Noct was always the black sheep of the two sects throughout HW, it's still comparatively weaker now even after all the little buffs and tweaks it's received. I think it was pretty competitive for 4.0 as WHM/AST was a very safe pair of hands to be in for progression, but 4.1's SCH changes have tipped the scales back away from Noct again IMHO.

The difference in my throughput when I'm switching between Noct AST or WHM for various Ult Coil pugs is night and day though =/