Quote Originally Posted by dezzmont View Post
No, you don't understand. Aetherflow doesn't intrinsicly need a dump, and the 'dump' isn't actually a dump. It completely changes your relationship with aetherflow because now using Aetherflow for heals is a DPS loss.

This is, low key, why I am starting to level WHM. The fact you don't need to think about Lilies as anything but a healing resource is a feature, not a flaw.

Imagine if Aetherflow DIDN'T have a dump. You only used it on heals. Suddenly if you had aetherflow but no oGCD heals, the choice between using an aetherflow heal and a non-aetherflow heal is a no brainer, just use the aetherflow heal you dummy: they don't cost MP, they heal more, they have shorter recast timers.

But with a dump, suddenly every heal you use aetherflow on is a loss of an extra 100 potency, so your not just dumping aetherflow you didn't have, the entire class plays differently... Now you only use aetherflow to heal if it is actually required to keep someone alive. It is actually a pretty substantial change to the job to have it or not have it. Having a 'resource dump' is a non-issue, like you don't need a resource dump for say... MP or HP if your capped out from your regens. But ED makes it so you view the entire resource as a different type of resource, its now a DPS resource you can burn for emergency heals, and that reminds people that healers are green DPS in most content in a way that can make people feel weird, even though it is actually interesting and a good way to differentiate good SCH and bad SCH by how much they can ride that line and maximize ED usage.

This is also why they keep removing and adding ED back in: They don't like that it isn't a pure healing resource but its also super interesting and SCHs love it and it makes the job feel distinct, so any time they remove it people get upset. There is a lot more going on than just 'Oh I can spend my aetherflow to hit the button again and get more mana back.'
The problem is, the healing requirement is low and SCH's toolkit is so efficient that you're just sitting on Aetherflow stacks for a long time, so for a lot of content it ends up an unused resource. And it is also used to build up a secondary resource. By not having a dump for a lot of content it means you don't get very much use out of two of your resources. This if anything is also a general healer issue: 70% of the time you have a non-healing focus and very few skills that you have available to make that gap interesting. For the remaining 30% you have a huge plethora of healing abilities, of which you're not getting near full use out of, so stuff ends up feeling redundant.

So the outcome is that you just don't feel like you've got much to do. And thats dull and monotonous.

Energy Drain is an ability that at least somewhat alleviates that and makes use of something you're not using.