What do you want in your AST?

[Brandedblade]

You can use cards on yourself, but not optimally. See the example of Sleeve Draw I said before.
The optimal way:
You use Draw, then Play on yourself. Draw goes on 30s CD.
You should wait 15s for the effect to wear off
Then you use Sleeve Draw, then Play.
You should wait 15s for the effect to wear off.
Draw is already ready and you still have 2 cards on your sleeve. You would waste at least 30s with Draw ready, doing nothing...

The old Sleeve Draw could be used in its entirety by the AST if he so desired. The new one depends on having a party to be optimal.
If we had old Lord/Lady, then we would be able to use this new SD completely, but we haven't... T-T

And again, I fail to see an issue with this. I understand what you mean now but is... is this really an issue? It sucks that a mechanic meant to help you buff your party...is less optimal when used selfishly? So what?

[Hatstand]

And again, I fail to see an issue with this. I understand what you mean now but is... is this really an issue? It sucks that a mechanic meant to help you buff your party...is less optimal when used selfishly? So what?

Solo content still exists. And it’s usually pretty painful on healers (since the gutting of SCH, anyway). And considering AST is behind the other healers in rdps even when they’re buffing dps effectively, they must be especially painful in solo content (I haven’t tried solo content on AST post 5.0 so I can’t say from personal experience). It’d be nice if AST’s buffs could at least get it up to where near where the other healers are in solo content. Even if you did that it still wouldn’t be optimal to use it on yourself in group content, because a x % damage boost on the class with the lowest pdps in the game is never going to be as effective as a damage boost on literally anyone else.

You couldn’t buff the cards that much, since that could end making the AST too powerful compared to the other healers (not saying they’re at the perfect level now, just that there’s a point at which you wouldn’t want to increase it any more). However, Roxas’s suggestions shouldn’t increase AST’s rdps, but they would make AST more effective in solo content, while also making that solo content more satisfying. I really don’t see any problem with that.