I think the purpose behind the thread makes sense, look at what we don't need that contributes as part of healer bloat. Though obviously, some disagreement on the list.
I'd agree on Indom and Physick. I don't really get much use out of Dissipation because I don't need to. And I don't get a /lot/ of use out of Aetherpact either, but I still find it useful when I do. But if our healing is nerfed by removing other abilities, I wonder if these would be skills I'd find more useful. So with that, I'm on the fence.
Nocturnal sect. I like healing in it, but then it makes me work harder than Diurnal. Diurnal/Nocturnal is great for AST's identity of being adaptable. Oddly I am in the minority of people who thinks Nocturnal is fine, but then my view is that healing jobs heal too well, so when something is healing less well, that's a positive for me. I usually try to pick it over Diurnal. I think there's room for improvement, mind you. And removing the card system of AST altogether would be a 'no' from me because the main reason I picked up AST in 5.0 is because of two things. Nocturnal Sect reduces my healer downtime versus Diurnal and playing SCH or WHM. And because cards break up my down time. Whilst the card system is less engaging than it used to be, it's still more engaging than spamming Malefic or Gravity.
As for Planery Indulgance, I'd agree if it was still Stormblood, but as I understand it's good now (I've only just started getting my WHM caught up, so not played much of it in ShB). Lilies seems like an arbitrary addition, potentially that could be removed, although it seems better now than it was in SB, but I cannot help but just think of it as a reverse aetherflow. You build up stacks and use them instead of starting with stacks and using them.
