Astrologian "BUFFS"

[Fallen_Owl]

Sorry if this is a retard question (still leveling atm, lvl 35) but why is Noct Sec bad?

I think that the 5% extra heals will be pretty awesome.
If my math is correct, Bene is as good as Cure or Physick now. Bene II is as good as Cure II. The instant-cast shielding effect is going to be really good. Especially on tight situations where you Asp. Bene>ED>Bene II spam.
The only thing I miss is the godly crit for the double shielding. We need to have that too.

I'm not talking about progression raids, talking about leveling my AST to go into dungeons and the occasional alex runs.

[DarkmoonVael]

Sorry if this is a retard question (still leveling atm, lvl 35) but why is Noct Sec bad?

I think that the 5% extra heals will be pretty awesome.
If my math is correct, Bene is as good as Cure or Physick now. Bene II is as good as Cure II. The instant-cast shielding effect is going to be really good. Especially on tight situations where you Asp. Bene>ED>Bene II spam.
The only thing I miss is the godly crit for the double shielding. We need to have that too.

I'm not talking about progression raids, talking about leveling my AST to go into dungeons and the occasional alex runs.

It more to do with it in comparison to Diurnal sect. The throughput of HPS on Diurnal significantly outweighs that of Nocturnal, with the shield being fine (except Collective Unconscious in Noct), but lacking the additional healing throughout a SCH has with fairy in regards to shields.

[Akyio]

Sorry if this is a retard question (still leveling atm, lvl 35) but why is Noct Sec bad?

I think that the 5% extra heals will be pretty awesome.
If my math is correct, Bene is as good as Cure or Physick now. Bene II is as good as Cure II. The instant-cast shielding effect is going to be really good. Especially on tight situations where you Asp. Bene>ED>Bene II spam.
The only thing I miss is the godly crit for the double shielding. We need to have that too.

I'm not talking about progression raids, talking about leveling my AST to go into dungeons and the occasional alex runs.

In nocturnal stance you mimic a scholar. But you become a weaker scholar in general: weaker shields, weaker "sacred soil", one lustrate every 40 seconds vs 3 lustrates each each 60 seconds, luminous aether is on twice longer cooldown compared to aetherflow, so less mana. PLUS you have NO FAIRY. You have synergy only, which locks on to 1 target for 20 seconds, on a long cooldown. So you are just a weaker scholar in general. PLUS you get no good use of time dilation. And you have no cooldowns to increase your healing(no rouse, no fey illumination). And you have less DPS than SCH too. Just less in everything.. And selene atk.speed buff is guaranteed and is basically better than your entire level 30-45 arsenal of card skills.
And all the less for asp. benefic - a 525 instant costy heal that is still dependant on GCD, can't crit..

[Crater]

Sorry if this is a retard question (still leveling atm, lvl 35) but why is Noct Sec bad?

I think that the 5% extra heals will be pretty awesome.
If my math is correct, Bene is as good as Cure or Physick now. Bene II is as good as Cure II. The instant-cast shielding effect is going to be really good. Especially on tight situations where you Asp. Bene>ED>Bene II spam.
The only thing I miss is the godly crit for the double shielding. We need to have that too.

I'm not talking about progression raids, talking about leveling my AST to go into dungeons and the occasional alex runs.

People honestly really exaggerate how "bad" Nocturnal Sect is. At a base level it's just fine, and arguably is the better stance overall when it comes to all of your non-aspected heals.

- A 5% boost to healing power is probably a more useful passive effect overall than a 5% boost to speed, even if the speed boost is (arguably/in my opinion) more fun and interesting.
- I'd take a 10% damage shield that is only usable during phase transitions over a HoT bubble that is never more useful than what I can do with my GCDs (Collective Unconscious).
- Aspected Helios is roughly equal in efficacy between Nocturnal and Diurnal Sects; in both cases, they're nearly identical clones of Succor and Medica II respectively, that each have a notable flaw (Noct AH is half a second slower to cast than Succor, Diurnal AH has a 5y shorter radius than Medica II).


The problem lies solely with Aspected Benefic. In Nocturnal Sect, Aspected Benefic is a highly situational skill that is only worth using over Benefic I/II in very specific, niche scenarios, and isn't very good even in its niche.
In Diurnal Sect, Aspected Benefic is a general-purpose heal that is almost always worth using in conjunction with Benefic and Benefic II - and it isn't very good in its general purpose role.

So given the choice between a mediocre skill that you should only be using in certain scenarios in certain fights, and a mediocre skill that you should be using in almost every fight, it is fair to say that Diurnal is generally the better of the two Sects, but the difference is pretty razor-thin. In my opinion, a lot of people misidentify the problem as being the Sect, and not that Aspected Benefic in general is a mediocre skill that is simply slightly less mediocre in Diurnal Sect.

In casual content like Light Party dungeons and Normal Mode Alexander, either Sect is fine.

