SCH Aetherflow Changes

I'm pretty sure I am not the only one who think this, but Aetherflow feels so wonky right now. I hate the whole you cant use it unless in battle but that's not what's bothering me. Most of the times (specifically in dungeons) I find myself sitting on stacks and having absolutely nothing to do with them. Tank already has Excog and everyone is full and I am kinda just "sitting" on them with Aetherflow already off CD. We need Energy Drain back and it doesn't matter if it doesn't do damage have it give back some MP. SCH in dungeons is so boring unless they are pulling wall to wall.

Only upside from this expansion is I am literally thinking "It's all buffs from here on out." That's what is keeping me going TBH. :/

Honestly, the only problem with Aetherflow in its current state is its ties to the Fairy Gauge.

Returning Energy Drain to SCH would be weird for Summoners, since they no longer have Aetherflow as an action. A better solution is to make holding stacks of Aetherflow beneficial.
So rather than give back Energy Drain (MP is a real non issue in my experience) why not have it give Fairy Gauge at a steady rate, modified by current Aetherflow stacks for as long as we have at least 1 Aetherflow stack?
Something like 1 Fairy Gauge per 2 seconds, per Aetherflow charge we currently hold.

Also would love to see a new spell for the Fairy that allows us to consume portions of the Fairy Gauge to reduce active cooldowns by 10~20 seconds.
Its something to spend Gauge on that isn't Healing or Damage (the moment we get Damage spenders for AF or FG, that'll becomes the meta thing all SCHs will be demanded to do) but benefits the Party through more Chain Strategem, more Recitation and being able to dump Gauge into getting Seraph back quicker.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sylve

Honestly, the only problem with Aetherflow in its current state is its ties to the Fairy Gauge.

---

No that definitely is not the only problem but it is one of them. It being in combat only is just goofy, and as OP said you very frequently find yourself having a stack to use but no reason to use it. I do like your solution about having an ability that lowers CDs at the cost of fairy but I doubt they would implement that. Maybe a shield ability at the cost of aether so it doesnt feel terrible when you have aetherflow up off CD, with a stack to use and nothing to heal. We need some sort of aetherflow dump ASAP

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by adamswagem

No that definitely is not the only problem but it is one of them. It being in combat only is just goofy, and as OP said you very frequently find yourself having a stack to use but no reason to use it. I do like your solution about having an ability that lowers CDs at the cost of fairy but I doubt they would implement that. Maybe a shield ability at the cost of aether so it doesnt feel terrible when you have aetherflow up off CD, with a stack to use and nothing to heal. We need some sort of aetherflow dump ASAP

---

Thing is, I shouldn't have to ever feel like I need to "burn" resources to get another resource. Making Aetherflow charges have a passive effect (FG Generation) and an active effect (Any AF Action) makes it so holding the AF cooldown is a tactical decision. FG generation for holding it vs "burning" it to use AF again.
Then by tacking on a bonus spell for cooldown reduction based off the FG, We could literally hold Charges to generate FG to spend on Cooldown Reduction to throw a faster Chain Strat/Seraph/Recitation/Indom etc, or spend those AF stacks for instant FG to recast AF for MP.

To reiterate, we currently feel pressured to "Waste" an aetherflow stack on an unnecessary Heal when AF is off Cooldown, or "waste" unused AF charges to put AF back on Cooldown(+MP). Since the reason it feels like a waste is because an unused AF stack doesn't generate FG, combined with just not enough things that interact with said FG, what we need is to address both problems at once.
IE, something beneficial for holding onto an AF stack despite AF being ready and then something to spend excess FG on so overcapping it doesn't feel so crap.

Two QoL changes I'd like to see:

- any party member entering combat should immediately allow the use of Aetherflow, not just yourself
- using Aetherflow while having stacks will put the leftover stacks into your fairy gauge

I hate being forced to wait until combat. The other very annoying thing is that when we enter battle, it seems that it takes anywhere from 2-5 seconds to register and allow the use of Aetherflow. But, literally the split second the last enemy dies it goes back to being unusable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sylve

Thing is, I shouldn't have to ever feel like I need to "burn" resources to get another resource.

---

I used the resource to destroy the resource

In all seriousness I agree, its just that coming from older iterations of SCH we did have something to burn it with that let us do more DPS and gave us back mana. So I was defaulting back to that. Your idea is good too but I dont really think out the box much.

Does anyone else have problems with queueing Aetherflow? I had quite a few situations where the skill just didn't go off when exepected.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alphras

Does anyone else have problems with queueing Aetherflow? I had quite a few situations where the skill just didn't go off when exepected.

---

Im pretty sure that you cant queue with stacks on hand already as "prep" like before. If I were to hit a dummy and use aetherflow and queue up, im pretty sure that the instance will erase them. Not 100% sure though but im almost certain.

I meant queueing the skill.

My thought is that they won't bring Energy Drain back because SE want to separate SCH and SMN as much as possible so that they feel like completely separate jobs. So I wouldn't bank on that at all.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alphras

I meant queueing the skill.

---

I haven't, you can only activate it once you yourself have entered the battle by establishing some sort of threat either via damage or healing damage. If the tank pulls and you haven't done anything you officially haven't entered battle thus Aetherflow not being available. If its not that then no, I haven't experienced anything weird with it. I might be misunderstanding your problem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Caliburn

My thought is that they won't bring Energy Drain back because SE want to separate SCH and SMN as much as possible so that they feel like completely separate jobs. So I wouldn't bank on that at all.

---

Just any kind of aetherflow dump would be nice, I know I specifically said energy drain since that is what we had. If they created a new SCH only skill that lets me use them on something other than a heal would be nice.

In terms of an aetherflow sink, I'd be more inclined to have a HoT versus energy drain. Something we can use more frequently to give to the tank to normalize their hp recovery/loss and augment embrace's passive healing on the side. it should be at the same level you get lustrate so you have a sink at a low level. Perhaps 15s duration with 75potency. There just isn't enough aetherflow options to use before you get excog.

I think another AOE damage that uses aetherflow instead of 'costly' mana like the one we have right now will be a nice one. Saying that, am I doing something wrong if I always feel like I don't even have enough aetherflow stack when pugging a dungeon?

I detest the must be in combat for aetherflow, if we are dealing with this horror purely to keep folks from waiting for the cooldown after wipes etc. just give us full stacks after a wipe, or when we enter a dungeon (at least for SCH) . It makes normal gameplay such a clunky feel, not to mention the first big pulls in dungeons are much more of an adventure when we have no aether stacks and nothing in our fairy gauge.

I would love energy drain back in some form, call it something different to separate from SMN. At least give us something that gives us energy drain II and have it restore the old amount of mana. I'm tired of having to sit and do nothing because I'm low on mana and I have to save some for upcoming heals.

A quick alternative solution could be to move Deployment Tactics to Aetherflow and remove the cooldown. Could function as a Shield version of Indom.

Though I do kinda want Deployment Tactics to become the reverse of Emergency Tactics. ET turns Shield into Healing in an emergency, So how about Deployment Tactics turning the Healing into Shielding?