[AST]: A Healthier Card System

[ty_taurus]

You have the effects of these two cards out of alignment with their themes within the lore of AST. Spire originally restored TP because it invigorated the body, so if you are going to throw on a card effect to increase max HP it would go onto Spire due to Spire's theme. Meanwhile Spear thematically is about being guided to victory as the Spear as a constellation is wielded by Halone. This is why the Spear increased Crit rate, because your strikes would be guided to the enemies weak points allowing you to land critical blows.

The main reasoning was trying to align with the astral and umbral elements since lighting is astral and ice is umbral.

[TankHunter678]

The main reasoning was trying to align with the astral and umbral elements since lighting is astral and ice is umbral.

The existing lore of the cards would be better to go with, since they are not aligned with the astral/umbral elements because all of them are astral by default. Keep in mind that as far as FFXIV goes Astral and Umbral are polarities, all elements can be pulled into their polarity. This is why Byregot despite being Lightning aspected as the builder produces lasting structures, while Halone despite being Ice aspected guides people through ever changing war to victory.

This is why the cards are determined by what their constellation means instead of element. Spire is a mountain that requires stamina to overcome (which is why it restored TP, and can be made to work with granting bonus health by becoming the mountain that must be surpassed), Spear is the literal spear of Halone granted to guide you unto victory (which is why it granted crit), the Ewer is literally Thaliak's ewer that he pours out knowledge granting waters with (which is why it restored MP), Bole is the protective branches of the forest that enshrouds from danger (which is why it reduced damage taken), Arrow flies swiftly across the heavens (which is why it granted haste, though could still work for direct hit as it flies straight and true), and Balance was the great equalizer between the mighty and the weak.

[elioaiko]

You have done a mighty fine job on this rework.

The current issue that I see with the card system in Endwalker is that it is 3 completely independent systems that do not interact with each other. Your proposed system not only brings back all the systems together to form a common goal (Divination), but also re-introduces unique card effects in a healthy way.

That is one of the biggest gripes I have about EW AST, is that it's hard to keep track of everything because NOTHING is connected to that common goal, there's zero flow.

At least in ShB, you played cards to fill the seals and redraw for better seal alignment and then you had Minor Arcana for converting extra cards into buffs so it did mess with your seals.

But what we have now is just...unfocused and so messy. I often forget I have Minor Arcana off CD and then forget to use Astrodyne, on top of dealing mechanics and setting up heals.

Besides some oversights, I like the proposed rework, if only the devs would read this.

[Heilstos]

Heyho together,

I finally found the time to take a close look at Taurus idea. And try to give feedback from my point of view. In addition, we solve the element of chaos here with the help of the lore book.

First of all, the Elemental Chaos: You have to be careful when naming the elements, since EVERY card represents a specific element.


(Square Enix Books. „Section :THE DECK OF THE SEXITY (page 244). Encyclopaedia Eorzea ~The World of Final Fantasy XIV“. August 23, 2022)

So we have to be a little more careful here than the BLM are. What would help here is to take cards of the type Diunal and Nocturnal. All defensive cards become Nocturnal cards and all damage buffs become Diunal cards.

[The positiv aspect for the devs. is that they can use the tooltip ;-) ]

Lodestars and must be called something else!

My Idea is from the same Picture : Divine Duplicity. This has to be justified, since healing and damage amplification are taken into account here. See Power of the Twelve in the source.

The elementary rearrangement of the maps for lore reasons!

The existence of these melee and ranged cards is related to the interpretation of the cards. In your case it is an aggressive (dps push cards) and a defensive interpretation.



Here is an example from the addon Stormblood. Please do not pay attention to the effects of the cards!!!

How does it affect card effects?

Diurnal Card draw:

The Balance
The Arrow
The Spear

For the Cards I have some Ideas could be okay:

The Balance:



This is because this card is intended to represent pure damage. The fact that it is a fixed potency value should make it easier for the balance team to handle. Like your determination idea, but I'll get to that later....

The Arrow



In my opinion, this card is the strongest in the deck, whether it's a balance or an arrow. Because this not only improves damage, it can also increase healing for a healer!

The Spear



The idea is copied from Devilment. But I think a little sister of Devilment in the form of 5-10% should be in there.


I think that makes the deps push cards unique, but still interesting

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Nocturnal Card draw

The Bole
The Spire
The Ewer

The Bole



The idea of the bole not being as strong as a strong tank CD like Sentinel but flattening out should be factored into this card instead of the 10%

The Spire



I wouldn't do a HP+ plus alone because it feels like too little. So a healing up could be good aswell.

The Ewer



I wouldn't do a HoT alone because it feels like too little. But the twist that the HoTs become stronger (300 HP) could be cool and goes in the same way like Essential Dignity.

Importent all Cards give the Noc or Diu effects and yourself Divine Duplicity.

