Thoughts from a 60 AST & 60 WHM

[Alahra]

There is not a single class in the game that doesn't have abilities that are useless in dungeons. Dissipate, Eos, Sacred Soil, Asylum, Virus, TP/MP Regen Songs, Silences, Binds, Heavies, any "oh shit" button is generally useless if you are playing correctly. That doesn't mean they have to be changed to feel useful. Cards could feel better, I agree. They just aren't the primary problem with AST getting into progression groups.

You're making the argument that the class's core feature shouldn't need to be useful in one of the game's primary content modes, though. AST's cards not feeling useful is the equivalent of Ninjutsu or Greased Lightning not feeling useful in 4-mans (and MNKs have received adjustments so that Greased Lightning feels better both in 4-man content and 8-man content). For a healer-specific example, imagine if Eos/Selene weren't useful in 4-mans. Don't you think SCHs would find that a little strange? The faerie is a big part of what makes SCH unique, just as the cards are with AST, regardless of content.

I don't understand this statement, because whether or not card buffs feel useful in 4-mans AST is going to be worse than SCH/WHM in end-game.

Are you aware that there can be multiple concerns regarding a class at the same time? How can you not understand that AST needs work for *all* content, not just one narrow slice of the game?