Astro Card system is useless!

[Raikai]

I was a bit skeptical trying the DT AST, but honestly?... While is not the SB or even ShB, it's still better than Endwalker's.

Granted, I'm only lv 93 but It's really nice not having RNG and having cards as a defensive/healing resource.

To note, I'm still sympathetic with the healer strike movement. I'm only leveling the job because I want all role quests completed.

[bitofabother]

I tried them out running some stuff with my FC, and... oof. They just don't feel impactful, at all. There's not a single moment where I put one of the 4 heal-or-mit cards on someone where it felt like the card did anything compared to just the background of the fight.

[elioaiko]

Stormblood AST was best AST. Nuff said.

Screaming this from the mountain top. If they had just evolved this version of AST instead, we'd get a better AST.

I don't really get the notion that RNG on AST is annoying. It's makes the job interesting. Every run is different. Sure it's not consistent in the damage buffs you want but that's why Divination exists.

If we can't have SB AST back, then I would have settled 4.5 ShB AST which was a good compromise.

[Katish]

"Riveting" gameplay we lost two cards and now we have to save them all for the burst. Play 2, Play 3 can be straight up removed which makes AST have even less buttons. I truly dislike this iteration of AST over them all, this is not AST this is WHM. Although AST was previously WHM with the RNG element to try and change them, that nuance is what made AST, AST. Now it is just WHM in feeling, nothing to break the monotony...and heals saved for when you would use them similar to any other healer. I wanted the card system expanded not shrunk as with these changes that's exactly what happened.

Below is a spoiler dungeon, if you have not completed DT I don't recommend watching it.
https://youtu.be/gZsOGSW2vl4

[Connor]

Playing AST with the new cards, it felt like I had to completely invent reasons to use Arrow / Bole / Ewer / Spire. I mean, it’s not like there’s enough damage output to warrant actually caring about how you use them, and even then why bother when you have things like Exaltation and Celestial Intersection.

Literally the only use I could find for Arrow was putting it on tank and slapping them Aspected Benefic even though they didn’t really need it. Spire and Ewer frankly I just dumped on the tank every time before redrawing. There’s rarely any instances I can think of where you’d want to give a dps a small HP shield, and Ewer is kinda pointless when you can just use one Essential Dignity’s many many charges lol.

Basically we draw 3 cards every time but 2 of those three at entirely redundant. Like not only do the effects majorly suck, but they’re not even things we couldn’t do before. Every card except damage has an oGCD ability equivalent (that’s usually better)

[OliverQ]

I don't play Astro much, but I did try the new system and I agree, 4 of the 6 cards just feel kinda pointless. They're just extra abilities we already have that are rarely needed.

[Sairys]

I don't feel like the new cards really hit the mark for me. I thought the idea was we'd be throwing cards around at different party members instead, maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I end up just aiming to get things lined up so I can throw Balance on a Melee and Spear on a Ranged in the divination window. Everything else just goes on the Tank.

For me, at least, I also keep fumbling things when I've got an Astral draw and I use divination. I'll get used to it in time, of course, but right now I keep going... balance, divination, "ooh I should draw to get spear in", umbral draw, "oh damn I forgot lord of crowns". So it feels like it'd flow nicer if we got Spear with Astral draw so we'd have our two damage buffs with Lord of Crowns, I can appreciate potentially the desire is to allow us to mess up and make us ensure we time our draws but I'm not sure that's really "skilled" play.

That would also kinda address a nitpicky disappointment I have, they haven't preserved some of the lore they expressed previously.
We've got the cards grouped into Astral and Umbral now, but they were already grouped into the Elemental Conquests and Submissions in Shadowbringers. (Minor arcana with Balance, Arrow, and Spear gave Lord of Crowns. Bole, Ewer, and Spire for Lady of Crowns).
Similarly, all the cards are now paired into I, II, and III but... they were already paired into Solar, Lunar, and Celestial.

Rearranging the cards to align with those bits of lore while keeping their current effects... would result in us having both damage buffs ready alongside Lord of Crowns and Arrow to hit someone harder with heals. Again it's a nitpick, but it does hit a little cause I'd find it easier to work with if the cards stuck with the existing lore so it's also a bit ironic I guess.

[Valmaxian]

After spending a few weeks with DT AST I agree with the general consensus that the cards don't feel impactful enough. I like the idea of having more diverse card effects, but in most of the content I enjoy the Arrow is super niche, and Ewer/Spire, while somewhat useful are never necessary. If the plan was to impose the same four cards every minute, I'd rather have two DMG+ cards, one utility, and Lord/Lady. But I'm also among those who much prefer HW/StB Astro. DT AST has been relatively enjoyable, but my least favorite iteration of the job thus far.

[Post]

I feel like cards are better than EW AST in some ways, namely that outside of 8 mans the system is more lively, but the effects are so redundant with AST's (and increasingly your other party member's) kit(s) that it feels even more tacked on overall.

For starters, cards feel even worse solo, the only way they could feel better without reintroducing Royal Road is to make them ALL have an amplified effect on the AST themselves imo. It also bugs me even more that healers have so many tools they just cannot aim at non-party members, it's gonna feel worse in the 24 man than ever when most of my cards are centered on utility the one tank I have that's not even tanking right now doesn't need.

You can completely ignore the system now except for MP, which was the same as in EW, because the biggest utility you bring is Divination which is wholly untied to the cards like it was when the new system was conceived in ShB. So now cards have even less of a reason to exist now that their effects are all things AST already does without them, where it used to be the devfining aspect of the job.

Instead of the cards building up to a lacklustre Astrodyne the cards themselves feel lacklustre instead.

I really think the interactions of the cards between themselves and the rest of the kit is where old AST shined, from Celestial Opposition/Time Dilation and Royal Road/Spread to Shuffle and Minor Arcana being consolations (my favorite Minor Arcana was in ShB when it just became a 'stronger' basic card for no Seal gain -- again this interacted with the cards further by turning good Seal luck into an even stronger burst phase on the teammate you chose, letting even a normally non ideal card shine in certain circumstances, which is what stars are all about).

I don't see why this couldn't be further improved with DT's kit as it stands -- if they were to let each card card you play amplify the effect of the rest in the set based on the order you play them then there could be some more fun to be had I think. Problem I see is that as they are now, 4 of the 6 cards are just oGCD cooldowns that you have to unlock every minute, a sort of contrived and very weak Aetherflow system, while the other 2 just get used in the 2 minute window. But like, if I play Spire before Spear and that made Spear suddenly the melee damage card or something, and then the arrow after that has a group wide effect because of the Spear... I guess it would be more complicated and possibly pointless and probably 'solved' as well since there's no RNG, but at least you'd get some more variety and cards interacting with each other.

[Sani2341]

Tbf. Even a solved 'card Rotation ' would be better than the 'dps buff+ unneeded oGCDs ' it is rn.