How should they address the disparity within the role?

[Carighan]

The SCH SGE discrepancy is basically because SCH can warp entire mitigation plans around it. It has one extra mitigation than SGE on a purely raw mitigation front. It’s level 80 oGCD shield ability is infinitely better than SGE’s in 99% of instances and lasts near 4* as long and the CD reduction on recitation means it can vomit out shields that are just unmatched. Not even spreadlo itself (which is still limited by deployments 90 second CD) but even altering tank mitigation plans by critlo’s effective HP addition. Then of course spreadlo itself which makes SCH like GCD buffs (of which it has FOUR even if Seraphism cant affect spreadlo) and with said buffs can replace 5+ mitigations alone. Its utility is completely unmatched by any other ability in the game. Deployment is easily the strongest ability in the game and it isn’t even remotely close

I'll be honest, I flat out don't get why Deployment exists. The job has group shield. And... slightly indirect but naturally far more powerful group shield? Like, why?

And I'm fine with it being unique with Deployment, but why also have Succor then? Would be kinda cool if you had to work around a naturally weaker but less CD-y Deployment tactics because that kinda mirrors Sage beautifully (Scholar does GCD Adlo -> oGCD Deployment, result is a very strong shield on 1 target + a 75%-80% Sage power on everyone else), Sage as the output healer has oGCD Eukrasia -> GCD shield, more total overall shield, no big shield on one person. It'd be an elegant setup, and put some special emphasis on job elements.

So, think about what you just said, and then think about how you would feel about doing anything when levelling or solo content as an AST. Would it sound like an improvement, or even more painful.

Because after having several (less than successful) reworks, this is one question that people often don't ask themselves- and before you may step in and say' well, you can always do those things on another job"- my answer to that is - yes, I can and sometimes do- but it shouldn't be necessary because it's miserable otherwise.

Eh, that's not something I'd ever be worried about. It's extremely unlikely the devs want to move towards more randomness so such a move would already be hugely unlikely, but even if it'd be some hyper-marginal randomness and have ~zero effect, anyways. Like the procs on Red Mage, that at higher levels really don't do a lot to the overall playstyle at all any more.