What if Support Role was Added to FFXIV?

[ASkellington]

Each of AST's six cards has a place in the lore, and they would have to redo all the class quests from 30-50. They can't just remove them. Your other suggestion just reverts them. The seal system is tied to Astrodyne, and only benefits the AST. This is exactly how it needs to be since it is based on RNG, as unlucky draws will not hinder the party's dmg output.

Again, encounter design of FFXIV removes the meaningfulness of these abilities, which is a big reason why they have been removed. Their removal has been staggered, and I would say a big part of that is because they wanted them to be meaningful during encounters. Just look at a skill like Repose/Sleep which players have been saying to just delete if skill/button bloat is a problem. They are still here though.

The issue that remains with the card system is the fact that they just won't let go of the player's ability to mitigate the RNG. Undraw and Redraw are still skills they have to deal with an unwanted seal. This just leads to a higher APM for the AST, and the benefit isn't really all that worth the effort. The seal system really should just be you take what you get, period. Play and/or Draw should also be on the GCD. Weaving these damn abilities just makes me want to cry. Not kidding.

"Lore" didn't stop them from removing Nocturnal Sect. Or Time Dilation. And the lv30-50 quests are already meaningless because the cards don't even do what the NPC says they do.

Astrodyne is trash and should be removed. Its a self buff on a party buffing class. Divination which was what Astrodyne used to be is already fixed at maximum damage. There's no reason for the Seals to not be a separate Utility buffing option other than they didn't want to put in the effort. They could have LITERALLY made Bole, Ewer and Spire into the Seals system akin to what we have in PvP and it would have been better than the garbage we have now. Because it is garbage. We don't need Mana - we have Lucid Dreaming. Haste also means nothing when we have short recast timers on everything that isn't instant except Ascend and who the hells cares about a 6% increase on the lowest personal damage healer in the game?

As for Undraw? This ability should have been removed at the start of Shadowbringers. There is 0 reason to Undraw a card now, there was 0 reason to Undraw then.

And NO to Play/Draw being on the GCD. Ninja Mudras feel awkward I don't want that on AST. At all if you can make it feel smooth. In fact the reason WHY Ast has high APM is because of the Seals system. Remove it and install the cards somewhat to how they used to be and look at that, you only have to draw once every 30s if you get rid of the second charge.