I don't think HPS matters as much as people make it seem; however, the ability to increase your actual throughput on demand or respond to spike damage is far more important, which is something AST terribly lacks. They give up too much for their mediocre card buffs. Meanwhile, WHM and SCH have emergency heals in spades.
I'm interested in seeing how Lightspeed gets adjusted, as that could easily give AST some of the most versatile burst healing capacity.
