Feedback on Aetherial Manipulation.

I'll keep this relatively brief. I love that Aetherial Manipulation now has a 10 second recast, however the problem I personally have with this skill is that in a tight spot it's hard to quickly gauge which player to use this skill on if I need to zip out of an AoE. This results in me generally resorting to just running normally instead of taking a gamble, which is sometimes the case when using this skill as a reflex since you are depending on where the rest of your party is and some might not all be in safe spots.

Now I also play Dragoon and I love Elusive Jump for getting out of a tight spot and even rushing closer into range. I believe Aetherial Manipulation needs this type of freedom that Elusive Jump has. The difference I'd have would be that Aetherial Manipulation allows Black Mages to dash forward in the direction they are facing. Sort of the inverse of Elusive jump, however it would still have all the freedom of that skill.

Thanks for reading! Hope I made this clear, post any thoughts if you have them. ^^

I understand where you're coming from in regards to the skill's usability but I think your solution could bring up it's own host of problems. Unless you want to AM to the boss you're going to have to already have stopped casting to move into position for AM. Pre-moving for your movement spell as opposed to just cycling thru party list whilst you're casting seems even more awkward tbh. AM does feel kinda clunky, and I've found occasionally on using AM, it will sometimes interrupt my next cast if I'm really spamming the button, which can be really annoying. As far as planning who you're going to AM to though, I feel that requirement of forethought to be one of the key things about BLM and strategising which member of my team I need to AM to depending on the type of mechanic I'm trying to deal with to be really rewarding. I don't really want to interrupt my cast to point in the direction i want to manip to when I could just choose a target while I'm busy casting.

I don't mind an interrupted cast if I know I'm going to reliably make it out of an AoE. And that's really what it's coming down to. I use this ability rarely due to having to switch between a party member and the boss, which you've already said can be rather clunky, at least when using keyboard/mouse. I've never used controller but it might be easier on there to rapidly switch targets, and not just any target, a target you know will be safe! This could just be a personal thing though, I definitely don't have the muscle memory built up on selecting a target and hitting Aetherial Manipulation. But that being said, I'd settle for also having enemy targets available to teleport to. Also from my personal experience, I find that when I do want to use Aetherial Manipulation it's when I'm too far out and want to get closer in.

Honestly, I just want to get the most out of this ability with it being a low recast time now. Making it a bit more of a skill that can be used as a reflex over having to plan ahead, which I feel Black Mages have to do a lot of already.

Perhaps it might work better for you in conjunction with the new mouse scroll keybind, although I wouldn't be able to have an informed opinion on how that would feel because I do use a controller. I also pretty much always play with a premade group so I know I can rely on them more. Always having my favourite scholar 3 button presses down [up and down targeting on controller can be assigned to scroll thru party list. First two pushes down are tanks for stack mechanics, one up goes to the bard for staying out of boss cleaves] and waiting in a safe spot really makes it easier to practice getting the muscle memory because, as you said, you can't use it on enemies so therefore you can't even practice with a striking dummy x) I would argue that having a reflexive movement ability outside of using triple/swifts is kind of against the job identity which revolves heavily as you said around planning ahead. I will agree that the range is a little low and I've died plenty of times being cocky only to realise I'm out of range of an ally and died horribly, or AM'd to the OT instead of MT and taken a cleave to the face. Wouldn't complain if they decided to increase the range >.>

Make it work like Shukuchi or whatever the Ninja warp is.

Target macro should work just fine.

I like it as it. Sure it could be better (targeted aoe like NIN would be amazing!) But it's still very useful.

I'd be up for less of an animation lock though

You can also use the "mouse over" macro : it casts the skill on the target you are pointing with your mouse.
/ac Aetherial Manipulation <mo>
So it's easy to target someone you see outside of an AoE while still adapting to the situation.

(or of course as it has been said you can use a targeted macro directly, but then who to pick, maybe someone you trust in to dodge aoe + someone who is not usually that far from your lines to quickly go back in like a range dps).

Mouseover is great for Aetherial Manipulation.

It's helpful to pick a target ahead of time, and rest the mouse cursor over that person's name in the party list. And if circumstances change to make that person a less desirable target, the mouse doesn't have to move far to pick someone else.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Riko_Futatabi

I'll keep this relatively brief.

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My solution would be a mouse-over macro.

/micon "Aetherial Manipulation"
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>
/ac "Aetherial Manipulation" <mo>

Something like that, basically. Just keep your camera zoomed out and roll your mouse over whomever you want to zip to. That way you don't have to bother with targeting a player and you can keep slinging spells at enemies.

I am using two macros for it , one targets the nearest pc which I use most of the time and the other one is mouse over macro when I need a specific target

Nice tips, I'll have to try these out. ^^

Still utterly crap to use on controller xD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sylvain

Still utterly crap to use on controller xD

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Negative sir...

Here's my tips for AM (I'm on controller):

Tapping the d-pad is super easy. Use the soft target to pick your AM party member. The soft target lets you go right back to your hard target...

Count your party members' position before the fight. Typically, your healers are three and four taps on your dpad...

When in doubt, target the healer. Ranged DPS is also a decent target...

Never do more then four taps to get a target. Tap down to get tanks and healers and up for DPS... Four times any direction should always be second healer...

