How is new AST feeling?

[QooEr]

i agree they should consolidate each of draw/play and minor arcana/crown play into 1 button. its unwieldy having so many ogcds for things that dont warrant extra hotbar slots

[Zolvolt]

The cards are not terrible by any means but manipulating your cards in SHB was very rewarding. Every un-needed seal could be an improved dps card which was always useful and sleeve-draw left you with very few instances of being RNG-locked out of the seals you needed.

With clarifying draw and the loss of sleeve draw, and with the rework of minor arcana we have lost 3 distinct areas of card manipulation that were hindered or removed. As a result we often get stuck with 2/3 unique seals for Astrodyne. Which feels bad because not only do we lose a precious damage buff, but it just feels bad to be so limited in what you can do after an expansion that awarded ample time to produce 3 seals before your divination CD was back up. Minor Arcana aditionally is back to the old, could be a heal, could be a damage, button. At least its aoe now so it potentially could save you a helios but it remains to be seen if thats going to be more than a rare occurrence.

I would really like to see Sleeve Draw return or for clarifying draw to see some changes. Clarifying draw buffs should stack if you don't use them (up to 3). I also feel that minor arcana is currently suffering from similar problems DRAW did at the beginning of Shadow bringers, where it just feels weird to have a second draw button and a second play button.

[AngeliouxRein]

I only got AST to lvl 82 on my Au ra. I LOVE how busy it is. But for Astrodyne, I feel like they missed an opportunity for us to manipulate our buffs. I don’t mind the current buffs since it allows me to spam Gravity with no concerns of mp but they could’ve added one more mechanic to it to reward the entire group. Something like as long whoever happens to have a card buff on them can spread the effect to others when we hit astrodyne. Something that could help tie into the cards.

[Icefyer]

So this is a repost from a healer feedback mega-thread:

Macrocosmos is awesome, Fall Malefic and Gravity 2 are quite cool-looking and fairly solid even if Gravity 2 wasn't much of a potency increase. Divination not needing seals anymore is amazing, and I noticed I don't lose seals upon dying which is great.

The Arcana Lady card doesn't feel good to use. It's just a Helios clone that requires RNG while its Aspected Helios cousin doesn't. It would be nice if they removed the RNG, if they insist on having two buttons, by having one draw each card and then hitting it again plays it like how Macrocosmos, Earthly Star, Horoscope, etc have a "press once to prime, twice to detonate" so you could choose between a free Helios or chunky damage, both sharing a cooldown. Either that or they need to either merge them almost like Assize, or make Lady more potent to make up for the RNG since right now it feels just kind of there.

Astrodyne doesn't feel impactful in the slightest, or at least its impact is very difficult to actually use, and is too reliant on RNG now that RNG-reducing abilities like Sleeve Draw and multi-charge redraw are gone, plus once you get 3 seals you are forced to hold your cards as there's no way to "burn" them in a way that doesn't give seals so that you don't mess up your seal combo. That RNG can mean the "cooldown" of a 3-seal can be anywhere from 120 seconds to several minutes if luck isn't on your side depending on how long you have to keep cycling seals to finally end up with one of each. The buffs also don't feel very powerful. I didn't notice the speed buff doing anything because our cast times are already short when not using Lightspeed, and mostly used it so far for mana in a pinch but otherwise just sat there not being used very often since firing out buff cards is more useful than the rare chance of having a 3-seal right as you need it. So overall it feels just...meh. It doesn't feel very strong and the RNG makes it difficult to use at full power even then.

So overall it's fairly hit-or-miss with the new seal-spender, RNG mitigation loss and Crown cards changes suffering almost all of said miss. Cool idea, but the execution could use some work.

[Psythe]

I have to say I am enjoying the changes to sage. Never really grabbed me previously but now it is fun. Sch was my fave but now it's a close run between ast and sge. Both for their own reasons.

[Haxaan]

I'm not to 90 yet, so I'll reserve my full judgment for later, but currently it feels pretty much the same way it did in Shadowbringers overall. I still miss Stormblood's Ast playstyle. It was fun and engaging and really played into the job fantasy well. Utilizing time based buffs with a variety of card effects. If FFXIV was a single player game Stormblood's Ast would have been perfect... unfortunately as the meta continues to push toward "BUT MA DPS" and "NUMBERS", RNG based mechanics will continue to get snuffed out, and jobs will continue to become more and more homogenized for "optimization", instead of fleshing out the unique qualities that make each job different.

