Do AST really need this Buff?

[RukiaFae]

And if the heal isn't 500 potency would that make you feel better? Because again we don't know if it will stay that way. I think it should be better than your regular heal because you won't use it often, heck you may go a whole fight and never see it. AST didn't really have any burst healing like SCH or WHM so I can see why it got some this time around.

AST had to get new skills also. What would you prefer for AST to get in terms of new skills? Anything they give them would be considered a buff. Just fyi I'm not talking about potency because I'm ignoring that until we get final numbers.

[AstroZombie]

Honestly? No they don't deserve powerful new abilities AND potency buffs across the board AND better shields AND the lowest mana cost of all three healers. Astro as it is right now in HW is stronger in a raid composition than Scholar or Whitemage are with their SB abilities (at least on paper) while being able to also adequately fill both of their niches. Scholar got hit with the nerfbat in several departments and none of whitemages new skills besides thin air actually do anything at all. If they wanted to give Astro a bunch of new toys that substantially increase the consistency of their kit and add raw numbers they should not have also given across-the-board potency and shield buffs to it too. Letting them turn dead cards into free damage (because a healing off global means your next global can be spent on damage) when they already contribute the most raid damage and the best shields and healing compareable to the (useless) pure healing class is blatantly unfair.
(cont)

[AstroZombie]

Whitemage got almost nothing thats actually useful, its all circumstancial and frankly bad. Scholar took nerfs to both its DPS and its Fairy's healing potency and all it got was a contingency heal (which is underwhelming with the cleric stance change- which seems to have been what the contingency heal was designed for) and a mediocre crit buff (its not additive). Astro got powerful new toys that make up for its few shortcomings and a bunch of buffs- while still having the lowest mana costs to boot. All they need is a lustrate equivalent and a bit more potency on Malefic to be literally the best at every single thing healers do (not that burst healing or individual DPS contributions matter anyways).