Scholar Aetherflow Issues

[galbsadi]

I’m not a SCH main by any means, but I find it really annoying that I can’t Aetherflow out of combat anymore. Really interferes with trying to get an Excog on a tank pre-pull, which is what I usually did. Especially in dungeons just to give them cushion while they’re pulling/establishing hate. Now it’s like... I have to enter combat, Aetherflow if I don’t have the stacks, and then Excog. Which feels really awkward to do. But, again, I’m not a SCH main by any stretch. It’s the weakest of the three healers for me.

A stack dump would be nice. In low level content where I don’t have to heal, I’ve reached the point of dropping Soil randomly and using random Lustrates on an almost full HP tank and it just... feels really bad to do.

I am a SCH main, and I share most of these concerns.

However, while not a perfect solution, you can Recite-Excog pre-combat, so there's that.

[KarnSalander]

AF out of combat is not an issue at all and it's pretty much 100% certain at this point that they will not change it back anyways.. so a lost cause.

I would not call it an "issue", but it is a real bad game play experience. In a dungeon, between two pulls, if you miss your AF refresh by one second, it delays three stacks of resources for 20-30 seconds. Considering that when we had Quicken AF in Stormblood, AF was so quick that I never had to ask my party to wait before pulling, I really wonder what motivated that change that hinders so much the game play experience.

It will make little to no difference in raids and in trials, but it's super annoying in everything else: dungeons, hunts, treasure hunts, etc.

[EaMett]

I would not call it an "issue", but it is a real bad game play experience. In a dungeon, between two pulls, if you miss your AF refresh by one second, it delays three stacks of resources for 20-30 seconds. Considering that when we had Quicken AF in Stormblood, AF was so quick that I never had to ask my party to wait before pulling, I really wonder what motivated that change that hinders so much the game play experience.

It will make little to no difference in raids and in trials, but it's super annoying in everything else: dungeons, hunts, treasure hunts, etc.

Kinda gone over this one but because the pack pulling is predictable the ressource management can be done during bosses. There's no point in using a cooldown if it comes back up when you don't need it anymore and that exactly what "not being able to refresh AF out of combat" does in dungeons. It's not like you would get an extra AF you needed somewhere in there. Between Recitation and dissipation there are plenty of options already. It's a gameplay change, sure, but a minor one at that. It's basically not being happy about having to weave a couple more skills during the pull.

[FoxyAreku]

AF out of combat is not an issue at all and it's pretty much 100% certain at this point that they will not change it back anyways.. so a lost cause.

How is it not an issue exactly? Honest question. Because I'd say it's pretty annoying when you're in a dungeon and the last enemy dies right as aetherflow comes off cooldown.
It's also really annoying that you have to hit something before you can use aetherflow unless it's a raid fight. Feels very bad.

[KilledByKangaroo]

I wish we could use aetherflow outside combat again and I also miss energy drain as a way to dump stacks. If they don't bring back energy drain or something offensive like that maybe they could but a 60 second duration on aetherflow stacks. It takes 60 seconds for AF to cooldown anyway. It would prevent scholars from trying to hold onto 6 potential stacks. The way it is now I'm finding myself trying to use AF right before combat ends just so I can have full stacks for the next fight and I don't think that's a fun way to work around it so they should consider something else besides making AF combat only.

They could even make it so that if you have stacks when the 60 second duration runs out it does something like the fairy would cast a spell giving everyone a barrier. The potency increases based on how many stacks you had when the timer ran out.

[YanderePrincess]

How necessary is it to use Aetherflow every time it comes off CD? Are you absolutely having to or you run out of MP? Or can it just be something you use whenever you run out of Aetherflow stacks and the CD be more about limiting the resource if you have to blow all your stacks early?

[Silphax]

How necessary is it to use Aetherflow every time it comes off CD? Are you absolutely having to or you run out of MP? Or can it just be something you use whenever you run out of Aetherflow stacks and the CD be more about limiting the resource if you have to blow all your stacks early?

It's necessary to use Aetherflow on CD if you want to make efficient use of the tools at your disposal. Not being able to use it between pools and have the ability off CD before the next pool limits my lustrates, which means less healing for the tank as I'm weaving between AoW. Mana isn't actually that much of an issue unless you turn your brain off and spam for a while without pressing Lucid as far as I can tell, it's just really janky having to use Dissipation (which is also limited to combat by the way) to have an extra 3 aetherflow stacks at the end of a pull.

Having less breathing room for (arguably) the best resource for SCH feels off. I don't see a reason for the restriction when it was completely fine for the last six years.

EDIT: Not that I'm only using aetherflow for Lustrate. After Sacred Soil/Excog, there's not much else to spend it on.

[Random_Guy]

It's probably more-so to do with the feast or famine right now of healing as a scholar. If the tank isn't properly mitigating or even just under geared before you could somewhat make up for it with being good with your cd management but it isn't usually the case anymore.

Now its either you have them topped off most of the time cause things are generally going well so you try to spend all of your AF stacks to charge your faerie gauge to be efficient and it could accidentally lead to just not having AF when the encounter ends (which isn't actually the biggest problem cause everything is currently fine), or it's the other side of the spectrum where everything isn't well and it only take 1-4 instances of a few mess ups and suddenly you have to blow everything to keep people alive and then it can be a real struggle for awhile. It's the situation where people mess up where you would rather have the "whole" of your move kit from the beginning so you can excognition before the fight so its cd it up before it ends or simply have your entire moveset from the start.

The mp issue can also start hitting a bit if you're forced to repeatedly blow everything or even sometimes on a "middle of the run" run simply cause people don't usually want to wait for the entirety of the mp gauge till fill out (scholars included) before the next encounter, that and in combat if you're constantly healing and using spells your natural net mp is going down even with the mp regen available depending on what skills are used. This can lead to having long drawn out fights steadily getting worse for people which compounds the problem so a means to slowly counter it would be nice.

As for whether or not it has to be an mp regeneration move though alot of people are generally debating that while trying to be fair, however the general thought on it is just to return it to how it was cause it has been shown to work rather effectively, some people think it could be replaced with another ability entirely (some people have suggested an instant crit shield or a buff/debuff of some sort to stay in line with healers not needing to do damage). As long as it was something to spend your AF stacks on when you do have that free opening when everything is going well and there's no need for the other heals

all of this said however the mp "can" be an issue but generally its not what the main problem is, it's generally the moveset not being there and having to miss out on building the faerie gauge and the utility of having your kit available. The last thing any scholar feels good about is having the tank start pulling a room and they run slightly out of reach where your normal healing casts cant finish before they leave your range with your instant casts being tied to AF and the whole group starts suffering because of it.

[Billythepancake]

How necessary is it to use Aetherflow every time it comes off CD? Are you absolutely having to or you run out of MP? Or can it just be something you use whenever you run out of Aetherflow stacks and the CD be more about limiting the resource if you have to blow all your stacks early?

Because it's a waste of resources more than anything. Say a fight is 10 minutes long, that's 30 aetherflow stacks you should be using. Instead now you're using say, 15-20 because you got nothing to spend them on. It makes the class feel clunky when your main resource is useless. And yes, the mp is a big issue because of the mp cap, as well as the removal of energy drain.

[KilledByKangaroo]

I agree that it's annoying that we can't put excog on the tank pre-pull most of the time anymore. Even if the tank has pulled something the game still doesn't recognize that I'm "in combat" until I either heal the tank or hit an enemy so I have to do one of those things first for no other reason than to be able to use AF.