Healers, then and now:

[Renathras]

...

It's why one of my pitches is for Draw and/or Play to be GCDs that increase the damage of your next Malific (I don't know a good way to think about it, but maybe something VAGUELY like Raijin -> Forked/Fleeting Raiju on NIN where you use the one and then it unlocks the other with the second stacking to 3 charges) as kind of a way to slow down that APM a smidge to make targeting less onerous. If Draw and Play were GCDs and boosted your following Malifics, what this would allow in gameplay is for you to not have to worry about targeting a party member, Play, retargeting boss, Malific, Draw, targeting a party member, Play, retargeting boss, Malific, Draw, targeting a party member, Play, retargeting boss, Malific, Minor Arcana weave, and so on. It would break these steps up allowing you to Draw, target party member, Play, Draw, target next party member, Play, Draw, target next party member, Play, target boss, resume Malific spam, with those first 3/6 hitting harder to make it DPS neutral, and for people that really want to push the skill ceiling, they could use those to get more damage in the buff window.

It would both make AST burst a bit less murder on the fingers AND actually allow a higher skill expression with optimal play at the same time, giving it a high skill ceiling for those really wanting to push it.

Another alternative is for Draw to damage the target (if enemy) neutral with Malific, so that you could Draw, target, Play, swap back to boss, Draw; etc and only have to worry about 3 stacks and not have to do something weird to make up the damage, but I just feel SOMETHING in that general vein of thing would be helpful.

But, as I always say, AST is the Healer I play the least, so I defer to AST players for what they think a fix would be. I just feel like that would be one that could help with both the GCD Malificspam monotony AND the hyper-targeting APM in burst that drives players away from the Job.

I think AST is a lot like BLM in that people are intimidated by it PROBABLY a bit more than it deserves. I think a further thing for AST is that it's not a class fantasy that appeals to a lot of people. Some people, it absolutely is their fantasy jam, but a lot of Healers seem more into the academic Scholar, doctoral Sage, or the combination of druid, priest, and unparalleled healing/holy mage WHM (it seems to be a "project on me what you want" kind of class) than there are that are into occultic and astrology themes. There are absolutely a lot that ARE, and AST is great for them, but I feel it will always have at least some limits to its appeal - all other things being equal - just due to having what's probably the least popular class fantasy/aesthetic.

Which is another reason that I'm kind of in the "I'll defer to AST players what they want", since unless it's literally the only Healer Job still playable to me after some godsforsaken future change that I hope never happens, it would never be my main anyway.

and IIRC, AST's kit was actually the basis for the healer revamp in ShB, cause i don't think it had an AoE DoT or anything resembling one.

Agree with a lot of this post, though I'm curious about this.

Never heard this before. I always hear WHM blamed for the Healer rework in ShB, but you're saying you thin it was AST? In a way, that does make sense. WHM changed a lot into ShB (healing kit side), but AST's damage kit was the one left completely untouched (other than Gravity cast time, I guess?)

...hm. Food for thought...