AST question:

[Malmstrom]

AST WHO PLAYS THAT HA HA RIGHT

Is Nocturnal Sect still generally useless and garbage except in very specific circumstances?

Edit - Derp, I meant Nocturnal, not Diurnal.

[Billythepancake]

Diurnal is typically the one you want to go for. Nocturnal is the one that is considered useless in most circumstances. As for is it actually useless? I wouldn't use it myself unless I 100% had to. AST already has mana problems and Nocturnal makes it worse.

[Crushnight]

Nocturnal is usable, but has flaws in its design.

Diurnal is more mp efficient, it has Shields that can handle anything baring 3 fights at end game (2 savage and ultimate) despite being toed to an ogcd every 30s and a cd every 2 mins, and Neutral Sect the lv 80 ability synergies better with Diurnal ( Hello asinine 400mp cost extra for nocturnal AB with the same exact effect and potency as diurnal AB).

[Palibun]

Nocturnal is a waste of mp and in most cases is arguably worse. I see some asts use it for dealing with big pulls, but if you have a good tank that uses their cds well then it's pretty pointless; the barriers go down so fast since tanks take so much damage. They're mainly helpful for, say trials, where you have two healers.

You can try playing with them a little; i once had a tank that would not turn their stance on, so i kept using aspected helios's barriers with noct. sect and it made the dungeon way more manageable for me, but it did also gut my mp pretty badly.
And once you get Celestial Intersection... at that point it's 100% useless, the cd timer on it is short enough that it covers the barrier market perfectly.

Maybe for raids and trials you can find some use, but for the most part it's pretty useless.

[Risvertasashi]

They're mainly helpful for, say trials, where you have two healers.

Even in this circumstance, regens are still generally better. You'd only want to use Noct if there are attacks you absolutely cannot survive without a shield, and it happens so often that Neutral Sect can't cover it. Otherwise, you're tanking your own MP efficiency to no particular benefit and putting extra load on your cohealer.

[Averax]

Even in this circumstance, regens are still generally better. You'd only want to use Noct if there are attacks you absolutely cannot survive without a shield, and it happens so often that Neutral Sect can't cover it. Otherwise, you're tanking your own MP efficiency to no particular benefit and putting extra load on your cohealer.

In low level content, specifically, Nocturnal Helios paired with Celestial Opposition can provide enough shielding so that your other healer doesn't have to really do anything other than dps for the next 30 seconds

[Risvertasashi]

In low level content, specifically, Nocturnal Helios paired with Celestial Opposition can provide enough shielding so that your other healer doesn't have to really do anything other than dps for the next 30 seconds

I guess that's a case where it may be equivalent, but you can accomplish the same thing on a wider range of content via regens.

[Corbeau]

Regen is just plain more efficient than shielding. The only time shields are better is when an attack will one-shot people.