150% Potency on a 20% card = 25% No?
The gears of an AST have nothing to do with the power of the AST cards. I'm not sure if you are that familiar with AST. But it's not a monster as you think. I can't heal as much as a whitemage does, and I don't damage as much as one. But I can still clear content with ease. I'm not sure if were on the same page here because WHM potency still is a bit larger than AST both dps and especially heals. True I can affect the party members dps directly. But so can you if you remember the small things such as stone skinning BLM's who are on ley lines, keeping hots and regens on them and other classes that require to be stationary. And your Crowd control is huge. Even if you can't use it in some raids, you can't disregard the CC WHM has irregardless. AST used to be a jack of all trades, specialty of none when it came out. But now we have our own identity as you call it to be fully fledged support healers that can buff. While WHM still remain at the top of healing, I find it a bit nerve wrecking that the class is being shunned by this stigma: "How dare you a class that starts out as nothing get a mechanic we don't have. And it's scary that your heal potency are matching up to a WHM" In my opinion, you guys really underestimate the power of burst healing. I couldn't fathom the SCH/WHM debate when WHMs were complaining: "Well, SCH can prevent overheals because they have shields, while our bomb heals will hit max hp excessively. . ." And this was before AST was in conception. Meanwhile the SCH's aren't really complaining about the class because A. Our mitigation will never be as powerful as theirs. Just like how our raw healing will never be as strong as a WHM. and B. We help them in the department that they don't shine too well in. Regens and Aoe healing. Emergency tactics and Indomitably helps but when those two are down, try spamming succor over and over to bring the parties hp up to healthy levels quickly. It's a challenge but the job SCH is still rewarding.
TLDR: WHM's we love you. You do your job Well. But please stop asking for too much and wait for the expansion to come out. They have a plan.