Feedback on Aetherial Manipulation.

[Riko_Futatabi]

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

[Sylvain]

Still utterly crap to use on controller xD

[Finkledoodoo]

Still utterly crap to use on controller xD

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

[RylaBee]

How to make AM more useful:

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

[Terkhev]

Still utterly crap to use on controller xD

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.

How to make AM more useful:

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

+1 to this. Blink was best thing ever.

[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.

[RylaBee]

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.

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.

[MagiusNecros]

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

[RylaBee]

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

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

[Eli85]

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.