Minor Arcana

Minor Arcana is learned at 70. This becomes a instand GCD spell with a 600 MP cost that draws both the Lord and Lady of Crowns and generates 1 Divine Duplicity. It has a 60 second cooldown.

Crown Play is removed. Instead, the lord and lady replace specific actions on the hotbar.

The Lord of Crowns replaces Combust on the hotbar and acts as a GCD AoE attack. When played, it deals 400 potency for the first enemy that decreases by 60% for remaining enemies. It also applies your Combust DoT to all enemies. The DoT has 100% potency on the first enemy and 60% less potency on remaining enemies. It generates 1 Divine Duplicity. It costs 600 MP.
The Lady of Crowns replaces Helios on the hotbar and acts as an AoE heal. When played, it heals for 400 potency for yourself and all nearby party members while also Increases HP recovery via healing actions by 10%. It generates 1 Divine Duplicity. It costs 600 MP.

Lady and Lord of Crowns musst be the strongest cards in game and the Lady buff could be to good but its only an idea.^^

The other skills

Celestial River



Should learn at lvl 60 and be an OGCD. If these symbols are too difficult to work around, you can remove them. Importantly, the AST can have an AoE card for certain moments. No matter which deck (i.e. Diunal or Nocturnal). At least its a strong CD and I like the animation.


(here the animation)

Celestial Opposition

Should be stay as it is but give the timestop effect and learned at lvl 52.

Celestial Intersection

Need to be stay aswell because the compaire to Divine Benison. Short weaving healing tool. Taurus idee could to power up the P-DPS to much.


And what happend with Astrodyne

With lvl 50 lightspeed become Astrodyne per trait but no need seals anymore:



As you can see, the talent lightspeed has been added to Astrodyne. Instead of the current manareg you can also add a mana reduction, like in Stormblood times.

[inhaledcorn]

(snip)

Uh, so the problem with boosting Determination is that, as a stat, we don't exactly know what Determination does. We know Determination is supposed to increase damage/healing, but, since stat effects depend on your "tier" instead of it being a flat calculation, boosting Determination is a bad idea. Arrow should be "boost damage and healing by insert small amount here."

I would suggest for Ewer to be both regen and a barrier, just to make the card a bit more useful in general.

I'm not sure about Lord/Lady replacing buttons. Sure, I like the idea of Lady replacing Helios, but Lord replacing one of your damage spells, even if it's Combust, can make it difficult to get it in burst windows.

Also, what does Divine Duplicity do? I don't think it's mentioned anywhere. Also, while I like rolling Astrodyne into Lightspeed, have you come up with a way to help get all the seals and make sure we don't lose card uses?

[Heilstos]

Hey Inhaled,

Divine Duplicity is only the Lodestars from taurus Idea only in terms of lore bilding. So at least only a rename.^^

Lodestars: Certain spells grant you 1 Lodestar of which you can have up to 6. Under the effects of Celestial Intersection, spells and weaponskills cause 1 Lodestar to be consumed to perform an additional attack that is of the same potency as your current version of Malefic. This will effectively make these actions DPS neutral or DPS gains depending. This is something gained at level 30 along with your cards.

That is a thing to use healing bottons with dps lose. And for a lot of dps orientied healer is that important.

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Arrow should be "boost damage and healing by insert small amount here."

First Arrow should be a DPS push card, but if you make %-push buff we have the old balance problem form the pre ShB system. So det is good option because it is no so high scaled, but reinforce the player.

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would suggest for Ewer to be both regen and a barrier, just to make the card a bit more useful in general.

At first I thought your way, but I have to say that this card is just another version of Celestial Intersection. But a HoT at the basic idea of Essential Dignity is something different in my opinion. I think the only problem here is that HoTs have a fixed value. So the HoT has to be below 50% to have 300 HP all the time. This is a problem that SE has been grappling with for more than 10 years. So individual HoT ticks would be something new. However, I think it's too difficult to implement.

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I'm not sure about Lord/Lady replacing buttons. Sure, I like the idea of Lady replacing Helios, but Lord replacing one of your damage spells, even if it's Combust, can make it difficult to get it in burst windows.

Lord is only a AoE combast in his idea. For content like dungeons, it's a cool thing. When raiding HC, it will mostly not matter if you do it or not. Because you have in most times one boss. It is important that after Taurus idea Lady and Lord has no rng.

Her is inportant, that Lady and Lord are instants talents and give Divine Duplicity or like taurus calls them Lodestars.
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Why doesn't Astrodyne need seals anymore?

This is because each card has a special effect. If all cards do the same thing, you have to give them permission. Those are just the abbreviations for Astrodyne in the current system. According to the Taurus idea, you always have a defensive (utility) and an aggressive (dps push) card. And that's a good solution in my opinion.

