How is new AST feeling?

[Botkai]

Eh, I'm not thrilled with it, but I'm used to that as I've been steadily growing less enthused about AST with each expansion. I can't imagine that it's the easiest thing in the world, trying to make AST both effective and interesting, but it does feel like they're doing more the former and barely the latter. Having played OG AST and now this feels like worlds apart, and while I get that the original system wasn't the best, this very...minimal and somewhat frustrating card system is just disappointing to me personally.

But at least the potency hasn't changed much, I still feel p effective while I'm doing my job, so there is that at least.

[Jayv]

AST has lost a lot of what made it fun. The original card system, where each card had a different effect, and pair that with the old time dilation - those were the best days of AST's life. Each subsequent expansion stripped something away, and now it feels simple and dumbed down. Most of its color drained has been away. It can still do the job well so I'll level it up (I'll level all healers to max no matter what), but I can easily see SGE becoming my new main.

[IceBlueNinja]

AST has lost a lot of what made it fun. The original card system, where each card had a different effect, and pair that with the old time dilation - those were the best days of AST's life. Each subsequent expansion stripped something away, and now it feels simple and dumbed down. Most of its color drained has been away. It can still do the job well so I'll level it up (I'll level all healers to max no matter what), but I can easily see SGE becoming my new main.

It cause ungrateful people complain about stormblood ast way too much(the best ast ever) and that is what cause it to become so down graded because people excuse that the only card of use was balance or overall it was too rng heavy and had too much complications to utilize each card.

The point and power of ast was not about personal dps but making sure the party does it as much as possible not only with dry balance and more dps but to even fortify defense, help with attack skill/spell speed even mp recovery and the ability to extend their buffs + other buffs from other jobs ike old stormblood bards buffs to make up their would slightly less dps pressing boring malefic all day. Every card cept spire after tp even if rare was useful to me.

Majority about 80% of player base hated noct (even though its powerful if used right and even pwn sch shields by margins in shadow bringers. The ultimate buffs it use to have, its stances are gone to be the healer that is versatile to cover the role of the other one you dont have as a co healer., its just dead now to me. I would not even be surprise if whm take it spot again, oh well loving and rocking sage. I wonder if they even had the dignity to rewrite the ast story and stop confusing these poor sprouts that ask about things like time dilation, doubt it. I just do not hope they do not do this to sage, if they buffing it or something fine like potencies but, I rather not see this healer get torn down like they did poor ast.

[Liam_Harper]

I strongly disagree. This mechanic results in steady DPS increases for the party or yourself, conditional DPS increase to self, MP restoration, and a downtime tool. How this mechanic is not seen as anything but beneficial is entirely beyond me. The element of luck only affects the AST now, and is a matter of how much benefit they get from it. Not getting the best result should not be looked at as a 'loss'. Those who do will not enjoy this mech on AST.

Astrodyne doesn't buff your party. I'm not talking about regular cards, which are perfectly fine (although some will argue dps cards are bland, I'll stay neutral on that). Nor am I talking about RNG, which is fine if triggered often enough (for example, DNC has rng and works). I'm talking about Astrodyne, Redraw and the new Seal system.

Essentially, all Astrodyne does is restore MP and add roughly 80-180 potency worth of self-buff on a long 90 sec cooldown. It's not worth playing the seal-juggling mini-game for. Astrodyne, Redraw, Minor Arcana and Crown Play combined are 4 dps buttons that don't even contribute to 5% of your damage output. That's what I'm saying is a waste of hotbar space. Busy for the sake of busy with no real reward.

My question for Astrodyne is should I be prioritizing cards to their respective class (ranged / melee) and then using the skill regardless of what seals I have, or should I prioritize getting all 3 seals?

Always use it on cooldown regardless of what seals you have. Especially never use Undraw for 3 Seal. Remember the 3rd seal effect is only a 5% damage increase on you, the weakest dps in the entire group, while a regular card is 6% on a damage dealer. 3 seal is really that weak.

