Quote Originally Posted by Xelanar View Post
AST could benefit from a design philosophy that does not care so much about log hunters and perfect, calculable consistency in DPS. Or at least a system acting as a safety net to catch terrible RNG. But not having any meaningful RNG in a CARD DRAWING mechanic is really disapponting.

Its healing kit is fine. Not optimal, but it's fine and fun to use and play around with.

Its DPS kit however... oh dear... It has been streamlined into absolute boredom, because nothing feels rewarding to do. Cards having the same dull effect being the worst culprit of them all.
It's easier to balance, sure. Does not make it any more appealing though.

On other jobs I always look forward to my burst stuff being ready. On healers though? Yeeeah... it's buttons I press, because their cooldowns are ready, and that's pretty much it. Neither cards nor Astrodyne nor Divniation have anything interesting to them, that makes me want to use them. I just do it, because that is how the job is played.

Having 123 instead of 111 could be a step in the right direction. It would allow devs to i.e make 2 into an instant cast and/or 3 into a longer cast that results in a potency gain of 10 or something. Nothing game breaking, but something we can play around with and optimize during healing downtime and movement-heavy phases.

It also would make room for simple build-up mechanics that result in any sort of awesome cool looking skill. It's not always about complexity. Take Summoner as an example. Is it a complex job? Arguably not really. Is it fun and rewarding to play? Hell yes(at least I think so). Summoning all those primal egis, even summoning Bahamut of all things. Those skills have actual impact and power to them. They feel absolutely strong. Meanwhile on my AST I'm stuck on ONE skill that does not have any impact to it at all. Which could be fine I guess? IF I was busy healing all the time. However, as it stands, developer's "low healing requirement" philosophy and healer's 111-rotations do not complement each other very well. One of those should seriously be reconsidered, the latter probably being easier to adjust.

But most importantly, interesting card effects need to return in some fashion. For those who despise heavy RNG, maybe having two different draw skills could help. One for offensive card types, and one for cards with support effects, separate from eath other.
There are some very interesting ideas. However I wouldn't find a 10 potency increase that impactful, especially if tied to a longer cast time - as you say if you have movement -heavy phases. If you look at turret jobs they typically get their payback by having higher DPS - so it should be considered for that as well well as the application for solo play.