Healing 'big' pulls on Astro

[fanservice]

used to play SCH too, but Nocturnal is just... meh.. compared to SCH at least

There was an interesting line of thought regarding nocturnal sect's aspected benefic vs SCH's adloquium beyond the potency difference and the potential of an OP shield on crit.

Interestingly enough it's about instant cast, and having to deal with recast vs a normal cast.

If a SCH casted adloquium, the moment the cast is over, they can begin to cast a followup physic. Often times this means the shield will hold for most of, if not, all of the 2 seconds before the physic lands. Likely more time if it crits.

If a noct sect AST casted aspected benefic, by the time the ~2.5sec GCD is over from casting aspected benefic, the shield likely broke, and you can then begin to cast your next ~2 second cast-time heal, or hope you have an instant benefic 2 proc on hand.

The shield ironically fails at buying time because it's applied before you can begin to do anything else for the next ~2.5 seconds, sans essential dignity. I forgot who said it first, but it is a valid point.

Of course there are benefits to having an instant-cast, though weaker adloquium, but when consistent pressure is going out and you have the option of just standing there chain-casting benefic 2 for more potency/slightly, and very little extra MP, you may as well do that instead. This isn't even counting the possibility of having a HOT rolling from diurnal sect-aspected benefic rolling.

Chaincasting aspected benefics in nocturnal stance is... actually not too bad of an idea in both theory, and practice compared to benefic 2 spam though;

-It's a safe bet the shield breaks by your next cast
-Has a little less potency-over time as pure benefic 2 spam (but beaten by diurnal sect aspected benefic HOT +benefic 2 spam)
-costs slightly less MP
-usable on the move

In my humble opinion though, there's little reason to bother using nocturnal sect at all outside of pre-shielding the group - which I would rather have medica 2 anyway, unless that shield prevents a kill -, or if you know you'll never stop running around during a fight where the tank is consistently getting his ass kicked, and you want to throw out instant cast heal+shield at nearly benefic 2-level potency without nerfing yourself with lightspeed. Super situational, but it's a use /shrug.

and yes, the vault is mainly some kind of a healer-test.

lol really? Last boss is an AOE fest, and one of the few things I'd prefer to use Eos on sure, but like most other things, the dungeon is easier with less stupid people getting hit by stuff before that. As a SCH, I'd barely call it a test. At worst, its 'How fast are you to press indomitability/lustrate?'.