Scholar 5.0 Discussion

[TipRingSleeve]

So maybe this is just me, but as much as I love the general feel and change in Scholar since Shadowbringers came out (seeing what my barriers are doing and heals generally feeling more powerful especially at 80), there's a change that has really been getting on my nerves rather often.

Aetherflow. Specifically, being unable to activate it outside of combat.

Now, I get why it was put in place (at least in the context of high level raids and such) but whatever flag/variable is setup that decides when I get to use Aetherflow seems to be one that's very poorly picked.

In order to get Aetherflow to work, I have to get into combat and be on the aggro table, which is usually by either healing a party member in combat or firing off a spell at an enemy. For something like a boss fight, it's a non issue, but I've had so many situations where I'll go into a duty where the tank decides to do big pulls, sprinting ahead as fast as possible, and where as before I would be able to toss Excog on the tank to make sure they don't die from getting completely swarmed or fire of a Lustrate when they're already draining health pretty quickly, I'm blocked from being able to do that. Even though the tank has aggro and the party is essentially in combat, apparently because I haven't healed the tank or hit an enemy, I'm unable to use Aetherflow until I do one of those two things.

The problem with this system is that both Physick and Adlo take time to cast, and often the tank will run out of my range before I can finish casting it. The other option is to toss Biolysis or Ruin II on an enemy, but that just feels so absolutely clunky and a waste of time that would be better spent... you know, healing.

On a conceptional level, I'm pretty neutral about the idea of not being able to use Aetherflow until you're in combat, and it's not something that'll make or break the deal. But whatever system has been put in place is making it difficult for me heal effectively, not because of stats or gear, but because of some weirdly arbitrary mechanic that I don't see having really any benefit to how the game feels to play.

Why can't I just use Aetherflow as soon as ANY party member enters combat? At least that way things going badly is the result of poor teamwork rather than a implemented class function AND poor teamwork.