Regarding the class balance discussion, I think we made a point of saying only a few groups are working at the world first progression level, the majority of raiders are not. The degree in which PLD and AST “gimp” your raid group is near unnoticeable on any raid level below this, and if you don’t raid a lot each week. You’ll find that denying these classes, kicking them from your group, demoralizing them, letting them play poorly because you expect them to be lesser classes, or forcing them to swap to a different unfamiliar class are all actions that will net you a slower and more stressful progression path. It may even result in your group disbanding and the fault would be on the players not the game.

I can’t disagree that as a world first progression group there isn’t the best comp to use, but it doesn’t take long for that comp to be really no better than anything else once you add more knowledge and gear to these fights. Unless you raid every day as long as possible, you’re going to out gear these fights whether you want to or not. So comp really means nothing compared to group coordination and individual knowledge of their current class.

I’ve raided with a PLD for this entire tier so far, and the class has a lot of benefits for learning the mechanics faster, and does competitive dps with warriors while requiring less coordination from the group to accomplish it. This is my opinion based on personal experience with the class and comparing our progression to several other groups ahead and behind us. I can’t say much about AST from personal experience, but what I’ve heard and seen from other groups it doesn’t seem to cause them any problems they wouldn’t of already had to deal with while learning those fights.

There are so many specific details about why they are good and how you should use them, I recommend reviewing first kill videos of groups using these classes to see how they perform with a group that is getting kills with them.