IMO AST and DRK both share a similar design problem.

Their concepts are unique - Magic Tank & CARD DRAW healer..

But unlike other JOBs where those unique aspects add to their core (NIN having NINJITSU over a solid ROGUE core) - But for DRK and AST - their unique aspect work as restrictions and resource consumption. AST you have to CARD DRAW to get to the abilities (inferior to SCH/WHM) you want, DRK you have to MP manage to access abilities of slightly inferior effect of a PLD/WAR.

My issue isn't how or where these jobs fall in a party config hierarchy, it's:

^This is where I think they fall short. A WHM/SCH hybrid requiring CARD DRAWs to juggle Spell access.. and a PLD/WAR hybrid that has DARKNESS serving as a Limitation to which form they imitate.

I'd like to see less imitation and more unique gameplay for these 2 jobs.

And yea the Hotfix was surprising short