[MintnHoney]

(Square Enix Books. „Section :THE DECK OF THE SEXITY (page 244). Encyclopaedia Eorzea ~The World of Final Fantasy XIV“. August 23, 2022)

Now that's what I'm talking about. Why don't we have access to a full deck of sixty?!
Even if they never touch the Major Arcana, if they just gave us the missing 52 cards as options, while imposing a hard limit for Minor Arcana choices, all the years of strife and 3rd class citizenship would be forgiven, in my eyes.
edit: And then make each suite of cards do better based upon our substats; i.e., one suite performs better if we have more DET, one suite performs better if we have more PIE...

[Heilstos]

Hey Aylin,

that could be a idea but some substats are not com. friendly like tenessity or Skill/Spell speed. Some People can be sacard to be trolled. So I understand the idea of utility cards and dps push cards and det is only Compromise to push dmg, but not in a hardccore way like the old balance. Dont forget that Divination is still a thing in taurus plan.

Even if they never touch the Major Arcana, if they just gave us the missing 52 cards as options, while imposing a hard limit for Minor Arcana choices, all the years of strife and 3rd class citizenship would be forgiven, in my eyes.

The only Card that is no taken from the "high" or face cards is the knave of crowns. I don't know what to use the knave of cowns for either. So this is a balances decision. I wouldn't go for the small cards either, since they're just a weaker version of the face cards when laid out in combat. This is dealt with in the subchapter entitled "Arcana as entertament" on the same page. Here, "Hide the High Herz", "Knights and Knaves", "Louis Louis" and the "the whispering Pillow" are discussed exactly. But I don't have any more spoilers, if you want to find out more about it, you should get the book. =)

[Shurrikhan]

The Balance, when activated grants a 10% Determination increase for 15 seconds.
The Arrow, when activated grants a 10% Direct Hit increase for 15 seconds.
The Spire, when activated grants a 5% critical damage increase for 15 seconds.

The Bole, when activated reduces damage taken by 10% for 15 seconds.
The Spear, when activated increases max HP by 10% for 15 seconds and heals for that amount.
The Ewer, when activated applies a 150 potency Regen for 15 seconds.

So... this is a little weird to me.

10% more Determination would normally just be simply 1354 Determination stat... and is worth 10% more damage/healing. (If by this you instead mean it multiplies one's Determination stat itself, though, by 1.1x, that can be as little as 0.2% damage increase, but that therefore seems unlikely.)

A 10% increase to Direct Hit is worth only 2.5% extra damage (and is wasted on auto-DHit attacks, of course).

A 5% increase to Crit damage bonus is... complicated. If there are no crit buffs active, it can be worth as little as a 0.25% damage increase (at base Crit stat), while to auto-crits it can be worth a 5% damage increase. The range is massive, but even its peak performance is noticeably inferior to a current Card placed on the correct role (6% damage bonus).

So, we've got...

• a 10% damage and healing buff,
• a 2.5% damage only buff, and
• a 0.25% to 5% damage and healing buff.

That seems well and truly awkward.
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The other set is mostly fine, though.

You've got...

• 10% eHP via percentile mitigation which synergizes better with healing,
• a very similar 10% eHP via increased maximum and current HP which synergizes better with percentile mitigation, and
• a 750p HoT.

The best pick out of the three of those, at least, can vary.

In part because the second set seems relatively balanced, I absolutely think the first set needs a rehaul, though. It makes little sense to have one side be relatively balanced while the other is seemingly deliberately imbalanced.

[Shurrikhan]

...

One quick note:

Having Balance deal additional potency per spell/weaponskill will naturally be... rather horribly imbalanced, as it will be affected by:

• Target's traits. All healers and casters would naturally 30% more effect from this. All physical ranged dps would naturally get 20% more effect from this. Melee and tanks would have no such bonus, thus largely wasting it.
• The target's persistent buffs. Most notable among these, given the traits already at play, is BLM's persistent 20% damage buff from Enochian, providing them with 56% more damage per Fires of Hell proc than would be available to a NIN.
• The target's attack speed. This is most significant on Monk, but still worth relatively little. Even a GCD of 2.49, if the effect started at the perfect time, could get in 7 procs over its duration. It'd take a GCD of 1.87s or less to get in 9 procs over the duration, which would still only be 29% greater effect. BLM would still natively outperform that by a further 21%.
• The target's short-term buffs. The strongest of these is No Mercy, but that'd still be a waste. In practice, this would at best merely get a Monk to potentially rival the usage available to non-BLM casters.

Worse, it removes any value to/from mini-bursts. oGCDs would be utterly unaffected. That, too, means further target selection imbalance as different jobs owe more of their damage to oGCDs than do others. (In practice, it just makes this effect even more reliant on a BLM get its full value.)

All of these problems could be avoided by just giving the target X% more damage instead, since then you're working from completed frames of reference around which jobs have each been balanced (or, at least the DPS have). Short of that, it will be very, very difficult to balance its throughput against that of Balance (a 10% damage and healing bonus) or Spear (a ~2.5 to ~5% damage and healing bonus) for both BLMs (1.56x value per Hells of Fire proc) at one end and, say, Dragoons (only 1.1x value) on the other.