Quote Originally Posted by Penthea View Post
Whm's mana efficiency far outpaces ast and sch. That's certainly a niche beyond having cure 3. Whms are frequently used for progress because of this. There is more room for error if a whm is in the group.

The reason why whm is treated like budget ast isn't because of the healing kit. It's because whm can do literally -nothing- to buff raid dps, whereas both ast and sch can. As soon as a group knows the fight and thus know how to take less damage then often this is when the whm will switch to ast because at this point whm's niche loses value.
Actually, Astro has pulled ahead even in the prog scene. O12S, for example, requires a lot of quick movement which renders Cure III useless. Astro's healing is overall superior due to Sect bonuses; Essential Dignity outpaces Tetra both in CD length and overall heal potency as does Earthly over Assize. The only thing WHM has at this point is better MP management. In terms of everything else, Astro has eclipsed it.