Isn't playing WHM optimally going completely against what SE wants healers to be?

[Penthea]

Also as a bonus note for this Role I don't think we should get a Healer for 5.0. They are obviously clueless if they literally couldn't make Astro unique without copy/pasting Abilities I don't think they are remotely ready for a 4th Healer.

I honestly think one of the biggest problems with healing is that ast isn't a unique healer in its own right. Take away the card mechanic and what you got left is a very two dimensional healer that has a boring version of whm and sch healing kits. Yes the card mechanic is supposed to make up for that but frankly the rng of it is often very punishing. Ast need a prominent healing mechanic unique to them instead of just having the pseudo whm and sch stances.

[RyuDragnier]

I honestly think one of the biggest problems with healing is that ast isn't a unique healer in its own right. Take away the card mechanic and what you got left is a very two dimensional healer that has a boring version of whm and sch healing kits. Yes the card mechanic is supposed to make up for that but frankly the rng of it is often very punishing. Ast need a prominent healing mechanic unique to them instead of just having the pseudo whm and sch stances.

Remove the Sects, make a slot to hold another card in, this one effects the healing for the Aspected heals. Bole gives shields, Balance increases heal potency, Arrow reduces spellcast time, Spear increases the odds of it being a crit, Ewer decreases the MP cost and Spire makes it an HoT. There, we've made AST unique since it's dependent on the cards to really effect its spells. Hell, you could possibly make this slot effect all of the spells on the class instead. This changes up the class depending on what card you pull out, and is a unique feel compared to SCH and WHM.