New to AST question

[Æternum]

So, i just picked up astrologian. My questions is, are all the cards supposed to do the same thing? just a damage buff? i thought they all buffed different stats. Do they not? if not, then whats the point of even drawing cards? why not just give a "press 1 button for buff" instead?

[Johny_Geth]

Same buff, different power for different classes. Watch some youtube video for better understanding, if you cant figure mechanic yourself.

[Seralis]

Before ShB they all had different effects but that changed with the class rework. Now they all give damage but are still somewhat different. 3 of the card give more of a boost to Melee and the other 3 to ranged dps so you need to decide who gets which card whenever you draw. The biggest reason for differnt cards is the Lvl50 ability Divination.

Divination give a partywide damage buff dependent on the last three card you played. The cards have 3 types of seals: sun, moon, and star. If you use 1 of each seal you get the most of the team buff, 2 different and 1 repeat gives slightly less, and all three the same gives slightly less.

With this in mind everytime you draw a card you have to consider which seals you need to get the most from Divination and which party member to give the card to. I will agree thta right at level 30 they all feel really similar and like theres no need fro so many, but if you give it a little time to expand what it has there really is a lot to see and think about with the cards.

Not as much as the old system, but enough that its still feels fun to play.

[TheSuit]

Originally posted by Raytheon:

So, i just picked up astrologian. My questions is, are all the cards supposed to do the same thing? just a damage buff? i thought they all buffed different stats. Do they not? if not, then whats the point of even drawing cards? why not just give a "press 1 button for buff" instead?

They nerfed the complexicity heavily last expansion. Before it used to do so many different things.

[Fallaner, the Writer Eternal]

Originally posted by The | Suit:

Originally posted by Raytheon:

So, i just picked up astrologian. My questions is, are all the cards supposed to do the same thing? just a damage buff? i thought they all buffed different stats. Do they not? if not, then whats the point of even drawing cards? why not just give a "press 1 button for buff" instead?

They nerfed the complexicity heavily last expansion. Before it used to do so many different things.

But you'd really only end up using Balance...

[Angel_Fyre]

Originally posted by Fallaner:

Originally posted by The | Suit:

They nerfed the complexicity heavily last expansion. Before it used to do so many different things.

But you'd really only end up using Balance...

Must never have been an AST main. Because no, on so many levels lol

I AM an AST main and even before the card changes you never ONLY used Balance.

Depending on the party makeup you generally used ALL the cards.

With a BLM in party you would use Arrow to give them faster casting.

Spear to NIN or BRD to maximize their crit.

Ewer for your own MP regen OR Ewer and Spire for AOE effect of next card played.

Each and every card had a significant use so you actually did use them all (if you were a good AST anyway)

Even now with the card changes, yes I agree it has been dumbed down significantly, however you do still need to pay attention to the card and the role you play it on, as well as the seals for Divination.

[Fallaner, the Writer Eternal]

Originally posted by Angel_Fyre:

Originally posted by Fallaner:

But you'd really only end up using Balance...

Must never have been an AST main. Because no, on so many levels lol

I AM an AST main and even before the card changes you never ONLY used Balance.

Depending on the party makeup you generally used ALL the cards.

With a BLM in party you would use Arrow to give them faster casting.

Spear to NIN or BRD to maximize their crit.

Ewer for your own MP regen OR Ewer and Spire for AOE effect of next card played.

Each and every card had a significant use so you actually did use them all (if you were a good AST anyway)

Even now with the card changes, yes I agree it has been dumbed down significantly, however you do still need to pay attention to the card and the role you play it on, as well as the seals for Divination.

I was not an AST main, no. I did level it a bit, but I mained WHM.

At least while levelling, it just seemed like it was always just "use balance unless you failed to get balance". It's why I stopped playing AST and stuck to just WHM and SCH as my healing classes.

[Angel_Fyre]

Originally posted by Fallaner:

Originally posted by Angel_Fyre:

Must never have been an AST main. Because no, on so many levels lol

I AM an AST main and even before the card changes you never ONLY used Balance.

Depending on the party makeup you generally used ALL the cards.

With a BLM in party you would use Arrow to give them faster casting.

Spear to NIN or BRD to maximize their crit.

Ewer for your own MP regen OR Ewer and Spire for AOE effect of next card played.

Each and every card had a significant use so you actually did use them all (if you were a good AST anyway)

Even now with the card changes, yes I agree it has been dumbed down significantly, however you do still need to pay attention to the card and the role you play it on, as well as the seals for Divination.

I was not an AST main, no. I did level it a bit, but I mained WHM.

At least while levelling, it just seemed like it was always just "use balance unless you failed to get balance". It's why I stopped playing AST and stuck to just WHM and SCH as my healing classes.

Yea, if you don't actually take the time to learn the class and proper rotations and usage then of course you can think the wrong thing, but it was far more complex than just use balance lol.

I never got into WHM but I did main SCH as well. Though I have yet to try the new SCH. Only have my AST and RDM as my mains.