Suggested changes to AST Design to bring it in line with WHM/SCH

[Miunih]

This is a point that has been made by a lot of people: WHM is easier. Another thing: raiding as a WHM didn't require a job learming curve, only an encounter one. People started as WHM/SCH not because the AST was bad (it was impossible to foresee that before the actual fights), but because it is always safer to use the combination you're already familiar with. The groups that used AST faced three problems: unbalanced new job, learming curve to a different healing style and encounter learming curve. Some people simply gave it up and now the job has a bad reputation. It's impossible to say what aspect was the most important, but the result is the same. Now, months later, people are still crying about a job that's perfectly fine instead of actually trying to learn it.

That's why we used Drk in A3/A4S World First clears, including Lucrezia as well, and most that followed. It was a totally new class, but it outclassed paladin, which was a 1.0 class. Learning a class, especially in this game, is very easy, and ast is pretty easy as well. The problem is ast does not compete with neither whm nor sch, and will still not be used in end game progression that aim to be the top 5-10. It just does not keep up.

Funny enough, everyone everywhere whined that Drk was shit and pld was amazing, just like now when everyone says ast is fine, while in reality it's a severely underperforming class that no top group will take to progression.