For AST changes, just potency buff malefic and combust...

[Verlyn]

The devs dint balance around outside of instances content. It's literally impossible to fail any story content if you heal yourself and spam malefic forever. It is mind-numbing, but it isn't bad.

Raid DPS is everything from the balance point of view. If they buffed malefic they would have to need cards, and the cards are what they want in the job. They want it to be a support healer.

By your own logic every class is a minigame and you have 0 reason to play any of them even semi optimally except obligation.

Most jobs don't have real lore tied Into their kits in a deep and meaningful way.

The card system in stormblood wasn't the best. RNG fest that was either really good, alright, or it absolutely screwed you. I prefer the new one because I like having more consistency, but that's just me. Drawing anything other than AOE balance last expansion felt pretty bad. Sure getting a bike on a buster felt decent, but it wasn't likely to say you anything given it couldn't be planned. Idk. It was a really meh system.

You're right that raid dps is everything to these designers. It shouldn't be everything in my eyes, but I won't argue what it should be in this case. That said, I'm fairly certain WHM and SCH out-dps AST, so I think they can stand to get at least a little touch o' love to Malefic... :\. Being a support job as the reason makes sense for why not, anyway.

If you think that is my logic, then I haven't explained myself well. So I'll try approaching it from a different angle: Job mechanics and cooldowns tend to create some form of gameplay or interaction. Most of SCH's mechanics interact with the fairy, the fairy meter or their shields. WHM's mechanics interact with their heals. DRK's mechanics are about managing MP, Darkside and Darkness bar. Even the worst skills that only exist as buttons to push at least do something vaguely important to you or utilize your kit in some way: Carve and Spit restores MP, Egi Assault procs Ruin IV and boosts your pet damage, Bloodletter interacts with Mage's Ballad, etc. AST cards and Divination are like... in their own little box. Whether you utilize them or not only impacts other people, not you, and the only fun that can be had with them is lining them up with other jobs' big burst abilities, and that probably isn't more optimal than simply using them on cooldown.

I'd disagree on the lore bit. Most jobs are designed around their lore or flavor, more than what the job is in other games in most respects. AST used to be like that, but now none of the cards do anything like what they represent, they lost several time-and-card-related abilities and basic gameplay boils down to using spells that are interchangeable with the other two healers. I'm not saying WHM and SCH are currently bastions of great design either, but AST feels less like an Astrologian than Scholar feels like a Scholar. And while it's fine from a pure 'I'll use this in a raid' perspective, that's still a failure of design.

Well, just having them do damage % isn't that interesting by comparison but I'm gonna agree that consistency is probably more important. So given that, the seal system is probably the biggest issue since it creates inconsistency where it is unnecessary and where it doesn't engage you (in fact, it just seems like the old system except less impactful). But I honestly don't know how I'd fix it without gutting the whole thing and making it even blander, either -.-.

BTW, I'm liking your other comments because this discussion is cool. Thank you for engaging me on it.