Is there a reason Ast cant have the sects?

[Grimoire-M]

Because the people on these forums don't seem to think it can be balanced or done in a meaningful way and have decided that AST with sects was the devil and the reason why healing is the worst role in this game, meanwhile Squeen can't be bothered to think on what to do to improve healing for more than 10 minutes and resorts to potency bloat in order to establish a sort of balance between the healers while they promise to spend more time "fixing" the "state of healers" (which most players interpret and hope to mean that they'll adjust the game to fit their preferred style of healing, only to be further disappointed when it doesn't or when they go in the opposite direction).

Hyperbole aside, Squeen had issues trying to balance the different stances while also balancing ASTs utility and personal agency. Diurnal was the one sect that was used most often and decried the least, so that's likely where the decision to scrap Nocturnal over Diurnal came from, when they decided they wanted to have 2 styles of healer.

Noct just plain sucked even if you understood how to use it properly. Take every one of AST’s problems and then remove the one on-demand tool that proactively helped with said problems (Diurnal Benefic) for a tool that does the same thing as Benefic II. All it really proved is why SCH was good to begin with. That’s why Sage borrows more from Aetherflow and the Fairy than it does Tactics and Shields.

[ty_taurus]

Noct just plain sucked even if you understood how to use it properly. Take every one of AST’s problems and then remove the one on-demand tool that proactively helped with said problems (Diurnal Benefic) for a tool that does the same thing as Benefic II. All it really proved is why SCH was good to begin with. That’s why Sage borrows more from Aetherflow and the Fairy than it does Tactics and Shields.

Agreed. Since day 1, Diurnal has forever been superior both in potency and in kit functionality. Back when AST could extend their buff durations, what good was extending the duration of a transient barrier that was only useful if it broke anyway? Meanwhile extending regens just make them flat out stronger. Beyond that, the main influence of the sects wasn't even the main focal point of AST's playstyle. I realize there's a small collection of Nocturnal enthusiasts, but really, what defined AST was never the sects, but the cards, and now more than ever, their delayed healing.