Quickened Aetherflow is going to be awful

[Rubiss]

Assuming an encounter is 6 minutes long and the Scholar has Aetherflow off cooldown and currently holds 3 stacks, that is roughly 21 stacks of Aetherflow to use. Now if we want to factor in Dissipation (used twice in a six minute period), that's a grand total of 27 stacks of Aetherflow.

Given that there is a 20% chance per Aetherflow action used to lower Aetherflow's CD by 10 seconds, that means that statistically speaking, over an infinite amount of tries, we should see this trait proc about 5.4 times (0.20 * 27) which is about 1 free stack of Aetherflow over a six minute period.

Anecdotally, this could proc every time an action is used or never. That's not really important. The point is, over multiple uses, it should gravitate towards the above value.

So what does this mean?

SCH is getting a new ability which is essentially an Aetherflow refresh on a six minute CD.

Sounds pretty bad.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

Aetherflow works exactly the same as it always did. It refreshing or not is a completely free reward. There's no spells being gated behind Aetherflow RNG or anything, this isn't something even mildly concerning.

[joannaluttrell]

It's bad that we may sometimes get extra aetherflow stacks? /scratches head

[Rubiss]

It's bad that we may sometimes get extra aetherflow stacks? /scratches head

This is a skill we get in 4.0. Like, this takes the place of another skill we could have gotten. Do you really think 1-2 stacks every 12 minutes is actually good? It's horribly mediocre. In any dungeon encounter (which don't last six minutes anyways, but let's say they did), assuming optimal usage of Aetherflow, including the use of Dissipation, you're looking at a gain of one free stack. This isn't concerning? The actual gain is so small, yet this is an actual skill we're getting. Not a passive, not a level up ability. This takes up one of our five new skills in 4.0. You're fine with filler? A throwaway?

[joannaluttrell]

This is a skill we get in 4.0. Like, this takes the place of another skill we could have gotten. Do you really think 1-2 stacks every 12 minutes is actually good? It's horribly mediocre. In any dungeon encounter (which don't last six minutes anyways, but let's say they did), assuming optimal usage of Aetherflow, including the use of Dissipation, you're looking at a gain of one free stack. This isn't concerning? The actual gain is so small, yet this is an actual skill we're getting. Not a passive, not a level up ability. This takes up one of our five new skills in 4.0. You're fine with filler? A throwaway?

Could be better is not at all the same thing as bad.

[Rubiss]

Could be better is not at all the same thing as bad.

Mediocre is bad. That's a problem. Complacency isn't a solution.

[Lambdafish]

Mediocre is bad. That's a problem. Complacency isn't a solution.

SCH was already good, adding a skill that doesn't make it even better doesn't make the job bad. SCH was still king even though it had dissipation (until 3.4 anyway). Like others are saying, its a nice bonus.

[MsTanya]

Quick Aether just slashing aetherflow cooldown in half would have been a better choice overall. Promoted more synergy with our lvl70 ability, kept aetherflow the same as it is now in % restoration which in turn frees up a slot of our cross role action bar since lucid wouldn't be as big of a need, bolstered single target dps in downtime or helped us bolster our co healers dps with more healing options and output through extra flow stacks. This would also have set us further apart from summoners and given us our own unique mechanic. As it stands is it a buff? Sure very minutely. If you take into consideration the nerf to its refresh though its still not on par to what it is now.

[Rubiss]

Quick Aether just slashing aetherflow cooldown in half would have been a better choice overall. Promoted more synergy with our lvl70 ability, kept aetherflow the same as it is now in % restoration which in turn frees up a slot of our cross role action bar since lucid wouldn't be as big of a need, bolstered single target dps in downtime or helped us bolster our co healers dps with more healing options and output through extra flow stacks. This would also have set us further apart from summoners and given us our own unique mechanic. As it stands is it a buff? Sure very minutely. If you take into consideration the nerf to its refresh though its still not on par to what it is now.

Finally some sense. Even 15 seconds would have been better. Hell, even a flat 10 seconds off would be better than how it is now.

[Hustensaft]

SCH was already good, adding a skill that doesn't make it even better doesn't make the job bad. SCH was still king even though it had dissipation (until 3.4 anyway). Like others are saying, its a nice bonus.

It's not a "bonus", because in 99% of all scenarios, you won't see any benefit from it.

Further, proccing it off consuming Aetherflow is actually pretty bad design. Ideally, you have to use your last aetherflow stack when the cooldown is > 10 sec. You have to use your second stack when the cooldown is > 20 sec.
If that's not happening, then you're wasting a lot of potential of the ability, and the average 10% cooldown reduction is signficantly lower, and is more ~6.66%. Just looking at that value you'd notice how neglectable it is, when 10% already was neglectable.

The Devs completely failed at designing these cooldown reduction traits. They're neglectable gameplay wise and effective wise. That's also true for White Mage Lillies and the Assize/Asylum reduction trait.