AST: Nocturnal vs Diurnal

[Vlady]

The only real problem with Nocturnal Sect is Aspected Benefic. In Nocturnal, it's only ever your best heal in hyper-specific, niche scenarios that rarely crop up, and even when you do find yourself in those scenarios, it doesn't justify that specificity by even being particularly good at the job.

The thing about Adloquium on Scholar is that in addition to being a strong shield, in addition to having the crit bonus, etc, Adloquium is also the Scholar's "Cure II": Between the 300 potency heal and 300 potency shield, it's effectively a 600 potency heal (that doesn't require Aetherflow stacks) as long as shields aren't expiring or being overwritten.
On Astrologian, though, they still have Benefic II when they're in Nocturnal Sect. If they need a big heal, that's still the go-to skill. It's stronger, and it's more MP-efficient (620 potency versus 500 [250 heal, 250 shield], ~.78 pot/MP on BII versus ~.71 on AB).

The result? Aspected Benefic is a worse choice than Benefic II unless you either A) need to be able to cast while on the move, or otherwise can't afford the cast time, or B) you absolutely need to "heal" someone up past their max HP by applying the shield.
Scenario A is nice when it happens, Nocturnal Benefic is good at that, but it doesn't happen often. Scenario B is the more common situation by far, except that at a 250 (*1.05) potency shield, it's strictly inferior to Adloquium, even without factoring in the crit bonus on Adlo.


A better version of Aspected Benefic in Nocturnal Sect would be "Heals for 125 potency, and applies a shield that nullifies three times the amount of HP healed". Same overall potency (500), but actually suited to the uses that the skill has. A stronger shield than a non-Crit Adlo, but still far weaker than a Crit Adlo, and with a much weaker direct heal. Then AST would have their staple heal (Benefic), their big heal (Benefic II), and their shield (Aspected Benefic), each of which would be very well suited to the different jobs they're all meant to do.

In order for that to be true the scholar would have to have so high of a crit to even reach a point of a crit going off that it would not matter. Astrologians having the shield you suggest would make them automatically stronger in the shielding department because they do not have to rely on crit for a stronger shield.

Never use noct in dungs no point, since dirunal is ez for trash and bosses. Pop both HoTs and afk. Only reason I would use noct is if the other healer is an astro. The problem is not that astro can do the current (ez) content more of it does not add anything compared to the other healz. All the dungs in HW are a joke to heal anyways.

I am glad you are not a healer if you do not understand the value of Nocturnal Stance. A faster response shield at a critical time with a decent hp buffer will have many chances to save possible wipes and deaths as the expansion moves onward over the next year. Scholar threads about how much the job sucked was the staple the first half year of 2.0 but eventually people learned the true strength of the job. And the only real buffs scholar received back then was a smarter ai for fairy and lustrate changes.