Question about using Nocturnal Sect?

[416to305]

Hey everyone,

Gave AST another go and got it to 50 yesterday, much better once here with good gear since there was nothing much out there while levelling. I just had a question which I think I know the answer to and might be a dumb one but will try anyway.

Now that I have Nocturnal Sect I feel like that might be where I'd rather play, just because it has 5% better healing potency to make up for it being lower than my WHM, but also because I've never played Scholar (never had any interest) so I like the idea of doing shields more than just regen to change it up.

From what it sounds like though, Aspected Helios and Aspected Benefic only provide a shield based on the HP restored. So does that mean if someone is at 100% HP and I cast that on them, it provides absolutely zero benefit? And if they were down 800 HP and I cast it and it restores 1000, that they now would have a 30 second shield of 800 HP? That's the way I interpret it.

Just wanted to check though because I found in theory it sounds cool but in practice isn't that useful. Like I did Garuda and Titan HM last night and had a WHM in both. If I understand how it works correctly, then it sounds like I'd ideally want to wait for the party to all take big damage, and use Aspected Helios on them, vs using it before the damage? Problem I kept having though was every time a big attack would come, the WHM would be doing Medica II (as I always would as well) to time it to hit right when the attack did, so everyone would be almost fully restored when I'd do my Aspected Helios.

The party was never really taking major damage either so I felt like many times I was just standing around waiting for cards etc, as the WHM was pretty much solo healing it before I could even do much, making the shield parts of Nocturnal really not that beneficial. Am I understanding that correctly?

[sharazisspecial]

From what it sounds like though, Aspected Helios and Aspected Benefic only provide a shield based on the HP restored. So does that mean if someone is at 100% HP and I cast that on them, it provides absolutely zero benefit? And if they were down 800 HP and I cast it and it restores 1000, that they now would have a 30 second shield of 800 HP? That's the way I interpret it.

No, it does not work like this.

If my Aspect Benefic heals for 1750hp , even on a target with hp. It will always produce a 1750hp shield.
The green floating text number is how much it shields.

The party was never really taking major damage either so I felt like many times I was just standing around waiting for cards etc, as the WHM was pretty much solo healing it before I could even do much, making the shield parts of Nocturnal really not that beneficial. Am I understanding that correctly?

Learn to switch into cleric stance and start throwing some dots at least. That will be your role when you have a WHM as a partner.
When you have a SCH as a partner, first off you would not use noct stance (because your weaker shields would overwrite SCH powerful crit shields). You would also be healing alot more then the SCH would be since they will be putting up DOTs.

[lagata]

The person above me is correct.

However, I had no idea that noct shield overwrites galvanize...that sucks...

[Seryl199]

Galvanize and Noct Sect overwrite each other, no matter the potency of the barrier. When you find yourself with downtime on AST, DoT's are a great way to spend your time. Be careful spamming nukes, though, as it will chip away at your MP, and Nocturnal Sect is typically more MP intensive since you need to actively apply barriers, unlike Diurnal Sect where you fire and forget HoT's. You can play with both Sects and determine your preference, but don't neglect Diurnal Sect during your leveling process. It's HoT's synergize well with buff extending CD's like Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition, which have very little to no benefit when used with Nocturnal Sect's barriers.

[416to305]

Oh great that's SO much better, I was going to say this is pretty useless haha. And I definitely do DPS, even as WHM I do it a lot, just been levelling in the 4 person dungeons so sometimes DPSing is a bit harder just because in the higher level ones people just want exp, so I find tanks in Aurum Vale especially will pull huge pulls where I'm literally Benefic II over and over trying to keep them alive. In the 8 person ones DPSing is much easier.

So in general I should start the battle, see who I'm with and if a scholar, use Dirunal Sect instead and if a WHM Nocturnal if I want? I don't even know what Galvanize is, I just know the tool tip says cannot be used with Aldoquilium.

Quick side question, does casting Aspected Helios in Nocturnal create aggro like it does when doing Regen? Or can I pretty much cast it on the party at the start like when doing protect and stoneskin?

[Leiloni]

I would always play in Diurnal even with a WHM. Diurnal regens stack with WHM. Diurnal in general is better because it does more healing overall with the two HoTs and is also more mana efficient. The speed boost is nice as well. You really only need to be in Nocturnal if you're playing with another AST.

[416to305]

I'm starting to agree about Diurnal. I'm at 51 so not sure how it works later on but Nocturnal doesn't seem as good even though I do like it for some reason. Having Regen is more helpful I think especially when you want to pop it on someone and then go into your inventory, or DPS or whatever taking a quick break from healing, where as using the shields they are pretty much gone 2 secs after casting it on the tank making it harder to do other things. I liked it because it was different but I definitely miss having regen.

[Meow9000]

At 54 Ive been mostly using Nocturnal stance. The aoe barriers may feel a bit underhwelming but I do really enjoy the instant heal with a pretty good sized barrier, being able to drop one on someone about to be hit with a mechanic with little thought or prep has saved me quite a bit of trouble so far but thats just me.

[Mhikail]

I notice most people are below 60.
When you get to 60, you will utterly horrified how bad Noct stance is as if it wasn't already basically subpar pre-60.
It's neat to use before a boss or pull if you can with a Lightspeed SS....but otherwise....don't gimp yourself with it.
You'll just kill your MP constantly try to give the tank and team a weak as hell shield that dies in a single
AA from a puny mob lol.

[SuzakuCMX]

I actually like Noct Stance more for dungeons so far. The potency increase on Benefic/Benefic II is noticeable. I don't care about the shields however because the potency is less than an Adlo, which when you aren't hilariously overgeared for content is almost useless for the mana cost without a crit....and AST shield can't crit to double the shield.

I'm also less than thrilled to get a useless skill for Noct at 58 and a near-useless skill at 60.