[Cynfael]

People honestly really exaggerate how "bad" Nocturnal Sect is. At a base level it's just fine, and arguably is the better stance overall when it comes to all of your non-aspected heals.

- A 5% boost to healing power is probably a more useful passive effect overall than a 5% boost to speed, even if the speed boost is (arguably/in my opinion) more fun and interesting.
- I'd take a 10% damage shield that is only usable during phase transitions over a HoT bubble that is never more useful than what I can do with my GCDs (Collective Unconscious).
- Aspected Helios is roughly equal in efficacy between Nocturnal and Diurnal Sects; in both cases, they're nearly identical clones of Succor and Medica II respectively, that each have a notable flaw (Noct AH is half a second slower to cast than Succor, Diurnal AH has a 5y shorter radius than Medica II).


The problem lies solely with Aspected Benefic. In Nocturnal Sect, Aspected Benefic is a highly situational skill that is only worth using over Benefic I/II in very specific, niche scenarios, and isn't very good even in its niche.
In Diurnal Sect, Aspected Benefic is a general-purpose heal that is almost always worth using in conjunction with Benefic and Benefic II - and it isn't very good in its general purpose role.

So given the choice between a mediocre skill that you should only be using in certain scenarios in certain fights, and a mediocre skill that you should be using in almost every fight, it is fair to say that Diurnal is generally the better of the two Sects, but the difference is pretty razor-thin. In my opinion, a lot of people misidentify the problem as being the Sect, and not that Aspected Benefic in general is a mediocre skill that is simply slightly less mediocre in Diurnal Sect.

In casual content like Light Party dungeons and Normal Mode Alexander, either Sect is fine.

In casual content you could never activate a Sect and still finish the fight.

Noct's shortcomings are definitely worth bringing up (again and again, until some improvement is seen). I wouldn't downplay the disadvantage of Aspected Helios (N) vs. Aspected Helios (D) since the latter grants far greater healing and further helps to free the AST from the GCD with the stacking HoT. Succor works as well as it does with the SCH kit despite being weak from a sheer HP-restoration perspective in part because the fairy provides healing full-time healing support on her own GCD; the Noct AST in most ways that pertain to healing mimics a fairy-less SCH, while a Diurnal AST at least mimics the sort of regen capability that gives WHM improved potency/mp and set-it-and-forget-it heals to reduce the demand on the GCD.

In short, Noct really does deserve attention since it's very lackluster outside of a few specific uses, and the Sect's synergy with CU, CO, and Time Dilation (as far as any added healing bonus is concerned) is abysmal. At least Diurnal squeezes a little extra lemonade out of the lemon skills that are CU and CO (I'll take the free regen over the almost-never-needed damage reduction), and the side benefit of extended shields with CO and TD is worthless.

However, I will agree that the 5% healing bonus from Noct is superior to the 5% speed boost from Diurnal. The speed is nice for when you get to spam DPS, but I'd switch those two if I could.

[Mimilu]

My other suggestions

I know I'm kind of interrupting everyone's arguing but I thought of one more suggestion. >w>

- Give Synastry a cooldown time of 60 seconds, instead of 120. While comparing AST to the other two jobs, WHM and SCH, neither really have a skill that compares with Synastry. However, WHM does get Tetragrammatron (a cost free, instant cure with a potency of 700), which has a cooldown of 60 seconds, while SCH has Lustrate (another instant cure, with a potency of 600), which gives them up to 3 instant cures every 60 seconds.

[SuzakuCMX]

*snip*

It's not bad as in "can't complete content with it." It's bad as in "not as good as any other healing."

Noct Stance's 5% potency buff (19 on Benefic and 31 on Benefic II) is far outweighed by the regens that you get in Diurnal stance (100 per tick n Aspected Benefic and 50 per tick on Aspected Helios).

If you go Nocturnal Stance you can clear everything (except maybe Savage Alex). You'll just have a bit harder time in fights that don't have constant burst because as long as you have regens ticking anyways on Diurnal Stance, you will heal more than Nocturnal.

[Muahbec]

Once you understand that astro is complex beyond any other healer you will start to appreciate the power they offer.It's the only healer that requires innate knowlege of almost all other jobs ti maximize it's strength.

Are even serious? Stop the drama please.
First: the only complex thing a player must know before start playing AST is to be able to heal everything just by spamming Benefic 1 and 2 and AB (a weaker regen to be honest) wow...much complex....very utility.....such powerful.....wow
Second: Tell me, how do you plan to master RNG? Like...for real? (SURE let me buff this tank *draws an ewer* ok... *shuffle* *draws another ewer* .......)
Third: Don't even try to make AST look godly, it isn't and it seems like every single person can see that except you.
You keep saying that AST is on par with WHM and SCH, really, the only way AST will ever be "on par" with WHM and SCH is if both lose their healing CDs.
And that's not going to happen, so.....