Quote Originally Posted by Suishouhime View Post
Because only bad ASTs reduced the class to Balance fishing, and, even so, Balance fishing was limited to parse-obsessed Savage raiders. Shockingly, some people used AST outside of weekly prog.
I've not been a "bad ast" since it's inception but ultimately SB AST's optimal contribution to the group was to supply AoE Balance in 8man parties. Dungeons could see a bit more variation since you'd technically see better return for your investment by giving single buffs to dps doing a good job but Balance would still increase the effective dps of the group by more than any other card except maybe a Spear on a competent BRD.

Arrow was better used on BLMs than anything else, tossing it on a MNK in particular is just cruel. Do you/did you understand how MNK functions? I weep for the poor MNKs who ran out of TP and literally had to stand there doing nothing just for your amusement.

What truly marks a bad AST is a lack of understanding of other jobs and with this ShB AST still functions in a similar fashion which makes me concerned for your own performance more than anything given your card examples. You realize there is more to AST than fishing for the correct seals, right? If you toss a Lady on a DNC outside of their burst window you're nearly better served giving it to a WHM but if it's catching Technical, multiple Sabers and all further buffed by Devilment theres hardly a better spent card. The difference is seconds.

Everyone has a story about how they saved a bad situation with a well-placed Bole or Ewer, that's fine but how about the number of enrages avoided with an AoE Balance? How about now, when your opener goes absolutely perfect and you get to buff all your burstiest dps in line with divination? It also feels satisfying.

I will say I don't think AST has truly shined in casual/pug setting for its entire lifespan and that's no different now. It's like being top dps as a DNC - big oof, it makes you feel like 'why am I even buffing these people?' and that isn't a good feeling. Best advice is to just play ShB in a structured raid setting, it definitely isn't the catastrophe people make it out to be.