Quote Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP View Post
LMAO, I have to say I think it's quite amusing that some people are saying SCH has very powerful shields, while at the same time saying AST has mediocre shields - when, aside from the RNG based Adlo crit, AST shields are actually the same potencty or slightly more potent due to the 5% buff in Noc stance.

EDIT: I should clarify I'm referring to Succor vs. Aspected Helios and the shields from Sacred Soil vs. Collective.
I agree, I wouldn't say it's as OP as some have written written but it's also fairly clear that SCH shields and mitigation are better than AST shields and mitigation.
  • Adlo's shield w/ CRIT of 548 starts to match and exceed Aspected Benefic's shield when you average it all out
  • Deployed Adlo (even no Crit) is better than Aspected Helios
  • Supervirus + Sacred Soil + Succor is better than Disable + Collective Unconsciousness + Aspected Helios more often than naught (additional 5% reduced on a 10K attack is 500 damage, Aspected Helios needs to heal for an impossible 10K without Sect bonus to get that 500 mitigation back)

What Noctutrnal AST does give you is reliability and more overall mitigation in the less controlled scenarios.

Funny thing is, even though Aspected Helios is technically better than Succor when looked objectively side-by-side, most ASTs should be defaulting to using normal Helios outside of select niche scenarios as getting raw HP back at less MP is generally much more beneficial then eHP when there's no raid buster coming up in the future or if that raid buster can't outright kill the raid.