How would you change Nocturnal AST to be competitive against SCH?

[Beam1249]

I wouldn't. I'd give up on trying to have AST compete with SCH, and make a 4th healer focused on off healing instead.

Having 2 main healers and 2 off healers is going to achieve better balance than trying to make AST compete with both WHM and SCH.

[Supersun]

I wouldn't. I'd give up on trying to have AST compete with SCH, and make a 4th healer focused on off healing instead.

Having 2 main healers and 2 off healers is going to achieve better balance than trying to make AST compete with both WHM and SCH.

Pretty much this.

I highly suspect that the next 2 jobs will be Samurai which is going to be a new Warrior style off tank and Red Mage which is going to be a Scholar type off healer.

[Valmaxian]

I wouldn't. I'd give up on trying to have AST compete with SCH, and make a 4th healer focused on off healing instead.

Having 2 main healers and 2 off healers is going to achieve better balance than trying to make AST compete with both WHM and SCH.

I think Squeenix bit off a bit more than they could chew with AST stances - they can't bring both up to WHM/SCH standards, or there would be no need for WHM/SCH. They either have to give AST the same utility at the cost of raw power, of give the power at the expense of utility just to maintain game balance. Personally, I wish they hadn't copied the HoT/Shield healing styles from the other healers and tried another mechanic for AST to truly set it apart, but hindsight...