Advanced tips:

Put AM on your W cross bar. Set the W cross bar to "return to XHB after WXHB input". This, like the soft targeting, lets you get right back to your rotation automatically.

When you cast AM, immediately take a step. Typically, an AOE will activate before your current cast finishes and AM activates. Taking the step will cancel your current cast and the game's built in buffer system will activate your AM. This will clip your cast and bite your DPS, but you won't die and hurt your DPS worse. Of course, if you cast AM when it can activate immediately, your attempt to take the step will be during the animation, so no uptime is lost during an immediate activation...

Know the fight... Nothing much to be said here...

Memorize your rotation. If you can perform your rotation without looking at your mana, you can focus more on environmental awareness. I know my rotation by heart for six rotations straight. That's enough to cover 3 minutes and my convert cd. Once you know that, you can memorize the alternate timings for number of TC procs. Once I learned and practiced the 3 minute six rotations, the alternate timings were easy to memorize. On top of that, if you have to clip a cast because of AM, you can treat it like an alternate timing and you won't lose your rotation flow...

That's all I got for now. Hopefully, it helps... <3

How to make AM more useful:

* cough, cough *
WoW's Mage "Blink"
* cough, cough *

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sylvain

Still utterly crap to use on controller xD

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Agree with Finkledoodoo here. It might be because I played healer a lot on controller, but targeting itself was never an issue for me. The only problem I have with AM on controller is need to quickly identify target you want to teleport to in unplanned situations. Like, you are in a pug and see someone in perfect place to avoid AoE, but you need to read his name first and then target him on list - mouse users an simply click on him.
You can also adjust your party order to always have your favourite targets to AM on top and bottom for fast targeting.

Real problem with AM is, imo, range. Being a turret, I often end is some weird spots and when I need to use it, it turns out my pre-planned target is too far away.
Another issue is that we still need to finish a cast before using it and can't weave it, so the only use it has is when we need to travel bigger distance than just walking out of local AoE, making it very situational.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RylaBee

How to make AM more useful:

* cough, cough *
WoW's Mage "Blink"
* cough, cough *

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+1 to this. Blink was best thing ever.

One way to make AM and similar abilities work to your advantage is proper team coordination. If you know when your allies will be in a certain place it can then be easier to know which one to target with AM. Mind you this would work better with a proper static group but it is an example of ways to optimize AM so it doesn't need to be changed into something else.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Joe777

One way to make AM and similar abilities work to your advantage is proper team coordination. If you know when your allies will be in a certain place it can then be easier to know which one to target with AM. Mind you this would work better with a proper static group but it is an example of ways to optimize AM so it doesn't need to be changed into something else.

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I believe you should not design MMO basic mechanics (as in class abilities) around static groups.
They represent only a fraction of playing populace. And even many statics are more on the casual side, so will not bother coordinate to such details.

Thats why NIN teleport or DRG backflip (abilities not dependent on others) see lot of use when evading AoE, whereas AE less so.
Hence the strong simplicity of "Blink" - essentially DRG back-flip going instead forward.

Could always just be lame and make it target closest Party member in range and do it that way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MagiusNecros

Could always just be lame and make it target closest Party member in range and do it that way.

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The guy who forget himself in the AoE with you.. will not help you. :P

To be honest, effective use of Aetherial Manipulation has less to do with macros (I use a gamepad) and more to do with strong situational awareness. You just need to be cognizant of which party members are where, and as the attack is coming in, make that split second decision of who to target. There is almost nothing wrong with the skill (although the 4.2 buff was very welcomed), and while Blink would be nice, I vastly prefer Aetherial Manipulation.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RylaBee

I believe you should not design MMO basic mechanics (as in class abilities) around static groups.
They represent only a fraction of playing populace. And even many statics are more on the casual side, so will not bother coordinate to such details.

Thats why NIN teleport or DRG backflip (abilities not dependent on others) see lot of use when evading AoE, whereas AE less so.
Hence the strong simplicity of "Blink" - essentially DRG back-flip going instead forward.

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If everything was designed around strong group coordination then that would be a problem nowadays, but having a few things work better for you with it isn't a bad thing. Also it is true statics differ widely but in this game your chances of getting an even slightly coordinated PUG are slim to none at best, so coordination is more visible in some statics, particularly the ones made up of like minds that get along and agree with each other. Not very common, yes, but not extinct either.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RylaBee

How to make AM more useful:

* cough, cough *
WoW's Mage "Blink"
* cough, cough *

---

Such an awesome ability... but I don't think they would have to do away with the current functionality, just add the functionality that if you don't have a friendly target it moves you forward 15y.... that way it can still be used 'as is' (and would arguably be better, as you could get up to 25y out of it), but would also be infinitely more useable in a great many other situations (inc. solo instances, hunts, fates, quests, and PUGs in general; i.e the 90%+ of this game that isn't Savage Raids).

As for the controller targeting thing, best I've found is:
/macroicon "Aetherial Manipulation"
/action "Aetherial Manipulation" <t>
/action "Aetherial Manipulation" <f>
/action "Aetherial Manipulation" <2>

So you can still manual target, or focus target, if you need to, but otherwise you just zip to the tank, which is generally good enough to avoid all those 'ranged killer' (e.g. cone, donut, etc.) aoes that SE has become so fond of.