Scholar Aetherflow Issues

[Nethereal]

We all know not having an aetherdump skill like energy drain is a problem. However, the glaring issue I see with aetherflow that I don't see many mention is the fact that three of its four skills are not only locked behind aetherflow, but also have their own cooldowns. I cannot stress enough how crazy it drives me when skills use multiple resources. DRK's old skill Dark Passenger was like this too having a long CD AND an extremely high MP cost.

I am ok with Indom, Excog, and Sacred Soil remaining aetherflow skills, but those CDs need to be drastically reduced; then just make all the skills share the recast timer. If we were to get ED back, it would make even more sense for them to set up aetherflow this way. I won't say the way it is set up now breaks SCH, but it's an annoyance I've had even before ShB and now that we also can't use it outside of combat, dealing with aetherflow is exactly that: Dealing with it.

You literally can't use math.

Indom without a cd and stacks would be broken. Just saying. Meta would be solo heal sch.



Not even remotely comparable. The healing component of afflatus skills is irrelevant to the gameplay. It's only bonus. If tomorrow you took away all the healing from the skills and removed rapture to only keep solace as an instant cast that does NOTHING (short of huilding the blood lily), it would still be a cornerstone of WHM gameplay and be used regularly. Afflatus skills are basically a Ruin II with healing attached. Actually, not only that but it's a better Ruin II since it can be used to single weave and has no mana cost.

Even if that weren't readily obvious. The fact that lilies allow for some form of dps and AF does not should've been a good clue that they aren't the same.

Except that's completely biased towards dps. You can't beat something without damage and you can't stay alive without healing. The healing from lilies is just as relevant as the damage from the blood lily after 3 uses, you just have an extreme bias towards dps on healers. You disregarding the fact you heal more (3) than you dps (1) with lilies doesn't change the fact just because your opinion is biased more towards dps. The majority of the mechanic is used for healing same as aetherflow. 75% healing 25% damage. In fact lilies and aetherflow share more in common than they don't. They share, healing, instacast, free resource. What they don't share, oGCD, aetherflow has no damage ouput. You could argue you get 3 aetherflow in 60 seconds compared to 2 lilies but not all resources are created equal and even then it just evens them out.

I'm struggling with the must be in combat for to use AF etc.

I'm a new SCH, swapped from WHM last expansion, maybe folks have some tips for me.

I only really only struggle with one pull in current experts. It is the first pull of the dungeon and wall to wall ends up with 3 groups and a roamer. It is the one where you are running down ramps etc. I'm spacing on the name. It seems I can manage the pull if I do things without error, but it can be very dicey if others take damage, or the tank doesn't use cool downs properly.

I start with tank Adlo pre pull,
get in combat and AF,
run ahead of tank so I can shield again after the roamer is picked up, or after the 2nd group depending.
then once we are down at the bottom where the last group resides..
Sacred soil,
Excog,
Lustrate when needed, (at this point quite a ways from AF coming off cooldown) might cast adlo a few times to buy time.
At this point I sometimes will use the fairy tether or I will use whispering dawn & dissipate
if disipate now I've got 3 stacks so will keep on going (sometimes I find I have to start hard casting Adlo if I go through stacks quickly)
use up the new AF stacks, hopefully the fairy is about back and AF is off cooldown.
If I can make it through this period I'm good, if not it can get dicey...

Other than making that first pull tough, I find I'm having to micro manage AF stacks, is combat about to end, maybe burn stacks and recast before combat is over. I would really love something similar to energy drain, a little damage and MP back would be so handy. Also makes soloing a bit easier/faster.

Do your job and heal. If your tank is having problems staying alive you heal. The only GCD heal you used in that entire scenario is pre-pull aldo and maybe 2-3 to "buy time", do you really not see the problem when your primary role is to keep your team alive?

Think of lucid as another defensive CD after popping all that stuff just use lucid and spam adlo til lucid wears off, weave as needed. Adlo is the new cure 2 for sch.