How could you do this to AST?

[ASkellington]

That´s actually the biggest issue. That 100 guys here or some streamer doesn´t represent the whole community. There are millions of players of players who were fine with certain class mechanics. Of course you can´t count voices, when nobody is saying a word. But it´s in nature of humans to stay silent if they´re staisfied and to moaning if something goes wrong.
We´ve elistists, decent players, casuals and completely noobs out there. Everyone has an own opinion and everyone should be catered in some way. I´m fine with it. But i´m not fine with the fact, that every subclasses are going to be the same. They could always go the way to pick one subclass for each category of gamers. A simple one for whose who can´t or don´t want to do better. 1 or 2 who have some unique mechanics. The last one could be way more complex to cater the upper 10% of players who enjoy more challenging classes. FF14 has enough classes to go that way, but no, everything is getting simplified until everything plays nearly the same.

Nocturnal might haven´t been always perfect, but it´s something which is up to the players decision. If someone doesn´t like it, why should it get removed? Just stay on Diu and let the players play Noc, who actually wants to play it. It´s not even a big work in the background since it´s implemented and SE just had to adjust some numbers here and there with new patches.

Btw we´ve a similar discussion in the DPS section already. This guy nails it in some way: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post5502976

I saw that post and I agree with it, but I don't think it fully applies here. For one, the whole reason people wanted Noct removed wasn't just because it was inferior to Diurnal. The hope of Noct's removal was to give things back to SCH and rebalance the healers (why anyone thinks it would force SE to do this I have no idea but that's the idea) not to get rid of it because they hated it.

For another, even if they kept Nocturnal it still doesn't change the fact that AST is by design a 1:1 copy of WHM (and in some ways SCH with Noct stance). While I'm not in favor of Noct's removal at all, nor AST's concept of switching between shield/regen healer if it means this gets changed, you can bet I will happily board the train that gives us more unique healing abilities like Horoscope and Synastry.

The issue is the word "if".

If Square actually decides to make 4 unique healing playstyles.
If Square gives AST something to replace Noct sect that isn't just potency fixes we don't need.
If SGE actually plays differently to SCH and isn't a reskin like AST.

If, if, if, if. Noct being removed itself isn't the problem, at least in my opinion. Its still an unwanted change, but not the underlying problem. The problem is that Square keeps removing things and not changing or improving what's left so there is no good trade off.