[Matt_Renard]

Always use it on cooldown regardless of what seals you have. Especially never use Undraw for 3 Seal. Remember the 3rd seal effect is only a 5% damage increase on you, the weakest dps in the entire group, while a regular card is 6% on a damage dealer. 3 seal is really that weak.

Yeah, that's the most optimal way to play AST right now, and it is really bad. No real way to manipulate the seals you get, no real reward when you get 3 seals. Why even bother...

[Gemina]

Astrodyne doesn't buff your party. I'm not talking about regular cards, which are perfectly fine (although some will argue dps cards are bland, I'll stay neutral on that). Nor am I talking about RNG, which is fine if triggered often enough (for example, DNC has rng and works). I'm talking about Astrodyne, Redraw and the new Seal system.

Fair enough. However, the cards have to be drawn and played to access Astrodyne so even the regular cards are very much part of its mechanic, which makes the steady DPS increases given to the party valid in the point I am trying to get across when it comes to Astrodyne's overall effectiveness.

Essentially, all Astrodyne does is restore MP and add roughly 80-180 potency worth of self-buff on a long 90 sec cooldown. It's not worth playing the seal-juggling mini-game for. Astrodyne, Redraw, Minor Arcana and Crown Play combined are 4 dps buttons that don't even contribute to 5% of your damage output. That's what I'm saying is a waste of hotbar space. Busy for the sake of busy with no real reward.

If we want to look at just the effects of Astrodyne, I have addressed this many times now with how the seal configuration and rewards should work. But to reiterate the MP restore, that should just be an additional effect, and not have anything to do with the seals. The seals should be about how much of a damage increase is granted to the AST, which I think should work like slots with how things are currently set up. This would require the least amount of rework from the dev team.

They could go crazy with the seals where the different combinations of seals all do different things. Kind of like: 1,2,3 or 1,1,2 or 2,3,3 but that would be nuts. And the return of the old system is completely off the table. It just has to be a simple system, with simple mechanics, and simple rewards. I can't stress enough that two glaring issues with AST is its high APM, and button bloat. It does not need a sophisticated and deep mechanic on top of this, and measures need to be taken to reduce these issues as things are now.

[ZedxKayn]

At least I really don't like the new stars. Placing it where it needs to be when it pops was part of what made AST's kit fun for me and now that's gone. Can SE please stop lowering the skill ceiling for no good reason.

[MintnHoney]

Can SE please stop lowering the skill ceiling for no good reason.

On the bright side, you can think of it as lowering the skill ceiling for the other party members, rather than yourself.
Because they really do need all the help they can get, sometimes.

[QooEr]

I'm sorry, but I really do not understand what you mean with "bunch of on-the-fly decisions for astrodyne".
You factually have less decisions than before.
Draw->Like? Play. Don't like? Redraw-> Play anyway because you shouldn't waste cards.
That's literally it.

3 seal astrodyne is 50% more net potency gain than astrodyne, which means you can delay aatrodyne to fish for a small potency gain every 4 draws. you also can hold lords of crowns until dyne is up.

the order or seals also matters to know wether fishing for a 3rd seal is worth it as opposed to just using dyne asap. if your 2 seal pattern is XYX or XXY, trying to get a Z seal next draw is worth it, byt if the pattern is XYY then its not

its not about wasting cards, but about wether to overwrite seals and how astrodyne would line up with MA, star, or div if you do.

[Matt_Renard]

3 seal astrodyne is 50% more net potency gain than astrodyne, which means you can delay aatrodyne to fish for a small potency gain every 4 draws. you also can hold lords of crowns until dyne is up.

the order or seals also matters to know wether fishing for a 3rd seal is worth it as opposed to just using dyne asap. if your 2 seal pattern is XYX or XXY, trying to get a Z seal next draw is worth it, byt if the pattern is XYY then its not

its not about wasting cards, but about wether to overwrite seals and how astrodyne would line up with MA, star, or div if you do.

Okay, I understand what you're saying, but I'm not sure whether this way of playing is fun/optimal, I'll need some time to adapt.