So... uh... what does everyone think of this aether current "thing"?

[RazeLandale]

I agree with flying being gated by zone, because if you could just fly everywhere at the start that kills immersion.

As for how they went about it, I liked the compass and exploring. My only complaint would be currents at the end of non main story quest lines. Where you have to go online and look up which quest unlocks the quest with the aetherflow.

[Darra]

There is nothing likeable about this at all. But hey, it's the dev team's specialty, locking every piece of content they possibly can, behind tedious other content. I understand this is a theme park MMO, but even in a real theme park you aren't forced to go on certain rides in order to be allowed on another one, or forced to do the rides in an order set by the park.

[Cutie_McSnuggles]

I haven't done every zone yet but I've been loving them so far. It's a great way to get you to explore.

Edit:
I hope they do more things like this as time goes on. I mean, treasure maps are pretty fun, but I like the compass mechanic.

[myahele]

With the exception of doing side quests. I did enjoy searching for all the Aether Currents and it wasn't too difficult if done blind.

[Jynx]

The aether currents allow the developers to know that players had to at least walk around the map they put so much effort into at least once.

[Nague]

they are annoying but its over quick, so i dont care much.

Other mmos had much more horrible grind to allow free zone travels or quick mounts.

[UBERHAXED]

Well, let me put it this way. I'm a strange person that runs a lot of dungeons for vanity gear and am getting the majority of my experience points from running the dungeons. I basically out level the areas and have to play catch up with the story because I'm one or two levels ahead of it. That means that all those quests in the previous zone get stuck in a back log. So this system seems to be a bit biased towards people who are completionists.

I think it's more like they reward the players who play the game the intended way (and therefore encouraging more players to play the intended way). They don't intend on people skipping the content they put time into putting in the game by finding fast ways to grind levels.

[nbiscuitz]

I like it, it's just exploration and aethryte tuning.

[DreameR7g]

I personally enjoyed unlocking everything over time. It makes you feel like you've really accomplished something once you are allowed to fly in all of the Heavensward zones. I don't like everything being handed to me. At that point, it means nothing to me.

[Felis]

Love the exploration aspect, hate all the sidequest stuff. It makes those sidequests less useful for other classes and makes you do everything on your run through.

You can switch jobs while doing the sidequest. Don't have to do them on the main job.