AST Sect Theory

[Apeiron]

It keeps refreshing on the Healer forums. My OCD compels me to look. If all you wanted was raw numbers to disprove you, should have said so in the first place. But, you didn't, you asked for perspective; which we gave and you were unhappy with. So here are the numbers:

Nocturnal Sect

Aspected Benefic
190 initial heal
+5% nocturnal stance
x2 for shield
399 total potency

Aspected Helios
140 initial potency
+5% nocturnal stance
x2 for shield
assumed 8 players hit
2352 total potency

Diurnal Sect

Aspected Benefic
190 initial potency
+100 potency regen for 18 seconds (6ticks)
790 total potency

Aspected Helios
140 initial potency
+50 potency regen for 30 seconds (10ticks)
assumed 8 players hit
5120 total potency

In both cases, Diurnal pulls ahead by more than twice the potency per heal, however Diurnal has one major advantage. Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition extend those durations.Let's just assume that only the single target is used for single target, and aoe is used for aoe, though these could be mixed and matched in several different ways, this is the more clear cut use.

Diurnal Sect + TD/CO

Aspected Benefic
190 initial potency
+100 potency regen for 18 seconds (6ticks)
+100 potency regen for 15 seconds (5ticks) by way of Time Dilation
1290 total potency

Aspected Benefic
140 initial potency
+50 potency regen for 30 seconds (10ticks)
+50 potency regen for 5 seconds (1tick, 1 second away from a second)
assumed 8 players hit
5520 total potency

While it would be unlikely for a good Astrologian to use either Time Dilation or Celestial Opposition for the regens alone, it is still an option and this perfectly illustrates why Diurnal is the sect to use. If you want to consider that a Scholar can mistakenly erase a shield placed by an astrologian and vice versa, then you must also consider that it could effectively cut the above potencies in half.

Please do not try to bring up the argument saying that shields are easier to use then regens because it is false. A good healer knows when to use both.

With these number in mind, why would you pick a class that has 5% stronger, yet 5% slower cast, heals in one category with the other category of heals more than 50% weaker, still 5% slower cast?

Huh, didn't realize AB in noct = Benefic before, thanks for that. I'll have to see what other things are lying about.

But, for the record, you're comparing the go-to healing spell in Diurnal (A. Benefic) for HoT to the same spell in Nocturnal. As I've stated before, the AST would not be using this as frequently in Nocturnal as they would in Diurnal for the reason we've stated before (and you've so graciously refreshed!) as their other options are more potent and the SCH shields would be present. Which is why the Noctast would focus primarily on Benefic, Helios, and Benefic II. It becomes their bread and butter, just as A. Benefic, A. Helios, and benefic are the Diurnast's.

The best numbers are real world data. As far as I know, you're not allowed to post parses here. And I definitely don't use a parser and definitely don't have hundreds of data points that show Diurnal has consistently higher HPS than Nocturnal in real world applications, so I couldn't post any if I wanted to.

I agree, real world numbers are best for the obvious reason. They're real. We can work with them. The hypothetical numbers are, however, my best option until I meet the criteria needed to go into Alexander Savage. Again, I'm asking because of that inability, before game mechanics change to Alexander Savage or AST so that there's a baseline. While we're not about to parse and violate our user agreements, there are ways to refute my claims by looking at the potencies I've posted before and compare them to your experiences.

I would like to know if HPS is counting ticks of regen that tick, but don't heal -- as in, the party member their on is at full, and so the cure goes to waste. Counting those numbers towards your overall HPS should skew your real numbers in a favorable manner for Diurnal. I would like to hope that Diurnal has a higher HPS overall than Nocturnal, it ticks a 150 potency every 3 seconds if you've combined both your HoT on one target, and that still leaves a 50 potency ticking away at anyone who was close enough to catch the A. Helios, boosted to 150 again every time you need a little extra HoT to casually bring your party members back up (peppered with a benefic, maybe).

Do you happen to know what the average difference between your Diurnal AST and your Nocturnal AST tends to be?

[Aurum]

Snip

Something to consider about this argument (the one in which the Hots are ticking, but people are full health) is that if you accept that this is the case, it makes things swing in diurnal's favor since you're accepting that people are topped off often enough that overhealing becomes an issue. Edit: Or it could mean that your cohealer is throwing out too many heals, but that's a seperate issue.

As far as how often these HoTs actually do tick when people are at full hp, experience tells me that people end up spending a lot of time at less than 100% hp when you have an AST in the party, hence overhealing ends up being not so much of a concern.