Why people says AST is bad?

[Crevox]

getting the right card at the right time all the time?

Even if you did, it's calculated to only be like a 1-3% increase in party DPS, provided you even actually focus on damage cards and get that lucky. Selene is just better at this, and Scholar is a better healer.

-Bole: Too random to rely on to survive fights. Ultimately all you're doing is slightly fixing your healing handicap by making it easier to heal the tank, making your job easier. This defeats the purpose of being Astrologian in the first place, as you're not really buffing people or supporting them, you're just easing the healing potency handicap you have for being an AST slightly. Better to burn it with Royal Road for the best Royal Road bonus to combine with Time Dilation, because you won't want to burn Balance for that bonus. It has potential to increase the time you can spam Gravity/dps on pulls, but not by much.

-Spear: Too gimmicky. There's no guarantee ever that whoever you throw it at will even use abilities, and they shouldn't go out of their way to USE abilities outside of proper timings just because the cooldowns are lower. If someone's ability isn't on cooldown (say, Raging Strikes) it's probably for good reason -- they're probably saving it for a burst moment coming up or to synergize into their rotation. Even if you do actually reduce its cooldown, are they even going to need it to be reduced? Will they actually use it again in that extra little time window that it's now up before it would have been, or hold it for when it makes the most sense in their rotation/the encounter? Ultimately it more than likely won't grant an entire extra use during the fight, so what was the point? Even under optimal scenarios, it remains "meh" at best. Better to burn it for the AoE bonus, as you would never burn an Arrow. Of course, you would only do that in an 8 man party, because it's terrible to use the AoE bonus in a 4 man party. It's just a total decrease in value. In a 4 man party, as long as you're not wasting a Royal Road, just use it; otherwise, throw it away. Some people recommend using it on your Luminiferous Aether, but again, that ability should be kept on cooldown anyways (especially if you have the mana problems that most Astrologians say they have), and the card has to pop up in a situation where it won't waste a Royal Road.

-Spire: In the majority of fights, TP is not a problem; even if it was, they wouldn't be relying on *you* to fix it, due to how random the chance of getting this card is. None of the fights are long enough or taxing enough on people's TP in most scenarios, especially now in the expansion. 99% of the time, even if you used it, it would make absolutely no difference; if they weren't going to run out of TP before you used it, they still won't, so what did you accomplish? It's useful in dungeons for physical DPS who spam AoE, but you have to:
1. Have the card ready BEFORE an AoE pull
2. Have a physical DPS that will actually spam AoEs and could benefit from the TP
3. Have the mobs live long enough for it to matter
4. Have it be a larger DPS bonus for them to use that extra TP over just getting a damage boost from balance/arrow
... and then what, you allowed them to use their weaponskill one more time, maybe two if you're lucky? And then you ended up not burning it for the Royal Road, which is arguably a better use for it on something like haste. This card could be decent, but it would be more usable if it was at least a Regain effect, but in the majority of scenarios and fights in the game, it's just not useful. You'll draw it and draw it and draw it in situations where no one will even benefit from the TP, at all (for example, any dungeon boss).

-Ewer: Same situation as Bole really. All you're doing is slightly mitigating your own class handicap if you use it on yourself and making your job easier, instead of supporting your party. You could be burning this for double duration, or using it on someone like the Summoner or Black Mage provided you don't have a good Royal Road buff already that you'll waste (because it would be better to just use it on Balance or Arrow). This card still does have applications; it's not like the mana is bad. You can always make use of mana somehow, just as long as it doesn't negatively affect your ability to use the better card buffs (spoiler: it probably will).

