AST Cards are boring

[RodP]

I really, really love AST, I've been maining it since I started in SB until now, and I love the way it heals compared to other healers.

But I really miss cards having a bit more depth. I get that they are the way they are now because back then you only fished for the same two cards, but all the cards doing the same thing now just feels like a thing to keep me busy, instead of a cool personal mechanic of the job.

I hope they can find a balance between practical and fun, because in the current iteration I still get RNG screwed anyway, so it may as well be more entertaining.

[MitsukiKimura]

All the cards being simplified to damage only killed my enjoyment of the class. AST has been reworked every expansion since they have no clue what to do with it. Honestly afraid cause I believe they'll just remove the whole thing entirely in 7.0 and if they do that then I'll just desynth my globes and won't touch it again. Maybe others will still find enjoyment but I won't.

[rawker]

Before taking my long hiatus from the game during HW, I was able to play AST. It was fun being able to juggle between Diurnal and Noct Sect but the cards, looks good on paper but always getting Spire/Ewer is pain... Arrow though...

[Casti_EL]

It's a common gripe with us AST mains. I really hope they will do something interesting in the 7.0 rework to make it fun again.

[Commander_Justitia]

back to lvl 60 astro cards would be cool though... would mean, admitting a mistake, unlikely to happen

[Burmecia]

back to lvl 60 astro cards would be cool though... would mean, admitting a mistake, unlikely to happen

Are we in the worst timeline?
Casual-medium raiders complained about their cds not aligning nicely - we got the 2min meta.
Casual-medium raiders threw tantrum because every card wasn't Balance - we got whatever the deck is now.
There is probably some extra stuff too, but I dont have energy to begin to remember things.

Supposedly. Hardcores never complained of anything

[StarRosie]

Casual-medium raiders threw tantrum because every card wasn't Balance - we got whatever the deck is now.

Honestly, I complained more about Balance existing than I did about all the other cards not being Balance. As long as Balance remained a dmg buff, it would reign supreme. But if they took the dmg buff away, who knows what happened. AST has been a problem child in terms of balancing since it came out. My biggest hope is that they leave the cards as they are now but build an rng thing on top, because I prefer the base kit be consistent, instead of RNG dependent. Looking at you DNC. Possibly re-add royal road and allow you to burn a card to add an extra effect to the next one based on the sigil it had. Burn a moon sigil, next card gives a dmg boost AND a small shield. Something like that. At least then you have a consistent base the RNG can be on top of, without having completely dead draws. I would prefer not to go back to "Use sleeve draw and pull double spire with time extension boost." again.

EDIT!
Also keep in mind, I say all this as someone who dropped MNK for AST the second I got to Ishgard back in 3.1. And mained till ShB. Where the wonky kit combined with serious MP issues made me have...one of the single worst healing experiences I ever had and stop healing for a while.

[IceBlueNinja]

Please just give us stormblood ast back(best ast)

[Sebazy]

AST has a few neat new tricks but the core gameplay loop is a shadow of what it used to be.

I'll take the fun of adapting to the RNG of the past over this consistent dull mush followed by an RSI inducing burst window before it's straight back to snooze town any day.

[Aravell]

The pursuit of absolute balance is what's ruining job diversity. I don't think the old card effects were ever much of an issue. Sure, the triple Spire Sleeve Draw was annoying, but you basically just roll with it, it's like a Monk opener with no Chakra procs. The only time cards were actually horribly imbalanced was the end of HW where Balance was 20%.

AST could comfortably beat every fight back in HW/SB even with the old card system, so the complaints about balancing issues is moot. The real complaints about AST balancing back then was their healing potency being weaker and they have to work much harder for the same results as simply bringing a WHM. I feel that people who complain about not getting the Balance don't actually care about "balancing issues", they actually care about their logs, since the way to get high logs back then was to be catered to with the Balance all fight.