Class direction for 'support-oriented' classes (BRD, MCH, AST)?

[Connor]

I'd hesitate to lump an AST or a PLD in with the likes of BRD/MCH simply because of the differing methods if their utility. PLD has an AOE 10% shield that they rely on someone else to proc and two spells that they're hard-pressed to actually get off without constantly being interrupted. AST has a plethora of different buffs but no real control over their use like BRD/MCH do.

Not saying that the discussion of how to implement future jobs with nifty utilities isn't fun, I'm just not sure PLD/AST can be considered "support" when one has extremely niche support and the other has support so unreliable it almost seems tacked on as an afterthought.

I get what you mean, and I do realize lumping AST/PLD with BRD/MCH is pretty strange. What I meant is that they're both classes that lose out on something to balance their utility (Paladin has high defense and utility in exchange for lower dps, Astrologian has cards in exchange for less raw healing potency than Scholar / White Mage). There's a sort of parallel between how AST/PLD are designed and the way BRD/MCH are designed with more utility, less dps/healing (though that's obviously a super simplistic description). As far as I'm aware you could even consider Ninja in this category now I think?