Astrologian - do you really want to rely on RNG in your group healer?

[Nekotee]

Always loved the fact that it's whm who throw a stone to AST not knowing a thing about it
Any AST can perform and clear content without drawing a single card because their healing hability is as high as a white mage (if not more)
And their mana management as good as scholar

Having an rng bonus known as fate card is a huge advantage that make the AST even more strong contributing to the dps by boosting the dps without loosing healing power. And the bole, no matter how you look at it will always be stronger in mitigation than a stoneskin (but doesn't absorb damage)

[Teraluna]

Always loved the fact that it's whm who throw a stone to AST not knowing a thing about it
Any AST can perform and clear content without drawing a single card because their healing hability is as high as a white mage (if not more)
And their mana management as good as scholar

Having an rng bonus known as fate card is a huge advantage that make the AST even more strong contributing to the dps by boosting the dps without loosing healing power. And the bole, no matter how you look at it will always be stronger in mitigation than a stoneskin (but doesn't absorb damage)

Firstly, I agree with your thoughts on the overall capability of the Astro. They've not really pushed the boat out on creating a really new healing class so a lot of the abilities are very familiar to existing healers. In fact several are somewhat disappointingly identical with just a rename.
Hopefully next time we'll see a more radical differentiation in a healing class.

What I see again, and I would tend to agree, is the comment regarding clearing any content and not drawing a single card.

Now the Astro has 23 class skills outside the card mechanism, which takes up a further 10 (6 abilities, 4 draw options). Which equates to around 30% of the class skills list that's not being used.

Whether you like or dislike the rng mechanism in a class ability - and I've made my opinion clear on this that it holds no place for a vital role in group raiding - the fact that such a large percentage of the class abilities could be overlooked should be something the development team needs to look at.

I suggest that if the 6 card abilities where simply a one pick selection, sharing a common cooldown, then they would see instant and wider use than at present.

The resultant removal of the rng mitigation abilities could be replaced with new and different skills - nothing major, but not there just for an 'introduce rng then mitigate rng' slot filling purpose.