Aether Currents Comparing Heavensward to Dawntrail

[jenicegrz]

Hi All

I have recently been replaying the game, and I can't help but notice the increase of required aether currents to gain flying compared between expansions. I find the number of points required to gather in Heavensward an enjoyable amount, especially compared to Dawntrail's.

Do you think there's any chance the Dev Team will return to the Heavensward levels of aether current requirements?

[Feelynn]

The older expansion's currents just got heavily reduced in their number over time. Also you had to do whole quest chains for them, not just the first quest of a chain.
It would not be a "return to form", it would be "making the current ones the easiest any current ones have ever been". I mean, they still are, with them being placed near msq objectives almost all the time instead of being super out of the way, but hopefully you get the gist of what I mean.

[Jeeqbit]

They all required the same amount.

The reason there are less in prior expansions is because they decided to nerf it for old expansions. This was to reduce the hassle for new players that went through the MSQ ignoring aether curents (which they shouldn't, considering the MSQ teaches you to get them and how to do so). Make no mistake, we used to need just as many for Heavensward before that nerf.

[AmiableApkallu]

The number of aether currents currently in Dawntrail zones is the norm. Previous expansions' zones all started out similarly when they were current.

Starting with Patch 6.0, SE decided to nerf older zones.

[Vrankyl]

If anything the current Aether Currents are a lot better than what they were at Launch in HW. The ones in HW in many cases were well off the beaten path and away from MSQ objectives in an attempt to force people to explore whereas now most currents are placed near or along MSQ objectives. On top of that, as another poster mentioned, the ones locked behind quests used to be locked behind whole chains instead of just the first quest of the chain as they are now.

[Daralii]

If anything the current Aether Currents are a lot better than what they were at Launch in HW. The ones in HW in many cases were well off the beaten path and away from MSQ objectives in an attempt to force people to explore whereas now most currents are placed near or along MSQ objectives. On top of that, as another poster mentioned, the ones locked behind quests used to be locked behind whole chains instead of just the first quest of the chain as they are now.

The quest icons also didn't have a special variant if there was a current behind them, so it was either look it up or do them all. I forget if that was changed in 3.X or if it was a Stormblood thing.

[Vrankyl]

The quest icons also didn't have a special variant if there was a current behind them, so it was either look it up or do them all. I forget if that was changed in 3.X or if it was a Stormblood thing.

That's right... gods it's been so long I forgot about that. I'm pretty sure it was fixed with Stormblood because that was definitely a pain.

[Rongway]

now most currents are placed near or along MSQ objectives.

This, tho. If you just ping your compass every time you interact with an MSQ NPC or object, you'll find almost every aethercurrent without ever having to detour more than 50y. This is a much saner way to do it because you won't go chasing after currents on the wrong side of the map that you can't physically get until you come back later in a future quest.

[XtremePrime]

As many people already pointed out, it was nerfed at the start of Endwalker for older expansions to get reduced Aether currents. It used to be pretty much the same as with current Dawntrail.

[ACE135]

I'm actually not a fan of the change, neither the reduction nor the replacement of the Aether Currents. I liked to explore the map for that regard and it felt a bit like a reward. Also the completely uncovering the mini map as soon as you step foot on the map for the first time in older expansions also removes incentives to explore. It kind of just encourages the direct movement from quest giver to quest giver rather than getting to know the world and its surroundings.