would this be OP?

[Ghishlain]

Not sure why people keep suggesting doing away with ASTs sects. They're the strength of the job and what allows it to synergise with any other healer.

Nocturnal sect nerds a bit of a rejig, but not majorly, and they dont need to, and shouldnt, stack with SCH shields.

They should stack with themselves though, in that a Helios shield (200 potency) and a Benefic shield (500 potency) should stack for a 700 potency shield, instead of allowing you to mistakenly replace a 500 shield with a smaller 200.

For me personally, the sects are a mark of S-E's inability to design a unique healer concept. Diurnal represents healing like a White Mage while Nocturnal represents healing like a Scholar. It makes it difficult to balance when there are only two healing concepts but three healers. If AST had been a bit more unique in their healing kit, the complaints of healer balance would be different. Right now all we see in the healer balance front is either AST encroaching on WHM or vice versa, or AST encroaching on SCH or vice versa. It's less pronounced on the AST vs SCH front but it's there.

I feel I wouldn't be the only one to think that, because of S-E's design decision for AST's kit, there is a lack of confidence in S-E's design team when they (eventually) pitch the fourth healer for the game.

If they remove the Sects (or made it an active buff instead of a passive buff) and made AST a more vanilla healer with the capability to buff the raid, I would be a lot happier. I feel there are quiet a few people who would feel the same. Maybe not necessarily a vanilla healer with buffs but just something that makes AST more unique than WHM and SCH respectively.