-Balance & Arrow: Both great. Just keep drawing and hope you get one, then use proper card strategy. Hold it in your spread until you get a good Royal Road, then time it up with Time Dilation and/or Celestial Opposition with other people's self buffs/a moment where you need more DPS. Ultimately, if using other cards means wasting a Royal Road bonus that you could be using on these, then it's not worth using those cards, because they're just not good enough in comparison. These cards are ALWAYS useful, and then present opportunities in fights where burst DPS is required for even more usefulness. The other cards are far too situational, or weak for reasons I already stated. I'm not saying that these cards are super amazing, but they're still the best choices we have. Their potency is still far too low to make a noticeable difference in most cases.

All in all, the more you play Astrologian, and the more access to skills you get, the more you realize how weak the buffs really are. The optimal strategy involves just drawing and throwing away cards the entire fight to set up for a crucial card use, like Balance or Arrow on a burst DPS phase, and then holding them until that moment. Because the cards are so random, you can't guarantee that you will get the card again when you'll need it, and you want to keep it for when you're going to need it. Even then, who is to say it will even make the difference, due to how weak they are? Again, Selene is consistent, reliable, and will ultimately result in more DPS, unless you get REALLY LUCKY on your card draws, and you KNOW you're going to get really lucky on future draws that you're willing to use your Balances and Arrows when they're not crucial (before burst DPS moments) because you know you're going to get another one for those crucial, beneficial moments in fights. This is the best way at the moment to squeeze the little value that exists out of these buffs, especially because it allows you to ensure that you'll be able to use it with Time Dilation and/or Celestial Opposition, and optimize the setup you worked so hard through the RNG to acquire.

And that's why the cards are not good right now. They need changes.

[Viviza]

The basic heals aren't bad at all. At a glance the potency values are a little lower, but AST gets stance bonuses to offset that. Aspected benefic is interesting and instant.

But the card system feels limp. You MIGHT get something useful, and when you do, it won't be all that good anyway. An empowered balance card is nice, but work through the math - your odds of seeing it and the actual gain - and the figures aren't impressive. AST spends several of its abilities on manipulating this card system, so it's more than just a perk, it's a feature of the job.

If I'm gambling I want the payoff to be substantial when it works out. And if the payoff isn't substantial, I want to be able to control it.

[RichardButte]

All in all, the more you play Astrologian, and the more access to skills you get, the more you realize how weak the buffs really are.

Pretty much exactly my issue with AST. Someone calculated it out and even drawing a Balance every single time only results in ~1.66% increase in overall DPS, which is less than a SCH using Selene (which good SCHs do, BTW).

I love the fuck out of the playstyle of AST, but the cards just need more oomph and some of the other abilities could use some tweaks.

It seems like they tried to make AST a "run n' gun" style healer, which is AWESOME and can totally work as a playstyle if done right, but I would tweak a few things in order to really make that work better...

I would tweak Lightspeed to reduce the GCD as well and I would change CU to allow the AST to move while channeling it. It's a great ability but it flies in the face of the style of a mobile healer.

Also, the current status of Spear is that it's bugged: it's supposed to reduce the remaining duration of ACTIVE cooldowns in addition to reducing the cooldowns of abilities used while under its effects, which will take it from being the worst card in the deck to the best.

In fact, Spear will be HUGELY impactful once that's fixed, and I think all of the cards need to have a similar level of usefulness and versatility.

Balance: 10% to damage AND healing (including tank self healing). Maybe also that you receive 5% of the damage you do back as healing.

Bole: 10% damage reduction and heals 10% HP over the duration.

Spire/Ewer: RESTORES MP/TP instead of just reducing the cost, since reducing the cost means nothing if you're running out of AoEs or get stunned, etc. If it restores resources, it's beneficial in either circumstance. Also, restore 15% HP over 20 seconds.

Arrow: Increase attack speed by 10% and increase movement speed by 20%. Hey, they're either gonna be using abolities or running from AoE, and this covers both bases (or they might be stunned, in which case Arrow won't help)

Spear: Nothing needs changing once the bug is fixed.

The cards just need to be more versatile, and in that versatility will be found the reason to bring ASTs along in place of the more reliable healing of SCH/WHM.