Astro Card system is useless!

[PyurBlue]

Yeah, uh, maybe AoE balance was too strong comparatively to other cards, but they gave us Divination anyways to replace it. Why not just have ALL the new cards be AoE like PvP and toss Divination?

Still no RNG but then at least the cards wouldn't feel useless in the vast majority of encounters. They don't design bosses to focus damage on non-tank players, so unless your Tank is getting whacked (and how can they with all that THEY have, let alone all the non card free oGCDs we have) there's little for AST to do with its cards unless it's a really pedantic player.

Tanks are too strong without a doubt, but that's a tank problem in my eyes. If everyone is self sufficient, then playing healer/support is never going to feel meaningful. The fix needs to be more reasonable limitations on mitigation and self healing. Moving beyond the tank issue, I don't find the support cards completely useless and more time with AST has made me appreciate what was done in DT. I like having the option to hold Bole/Spire/etc to heal unexpected damage even if that's not always common. I also don't mind throwing them on the tank if draw is coming up again. At least they do something.

Minor Arcana is what I find least interesting now. I think that ability would be more fun if it augmented the other cards. Press once to increase card effect for reduced duration, press twice to set the card effect to be AoE, press a third time and the card goes back to normal. It would be similar to the old Royal Road but would get around the issue of some cards being used only to buff and never being played for their own effect.

[Gullis]

Benched ast once I got it to 100. Whm all the way now. I was already thinking about swapping , but giving whm a fun gap closer + destroying ast, made it the easiest decision of my life

[Valmaxian]

Benched ast once I got it to 100. Whm all the way now. I was already thinking about swapping , but giving whm a fun gap closer + destroying ast, made it the easiest decision of my life

Same, except Sage for me. AST is no longer my main after four expansions. What a freaking bummer.

[Iedarus]

This job got absolutely slaughtered to the surprise of no one. I feel bad for AST mains.

[Kissune]

The healing kit itself is fine. Sun Sign is a bit of a 'nothing' addition, but it's nice to have the flexibility of a mit that can be set up 45s in advance, I suppose. The a.helios 'upgrade'... whatever. Oracle is a nice addition, especially on trash packs but beyond that it's a poor replacement for the active and reflexive burst window that AST had not too long ago.

However the cards just... They're so worthless. Balance/Spear are the same as they ever were, and ewer is at least half decent as a set and forget regen, but the bole/arrow/spire are just... pathetic. In the past week I've spent playing nothing but this job, I have never felt like the mitigation cards have made a difference, whether they're thrown on a tank or used as spot mit. The person either dies by a massive overkill anyways, or lives regardless of the mit. And the arrow... Why would I care if I heal someone 10% more for the cost of an extra weave, when ED is usually enough to do the trick? Is it just for buffing spreadlo, something I'm sure scholars have no issues doing by themselves? Why would I use bole or spire when exaltation/CI are much more flexible and on demand? Am I just throwing it on the stack?

What warrants this level of low-power single target utility? Will it be savage? Ultimates? If not those, then perhaps criterion, where I'm forced to solo heal? Why do I need to do the hardest content just to feel like my classes CORE MECHANIC is finally available? SGE/WHM/SCH make good use of their class gimmicks at all levels, why am I just only using the dps cards and nothing else? I play new AST like I played old AST, but less interesting and less fun. And... I'm sure some people want to call me a bad healer for it, but half of my job is already done for me by the time I get there anyways, between my tank and the copious amount of free healing my coheals can put out.

At the end of the day, yeah, AST brings more single target tools to the table, weak though they may be. But when fights are going to be designed such that the weakest possible combination of mitigation and healing kits can clear it, why am I saddled with this level of bloat and overload? EW/ShB's card system was in some respects simple, and the cards were not as distinct from eachother but fuck, at least I had a reason to play each of them that wasn't padding apm.

It's... just sad. I like the healing kit of AST, but it feels like half of my favourite job has been completely removed, and its shell is a glorified extra stack of the tools I already have, a mini version of the kit I loved for so long, and that's it. I don't think I'll be playing this job more, as I can't imagine the savage/ultimate checks will warrant the level of single target bloat AST has, when WHMs will be able to clear it just fine with less. And even if that's not the case... I'd still call it a failed rework if the job only feels complete when pushed to its highest limits.

