I kind of agree with Vlady here. Why is your opinion fact and not his? I play SCH and AST - and I don't feel like my SCH is currently better equipped to handle short bursts of intense healing than my AST. Essential Dignity on a lowish HP target is stronger than anything my SCH has and is on a pretty short 40 second cooldown. Lightspeed is amazing, when you want heals fast moving them to the front of the GCD instead of the end can be a life saver while keeping max mobility at the same time. It in essence allows 5 casts in the same time you would have gotten 4 off, a 25% increase in output over it s 10 sec duration. Synastry is also a great too, although I would never say that trumps my SCH as I can pretty much always do that by casting on one target while Embracing another. My SCH has Lustrate, Rouse to help the Fairy, and Fey Illumination of I am using Eos. I'm not complaining but I don't really view that as an obviously superior kit.

Now - don't get my wrong, my SCH can do things my AST can't do. AOE damage is far superior, MP management is still better especially when DPS is involved, and overall magical dmg max mitigation is better with Virus + Fey Covenant. Although for a single hit charged (cast time) attack Disable is actually stronger than Virus...I don't see that mentioned too much around here. And my AST can do some thing my SCH can't do - like give a Balance to a SMN as they are Akh Morn-ing a pack of mobs, or give refresh to the WHM to save the Bard from losing DPS to Ballad.

I dunno - sometimes I feel like I play the game in one world, and then the forums are a completely different one. If I didn't read here I would just assume everything is mostly fine save for smaller issues (Celestial Unconscious in Noct, Celestial Opposition always, and man I wish Essential Dignity and Synastry worked together).