Quote Originally Posted by GrimGale View Post
The issue is that free healing has often very little value when put up against free damage, especially when getting one means the loss of the other. They could have mitigated this by having both Lord and Lady deal damage and heal, like a mini assize, then add a distinct effect to one or the other to differentiate them. But when damage and heal come together and are exclusive, healing will ALWAYS lose due to being situational, while damage will ALWAYS win due to being always useful. (Except maybe in very strange situations where you have to have a healing and you've exhausted all other options, but honestly considering how many healing abilities we have that might never be the case.)
Possibly. I look at it from a point of view if I use a Lady card, then I can DPS right away. If I use a Lord Card I can follow up with healing. Lord and Lady to me are MP savers, and help you either way. I don't know. I ultimately think the change is good, and sometimes simple execution of a simple skill at it's core are what's required. It's not going to make or break in clutch moments. BUT it does offer choice, and choice offers variety. Something Healers are in need of desperately. AST has that variety that I want in a healer. WHM is just a glare mage, and I found WHM incredibly boring to play. AST keeps me on my toes and makes me think. SCH never played it as it just didn't interest me. SGE? Perhaps....but I hate shield healing (which is why I never picked up SCH).

With the changes AST has, I agree that this is a great direction for AST. It is sort of a soft return to form, and still keeps it complexity. I always advocate for QoL fixes, adjustments. While replacing poor designs with better design.

This is probably the closest AST is going to get to "as good as it's going to get".