GCD AST Cards, why not?

[Shurrikhan]

Putting Play on the GCD gives disincentives to ever make the Card effects themselves any more interesting or in need of responsiveness.

Putting Draw on the GCD is fine, as that would give room for Redraw (even if it was returned to multiple charges independent of Draw beyond needing a Card to currently be held), and even a returned Royal Road, etc. You'd just have to roughly double the Card's current strength for it not to be skipped over in favor of Malefic.

You don't need to copy over a Misery/Toxicon mechanic to compensate for the lost ppm of dropped Malefic casts; you just have to make the Cards strong enough to compensate in themselves.

[ty_taurus]

Putting Play on the GCD gives disincentives to ever make the Card effects themselves any more interesting or in need of responsiveness.

Putting Draw on the GCD is fine, as that would give room for Redraw (even if it was returned to multiple charges independent of Draw beyond needing a Card to currently be held), and even a returned Royal Road, etc. You'd just have to roughly double the Card's current strength for it not to be skipped over in favor of Malefic.

You don't need to copy over a Misery/Toxicon mechanic to compensate for the lost ppm of dropped Malefic casts; you just have to make the Cards strong enough to compensate in themselves.

This is kind of what I have been thinking in regards to my past AST ideas as well... I haven't really sat down to think it out yet, but I've had this mindset of making Draw a GCD that generates DPS passively while setting you up to use cards in some fashion. The only thing about having the card effects themselves worth the loss of Malefic is it makes it really difficult to make the cards appealing to a solo AST. Ideally, you'd want something that has the flexibility to be both effective in groups and while playing alone, because there is solo content in this game and there are people who would like to have fun while using AST solo.

What I've said before is having cards and other support-oriented GCD tools generate a star that orbits the AST and can deal Malefic-potency damage either when you attack a target (as a second attack from you) or that your allies can detonate for you. But I'll reserve that for the next time I feel interested enough to really think through my more recent ideas.

[Rongway]

The only thing about having the card effects themselves worth the loss of Malefic is it makes it really difficult to make the cards appealing to a solo AST. Ideally, you'd want something that has the flexibility to be both effective in groups and while playing alone, because there is solo content in this game and there are people who would like to have fun while using AST solo.

Card buffs last 15s and there are at least 6 GCDs in a 15s timespan, so if Draw cost a GCD the break even point for a solo card damage buff would be 1/6 or about 16.67%. And this is just the break even point--for it to be a gain the buff has to be higher than this. There really isn't any way to make that work except to carve a solo specific case into the ability effect.

[Shurrikhan]

Card buffs last 15s and there are at least 6 GCDs in a 15s timespan, so if Draw cost a GCD the break even point for a solo card damage buff would be 1/6 or about 16.67%. And this is just the break even point--for it to be a gain the buff has to be higher than this. There really isn't any way to make that work except to carve a solo specific case into the ability effect.

This seems an unnecessary complication, though you're right that a GCD Card might not see use in solo play if it didn't have any additional effects attached to it and maintained only the current %DPS buffs, with a 25% chance to see only half value on the AST itself.

It does have additional effects attached to it, though, any of which could be easily buffed in turn. Astrodyne is presently a mere pittance and is painfully inflexible (if not damn near dysfunctional). But it needn't be, and could easily add some additional value per Card that loops back to the AST's own throughput without needing a bloodlilicon mechanic.

Similarly the Cards don't have to remain as generic (and reliant on high potency-within-window) as they currently are. As far as solo play is concerned, it's just that no effect can be outright useless in solo content, nor should any require an ideal target just to see use over Malefic when accounting also for Astrodyne value (or that of its replacement) within the solo fight. (Making Astrodyne more flexible, such as by not needing all 3 Seals --and perhaps instead going from more immediate or short-term value to more long-term value with increased number of different Seasl-- would go a long way in that regard.)

[Azurarok]

Putting Play on the GCD gives disincentives to ever make the Card effects themselves any more interesting or in need of responsiveness.

Putting Draw on the GCD is fine, as that would give room for Redraw (even if it was returned to multiple charges independent of Draw beyond needing a Card to currently be held), and even a returned Royal Road, etc.

That bit was more about only making one of the card abilities a GCD as opposed to both Draw and Play becoming one, but also yes I agree that making Draw the GCD is better than Play.

I completely dislike the idea of GCD cards because it tears out a playstyle enjoyed by players and turns it into another playstyle that already exists.

This explains it I think. The heart of the issue for me is probably the lack of weave windows, especially since EW's changes added even more oGCDs, and so reducing an oGCD to use on top of adding an instant cast seemed like a good idea, but it would be another step towards the role's homogenization.

I won't deny it being a skill issue on my part but I feel like 1 use of lightspeed on a 90s CD doesn't really cut it when you're expected to rapidly pass out 3 cards every 2 minutes while they're also constantly throwing content at you that makes you run marathons around the arena.