AST Sect Theory

[Ballooooon]

So it turns out the astrologian's most mana efficient single target heal is nocturnal benefic I unless you consider a time dilated aspected benefic in diurnal stance. I thought "hey, maybe nocturnal is actually the better stance due to that!"

However, after watching the Alexander savage floor 1 clear by Yoshiyuki Ly, I find that the big difference in aoe healing efficiency between the two stances means diurnal is the more mana efficient stance.

Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZkTySAHDI4

The astrologian was in diurnal stance

57 benefic I used
33 benefic II used
2 helios used
8 aspected helios used

I wasn't completely thorough as I didn't count all the diurnal aspected benefics but they are very close in mana efficiency to nocturnal benefic I and time dilation makes them better so I decided they would not change the results very much. Benefic counts could be off by like 1 or 2 but I tried my best.

Anyways, it turns out that by choosing diurnal for this fight, Yoshiyuki Ly saved about 4,912 mana.

Despite benefic I and benefic II being more mana efficient in nocturnal stance, the strength of diurnal aspected helios meant that a nocturnal astrologian would've had to throw out 9 extra aoe spells (which would be helios since it is more mana efficient than nocturnal aspected helios) to reach the same amount of healing done by diurnal's 8 aspected helios.

That is, nocturnal would have to use about 17 helios to equal 8 diurnal aspected helios. This kills the mana and is the reason why diurnal saved mana in the video despite nocturnal having more efficient benefics.

Did some more math surrounding the fight and came up with this: in the fight in the video, nocturnal stance would have been more mana efficient (better?) only if the fight required fewer than 4 diurnal aspected helios. All in all, if you need even a moderate amount of aoe healing, go diurnal.