine deck and get the desired result nearly 100% of the time, it defeats the purpose of having a divine deck. They might as well just give you a button you can push every 120s. The devs finally figured this out somewhat. I say, "somewhat" because they did do that with Divination, but the AST can still redraw for Astrodyne. I cannot stress enough that mitigating the RNG screws up this entire mechanic. It needs to go away completely.

I think (hope) the devs will eventually figure out that obtaining one of each seal is actually the second easiest result to get. The hardest is actually getting three of the same seal. This is so key in truly and finally circumventing the card mech issues in its current form. It's like slots, and the way this should work is:

Easy: 2 of the same seal + 1 other seal = Good (Haste)
Harder: 1 of each seal = Better (Damage up)
Hardest: 3 of the same seal = Best (Haste + Damage up)

You should not be able to get the best result every time. The second draw will determine wither or not you will even be able to get the best result at all. If your second draw is a different seal, that is not as favorable as the same seal, but you can still get a DMG boost. If it is the same seal, then you get a chance at haste and the DMG boost; and the third and final draw will determine the fortune of the AST.

Just Haste is the consolation given to the AST when the final draw is undesirable. The majority of the time under this system, the AST is just going to end up with a Haste buff, and that's fine. Haste is nothing to scoff at. Draw stacks also need to go up to three. Stop penalizing the AST when they get into situations when they really need to focus on healing FFS.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

As it should be. The card mech is supposed to be a game of chance, and if you can just mitigate the RNG from the divine deck and get the desired result nearly 100% of the time, it defeats the purpose of having a divine deck. They might as well just give you a button you can push every 120s. The devs finally figured this out somewhat. I say, "somewhat" because they did do that with Divination, but the AST can still redraw for Astrodyne. I cannot stress enough that mitigating the RNG screws up this entire mechanic. It needs to go away completely.

I think (hope) the devs will eventually figure out that obtaining three of each seal is actually the second easiest result to get. The hardest is actually getting three of the same seal. This is so key in truly and finally circumventing the card mech issues in its current form. It's like slots, and the way this should work is:

Easy: 2 of the same seal + 1 other seal = Good (Haste)
Harder: 3 of each seal = Better (Damage up)
Hardest: 3 of the same seal = Best (Haste + Damage up)

You should not be able to get the best result every time. The second draw will determine wither or not you will even be able to get the best result at all. If your second draw is a different seal, that is not as favorable as the same seal, but you can still get a DMG boost. If it is the same seal, then you get a chance at haste and the DMG boost; and the third and final draw will determine the fortune of the AST.

Just Haste is the consolation given to the AST when the final draw is undesirable. The majority of the time under this system, the AST is just going to end up with a Haste buff, and that's fine. Haste is nothing to scoff at. Draw stacks also need to go up to three. Stop penalizing the AST when they get into situations when they really need to focus on healing FFS.

They changed divination to just be a button due to its inconsistency and maybe some people struggling with a speedy opener? But they then added that inconsistency to your personal dps buff instead. The luck of the draw means a lot less now the cards all do the exact same thing, and it's only going to frustrate people that are trying to do as high dps as possible. Put that damage buff from the third diff seal to the second one and move another non dmg giving buff there. So you can keep your luck but not have the bad luck be as punishing to deal with. Either let me mitigate the bad luck a bit or make my horrible luck less punishing. I can get 9 of the wrong seal in a row when I will just redraw endlessly out of sheer wonderment in how bad my luck could possibly be xD

Also 2 stacks is plenty

[Gemina]

They changed divination to just be a button due to its inconsistency and maybe some people struggling with a speedy opener? But they then added that inconsistency to your personal dps buff instead. The luck of the draw means a lot less now the cards all do the exact same thing, and it's only going to frustrate people that are trying to do as high dps as possible. Put that damage buff from the third diff seal to the second one and move another non dmg giving buff there. So you can keep your luck but not have the bad luck be as punishing to deal with. Either let me mitigate the bad luck a bit or make my horrible luck less punishing. I can get 9 of the wrong seal in a row when I will just redraw endlessly out of sheer wonderment in how bad my luck could possibly be xD

Also 2 stacks is plenty

Nah, devs couldn't care less about healer burst windows lining up with the rest of the party. I would say it had more to do with acknowledging that ASTs card mech should only affect them, and as you pointed out, that inconsistency just transfers over to Astrodyne.

The seal system needs to work the way I laid out. You should not be able to get the best result from the easiest to obtain seal configuration. Again, it just defeats the purpose of having that mechanic. You get a damage increase no matter what with the haste buff being guaranteed. It should be very rewarding to get that third wanted seal considering the RNG that gates it.

I'm a bit tossed between two and three stacks of Draw. With redraw completely gone; it should be three. Leaving stacks at 2 can potentially penalize the AST if healing takes their focus from the cards. If the devs want healers to heal, then don't penalize them for doing so.

I also thought about Sleeve Draw consuming all 3 charges to give you your seals straight away. This would allow for Astrodyne to be used during openers. Astrodyne would need to be made conditional though and taken off the CD and given a 1s recast, with its only requirement being that the AST acquires three seals.

[Equitable_Remedy]

In before someone starts complaini—

RIP Nocturnal Sect and AST Job identity

Oh, never mind.

[Recon1o6]

I'll miss the story and especially the villains

pity we didn't get to say good riddance to shb job changes. looks like Ast, drk, bard, mch, whm, sch, and warrior are going to remain dead with no to little identity or depth.

perhaps one day SE will put some effort into healers and tanks to give them back identities

[Poisonous]

I'll miss the story and especially the villains

pity we didn't get to say good riddance to shb job changes. looks like Ast, drk, bard, mch, whm, sch, and warrior are going to remain dead with no to little identity or depth.

perhaps one day SE will put some effort into healers and tanks to give them back identities

Is it possible to say goodbye to this sort of hyperbolic talk? It's not helpful.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Is it possible to say goodbye to this sort of hyperbolic talk?

Not on the internet, it ain't.