How could you do this to AST?

[Zolvolt]

They tried this "MT/OT roles" to try and split the tank and it did not work so they reverted it. They're trying the same thing with healers now. Admittedly I don't know how this problem could be avoided with 4 healers besides having another healer that could do both but we absolutely know that this is going to be problematic.

[Ultimatecalibur]

They tried this "MT/OT roles" to try and split the tank and it did not work so they reverted it. They're trying the same thing with healers now. Admittedly I don't know how this problem could be avoided with 4 healers besides having another healer that could do both but we absolutely know that this is going to be problematic.

The MT/OT sub-role split doesn't work due to the nature of fights being designed with tank swaps in mind as all tanks end up doing MT and OT duties. If their were no tank swaps and OTs were expected to spend a fair amount of time out of melee range a 2 melee centric MT/2 ranged centric OT split could work.

Healing on the other hand works better with a separation of duties one healer being proactive (barrier heals) and one healer being reactive (regen/pure heals).

[Heilstos]

In times of ARR, I was always annoyed when, as a SCH, I had to heal with another SCH. It was green that the shields weren't stacked. So I played WHM because medica II stacks. When the AST came up with the promise to bring Yoshida a flexible healer into play, I was happy and still am. But now my fears are back.

What does it mean for us:

1) Story-relevant content MUST be able to be created without shields. Because the DF can put together an AST with a WHM. We now have a case where you just don't have any shields with either healer in place. (Except for neutral stance here)
2) For the raid scene it will say that a healer player is forced to choose a healer from each column. So to be more precise you have to choose a "shield" healer, ie SGE or SCH. And in order to use the "pure healing" you have to go for AST and WHM. For many high-level players, this won't be a problem. At least that's what I suspected. But for the people who have a MAIN job. It's a slap in the face, because the healers don't have the freedom to choose the job that the tanks have because of these "pure" vs "shield" thoughts. This makes me a little sad for the moment.
3) I read in some threads that the balance of the two stances is difficult to know. The current status of the AST showed that this could be done well. And both stances could feel their job to a great extent. And I think the balance team did a good job here. So it didn't feel like a nightmare. Instead, we had more problems with the time extension capabilities in HW / SB, which completely disrupted the balance between Noc and Diu. (Here I have to say in favor of Diu!)
Every stance feels its demands at the moment.

All in all, SE doesn't make friends among the AST players. Special for the nocturnal players, because the dev finally managed to conjure up a strong Noc AST with SHB. And I'm speaking from years of experience. I think it's a shame that the AST's flexibility is being sacrificed for the SGE. But if this sacrifice has to be accepted so that one can have a 4th healer, I am happy to accept this.

And for the Noc Ast players: I know it feels like the AST had to bleed just like the DRK to SB. If you enjoyed the "shield" aspect of Nocturnal so much, try the SGE with the hope that you won't have an annoying card game. But of course with all the positive things that made the Noc AST so special.