Can't agree more. I just got WHM and SCH at 80, and AST 74 for now. I was kinda major in AST for previous expansions, but I would say this time, changes on AST really shows that the AST designer don't play their own game....

Regardless of significantly lower potency, AST is even the worst for MP management - WHM still has assize and SCH still have aether flow to restore some MP, AST lost everything to restore the MP except for the role-shared lucid dreaming.

The new card system is boring, and actually more difficult to manage if you want to a perfect start - as seals won't be obtained if you are not in-battle. Sleeve draw just make oGCD skills spammed. In 4.X, we just need a group balance card. Now AST have to use 14 skills within the first 10 seconds to achieve a perfect start. This is just annoying and impossible to achieve.

Nocturnal selection is just stupid for light party dungeons. The shield is very weak and MP cost is further increased.

Not to mention mathematically the group DPS have to be more than 114k to compensate the DPS loss of substituting an WHM with AST, but the group DPS is now typically 50k - 70k.

No longer elegant, no longer fun to play, and probably the weakest among all healers.