Balance was balanced

[Cupcakesu]

My only fear is that, given how much weaker our DPS abilities are, the 5% nerf in party DPS may hurt. I'm too lazy to crunch numbers right now, though.

[Fernosaur]

My only fear is that, given how much weaker our DPS abilities are, the 5% nerf in party DPS may hurt. I'm too lazy to crunch numbers right now, though.

On average, AST still gives more raid DPS% than WHM and SCH through personal contribution and AoE balance, but the margin of difference is much, much lower. Where AST was providing more raid DPS than WHM or SCH by thousands, it only now does so by some hundreds. AST is still an incredibly powerful offensive buff machine, even more so now that they have three cards in total that supplement raid DPS instead of the "fish for Balance or bust" meta, so their lower personal numbers are still justified.

It's a great change, in my opinion. It definitely helps a LOT with two things that were terrible concerning AST's position in the game as whole.

The first is that healer balance overall is actually pretty okay now thanks to this change. I still think AST+SCH is still optimal for speedkills and whatnot, but I think AST is no longer absolutely and completely necessary, even if it's still the healer that offers more utility and potential raid DPS.

The second is that the AST meta itself FINALLY gets a change. Every card has a good use now that you don't want to miss out on, so the card mini game is actually complete and fun to play now.

I think the 4.05 changes brought a lot of health to the state of game's balance, specially in the areas that were so lacking, ie. Healer and Tank balance.