Astrologian: what is your understanding about it?

[Aravell]

Sadly I haven't had the joy of raiding on AST in HW/StB, and I'd be interested in knowing more. How did the card system feel in Savage/Ultimate content where optimization mattered, and how would you compare it to current savage/ultimate?

My experience has mostly been for SB because I mained SCH in HW.

For regular clears, you'd Royal Road Spire on sight and occasionally Ewer and Bole if you can't find any immediate use for it. You could play enhanced/extended cards with not much issue as they never really balanced tightly for the buffs AST brings.

But if we're talking about speedruns or log runs, it's usually Sleeve Draw prepull and if it's not AoE Royal Road, you reset, then you wait for the AST to pull for Balance before starting.

It's also worth noting that cards back then had a 15s expiry and the CD only starts after you use the card, so you had to think quick back then or you lose time.

As for how it compares to current high-end content for me personally? I did optimisation runs when my old static asked me to help out, I already knew their rotations so my card usage was a very static order on every pull with the only adjustment being whether or not I drew a melee or ranged card. The most annoying part is probably the true RNG on Sleeve Draw, not getting a single Lord of Crowns for the entire 10 or so minutes does suck, I can't deny that. Also double Astrodyne sucked and I'm glad they removed that at least. Overall, there's a lot less thought going on in current AST for me, it's probably more thinking required in PF, but I don't pug often anymore so I don't know.

Edit: I'll note that I don't hate current AST, no. It's still my more played job when I want to heal, up there with SCH. I'm just disappointed that what I loved about it is partially gone.