AST (and DRG) had their improvements pushed to 7.0 PLD are getting theirs in 6.3

[Deceptus]

Recent interview with Yoshi-P

(Translation so might be some errors)

Emphasis mine:

PLD Adjustments
・「全面的にナイトというジョブのオーバーホールを行う」ことが主目的で「ローテーションに手を入れる」ことを目的とした調整ではない
The whole job is basically overhauled. That's the main objective for the adjustment this time and they are not adjusting this with the objective of "working on its rotation"

So PLD can get completely overhauled mid patch but DRG and AST get pushed to 7.0 because reasons?

[Azuri]

Recent interview with Yoshi-P

(Translation so might be some errors)

Emphasis mine:

PLD Adjustments
・「全面的にナイトというジョブのオーバーホールを行う」ことが主目的で「ローテーションに手を入れる」ことを目的とした調整ではない
The whole job is basically overhauled. That's the main objective for the adjustment this time and they are not adjusting this with the objective of "working on its rotation"

So PLD can get completely overhauled mid patch but DRG and AST get pushed to 7.0 because reasons?

It doesn't take too much effort to rename WAR's abilities a bit.

[Absurdity]

Pretty much what Azuri said. Paladin was the only job that was severely underperforming, no AST being a convoluted mess isn't "underperforming", and it doesn't take much time to just copy some other (most likely warrior) tank's design.
I find it hilarious that we all know these reworks are going to be god awful but someone still complains about not getting them fast enough.

I mean I guess we might as well get it over with so we can all be disappointed a bit faster and go back to slowly losing the last shred of hope for this game's job design.

[IDontPetLalas]

Pretty much what Azuri said. Paladin was the only job that was severely underperforming, no AST being a convoluted mess isn't "underperforming", and it doesn't take much time to just copy some other (most likely warrior) tank's design.
I find it hilarious that we all know these reworks are going to be god awful but someone still complains about not getting them fast enough.

I mean I guess we might as well get it over with so we can all be disappointed a bit faster and go back to slowly losing the last shred of hope for this game's job design.

Pretty much this, it's kind of like the "do you want to get the bandage ripped off quickly, or have it tugged off slowly" problem. Better to get over with quickly, it'll hurt a lot for a moment, but the alternative is usually worse.

[Nizzi]

Pretty much what Azuri said. Paladin was the only job that was severely underperforming, no AST being a convoluted mess isn't "underperforming", and it doesn't take much time to just copy some other (most likely warrior) tank's design.

This, PLD doesn't fit with the design direction of EW at all while AST and DRG do, they just feel pretty awful to play (in regards to AST, I hold no opinions on DRG.)
AST fits within the 2m burst and can continue to exist as it stands, even if the 2m bursts are RSI inducing.

[ForteNightshade]

Recent interview with Yoshi-P

(Translation so might be some errors)

Emphasis mine:

PLD Adjustments
・「全面的にナイトというジョブのオーバーホールを行う」ことが主目的で「ローテーションに手を入れる」ことを目的とした調整ではない
The whole job is basically overhauled. That's the main objective for the adjustment this time and they are not adjusting this with the objective of "working on its rotation"

So PLD can get completely overhauled mid patch but DRG and AST get pushed to 7.0 because reasons?

Despite Astro's near constant criticism and low overall population, it remains the second best healer in the game. A simple glance at everyone's "favourite" will show you Astro and Scholar absolutely dominate together. Furthermore, Astro may be convoluted but it's actual healing kit is fairly robust and actually better than White Mage's. On the whole, Astro's rework is about figuring out what works, what doesn't and what approach to take in the hopes of finding a middle ground. The job functions perfectly fine. It just doesn't feel great to play. In layman's terms, it's better to collect as much data and feedback as possible while also testing it far longer in hopes of finally getting the job to feel more enjoyable to play.

Meanwhile, Dragoon... is essentially perfect. Yoshida more or less admitted they have no idea how to evolve the job going forward. With a solid rotation, consistent damage and good balance, there's a huge priority to overhaul Dragoon. Even the much talked about "busyness" of the rotation is subjective. With that said, the general perception is jumps will all become GCDs. That's a relatively big change to make mid expansion when Dragoon isn't hurting.

Now we get to Paladin. It's undeniably the worst performing tank while being the least approachable beyond the basic level. It's damage is essentially on par with Warrior, placing decidedly behind the other two tanks. However, unlike Warrior that boasts strong defensive skills and burst damage, Paladin doesn't. It has the weakest mitigation, inflexible or outright costly self-sustain and no burst to speak of. Dragonsong and Abyssos highlighted this especially as Paladin is downright inferior at just about everything in both encounters. In other words, Paladin is always the worst tank. Hence why it getting the dev team's full attention makes sense. Dragoon and Astro aren't hurting in terms of their functionality or desirability. Paladin is.

[ASkellington]

Despite Astro's near constant criticism and low overall population, it remains the second best healer in the game. A simple glance at everyone's "favourite" will show you Astro and Scholar absolutely dominate together. Furthermore, Astro may be convoluted but it's actual healing kit is fairly robust and actually better than White Mage's. On the whole, Astro's rework is about figuring out what works, what doesn't and what approach to take in the hopes of finding a middle ground. The job functions perfectly fine. It just doesn't feel great to play. In layman's terms, it's better to collect as much data and feedback as possible while also testing it far longer in hopes of finally getting the job to feel more enjoyable to play.

They know what made the class enjoyable to play.

They've known since Shadowbringers. Not that you aren't wrong, because AST does have other problems they need feed back on, but for the Twelve's sake it really should not have taken them 2 whole expansions to say "hmm maybe we should change the cards back".

And yeah, its not as easy as "go back to old formula with tweaks" but, they didn't even try to in Endwalker and they didn't even improve their seals system. It is literally Divination 2.0 with Astrodyne but worse since its a self buff. No one thought to actually make the seals system a proper buffing mechanic by taking some of effects of the old cards depending on the combonation of seals and having Astrodyne or w/e skill be the trigger so we could deploy it when we wanted akin to RR?

Personally the jump to Shb to EW AST in terms of how the seals work feels like it could have been a mid patch.

PLD's changes need more attention sure, but one thing that's been a constant complain with healers in general is that the devs have always had data and feedback to look at. And because of this, I'll always find it ridiculous it took 2 expansions for an AST card fix.