Some idea about AST sect swapping

[KyahAlmasy]

Each sect has it's own perks. I personally prefer Noct because it's very useful for fights with lots of spike damage. Regens are good, but high spike damage can wipe a group faster than a regen can heal, especially if there are aoes on the ground. (Nothing worse than massive party-wide damage, and then a few DD dying because of that fast tick of damage from standing on some aoe.)

AST has very few tools with managing their own mana from what I've seen. Assize regenerates 10% of the WHM's mana on top of having free cure, and scholar gets aetherflow and some rather ludicrious oGCD, mp-free heals. As an AST, Ewer need to inSpire yourself to not get terriBole draws to buff up your own mana regen, but that means you're losing the Balance of your card buffs because that's draw cooldowns being used for regen rather than expanded royal road, so you won't be Spearheading as much dps buffs.

Using your Celestial Opposition with your Luminiferous Aether gives you a large boost in MP regen, especially if you use it in conjunction with an Ewer card, and even more so if that Ewer card is enhanced, or extended. As a healer I try to estimate how MP intensive a fight is, and at what points my mana threshold is at it's lowest, and tend to try to hold onto a Ewer card for those portions of the fight. If I'm doing well, and I notice another healer is struggling I'll use that enhanced Ewer card on them, and Time Dilate it so that they're not running on empty.

In the end, ASTs, if played smart, will have very little trouble maintaining high MP levels. And this is from an AST who stays in Noct, which is far more MP intensive than Diurnal.