SCH, Energy Drain, and 6.0

As a non-SCH(and non-healer) player who has heard about SCH having Energy Drain removed TWICE and the devs faced serious backlash about... who wants to start taking bets that Energy gets removed by the time 6.0 launches?

Devs already said they want aetherflow to be used for healing not energy drain which is why they severely nerfed it. My guess is they will remove energy drain again along with aetherflow as it serves little purpose now. The mp gain is negligible at best. Just give lustrate 3 charges and Indomitability 2 charges. Leave sacred soil on a 30 second cooldown and leave excog on its 45 second cooldown and be done with aetherflow. It’s just gotten worst and worst over each expansion. Sick of that ability now. Change dissipation to a recharge of 1 lustrate and 1 indomitability on a 90 second cooldown and call it a day.

Yeah, my realistic expectation is that they're either gonna remove Aetherflow completely or try to remove Energy Drain again after nerfing it into the ground... only to find out that SCHs are complaining once again because they're sitting on 3 Aetherflow stacks with nothing to heal. No matter how weak ED is, it is still more damage than no damage when you sit on 3 stacks and have absolutely no use for Aetherflow heals.

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Originally Posted by SweetPete

Devs already said they want aetherflow to be used for healing not energy drain which is why they severely nerfed it. My guess is they will remove energy drain again along with aetherflow as it serves little purpose now. The mp gain is negligible at best. Just give lustrate 3 charges and Indomitability 2 charges. Leave sacred soil on a 30 second cooldown and leave excog on its 45 second cooldown and be done with aetherflow. It’s just gotten worst and worst over each expansion. Sick of that ability now. Change dissipation to a recharge of 1 lustrate and 1 indomitability on a 90 second cooldown and call it a day.

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While I can agree with this to a degree, the Aetherflow system is a management system that many SCHs are accustomed to, and enjoy. The issues comes from a lack of other forms of direct healing, the faerie's potencies being nerfed without an offset, and just general lack of needed heals in most content. The main reason people wanted ED back was because SCH needed a dump for when they had extra stacks but needed to use Aetherflow again for MP. The potency nerf was "frustrating" but most people didn't care as much, especially since our DoT and Broil 3 got a slight boost. Though honestly SCHs DoT should be the strongest in general.

Currently there is a similar issue with the Fey Gauge as well. Most of the time it just sits at max or close enough to it cause the tether is clunky and Fey Blessing is on too long of a CD for the potency.

As much as I don't want them to remove either, I would not be shocked if they removed both. IMO, I want SE to double down on aetherflow and it's offensive capabilities. I personally love that aetherflow can be used for both healing and damage, it makes you think, take a risk or play it safe. "Do I use a stack of aetherflow here for some extra damage or do I save it for a heal" etc. Yes, the game design of FFXIV doesn't always make this a problem, with things like recitation, but, a risk/reward system is NOT a bad thing on it's own, the rewards just have to be worth the risk, and currently, there's not a ton of either. And, on another note, SCH REALLY doesn't need to be dumbed down any further, they spam broil WAY too much as it is, it'd be even worse without energy drain.

That being said, yeah, 100% they're going to get rid of it. I'd also not be shocked to see them get rid of the dot because "healers too stoopid for buttons, TAKE THEM ALL AWAY" - Yoshi P. Also ready for fairy gauge to be just as useless as it's always been because the dev team cannot get it through their skulls that any mechanic that is tied purely to healing is a mechanic that WILL fail. SCHs just don't complain about the fairy gauge because aetherflow is their main mechanic, take that away and you learn real quick that the fairy gauge is worthless.

I think they’ll keep it or replace it with another DPS spell, I have my hopes that they’re gonna embrace the green DPS given the soon to be two- f cking-years of people clamouring nonstop about how much healers blow.

Not like settling my expectations low will help if they don’t fix them, as there’s a good chance I’ll just up and quit 14 either way unless they make all the other jobs collectively god tier, whether they were low or high or if I expected something different doesn’t matter.

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Originally Posted by SweetPete

Devs already said they want aetherflow to be used for healing not energy drain which is why they severely nerfed it. My guess is they will remove energy drain again along with aetherflow as it serves little purpose now. The mp gain is negligible at best. Just give lustrate 3 charges and Indomitability 2 charges. Leave sacred soil on a 30 second cooldown and leave excog on its 45 second cooldown and be done with aetherflow. It’s just gotten worst and worst over each expansion. Sick of that ability now. Change dissipation to a recharge of 1 lustrate and 1 indomitability on a 90 second cooldown and call it a day.

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And with that you break scholar gameplay even more.
Aetherflow managment must be one of the last core of its identity still standing.

But looks like people don't like scholar with that design since it keep being butchered...

I reckon its likely

devs stop doing this. get a healer designer already

I think whoever is responsible for designing Jobs in FFXIV, should take notes from their FFXI counterparts, i mean, just look at the skillkit and the job info:

https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Scholar

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Originally Posted by Absurdity

Yeah, my realistic expectation is that they're either gonna remove Aetherflow completely or try to remove Energy Drain again after nerfing it into the ground... only to find out that SCHs are complaining once again because they're sitting on 3 Aetherflow stacks with nothing to heal. No matter how weak ED is, it is still more damage than no damage when you sit on 3 stacks and have absolutely no use for Aetherflow heals.

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Ding ding ding, we have a winner!!

Sigh... We're screwed, aren't we?