The problem with Aetherflow Logic....

[Tygiuu]

Look, anyone who says Aetherflow battle locking was because they wanted to eliminate pre-pull conditions is in denial that it was anything other than poor planning.

AST is not battle locked on drawing cards, so obviously pre-pull conditions wasn't that big of a deal eh?

Glad I got that off my chest.

[Haxaan]

AST pulling card in nor pre-battle locked, but obtaining seals from our cards is. The functionality is pretty different. I do agree I think it's silly for either of them to be battle locked however, still trying to understand that change myself.

[Patt]

The change to OOB Aetherflow has been so confusing to me, and similarly (even to a bigger extent) the change to cards OOB. For AF, it just essentially means we need to overrwite stacks at the end of an encounter (applicable for dungeon pulls) so we don't waste the AF cooldown between pulls. In boss fights, it just means we have an extra thing to weave at the beginning of battle.

It's especially weird considering we're holding onto stacks more than ever before now, since there's no Aetherflow dump, so having the extra 3 stacks before combat starts would not even provide an advantage now, aside from using an oGCD weave to get it on cooldown.

For Astro, the fact that you can draw cards outside of battle, but don't get seals from using them in battle seems like a poor design choice, I feel it especially when slinging cards at the start of a battle and get confused as to why a seal wasn't applied. This happens more so in dungeons between/at the start of pulls, but is equally annoying in boss fights as well.

[LegoTechnic]

It wasn't as much of an issue for SCH, but more for SMN who would pop Aetherflow and then need about a minute to reset the cooldown for an optimal DPS opener. SCH could abuse pre-stacks as well for three free energy drains or whatever at the start, but with the aetherflow cooldown trait it wasn't as long a wait. Granted now that SMN doesn't even have aetherflow anymore and SCHs can't Energy Drain to save their sanity none of that matters, so there's not really any good reason to keep this change. What are we going to do, overheal with more lustrates at the start? Savage would need to start with multi tank-busters right from the get-go.

But that's why they did it; to stop opener waiting. It wouldn't be so bad really, except everything else they did exacerbated it.

[CaesarCV]

Yeah, the only reason was to try and prevent opener waiting. Unfortunately they really didn't think about just how clunky it makes Aetherflow management in Dungeons. Having to burn a worthless heal on a tank or a random DOT just to get into combat never feels very good. Again though, they clearly prioritized reducing drama between Healers and other roles over Healer engagement with all of these changes so maybe it's not too surprising....

[EaMett]

Look, anyone who says Aetherflow battle locking was because they wanted to eliminate pre-pull conditions is in denial that it was anything other than poor planning.

AST is not battle locked on drawing cards, so obviously pre-pull conditions wasn't that big of a deal eh?

Glad I got that off my chest.

Don't worry they planned for this by making sure nobody would play AST. /s

[Naychan]

Its like they are punishing people for playing a healer. Hey grab a book and play wack-a-mole and then hit 2 keys for the next min for dps. Cause yeah that’s fun.

[nalol]

yeah u just wanna cast your aetherflow just in the end of a trash fight to get enough stacks for next fight.

but on trials u always start with 0. I guess it's to balance us with how lillies work. but it does feel so strange indeed.

anyhow the faery gauge doesn't increase if we use aetherflow outside of combat ? don't remember and haven't tried

[Deceptus]

The absolute, 100% worst thing about Aetherflow having to be used in combat is often it takes a server tick to recognize you're in combat. That can be up to 3 seconds of the tank getting mauled in dungeons

anyhow the faery gauge doesn't increase if we use aetherflow outside of combat ? don't remember and haven't tried

It's been that way since Fey Union was put in.

[RayThrust]

You can't obtain seals out of combat, you can't generate lilies out of combat. I think it's just more of a "balance the healers-thing" going on.