[ASkellington]

So now that I have AST to 90...

Thoughts on Draw and Lord/Lady have not changed. If you can make them fewer buttons, do so.

Lady feels useless at times. Its either wait until an aoe goes off to it can be put to use... or spend it.

Undraw. Should. Not. Exist. Get rid of the blasted thing.

Astrodyne I was trying to be nice to it because quite honestly when the ability was reveled I immediately hated it. After using it for a bit my thoughts have changed from my first impression, but it is still a negative. Why is haste tied to it? I don't feel it at all. Mana regen being tied to it I get, but why is it one of the buffs instead of just when you press it? 5% can stay at 3 unique seals and the mana regen can also stay as well, but please explain to me why I should like the haste part tied to it. I don't get it.

I... also don't get Macrocosmos. It feels like a worse Earthly Star to me even though logically it shouldn't be. Perhaps I'm using this ability wrong.

Exaltation is taking getting used to.

I read somewhere and have heard people want to get rid of Synastry and to that I say:

Instead of having two Celestial Intersections why can we not change Synastry so it works with more than just Benefic 1 and 2? Why can't it be used to give two CIs to two different people? Why can't it be used to do the same with A. Benefic? Or Essential Dignity? Or Exaltation? I'd prefer that than scrapping the skill altogether.

(I'd also make the proposal for Lady of Crowns to count towards Horoscope to make it Horoscope Helios but I think that's asking for too much.)

[Kuwago]

I've been having a blast with the New AST and been loving the new skills as well, however, I still have some griped with the job itself.

Redraw - needs to be a new seal instead of being pulling the same seal for the other version, either that change or give us back the 3 stacks of redraw

Play/Crown Play - I don't mind play just so I can control where the buff goes and not overwrite it but Crown Play is unnecessary because both of the card are just an aoe starting from you. just make it so MA becomes Crown Play please.

Astrodyne - I really like the concept they have for this skill but it is really a downer for me since it's just for myself. Others also seems to feel the same. I think that they should make it so that we can use Astrodyne to another user and have the same buffs apply to them as well as ours mostly cuz not everyone needs MP.

Exaltation - I really like this skill, no other thoughts about it.

Macrocosmos - This skill is really satisfying when used at the right time and the animation is just amazing.

Everything else seems fine for me IMO, just a couple tweaks to Astrodyne and the Play buttons and I think it should be quite alright.

I'm still hoping we get Time Dilation or Old COpp effect back and was thinking that Astrodyne might be it but alas.

[Haxaan]

I'm still hoping we get Time Dilation or Old COpp effect back and was thinking that Astrodyne might be it but alas.

You and me both lol.

[Axzeriuth]

I think this expansion I'm giving up on AST sadly. I agree with a lot of points made in this thread and yearn for the card system from Stormblood but it's never coming back and I'm okay with that.

♦ Button bloat is too much that in my 30 button setup I can't fit all the AST and Role skills. If Squeenix is pushing that the seals dont matter and I should always be using them then a) get rid of undraw b) combine draw/play and Minor Arcana/Crown Play. I have sadly removed Synastry from my hotbar cause it never sees use and the moments that do are so rare that an AoE heal just seems the better option.
♦ Astrodyne. I like it but I don't love it. It keeps the class busy. It has required me to change my thought process of chasing 3 seals, 2 seems to be the goal now. If I play my cards right and Divination I can see a 17% Damage boost (selecting self for Play). I would like to see Astrodyne buffed in some way though as I don't feel that I'm missing out by ignoring it. An idea would be having Synastry apply the Astrodyne effect to its target too.
♦ I'm also not a fan of the Minor Arcana as it stands now. I prefered the SHB version because it was always used. No card felt like a waste. Now I hold onto the free AoE heal/Attack until I can draw the next one. I hated it in Stormblood and I hate it now but I also understand why it's back, because Seals dont matter and you should always use a card to get Astrodyne of sooner. If fishing for the right seal was more impactful then I would prefer us getting the ShB Minor arcana back.
♦ I miss Noct stance.