Astrologian Card System Feedback

[Aravell]

I can't be convinced that turning every card into a 6% DPS buff is anything but miserable. It's ironic because I'd argue RNG actually died in Shadowbringers, not Dawntrail.

Seals, melee vs ranged... How big of a difference do you think it would've made to just toss every card onto a Samurai anyway? Because I strongly doubt the difference in damage would be noticeable enough to have any realistic impact in any fight anywhere. Sure, 3% is less than 6%, but consider how much less damage every ranged job except Black Mage was doing than a Samurai, and I actually wonder if a 3% damage boost on a Sam might actually compete with a 6% damage boost on a Dancer, or a Summoner even. The Seals in Shadowbringers forced some amount of interaction, but it was no longer about cards anyway.

I suppose it greatly depends on how deep you want to get into optimisation. If you're really deep into optimisation, you'd want the card to match the burst profile of the job perfectly, which means what card you get and when is quite important, so the RNG is there in that case. But for most people, yes, the RNG is either 50/50 or doesn't matter (for those who just throw every card on the highest damage player).

That said, if we can't get HW/SB cards back, I'd still take the 50/50 RNG of ShB/EW over the zero RNG of DT cards.

[ty_taurus]

I suppose it greatly depends on how deep you want to get into optimisation. If you're really deep into optimisation, you'd want the card to match the burst profile of the job perfectly, which means what card you get and when is quite important, so the RNG is there in that case. But for most people, yes, the RNG is either 50/50 or doesn't matter (for those who just throw every card on the highest damage player).

That said, if we can't get HW/SB cards back, I'd still take the 50/50 RNG of ShB/EW over the zero RNG of DT cards.

I do care about optimization, but I want that optimization to actually have an ounce of value, not just to pat myself on the back. That's why I equate Addersting to Stormblood Lilies, because even when you optimize Toxikon usage, you get basically nothing out of it. The difference in your own personal damage is less than 1%. That isn't worth respecting the mechanic to me.

[Aravell]

I do care about optimization, but I want that optimization to actually have an ounce of value, not just to pat myself on the back. That's why I equate Addersting to Stormblood Lilies, because even when you optimize Toxikon usage, you get basically nothing out of it. The difference in your own personal damage is less than 1%. That isn't worth respecting the mechanic to me.

I think that's more to do with the dev team's bizarre obsession with perfect balance than any job mechanics. They've been trying to stamp out the benefits of optimisation since Shadowbringers so they can bring the ceiling closer to the floor.

While I agree that having nothing but damage cards lacks any immediate noticeable impact from your own decisions, I don't really agree that RNG died in Shadowbringers. AST back then still required some amount of thinking and knowledge to maximise damage because all jobs have their own personal burst timers and only fully aligned on 0, 6 and 12 minutes, your plans would be changing depending on whether you draw a melee or ranged card.

I do agree that AST RNG kind of died in Endwalker though. The change to make every job burst on 2 minutes means that you no longer have to know the personal timing of every DPS job, you just need to split them into 3 categories: Early burst (SMN), Steady damage/variable burst (BLM/BRD) and Mid-late burst (SAM), that's why I regard AST as only middling complexity now. But I still vastly prefer AST compared to the other healers in Endwalker because AST at least requires some braincells.

In the end, I do want to see utility returning, but I don't think what we have now is entirely bad if we could get some improvement on it.

[IDontPetLalas]

I think that's more to do with the dev team's bizarre obsession with perfect balance than any job mechanics. They've been trying to stamp out the benefits of optimisation since Shadowbringers so they can bring the ceiling closer to the floor.

While I agree that having nothing but damage cards lacks any immediate noticeable impact from your own decisions, I don't really agree that RNG died in Shadowbringers. AST back then still required some amount of thinking and knowledge to maximise damage because all jobs have their own personal burst timers and only fully aligned on 0, 6 and 12 minutes, your plans would be changing depending on whether you draw a melee or ranged card.

I do agree that AST RNG kind of died in Endwalker though. The change to make every job burst on 2 minutes means that you no longer have to know the personal timing of every DPS job, you just need to split them into 3 categories: Early burst (SMN), Steady damage/variable burst (BLM/BRD) and Mid-late burst (SAM), that's why I regard AST as only middling complexity now. But I still vastly prefer AST compared to the other healers in Endwalker because AST at least requires some braincells.

In the end, I do want to see utility returning, but I don't think what we have now is entirely bad if we could get some improvement on it.

A lot of the discussion concerns cards, however that is only part of the reason for the dissatisfaction on my part. I'm not in favour of having 6 different types of cards, because I find it difficult to think of circumstances where most of them would be useful, and even with a redraw, that doesn't sound particularly enjoyable- so I'm more of a middle ground card RNG.

However the other parts concern the removal of the sects and no consideration of adjusting AST by returning some elements of diurnal/nocturnal sects, as well as the poor experience outside of groups.