Endwalker AST has too many buttons, and other issues

[anhaato]

- Post-SGE its really hard to justify Aspected Spells and the Dot existing as separate buttons, like AST is the easiest Job to apply this QoL Sage introduced. Add a "Aspection" button that turns Benefic II into Aspected Benefic, Helios into Aspected Helios, Malefic into Aspected Malefic (Combust).

Sure, if you don't want SGE to be unique anymore, and you want to lose double weave opportunities, since out the healers AST and SCH double weave the most.

As far as button reduction and fixes goes I would:
-Consolidate draw and play to one button
-Delete undraw, please
-Bring back 5.3 sleeve draw to help mitigate rng
-Give 2 charges of clarifying draw

Regarding the issues with astrodyne and minor arcana:
-Consolidate minor arcana and crown play
-Make minor arcana function as it did pre-5.1(?), swap a drawn card to lord or lady that you hold
-Make astrodyne 120s to make it fit 120 burst like we used to (sorta), as it is now it's effectively a 90s cd

The reason I want that to happen is so it could work thus: After using astrodyne and putting it on cd, you can use your extra cards by turning them into lord or lady by hitting minor arcana, which then turns into crown play on the same button. Having to press minor arcana and then play it on a separate button press was an issue in 5.x because all of our cards were targeted, but new lord and lady are both aoe so by removing the targeting from the equation it would be a lot easier to minor arcana then crown play on the next weave opportunity. This in conjunction with redraw charges gives us more agency in pulling a lord or lady based on what we need at the time, and having crown play would give us flexibility in when it's used.

Example: you prepull draw, play, draw (redraw as necessary), play, then sleeve draw, then astrodyne. And now you still have an extra charge of draw sitting around, so you use that to get a seal, wait 30s, seal, 30s, then you come upon your 3rd draw usage before astrodyne and sleeve draw come off cooldown. In that moment, you may want to draw and then minor arcana so you can use sleeve draw for guaranteed 3rd seal. Then you can think about what's about to happen, is there about to be some heavy damage going out? In that case, say you draw a balance, you redraw, get an arrow, redraw again, and you get a ewer. Then you minor arcana it and hold it until the damage goes out, then crown play your lady for the heal. Then it's time for your 120 burst, so you sleeve draw, then astrodyne again.

I feel that changes like this would do a great job for reducing button bloat by at least 2 buttons, while also making the playstyle more exciting despite that and giving you more agency in what happens and avenues for mitigating rng.