Scholar Aetherflow Issues

[EaMett]

Well, the issue with locking SCH out of Aetherflow is that it locks it out of its major healing toolkit. The other healers aren’t locked this way: AST still has their healing tools (Earthly Star, Celestial Intersection, CU, COpp); they can still Draw cards (just not obtain seals—this, while annoying for openers, at least makes a little bit more sense: they don’t want us prepping buffs...you know, aside from DNC who can do that); WHM can still access Tetra, Bene, Divine Benison (they just can’t generate lilies, but the oGCDs should be their first line of defense in terms of healing anyways, then Solace/Rapture, then GCDs). The other two healers have access to their major healing cooldowns outside of combat, but SCH doesn’t. And while I’m not a SCH main, I still feel as if it’s a problem because it makes the job just feel clunky and not nearly as smooth as before. But this is my opinion.



Yes, I do all that you list here. However, it’s still cumbersome to have to engage in combat, then Aetherflow, then Excog, then continue on my way while the tank gather stuff. Especially since none of the other healers have to do anything this convoluted: AST can pre-pull Celestial Intersection/Noct Aspected Benefic, WHM can pre-pull Divine Benison. They don’t have to be engaged in combat to use these skills in their toolkit. So, for me at least, it just doesn’t make sense why SCH is locked out of a lot of its healing toolkit while the other two are not.

I also want to voice how annoying it is to pop Aetherflow as the last mob in a trash pack is dying to have fresh stacks for the boss/next pull, but the game server ticks you and registers it too late—which doesn’t give you the stacks nor put it on CD. Had that happen several times to me tonight. Quite annoying...

Regardless of the healer you're playing you should be doting as many mobs as possible while running. So what if SCH has to weave a couple of skills in-between those Bios? You have an addlo + 50% of your tanks HP to place it, that's a lot of time. It's not a big deal, and definitely not what makes a class "clunky" to play.
Now, the fact we need to clip our GCD for single weaves, or that we don't have any stack dump to weave into our instant gcd casts (so we just wait on the gcd), now that's clunky design.

AF out of combat is a mild QoL at best and definitely not what sch needs the most right now.

And to answer your section on casting AF before the end of the fight. Like I said you don't, you use dissipation instead. Even if for whatever reason you have no stacks, you just bio all the mobs while you run and then you get it up. It's a non issue, there's hardly any gain from placing it before a pull anyways.