So...why is there still a Nocturnal stance?

[FoxyAreku]

This is a joke right?

It's because people who do White mage/AST parties would be completely screwed in the mandatory mitigation department without it. I thought that was obvious.

[Sylve]

Since getting Time Dilation, admittedly only the other day, I have never even considered wasting the cooldown on a free Regen refresh ...

I used it exclusively for boosting durations of Extended Balance, Bole or Arrow. Its even better now, as i can push an Extended Balance on a DPS to 75 seconds.
When you consider that Blood for Blood is only 10% for non DRGs, Its literally 4 back to back BfBs. Thats friggen amazing, ad worth so much more than an free Regen refresh.

Personally, i loved SCH in 2.x, So i have preferred Noct Sect since getting it at 50. Benefic II with Aspected Benefic immediately after is a combined potency of 900, and THEN you get a Shield on top. For burst healing, Its kind of amazing.
Diurnal certainly has had its time in the limelight though, Its great for certain bosses that do predictable waves of smallish damage, or DoTs like second boss in Aery.

If theres a SCH in my party when im doing Trial/MSQ Roulette, I'll happily take the role of Regen provider, and Shield provider if theres a WHM. Or whatever the other AST isn't using.
That flexibility has felt great to me so far. So i really cannot understand people claiming one Sect is worthless over the other.

[FoxyAreku]

When you use time dilation it extends your card buffs and your regens so it's not really wasting it. But I've always said I wish time dilation did something useful for shields

It's not really that amazing though, just a nifty trick you can do in diurnal.

[Akyio]

Im absolutely switching to using diurnal with SCH, and nocturnal with WHM. Nocturnal is now really powerful.

[Aomine1992]

Nocturnal is amazing now, I even use it in 4 man dungeons during mob pulls, the shielding helps a lot especially with tanks who stance dance and the mitigation on hate is amazing...the sects are all about how you like to play the class now that things have changed.

[Liselsia]

Nocturnal is amazing now, I even use it in 4 man dungeons during mob pulls, the shielding helps a lot especially with tanks who stance dance and the mitigation on hate is amazing...the sects are all about how you like to play the class now that things have changed.

Yep, I agree. I been using it a lot for 4 man parties. Although it can be rough on your mp pools.

I was talking on reddit about it and got a weird response. "Your a idiot if you heavily use A.Bene with Noct" "You should only ever use it vs tank busters". Honestly this seems silly to me. Why bother using Noct if your never going to use A.Bene ? Sure SCH can get away with it due to how OP fairies are. I think problem is people are trying to play Noct AST like SCH way to much.

With the adjustments they've made, I more or less consider Nocturnal the "Heavy front loaded healing at high MP cost". Aspected Benefic and Benefic II have similar potency / MP now with these changes and AST can now front load a lot of healing but be a heavy burden on their MP.

I still don't like it right now, but it feels more defined than it was before. It also feels more like the buffing stances as you'll be trying to use Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition on cards versus these abilities can also extend HoTs in Diurnal, making it slightly more complicated to think about.

Yeah thats how I see Noct AST as well. Overall potency of A.Bene is slightly higher then Bene II at same MP cost. Its interesting playstyle that offers a more mobile healer. As you say playing this way is MP costly. But I dont thinks its unmanageable.

[Yumi_umi]

Nocturnal is amazing now, I even use it in 4 man dungeons during mob pulls, the shielding helps a lot especially with tanks who stance dance and the mitigation on hate is amazing...the sects are all about how you like to play the class now that things have changed.

It was always about ur team comp and how you like to play.
The only thing that did change is tht non ast players will hate u less cuz they dont understand u like jane and tarzan.

[Gallus]

Aspected benefic on nocturnal sect is easily the most broken single target heal at the moment (and I mean by far lol).
An instant cast Adloquium with like 50% less MP cost (707)? Ridiculous on so many levels.

Go try it in PVP, you'll have some laughs.