I am a long time AST main, did basically all content on it. I made sure to wait and level it to 100, and then do the extremes and normal raids on it before I gave my opinions on it. I've been active on the forums in the past, specifically focusing on healer design and especially astrologian design.

My ultimate thought is that... Yeah. These cards just... do not feel good to use. I tried to maintain a system agnostic view of it as I played, as I knew if I compared it to the older systems that I did like I'd always find it wanting. But after doing all the content currently available, I ended up frustrated and not wanting to play the job further.

[Alice_Rivers]

I am loving DT AST, going from two cards to six was huge, I may not always use all of them but I do use all of them and they're oh so very useful. Need more healing but don't want to (or can't) use Synastry? There's a card for that. Shield without spending a token? Got that too. Regen without spending a GCD? You bet. Then there's my absolute favourite: Mitigation, that has been a godsend way too many times. This version has had me leaning away from my WHM main status to play more AST. Do I miss Astrodyne? A little bit. But I'd rather have this level of flexibility all of these options to do more things, especially at lower levels. I'll take this over RNG of a mere two cards any day.

Reading some of the posts here I can't help but think you guys want to hate current AST.

[Valmaxian]

Reading some of the posts here I can't help but think you guys want to hate current AST.

I take major issue with this. Before Dawntrail released I was one of those who defended the dev team and tried to highlight the potential utility of the new cards, citing the reasons you are enjoying it. But my experience after playing it *as my main job* since AST released in HW is that the new cards don’t add more to the gameplay of the job than what we lost. We already have great tools that do exactly what each card does, and it’s also about timing. When we draw a set of cards, you’ve got to use them within a minute otherwise it feels bad. And if you really don’t need Arrow, Bole, Ewer, Spire, and Lady, that also feels bad because you’re just tossing them out to get rid of them, cluttering the rotation for negligible gain.

Many players bring up HW and StB Astro because those iterations of the job featured card systems that were truly the core mechanic of the job, and each card could be changed to be useful in any situation.

People are upset because they want their job to be at least not worse than it used to be. The cards are central to the job, they need to be useful and feel good to utilize. For me, that’s just not the case anymore and I’m allowed to feel and express that.

[Mortex]

I am loving DT AST, going from two cards to six was huge, I may not always use all of them but I do use all of them and they're oh so very useful. Need more healing but don't want to (or can't) use Synastry? There's a card for that. Shield without spending a token? Got that too. Regen without spending a GCD? You bet. Then there's my absolute favourite: Mitigation, that has been a godsend way too many times. This version has had me leaning away from my WHM main status to play more AST. Do I miss Astrodyne? A little bit. But I'd rather have this level of flexibility all of these options to do more things, especially at lower levels. I'll take this over RNG of a mere two cards any day.

Reading some of the posts here I can't help but think you guys want to hate current AST.

Let’s be real here they could have just given us more charges on intersection and exaltation and ditch a decent chunk of cards and it would be the same. Like more times I can count I get draw off cd and still have utility cards up because I forgot them and didn’t need them in anyway shape or form.

[Alice_Rivers]

I honestly don't see any way in which the job now is worse than in EW, the randomness was irrelevant - yes there were six skins and six card names but there were only two functions, Astrodyne was neat but hardly the be all and end all. We have more options than before, I fail to see any way in which that is bad. I don't see why it should be mandatory that everything should be used every time it can be, that would just lead to throwing away Synastry and Neutral Sect for no gain simply because they're there.

I can't speak to HW/ST AST, I came to the game in 2021/2022, from what I'm seeing in DT and what I've heard about the old card system it could well be that they are better iterations of the job but for me this is absolutely a step in the right direction, I'm loving every minute of it.

[Supersnow845]

I honestly don't see any way in which the job now is worse than in EW, the randomness was irrelevant - yes there were six skins and six card names but there were only two functions, Astrodyne was neat but hardly the be all and end all. We have more options than before, I fail to see any way in which that is bad. I don't see why it should be mandatory that everything should be used every time it can be, that would just lead to throwing away Synastry and Neutral Sect for no gain simply because they're there.

I can't speak to HW/ST AST, I came to the game in 2021/2022, from what I'm seeing in DT and what I've heard about the old card system it could well be that they are better iterations of the job but for me this is absolutely a step in the right direction, I'm loving every minute of it.

I don’t think anyone is defending EW AST

DT just feels like a lateral move on AST’s worst iteration across its 4 iterations

We just went from bad complexity to redundant bloat