Weird/random idea for AST to make one ability actually...have a point:

[Absurdity]

'Undraw' the card by throwing it, dealing 50 potency to all enemies in a straight line. Damage scales off of your STR stat.

And then let's reintroduce Slashing Resistance Down, so it can buff the cuts of your card-based attacks.

[SieyaM]

There is no way they would ever give anything a buff potency as high as 25%, you'll get 6% at most.

[Renathras]

There is no way they would ever give anything a buff potency as high as 25%, you'll get 6% at most.

What is the % damage gap between AST and WHM? Personal damage, not counting AST's buffs.

[ForsakenRoe]

What is the % damage gap between AST and WHM? Personal damage, not counting AST's buffs.

Probably close to 20%, but you're playing with fire re: accidentally making 'use card on self' be the bigger damage gain. 's not a terrible idea in theory, but... I'd rather just axe the skill (undraw) to make room for interesting things, and then have the cards reworked to benefit AST in some way too with their effects, and I don't mean just flat damage

[Renathras]

Probably close to 20%, but you're playing with fire re: accidentally making 'use card on self' be the bigger damage gain. 's not a terrible idea in theory, but... I'd rather just axe the skill (undraw) to make room for interesting things, and then have the cards reworked to benefit AST in some way too with their effects, and I don't mean just flat damage

Fair enough I suppose. I guess at the end of the day, it's whether we're designing classes for noobs or not (typical threads here suggest NOT), so something like a Trait when you get Draw/Play that says "Using a Major Arcanum/Card on yourself increases damage dealt by 18%". Still would be a bit less than WHM, but would put things a lot closer for AST's soloing content.

I think 25% is more proper over time (since you can't keep yourself buffed 100% of the time, after all, since Cards don't last that long), but it could also hassle burst windows, so...

It doesn't have to be Undraw, btw. I was just thinking of making that ability do...well...something. But if everyone's cool with AST doing 20% less damage than the other healers when doing solo instances and stuff now (I THOUGHT everyone was opposed to that, but maybe I just misread all those threads about the topic...), then no need to change it. : )

[Semirhage]

There's a difference between "I'm not sure if this specific solution would solve the problem in a way that wouldn't have unwanted side-effects on other content" and "I don't think this problem should be solved at all".

[Renathras]

There's a difference between "I'm not sure if this specific solution would solve the problem in a way that wouldn't have unwanted side-effects on other content" and "I don't think this problem should be solved at all".

Well, people specifically saying that AST shouldn't do that much more damage.

Outside of a buff to potency, the only other option is...just more base potency. But that would add to its already high party-DPS contribution via buffs, making it OP then. So any solution has to walk that balance. It's why I was thinking something like one of these to options would work, since they preclude the AST from buffing other people at the same time (well, Divination, but the buff being less for AST than the gap to WHM should make that shake out relatively evenly in the end...)

They could then increase the damage of the other healers as well, to maintain the gaps AND make AST able to do the content...but then you run into the problem of every piece of content in the game needing rebalancing and healers doing even more damage requiring Enrages to be further adjusted up in the future and on and on and on.

[AnotherPerson]

Fair enough I suppose. I guess at the end of the day, it's whether we're designing classes for noobs or not (typical threads here suggest NOT), so something like a Trait when you get Draw/Play that says "Using a Major Arcanum/Card on yourself increases damage dealt by 18%". Still would be a bit less than WHM, but would put things a lot closer for AST's soloing content.

They could also thoretically do something along the lines of RPR's Arcane Circle, granting a secondary weaker group-wide buff and then a self buff that allows them to pick between a highly powerful burst attack or a strengthening buff on all your allies. This powerful burst attack would supplement the lack of damage in solo content but keep the AST identity of party-buffing in party content. If they really wanted to differentiate but also allow both skills to be used in party content, then the cooldown of the skill would affect when AST wants to use a burst attack over a group-wide strengthening buff (30s/90s would work better for burst attack and align with solo play to maximize card buffs on self, 60s/120s would align with 2 minute burst window because group burst damage would be way higher than self burst).

A mix and rework of Divination and Astrodyne can work to fit in that kind of playstyle as well, as Astrodyne is already mostly useless in the face of AST's already overbearing mana regen and the damage boost in the worst DPS job is negligible at best.

[MintnHoney]

Gameplay-wise, Undraw's niche original purpose was completely lost when Minor Arcana was introduced, and any niche point to Undraw (the only thing I can see is to attempt to preserve your seal structure if you can't or don't want to use Minor Arcana and want to hit a button instead of terminating the held-card effect) is currently negligible. With that in mind, I don't think Renathras' idea is bad, personally. It would give Undraw a reason to exist nowadays, and we could say, thematically, it fits because the AST has chosen to toss that thread of fate aside and chosen to take destiny in their own hopefully-more-capable hands.

However, if it were me, I'd have Undraw create a random effect on the battlefield, as the AST has chosen to leave things in the chaotic hands of Fate, rather than try to make a more controlled (and subdued) tug on the tapestry of Fate directly.
Not-necessarily-balanced-and-off-the-top-of-my-head example effects could include: 20 Potency DoT effect on all creatures (including allies) in a 30-yalm radius [can be removed with Esuna] for 2 minutes, 125 potency lightning strike on all enemies, a sudden vacuum pulls all enemies into a position centered on the AST's original position 3 seconds after using Undraw, 100 mp regeneration effect on all party members for 30 seconds, Main Stat + 10% for all creatures (including enemies) in an AoE around the user, Main Stat - 10% for all creatures (including enemies) in an AoE around the user, and a chance to create a 30y field of falling stars for 1 minute that creates tiny AoE circles that deal 10 potency damage at a rate of 1 circle per second in a random spot within the field effect.

Or something like that, with perhaps many more random effects.
But it'll likely never happen in any capacity, and I really just expect that the best they'll do for Undraw is to have it reduce the cooldown of draw by 40 seconds, one day, so that the player can make sure they're ready for the 2 minute meta burst windows.

[glamazon]

Can they just return the card effects back to being diversified and not just dmg