What's up with AST's Noct shield delay?!

Hoy!

Been on SephEX a few times with my AST, wanted to main a healer too now that my BRD is pretty much learned and mastered.
I'm seeing problems with the delay for the nocturnal shields ; being, for example :

if I FINISH casting Aspected Helios less than around 2-3 seconds before a group attack like Sephirot always does during P1, the shields are not consumed and people take the full damage. Heck, sometimes, some people lose the shields, some don't.

This really feels like a huge lack of consistency. Why can only some people lose it on the exact same attack? I'm not lagging that much (ping measured at 150-200ms because Chaos datacenter bottleneck is the best \o/ ). There only should be 0.2-0.3seconds of lag, and I'm trying to account for that; the 2-3 SECONDS of shield latency after the end of the A.Helios cast shouldn't be a thing, right?

Just, I have a hard time thinking this is "normal".

Thanks for reading, and thanks even more for discussing =)

As an addition I'll just try to describe what I actually see when healing:
- I start casting Aspected Helios [2.95s cast)
- Heals come up on people (health bars rise) [~0.5 sec]
- Shields are applied [~1s total - it seems the shields appear one by one, but that just may be on the HUD only]
- Shields MAY be consumed [~1s to 2s !]

It feels like the game decides if the shields will be consumed right as the enemy starts its attack, but not the animation. Would that be it? If so, mistake, or just intended? :/

Depending on latency and the cast time of the ability you will see this happen with shields. Spells lock it at around 85%, proven by the fact you can start moving around that time and still have your cast finish. This is likely true with the "state of the game" used for calculations and the order in which calculations are handled. I believe the shield creation itself is lower priority than heals and damage and is not retroactively applied. To better illustrate what I mean:

Spell Lock-In (Damage and Healing now have highest priority)
Heal Lands (triggers shield creation but has lower priority than damage)
Damage is applied
Shield is created.

Because of latency for you and your party and the fact that I don't believe the people furthest away in an AOE situation are receiving the healing/shield at the same time as those closer to you, you will notice some heals land before the lock-in giving you the shield and some land just after so you get the heal but the shield doesn't get used.

The reason why some lose the shield and others not has nothing to do about lag or delay but the fact that when you AoE heal the heal you do won't be equal to everyone. You will notice that some will get normal heal and some get crit and even those values will differ between the players, like the hit is around 3000 and your normal heal is 2500 and then you crit for 4000, so who got crit will keep shield and other will lose it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shiki_Lockhart

You will notice that some will get normal heal and some get crit and even those values will differ between the players, like the hit is around 3000 and your normal heal is 2500 and then you crit for 4000, so who got crit will keep shield and other will lose it.

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I really don't think it's related to critical hits. I know shields work like that, but Tiferets do around... 6k ? I think ? my crits hit for around 2500 or 3000 at best. No way it could stay after a Tiferet, is what I mean. Plus, I have around 740 critical, which makes it so that my first A.Helios right at the start of the fight usually does at least one critical. Everyone has a Stoneskin + this shield for the first Tiferet, and everyone loses both protections everytime. If what you say is true, it should happen on that attack too, at least sometimes :/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pharazon

Spell Lock-In (Damage and Healing now have highest priority)
Heal Lands (triggers shield creation but has lower priority than damage)
Damage is applied
Shield is created.

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Interesting thing to know!

Yeah, it's a bit annoying, but you get used to it after a while. I find it most irritating during adds, honestly.

With a bit of practice (read: slightly early casting) you can Shield both the tankbuster and the cleave after.

I don't find this issue limited to AST. This has happened with SCH for a very long time. I just chalk it up to latency.

Once you're used to it you do as Cyril said
Pre-cast and use the healing to top everyone and the shield is up for the next attack

This is really with any buff at all. There is a delay between when you finish the action from the perspective of your client and when the buff actually goes on.

Truth is games have to do a lot of code vodoo to keep in the illusion that everything we're doing is happening in real time with the other players as well as the NPCs and environments. However it's just that, an illusion. Your cast will always finish on your screen before it happens on the game server. Games compensate but they're not perfect. FF14 is not the most tightly optimized game I've ever seen in this regard (though from from the worst either), so just make sure you operate with the lag time in mind.

As a SCH main I will just say that shield delay is something you have to get used to, and is due to latency. In your specific example you're mentioning boss attacks, but keep in mind that attack animations often trigger after their incidence as a latency catch, so your shield has to be on the target before the move-cast is finished and not just before the animation actually triggers.

Every shield, buff, and debuff will have a slight latency delay before application, which can be annoying with "spread" mechanics. SCH and SMN have always had to delay Bane use for a second after bio is applied otherwise it may spread before the final poison is even on the target. Deployment Tactics requires a similar delay, as you can all too easily adlo someone and then deploy air before the shield gets applied. Additionally this delay effects your soil/bubble mechanics as well, as it takes a second after they enter the zone for someone to get a bubble buff.

In other words this is nothing new, and just something you'll have to get used to. Shield preemptively when possible.

Thanks a lot everyone for the answers, basically "Be wary of the lag" I guess.
I was thinking SCH would be in the same situation, I wasn't wrong.

Much love healers <3