Cartomancy became dead content pretty quick

[dusk scaffold]

Cartomancy in concept could be really cool and fun but its execution leaves it looking a bit lack luster, the issue is that the recipe for the conjuration crystals is too much effort for an ability that has so much potential to give you a useless buff for the content you're running at the time.
Don't get me wrong the buffs carto gives are super nice but nobody needs "increased commerce movement speed" or "increased gathering speed" during crom or glenn HM which apparently are more likely to happen than you'd think.
The way the buffs are balanced is nice but the fact that its random and once you cast it you can't reroll it at all for 36min makes the skill a bother to use and honestly I find it a bit silly that a skill of a class who's theme is tampering with fate gives you no way to bend fate to your will.

But aside from that one very real issue is rigel crystals, in order to buff your entire party you need 8 conjuration crystals, to craft 8 of those you need 8 rigel crystals (which is 120 rigel fragments, 16 flint and 8 bottled water), 16 unknown ore and 16 long nails, a lot of these mats are easy to get with the exception of rigel mats, I'm not sure if its just me but they seem to be the least common of all the constellation casting mats getting about 2-4 catches per in game night cycle so lets set the average to a 21, with an average of 21 fragments per night and we cant fish during the day so thats 21 frags per 36min, to get 120 you need to fish for about 6 nights which is 3hrs 36min, in order to get enough for one cast without getting lucky and fishing crystals straight up it easily takes about 3hrs 36min for a buff that more often than not will give you an effect that will hardly benefit you in your current task, the way the skill works you're not meant to use the skill when you need it but rather use the skill and do a task based on the buff you receive, and that's just not efficient at all.

Personally my recommendation to fix it would be one of two.

1.- Make it so we can use constellation casting during the day as well so we can fully afk fish for crystals, maybe just reduce the amount of crystals obtained during the day to half. Plus posibly increase the rate for rigel crystals specifically to show up by a small percentage.

Or,

2.- Reduce the usage of conjuration crystals to 1 crystal per 4 party members. I suppose doing 2 members per crystal would be an option too but personally I feel that with how many crystals we get per night of active fishing (not afk fishing) 1x4 players feels much more appropriate and rewarding.

[river sky]

You guys don't split the cost of the mats when buying them from the AH? Glen hm and Crom gives enough money overall for everyone to split the cost and make a decent profit

[lethal thistle]

I dislike the first idea.
The second idea is fine. 1 crystal per party member or 1 crystal per 4 people would be totally fine.

It'd also be nice if you could reroll the effect like 3 times per cartomancy cast or spend some sort of reasonable material to reroll the effect to better increase the odds you get something decent. As the best options clearly overshadow the lower ones.

Pierce from the world or 5 minutes of extra bfo or other things of that nature overshadow combat exp or max HP boost by a mile.

[dusk scaffold]

@river sky
I guess that's fair, its just that currently it just feels like an unworthy skill to spend on, the odds aren't in your favor to getting a favorable buff for your current task, I'm not sure dropping half a mil (since the crystals go for 58-60k per item) per cast for a full party is a favorable when the skill is so unreliable towards getting a buff you can benefit from on your current task.
Whether its money or time you spend on it, the way the skill works makes both feel like wasted effort. Plus I feel like using a skill isn't something we should be dropping more than a mil on constantly, one thing is spending a large amount to obtain a skill (like Seal: Fragarach which requires the hefty investment of erg 25 weapons), another is needing to constantly spend large amounts of time/gold to use a skill.

@lethal thistle I totally agree I was just talking to a friend and honestly more than anything it feels like Carto needs to have a way for us to "have some control over fate" so to speak. The ability to reroll x# times per cast or to reroll at the cost of more crystals would make this skill so much more relevant, taking into account 1 crystal x4 members something like a reroll at the cost of extra crystals might make this skill and the gathering/purchasing of mats feel more meaningful, they could even do something like more crystals used per reroll or something of the like to stop us from just rerolling like crazy until we get the "best" buff.

[upbeat dew]

I think what they wanted it to be as a concept was you rolling the buff and then deciding what content you do, kinda like a decision maker. „This is what fate wants you to do today“

But i do agree is not a very relevant skill due to its full randomness. Maybe if you could decide on the direction like life or combat buff.