Agreed with Brightshadow. The jobs real fault lies in the fact that WHM/SCH synergy is to strong and because the devs didn't want to break it they made Astro a hybrid. This was a bad design decision and I feel until the class gets rid of the stances and gets its own identity it's always going to be a red headed step child of the healer class. When a 4th healer comes along SE needs to break the mold and make it unique otherwise the same thing will happen.

Hopefully it will get a redesign but I don't think the devs have the time to do it and I feel like it will never happen.