There's an old saying "three is a crowd" - Not enough tanks?

[Alahra]

Again, WAR didn't need Equilibrium for its TP.

I also never said they needed it. I think the WAR changes in HW are completely ludicrous. But the fact is that they *have* it, and it's going to factor in to the reasons people choose one class for OT over another.

Stopped reading there. AST is being left out because of min-maxxers trying to push as much raid DPS as possible while retaining functionality. SCH never had robust heals and yet it was never WHM/WHM in 2.0. No, AST is overlooked because its UTILITY is lacking compared to SCH.

That's over-simplifying the picture. AST is being left behind for a number of reasons. Their utility is weaker than SCH's, which is one. Their overall healing capability is lower than both SCH and WHM, which is another. The latter also causes raid DPS to be lower because both healers have to heal *more* (and DPS less). Additionally, AST is less capable in "emergency" situations than both SCH and WHM, and emergency situations are part of progression. About the only place AST is on par with the other healers is in its DPS capability in a vacuum (at least on single target)--they're about equal to SCH. But they lack the healing power and mana efficiency to DPS like SCH can in practice.