Scholar 6.0 Rework

[Saefinn]

I actually get the disdain for ED. I think it would be ideal if 'wasting' it was like 'wasting' a Lily in most scenarios: WHMs don't use their lilies just to get Blood Lilly unless they already used 2, and don't have a way to avoid 'wasting' them. Likewise, SCH using ED instead of heal skills sorta 'warps' what the resource is for.

I also get why a lot of SCHs don't like this too mind, that warping is in its own way good, it adds a lot of skill to SCH to know when you need to use an aetherflow to save someone for a much bigger DPS gain than using ED and forces you to really think about what heals you need. I just understand the desire for no ED because of that weird tension.

It's more that Energy Drain exists as an aetherflow dump, because people find themselves with an excess of aertherflow stacks with nothing to spend them on. It's an issue with Lilies as they don't have something other t han heals to spend on. I would say the safest time to use them is just before your next "Aetherflow" has finished its cooldown. You can either purge them into your DPS or if you need to heal in those moments, use them on that. That way you're not wasting anything not are you putting yourself at risk of having no Aetherflow stacks when you need them.

[dezzmont]

It's more that Energy Drain exists as an aetherflow dump, because people find themselves with an excess of aertherflow stacks with nothing to spend them on. It's an issue with Lilies as they don't have something other t han heals to spend on. I would say the safest time to use them is just before your next "Aetherflow" has finished its cooldown. You can either purge them into your DPS or if you need to heal in those moments, use them on that. That way you're not wasting anything not are you putting yourself at risk of having no Aetherflow stacks when you need them.

No, you don't understand. Aetherflow doesn't intrinsicly need a dump, and the 'dump' isn't actually a dump. It completely changes your relationship with aetherflow because now using Aetherflow for heals is a DPS loss.

This is, low key, why I am starting to level WHM. The fact you don't need to think about Lilies as anything but a healing resource is a feature, not a flaw.

Imagine if Aetherflow DIDN'T have a dump. You only used it on heals. Suddenly if you had aetherflow but no oGCD heals, the choice between using an aetherflow heal and a non-aetherflow heal is a no brainer, just use the aetherflow heal you dummy: they don't cost MP, they heal more, they have shorter recast timers.

But with a dump, suddenly every heal you use aetherflow on is a loss of an extra 100 potency, so your not just dumping aetherflow you didn't have, the entire class plays differently... Now you only use aetherflow to heal if it is actually required to keep someone alive. It is actually a pretty substantial change to the job to have it or not have it. Having a 'resource dump' is a non-issue, like you don't need a resource dump for say... MP or HP if your capped out from your regens. But ED makes it so you view the entire resource as a different type of resource, its now a DPS resource you can burn for emergency heals, and that reminds people that healers are green DPS in most content in a way that can make people feel weird, even though it is actually interesting and a good way to differentiate good SCH and bad SCH by how much they can ride that line and maximize ED usage.

This is also why they keep removing and adding ED back in: They don't like that it isn't a pure healing resource but its also super interesting and SCHs love it and it makes the job feel distinct, so any time they remove it people get upset. There is a lot more going on than just 'Oh I can spend my aetherflow to hit the button again and get more mana back.'

[inhaledcorn]

No, you don't understand. Aetherflow doesn't intrinsicly need a dump, and the 'dump' isn't actually a dump. It completely changes your relationship with aetherflow because now using Aetherflow for heals is a DPS loss.

This is, low key, why I am starting to level WHM. The fact you don't need to think about Lilies as anything but a healing resource is a feature, not a flaw.

Imagine if Aetherflow DIDN'T have a dump. You only used it on heals. Suddenly if you had aetherflow but no oGCD heals, the choice between using an aetherflow heal and a non-aetherflow heal is a no brainer, just use the aetherflow heal you dummy: they don't cost MP, they heal more, they have shorter recast timers.

But with a dump, suddenly every heal you use aetherflow on is a loss of an extra 100 potency, so your not just dumping aetherflow you didn't have, the entire class plays differently... Now you only use aetherflow to heal if it is actually required to keep someone alive. It is actually a pretty substantial change to the job to have it or not have it. Having a 'resource dump' is a non-issue, like you don't need a resource dump for say... MP or HP if your capped out from your regens. But ED makes it so you view the entire resource as a different type of resource, its now a DPS resource you can burn for emergency heals, and that reminds people that healers are green DPS in most content in a way that can make people feel weird, even though it is actually interesting and a good way to differentiate good SCH and bad SCH by how much they can ride that line and maximize ED usage.

This is also why they keep removing and adding ED back in: They don't like that it isn't a pure healing resource but its also super interesting and SCHs love it and it makes the job feel distinct, so any time they remove it people get upset. There is a lot more going on than just 'Oh I can spend my aetherflow to hit the button again and get more mana back.'

Here's the problem: Aetherflow uses ties directly to another one of your skills (in this case, Aetherpact/Fey's Union). Without dumping those resources, you don't generate the amount of Fey's Union that the game expects you to. Granted, Fey's Union isn't that great a skill, but it's a part of SCH's healing kit. Without the Aetherflow "dump", you don't generate the amount of Fey's Gauge that you should. That's the problem with the removal of Energy Drain.

[EaMett]

Imagine if Aetherflow DIDN'T have a dump. You only used it on heals. Suddenly if you had aetherflow but no oGCD heals, the choice between using an aetherflow heal and a non-aetherflow heal is a no brainer, just use the aetherflow heal you dummy: they don't cost MP, they heal more, they have shorter recast timers.

We don't have to imagine. That's how it was on launch. And what happened was that we almost stopped using stacks altogether. I've said this before but most content in this game will require about only 10% usage of aetherflow stacks on heals. So if you do a 10mn fight you will only need to use aetherflow in the opener and then never use it again. Not only that but 1) Aetherflow costs an ogcd, + the heals cost an ogcd so you're already dealing with a higher dps loss for healing than you would on other classes. This makes it even worse without a dump 2) You lock yourself out of faerie gauge skills. There's a reason they reverted that disaster of a change at the start of ShB.

Also like others said. Sorting out when to use the stacks for healing and when to use them for DPS is the entire point of the class and the only reason it's even remotely interesting and not an absolutely bore like WHM (though admittedly working around clipping at high level can be its own sport). And yeah I know that despite that, SCH isn't mountains more interesting than WHM right now, but at least stacks and ED give it some flavor.

If SE wants to get rid of ED then why not just make unused stacks of AF go to the fey gauge. Will make things so much easier.

Because you typically don't need the healing from the gauge. The kit is already so overtuned that any extra healing is kinda pointless. I would not waste an OGCD on Aetherflow just for some gauge. Not with the current damage output (<< we all know that's not going anywhere).