The only thing I would change of AST

[Shurrikhan]

Speaking technically, that IS how other cooldowns work, applying the cooldown with the effect goes off. Similar in vein in how Ninjutsu also only starts the cooldown after triggering the current Ninjutsu, and less noticeably but still the same, Forbidden Chakra.

I get what you mean with Ninjutsu, though until AST it was the only CD that functioned that way, so I feel like it could have been treated like the outlier among secondary-effect CDs, rather than the necessary precedent for Draw or Spread. But the Forbidden Chakra doesn't actually go either way. It has zero cooldown interaction with Meditation, its prep or primary effect. The fifth Meditation changes Meditation to the Forbidden Chakra outright; the fifth ability/weaponskill cooldown doesn't actually trigger any lockout of TFC apart from animation lock, nor does TFC itself trigger any cooldown for Meditation. I don't see the relation...