Quote Originally Posted by Zolvolt View Post
Saying stuff like this is just trying to invalidate that other people playing Ast see these problems with it. People happy about the changes (myself included) have played astro at a high level for a long time. Trying to diminish people like my experiences by saying we can't possibly think that the changes are good unless we don't do hard content is not really fair. I'd almost argue that playing ast at a high level should make it more obvious to you that these problems existed and needed to be addressed, but saying that isn't going to make you feel any better about things.
There were problems, sure. But the solution to them was never completely stripping the job of any semblance of its identity. I played this class at the high level and loved it. Took it into every ultimate, took it into every savage I could, as often as I could. Ran criterion with it too. And you know why? Because no matter what the content was, AST kept me engaged. It kept me awake, it kept me constantly looking up from my bar at my gauge and then quickly scanning the card, processing the info, finding the right target, and putting it where it needs to go. I could draw and decide to redraw or play a card in the same weave window while doing heavy movement mechanics. And that was fun for me. If people wanted a slow, static, and completely predictable healer, scholar was right there. White mage was right there. Sage was right there. Astrologian was just as much for the people who wanted fast paced, highly tactical and skill responsive gameplay as it was for the people who just went 'ooh, stars pretty!' But clearly aesthetics are more important than gameplay, and so rather than just telling people who didn't like the RNG to pick one of the three other healers, dozens of people have to lose a playstyle they can't get anywhere else in favour of having 4 healers with mere superficial differences between them.

When you say stuff like this, It just tells me that something isn't clicking with you. I don't know if its that you don't understand the changes, or you are only looking at one aspect of changes. It almost feels to me that you are completely disregarding the card system existing in it's new state because you only like the old system? I'm not even sure. When you say you only have the healing left it just tells me you are ignoring a fully implemented card system. Idk your complaints about it makes me feel like a piece of the puzzle didn't make it into your puzzle box in terms of the ast changes. I also wonder if therse some sort of illusion in the current form of ast that makes you feel it is "on the fly" Ast cards are always the same right. They happen at the same time every single time in EW. There is a very small difference in who you give the cards to, right? And it's not like your players are randomly changing. you always know "if this card is melee it goes to x. if it is ranged it goes to y" When people say thats the critical thinking and on the fly they want I just can't take that seriously. It's so thoughtless.
When you say stuff like this it tells me you can't actually see the DT cards for what they are. Let me break it down. You press draw on a 60s CD. You do not drift it, you do not bank it, you press it at the same time, every time, for the rest of the fight. Just like aetherflow. When you press it, you are given set A of cards. The effects aren't revealed yet, but we know it will be one offensive, one defensive, and one curative. All single target. You get a dps buff of some kind, a heal of some kind, and a mitigation of some kind. You also draw lord of crowns. 60s later, you press the button again, and you get set B. You get the same thing. One offensive, one defensive, one curative. You also draw lady of crowns.

AST cards currently do not happen 'all at the same time'. Not only is there individual variance in the burst window with the possibility of redraw, astrodyne having different times it needs to be pressed, and reacting on the fly to if you need to play for a seal, or for a particular card depending on what you already drew. Is it the most interesting system in the world? No! I wouldn't have minded if the cards were spiced up a bit over flat% damage, but the core of it still required you to think about the cards and not mindlessly place them if you wanted to optimize. You do not know 'if card is melee it goes to x', if it is ranged it goes to 'y'. Some classes frontloaded their burst, so the third card in your burst might be less effective as it misses the most damaging skills. It was a small difference for fucking up, yeah, but at least it was actually there. At least I had optimization to work towards. Now? Since there's only two dps cards period, and they will always happen in the exact same order, they will go to the same two people, at the same time, every time. There is no adaptation, there is no processing it, there is no decision making, it's just cut and dry. As for the healing and mitigation cards? Fuck, might as well have given us a fourth ED charge and a third intersection charge bc that's basically all they are. They're not interesting if there's no working with what you get, there's no manipulating draws or trying for something else. You get your hand, it's the same hand every time, you factor it into your mit/healplan just like you would any old shield or heal, and you don't even think about it. It's like aetherflow, but as least Scholars have the option of optimizing healing out of their plan in exchange for a small damage gain. We don't even have that. We just have a couple buffs that are a single weave tax in burst that can be entirely macro'd since there's no more reacting to draws, just set card A to play on person A, card B to play on person B, and go back to spamming malefic like a good little white mage.

We also get a lovely new single target heal that will either be thrown out, not played, or have as much thought put into it as summoners do to rekindle. You put the mit card on the tank if they get busted, otherwise you throw it on them for autos. Or use exaltation, or CI, or whatever. Or do nothing. It's all the same thing. You get lady of crowns, which is exactly as useful as it was in EW.

I don't know why you played AST if not for the RNG, apm, or the on-the-fly thinking. If you're just here for the aesthetics, cool. If you idk, find star to be the pinnacle of healing design, I get that, but the job deserved better than being reduced to it. Whatever it is, I think you don't actually understand what this job did. I find it hard to believe you did any kind of hard content, and if so, why didn't you just play white mage if you hated RNG and high APM so much?