I keep running into Astro running Shields in Farm PTs as a SCH. (Why?)

[Brightamethyst]

The Adlo and Succor tooltips say "Cannot be stacked with Nocturnal Sect." No mention of the Nocturnal Field effect.

[Elamys]

Even if we're going to compare those two, Nocturnal Field vs. Nocturnal Sect, the fact is that the tooltip is extremely inaccurate by only mentioning Adlo, because one could reasonably assume, at surface level from reading only that tooltip, that it would stack with Succor. So it should say either "Cannot be stacked with Galvanize" or "Cannot be stacked with Adloquium or Succor." They went the right way with Noct Sect on the Scholar tooltips.

So, I guess I'll advance that re-updated wording to Square Enix as a suggestion.

[MysticDreamer]

It has happened at least 4 times with me.Its called being an asshole I am sure they know what they are doing BUT would rather troll instead.If the ast gets hit by an attack, I don't bother healing that person.I just ignore their health lol I can be a asshole too you see.

[Rubiss]

If an AST is stupid enough to go into Noct with a SCH, I would desummon my fairy and proceed to not heal at all. He clearly thinks he can do a better job, so by all means.

[Jajagaimo]

Just my two cents as in AST if you have a WHM go noctural unless HoT stacks would be better then shields for the fight. if you have a SHC for al lthat is holy go dinural so your not useless..

[lulunami]

Nocturnal AST with a SCH is not the worst thing. In fact, just do not do any shielding with Succor or Adlo unless with Deployment Tactics for big raid damage. You just have to rely a lot more on Emergency Tactics, Lustrate, Excogitation, and Fairy abilities to heal. Nocturnal AST has much better shields in general than SCH with Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios. Instead of spending your GCD to heal as SCH, just hit Broil II instead.


Most situations in this game do not really require that much heals per second (HPS) to survive damage on the party or tanks so losing out on SCH shields is not critical.

[Elamys]

you can clear content with noct ast + scholar but it's incredibly inefficient and also, frankly, rude. ast has the choice to use hots or shields, scholar does not. ast's shields being numerically better than sch doesn't matter when you're with a scholar because the combination of hots and shields is the best combination to play with. as nocturnal, i have to spend a bit more time actually casting heals because i can't, say, throw a hot on the group and let that take care of the rest. that's time i spent picking them up could have been better spent with us both dpsing rather than just the scholar that got screwed out of using an important part of his toolkit for an egotistical astrologian.

you can clear content with any silly combination of jobs, that doesn't make it a reasonable not a-holish thing to do.

[Mesarthim]

Reminds me of that one AST I got paired with as SCH for bismark hard. I initially asked him not to go Noct and he seemed "reluctant" to change. After the inevitable wipe because the tanks refused to seprate the serpents he apparently thought the tank problem justified him to switch to Noct and shut down part of my kit.

Please don't be that guy. Use common sense.

[Fernosaur]

The funny thing in all of this is that, in DF or outdated content, HoTs are almost always so much better and valuable than shields. Nocturnal AST is easily the worst healer in the game if you think about GCD efficiency. NoctAST has no fairy or HoT (save for CU), so they can't put out sustained healing, neither in single target or raidwide, which makes it so going Noct with a SCH not only means you're usually invalidating a portion of SCH's healing kit, it also means you're making the job of healing more taxing on both you and the other healer, since Nocturnal Sect considers WHM's sustained healing into its balance. You're forcing both the other healer and yourself to use more GCDs and spend more MP. It's just a really dumb thing to do, and people who do it are definitely bad players, even more so if they do it out of pettiness.

Nocturnal AST with a SCH is not the worst thing. In fact, just do not do any shielding with Succor or Adlo unless with Deployment Tactics for big raid damage. You just have to rely a lot more on Emergency Tactics, Lustrate, Excogitation, and Fairy abilities to heal. Nocturnal AST has much better shields in general than SCH with Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios. Instead of spending your GCD to heal as SCH, just hit Broil II instead.

AST's shields aren't that "much better" anymore, though. They were at the end of HW and start of SB, but after Succor got buffed, the party shields are comparable. The only big difference is between Adlo and Asp Benefic, but it's still not a great spell to use, as the Diurnal version is just so much more valuable. SCH even has more potential powerful party shields thanks to Deployent Tactics, stackable single target healing buffs, and the critlo mechanic. You're right in saying that in DF and outdated content the regen+shields dychotomy is rarely ever important, but this synergy gets more value if a group is unpredictable and takes a lot of avoidable damage or dies a lot, which is also something that can happen a lot in DF and PF, particularly 24 man raids.

[MaloraYuki]

Nocturnal AST with a SCH is not the worst thing. In fact, just do not do any shielding with Succor or Adlo unless with Deployment Tactics for big raid damage. You just have to rely a lot more on Emergency Tactics, Lustrate, Excogitation, and Fairy abilities to heal. Nocturnal AST has much better shields in general than SCH with Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios. Instead of spending your GCD to heal as SCH, just hit Broil II instead.


Most situations in this game do not really require that much heals per second (HPS) to survive damage on the party or tanks so losing out on SCH shields is not critical.

Not a good way to work with most cohealers. Honestly you want to make half of someone’s tool kit void people will start overlapping your shields just to make you mad. The run is already inefficient so if I waste my mp to make a useless cohealer mad makes no difference to me. Or I’d just not heal all together clearly if you want to make my heals ineffective you don’t need me as a healer.