(Following up on the 1, 2, 3 made in the original post)

#1 There is nothing that can be done outside of dedicated support roles being introduced. This won't happen. At least no where in the near future. Again, bummer; I really enjoy support roles in other MMOs (shoutout to any other Controller mains from City of Heroes!) When I'm not a healer, I'm support. We'll have to settle for the semi-support ranged physical jobs. Due to the lack of a support role, support/utility is distributed across all jobs. Various buffs or debuffs are sparingly allocated to the different roles. But at a high level, it's quite clear that the design of the battle system changes introduced in Shadowbringers can be summed up in, "git gud." Tanks should tank. Healers should heal. DPS should DPS. And again, at an attempt to not come off as being hostile; it truly is a bummer if you don't like these changes. I empathize with you, but want to encourage positivity and optimism in the face of some of the larger changes, cause change is difficult to accept.

#2 I believe the ethos of each role responsible for performing their role is the primary cause for AST cards being changed so drastically. If a tank is going to tank, only the tank should be responsible for personal mitigation for tank busters, not an AST's Bole. One might argue that a Bole is similar to a healer's shield, which is pretty valid, but the AST already has shielding capabilities based on its own potency capabilities. Whereas a Bole was always a flat percentage based on the enemy's damage done.

#3 rDPS is the single most important number in the game (for end-game raiding). After passing mechanics, the group still has to do enough damage. To me, the new card system feels more versatile than the previous while recognizing the importance of DPS. Each card can actually be played optimally; right seal, right role. Although the old utility cards are gone, they only were ever useful in seldom contexts. A caster died and needs some MP. A melee is doing AoE in a dungeon and could use a little bit more TP to keep AoE-ing. You have a BLM therefore Arrow was an option. You have a BRD therefore Spear was acceptable. The cards feel like an improvement to me because of a few reasons. A) Separating Draw and Play were a great choice cause now I'm always drawing every thirty seconds no matter what. This increases the throughput of my cards and the throughput of AST's contribution to rDPS. B) The seals add enough depth to require the AST to consider how to use the card but doesn't overwhelm them from performing elsewhere. C) Every card now contributes to rDPS. This was always, ALWAYS; the primary goal of the AST, get that Balance. Now you're always drawing a semi-Balance every thirty seconds.

With all that defending out of the way, I still have complaints with the job.