Quote Originally Posted by Cupcakesu View Post
They threw themselves into a hole with Astrologian by making it heal identically to both other jobs. Healing is what's most important for a Healer, and yet AST also has buffs that need to be taken into account for balancing. Problem is, if you nerf their Healing, they still need to be able to heal all content. If their healing is weaker than WHM and SCH, that just means WHM and SCH will heal in excess because content will be keeping AST's nerfed healing as a baseline. If you nerf their cards, they lose the only identity they have. SE needs to improve SCH's healing or mitigation and give WHM something other than big heals. Each Healer SHOULD have a completely unique strength that makes them desirable or special in at least some content.
Serious question. How does nerfing Balance specifically (the one true "problem" card in AST's deck) hurt their identity? If anything, Balance ITSELF is what hurts AST, because now their card system is set up in such a way where the only real desirable outcome IS Balance. I actually think nerfing or reworking it entirely would open up a lot of new avenues for more varied and engaging cardplay. Tank buster coming up? Whatever, I still want Balance anyway, the tank can deal with their issues on their own. Fight with heavy movement? Whatever, I still want Balance anyway, I just won't use it on the BLM cuz most of it'll go to waste, I'll use it on the mobile RDM or heavy-hitting SAM instead. I need MP? Whatever, I still want Balance anyway, cutting back on my own personal DPS a bit isn't worth losing 20% on an actual DPS job or 10% on an entire raid group.

For the most part, I actually agree with your statement about the devs developing AST into the gutter from the get-go with their stupid "hybrid" idea. But I also don't think we'll be ruined forever if Balance gets adjusted or changed to something else. I get tired of fishing for nothing but that orange icon 90% of the time.