Just logged on last night and noticed that AOE indicators have now been switched to a bright yellow-orange and pulses constantly. This is extremely noisy and distracting.

Specifically, the worst part about the indicator is that the pulses are completely independent of the actual ability being cast -- they are not synchronized in any way. It would make way more sense if the pulse inside the AOE marker hit the edge at the same time as the spell finished casting, e.g. if the pulse were sync'd with the spellcast.

It's not. It pulses essentially randomly. This interferes with player timing of the actual AOE effect.

It's also too bright in general. I would appreciate an option to revert to the old style red AOEs. Optimally, I would prefer a red (or orange-yellow) AOE indicator of the same brightness as the old indicators, with the pulse synchronized to the spellcast. This sort of pulse can be observed with Wildstar telegraphs, for example.