Astrologian: what is your understanding about it?

[Aravell]

I wish. I actually love Speed stats, because it's the only stat that actually visibly changes your gameplay. I feel that if they weren't so obssessed with this 2min meta, the jobs in general could have more interesting designs because ultimately everything is just <insert obligatory job gimmick> + resource hoarding for the meta + actions with recast times that need to be aligned to the meta.

But so far (even from reddit vague datamined information from the Benchmark) everything indicates they'll just double down on the 2min burst windows with Dawntrail, so I'm not really hopeful it's going to be scrapped or even changed. I'm more optimistic if they manage to make the 'not 2 min burst windows' more engaging.

This dev team is known for doubling down on things that they maybe shouldn't.

There was backlash when the AST card system was reduced to only damage buffs in ShB, they doubled down in EW.
There was heavy backlash when they gutted all the healer damage kits in ShB, they doubled down in EW.

They'll definitely double or triple down on the 2 minute buff meta, only when people still hate it in 8.0 will they finally change it.

[Maltothoris]

I've been of the opinion that astros should still get divination but the cards themselves should get different effects.

[Raikai]

They'll definitely double or triple down on the 2 minute buff meta, only when people still hate it in 8.0 will they finally change it.

I can even see that the argument is going to be "The 2min meta is restricting future job growth so we decided to unmake it" instead of just acknowledging it as an unpopular design premise.

At least in my online bubble I know plenty of people who are neutral on it (most don't play high end tho), and many who hate it, but I don't know a single soul that genuinely praises the 2 minute meta.

[Aravell]

I can even see that the argument is going to be "The 2min meta is restricting future job growth so we decided to unmake it" instead of just acknowledging it as an unpopular design premise.

At least in my online bubble I know plenty of people who are neutral on it (most don't play high end tho), and many who hate it, but I don't know a single soul that genuinely praises the 2 minute meta.

I've seen a few on the forums who say they absolutely love the 2 minute buff meta, but it's hard to tell if they're saying it to be a contrarian or if they genuinely like it.

Although the fact remains that setting all buffs to 2 minutes does actually help a small subset of people, the ones who are slightly above average who think that "clunk" is holding them back from being perfect, so they ask for the removal of said "clunk" until the ceiling comes down to them.

[Kissune]

Well I guess none of us got what we wanted! All RNG being stripped from the class wasn't what I expected, nor is it welcome. Seeya in 8.0, gamers. Healing is cooked yet again.

[LotusDye]

I get to draw a full hand to play as I please (like a normal card game) and don't need to pay lip service to astrodyne, all while playing more cards per minute overall than before. Sounds great to me! Whatever's cooking smells great.

[Kissune]

I get to draw a full hand to play as I please (like a normal card game) and don't need to pay lip service to astrodyne, all while playing more cards per minute overall than before. Sounds great to me! Whatever's cooking smells great.

Idk what card games you're playing but you typically don't know exactly what your hand is going to be before you draw it. You're supposed to play the hand you're dealt as it comes to you, not pick the same alternating set of 4 cards each time.

[ForsakenRoe]

I've been of the opinion that astros should still get divination but the cards themselves should get different effects.

The obvious solution, but SE can't see it for some reason. AOE Balance was not OP because of the Balance, it was OP because it was AOE. The damage difference between 'one guy gets 10% damage up' vs 'one guy gets no additional damage (because it's Bole/Spire etc)' is way WAY smaller than '5% on the party' vs '0% on the party'. The 'solution' here IMO was to keep the cards single target, and give them all the same damage output, with the 'uniqueness'/'identity' brought out by having the method by which they deal that damage be different per card.

Let's say they want to have the cards give 750p total damage.
Balance could do that by being a % damage increase, same as ever.
Spear and Spire could provide that damage by being Phys damage and Magic damage respectively, meaning they're 'the Melee card' and 'the Caster card' in a sense.
Arrow could reach that 750p by increasing the speed of your autoattacks by a huge amount (eg 4x speed for a while), with Phys Ranged having a higher amount of autoattacks gained, to make the Arrow 'the Ranged card'.
Lastly, Bole could reflect damage when the target is hit, with the damage reflected based on Max HP, making Tank the primary choice for the card.
And Ewer could cause Healer spells to hit twice (the second strike would have zero chance to crit/DHit, to keep it as a predictable X potency boost per spell cast).

The minute differences in damage output from the cards (eg your Tank is very geared and your Melee aren't, so Bole is slightly more damage than Balance/Spear) could be offset by the Seals meaning you'd want to prioritize filling out 3 Seals, instead of fishing for 'the best card'. But I suppose they've gotten rid of those now. I'm very confused why they took the tarot inspired class and removed all the RNG from it. You don't have Tarot cards sorted into 'good' 'bad' and 'third category', some readings they draw them based on Past, Present and Future yes, but any card can appear in any of those three 'categories', it's not like 'the World is a 'Present' card' or 'the Hierophant is a Past card' as this system seems to imply.

Idk what card games you're playing but you typically don't know exactly what your hand is going to be before you draw it. You're supposed to play the hand you're dealt as it comes to you, not pick the same alternating set of 4 cards each time.

I guess it's gone from Poker or Blackjack or some kind of actual gambling related card game, or Tarot readings, the thing the class identity is inspired by, to a simple game of Uno. My question is, who asked for this RNG removal? The only players I can imagine asking for the 'RNG card drawing class' to have the RNG removed, is people who don't main the class, and people who do main the class and are angry that their barse got screwed by an errant Lady of Crowns popping up (an exceptionally small amount of players)

[Aravell]

My question is, who asked for this RNG removal? The only players I can imagine asking for the 'RNG card drawing class' to have the RNG removed, is people who don't main the class, and people who do main the class and are angry that their barse got screwed by an errant Lady of Crowns popping up (an exceptionally small amount of players)

It's most definitely people who don't enjoy AST who would ask for the core part of the job since its inception in HW (Card RNG) ripped out of the job entirely.

As for getting my run screwed up by Lady of Crowns, I've done my fair share of runs for the funny number website, and whenever I don't draw a single Lord of Crowns, I just buck up and go again. It's the nature of a job with RNG, sometimes you don't get lucky.

Complaining about the RNG on AST is like playing DNC and complaining that you don't get a consistent 3 Saber Dance opener 100% of the time. It's the nature of the job, play one of the many jobs with no RNG if consistent output is so important.

[Kissune]

It's most definitely people who don't enjoy AST who would ask for the core part of the job since its inception in HW (Card RNG) ripped out of the job entirely.

As for getting my run screwed up by Lady of Crowns, I've done my fair share of runs for the funny number website, and whenever I don't draw a single Lord of Crowns, I just buck up and go again. It's the nature of a job with RNG, sometimes you don't get lucky.

Complaining about the RNG on AST is like playing DNC and complaining that you don't get a consistent 3 Saber Dance opener 100% of the time. It's the nature of the job, play one of the many jobs with no RNG if consistent output is so important.

B-But my aesthetic! I don't WANT to play the job with RNG and skill expression and reacting to my rotation, I just want to play the pwetty star healer!

Thanks for listening to these people, square enix. I hope they enjoy their white mage with stars because I'm done with the role for good. Sorry for dismissing your opinions about stormblood AST earlier, because apparently I didn't realize how bad the damn alternative could get. I'd rather have stormblood cards transplanted wholesale than this.