Quote Originally Posted by Yeol View Post
I might have agreed with you if you said this back in 3.0 launch, but now their healing power is nearly 1:1 with WHM, with the exception of Cure III, and that's too limited in usefulness to base their entire identity around.

AST heals are too comparable to WHM while offering massive raid buffs and that's causing the imbalance. If they, perhaps, added these huge cards buff while still healing at their 3.0 values it would have been better, but that wouldn't have worked because first and foremost a healer has to be good at healing.
That's why a "pure healer" like WHM will stay behind in the competition. They can't simply make healers weaker to make WHM seem stronger. They need to function as a healer before anything, and AST at 3.0 healing potency failed in that. All healer will have to AT LEAST heal on the level of a WHMs basic toolkit and regens to be truly considered.