Quote Originally Posted by Faxmonkey View Post
AST was a bad design idea from the start. A healing class with less healing tools than the other two healers, but a big buffing component.
That logically meant that it would be insanely hard to balance the classes. If you need too much healing AST is gone, if AST can heal through people would want its buffs.
Turning all buffs into balance just makes the problem worse and the card system soooo much more boring.
They should have invested some brainpower in the AST redesign and should have put more healing options into the card system or something. 5.xx is just crappy.
This is precisely why the cards were changed this way though.

It was having a combination of rdps utility, plus core healer tools (Bole/Ewer) tied to an rng mechanic that made it hard to balance.
How do you factor in its MP regen and mitigation skills when they’re tied to rng? How much weight does Bole have, if it's a 1/6 chance of even being available?
How do you balance it’s rdps contribution when its rng is shared with its healer skills? Is Balance OP? Or is it underpowered because you might not ever draw it?

By making all cards essentially have the same effect for the party as a whole, it can be easily balanced against rdps contribution, allowing them to implement a full healer toolkit outside of the cards.

The Diurnal/Nocturnal sect system is still a balancing issue, but the new cards are objectively much easier to balance now.