It's not a waste of time to play something you enjoy. AST may not be up to the raw healing standards of the other classes as it is, and I agree, its Draw mechanic doesn't always help (some cases are literal wasted draws, where I'd just as soon let the card fall off than cast it), but it's fun for me. When raids are released and AST's abilility (or lack thereof) to deal with heal checks becomes readily apparent, the community is going look to SE for help if the job is truly a lost cause.
Considering that it's the first addition of a new healing class that's trying to break into a very established paradigm of WHM/SCH, it's not surprising that balancing it was probably very challenging. Players are going to spend hours and hours toying with the class, trying to push it to its limits. It will take time to see exactly where AST stands. It's easy to say that AST is bad simply because it has lower potency heals and no way to buff its own healing. It's not as easy to say why AST is good, which means there's a distinct dynamic that some are missing, or it needs some help. SE will have to see this, because it is a flashy class in a popularity contest. If it's not up to snuff, there's going to be a lot of discontent in the ranks. Classes have been adjusted quite fairly through 2.0, and we ended with largely a very balanced pool of jobs. We can only hope for the same level playing field in the time coming, otherwise you really will see AST jumping ship for serious content, which would be a right shame.
