diurnal sect or nocturnal sect which do you like better

Diurnal. It's synergy with time dilation and celestial opposition, coupled with the fact that regens have higher overall potency make it a nice choice. Instant cast 130% shields are sexy though. :)

I have gear sets for both in case I need to play one or the other, but I greatly prefer diurnal. 1300ish per tick regen? Yes please.

I like both, diurnal is for fast cast and nocturnal is for big heal potency. But for dungeon I prefer diurnal.

Diurnal is superior in nearly all situations aside from when another AST is present... The regen is far more efficient than the shield, you don't have to reapply it as much either since it's not constantly being absorbed, so you're saving a ton of MP not reapplying it.

However i did just have an encounter the other day in which my AST cohealer in A8 didn't choose a sect until after combat started. She chose diurnal, while i was already diurnal...

We survived, but both of us in diurnal made things awkward. We were about 25% less effective by my estimates.

It's a toss up for me. Diurnal is amazing and the vast amount of healing that it can pump out is insane. Aspected Benefic > Asp. Helios > Collective Unconscious > Celestial Opposition + Time Dilation just so good even on big pulls if you can find the time to squeeze it in. Nocturnal was my preferred for quite sometime but kinda with what has been said the it doesnt last long where as the regens are the gift that keep giving. However in PvP Noct is still king for me, I still have to have at least 3-4 people hammering on me to even break me and if I still have Essential Dignity when they do finally get me close I start to laugh at the feeble attempts cus by then they are either FAR away from where they should be or I am back with my allies.

Diurnal because I'm a regen whore
and the only time I get to use it on SCH is with Whispering Dawn (which is very nice but has a cooldown..sob)

Regen is love, regen is life
and if I wanted shield I'd just play my SCH.

Diurnal all the way. What's annoying about the Astrologian is that our regens can't stack with a White Mage, yet two White Mages can stack regens without issues. The system is basically forcing players to swap depending on the other team members.

Still, Diurnal is still the clear winner in this fight. Aside from those few times you're working with another Astro or a White Mage, this is the stance any Astrologian worth her salt should be using. Regens are vastly superior to shields in just about every conceivable way.

Diurnal > Nocturnal

Diurnal for the simple fact that AST own skill set works better with Diurnal. Time dilation and celestial opposition work with regens from diurnal, they dont work well with nocturnal.

I actually like both, it's a shame that Noct doesn't work with any of our extension skills but, the MP changes greatly helped this stance I haven't done any of the alex savage yet, but I really like it in Midas normal.