How to play AST in Feast?

Inspired by mixed results ranging from "You did fine" to "GTFO PvP", I'd like to ask what the preferred method to playing AST in PvP is. Asking in parties hasn't really helped thus far.

I've tried both Diurnal and Nocturnal sects (my parties weren't sure which I should use), and found Diurnal to be useful for when we all got stunned and I desperately needed to get the party's HP back up, but Nocturnal to be good for damage mitigation (of course, it does not help when someone break line of sight and their health drops too low due to an interrupted heal).

One person told me that Nocturnal is preferred. Is this the case?

Another also told me that I should be using Fending accessories, but that's about 300 Mind that I would lose. And if I'm in Nocturnal Sect, wouldn't it make emergency healing next to impossible?

As for movement, I've taken to dancing around the walls to break the line of sight of any ranged DPS. I've been saving Lightspeed as an emergency move as well. Otherwise, I typically try to stay back. I try to save Celestial Opposition until the other party is clumped together. Should I be using it only as a getaway move, and perhaps using a macro to ask to fall back early to prevent deaths?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

When I start a feast match, I draw and then redraw if I don't get Bole/Ewer first. If I get either of those first, I spread them. Then I Royal Road the next card. This lets me either buff the defense of someone (add in Synastry) or give myself a nice MP regen. You can use a mixture of Noct and Diu. You are only locked to a particular stance when someone is still alive and has attacked/used a skill on you. I usually go Diu first and get the regen buffs on everyone and then Celestial Opposing them to be longer, along with the Aspected Benefic version of the regen, right before the gates open. Then I swap to Noct and put up shields and then we burn their ranged as fast as humanly possible.

Literally spamming Aspected Benefic will work wonders in almost all situations where if someone is only being chased by one person. If being chased by two, you need to have Synastry up on someone so you can get the healing potency up buff, to keep up with the damage using only Aspected Benefic. If you're being chased, you can use Lightspeed, Swiftcast, and Surecast on Blizzard 2 (cross classed from BLM) to keep them binded in place from chasing you, giving you a small window to breath and catch up.

Nocturnal is preferred. Those instant shields are largely the reason people are saying AST is OP. The shields have an added bonus of potentially buying you (or your ranged) time to actually cast something, since AB/Stoneskin are the only native spells you have that prevent interruption by damage until they break.

The difference in MND from changing to Fending accessories isn't going to be that high when the equipment is all synced down to i150, and the bonus HP is pretty substantial.

Can't really give advice beyond that. >_>; I only SCH in PvP.

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Originally Posted by Rhode

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That makes sense. I was still using the PvE method of Spreading/Royal Road, so I will try this. I started leaning more towards spamming Aspected Benefic my last one or two rounds before calling it quits for the night, so I'll be sure to do that next go around. I'll implement Blizzard II with the other moves and try it out tomorrow to see how it goes. I also was not aware that I could change stances in the middle of PvP combat...I assumed it would not be allowed, and that I'd be locked in. Here's hoping that that remains and isn't something they later nerf. Thank you!

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Originally Posted by Mirili

The shields have an added bonus of potentially buying you (or your ranged) time to actually cast something, since AB/Stoneskin are the only native spells you have that prevent interruption by damage until they break.

The difference in MND from changing to Fending accessories isn't going to be that high when the equipment is all synced down to i150, and the bonus HP is pretty substantial.

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Thank you. Those are both very welcome tips. Admittedly, I forgot that that was how interrupts worked. I'm normally not getting hit by much in PvE, so I normally don't deal with having to shield myself.

Well, I play noct astro, and I find that extending lightspeed and the Aether thingy at the same time with uh.. the stun move (My brain goes blank when reading astro move names...) helps, also upgrading retrogradation to shorten it's cooldown is useful, it does an aoe esuna, AND removes beneficial effects on the enemy party, it's funny seeing the other healer almost die and pop attunement, only for me to rip that attunement off :D

4v4 noct is better, but I find that diurnal sect is excellent in 8v8. :3 when I team up with my whm friend, we both end up doing 900k healing, nobody dying (save one or 2 to a melee lb) and just jumping around the map as our HoTs do all the work.

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Originally Posted by NessaWyvern

4v4 noct is better, but I find that diurnal sect is excellent in 8v8. :3 when I team up with my whm friend, we both end up doing 900k healing, nobody dying (save one or 2 to a melee lb) and just jumping around the map as our HoTs do all the work.

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I will definitely keep this in mind, and that you can esuna Attunement. Thank you all for the suggestions! I've been putting them to practice and these strategies have been working wonders!