Any talk about them doing away with Aether Currents for flight

[Bright-Flower]

ARR not having aether currents I think is down to two things.

1. There are a loooot more zones in ARR than any of the expansions. Expansions so far have all had six zones to unlock currents in. I'm not going to go count the ARR zones but it's a lot more than that.

2. ARR flying was added retroactively, where as every other expansion had them at launch. So instead of in a new expansion being able to work on aether currents as you level through them, most players would have to go back to these old zones they're already done with to get it. It would have been a much bigger hassle than unlocking them in new expansions.


The game does have some grinds there to slow you down. Beast tribe quests, you can only get so much reputation in a day, and only accept so many quests in a day too. Capped tomestones mean you have to work for several weeks/months to finish a full set of gear and you can't power through it in a couple weekends. Same with one drop from alliance raids and having to rerun them several times if you aren't lucky with drops. Weekly limits on custom deliveries.

Whether one likes grinds or limits on grinds to stretch them out more like weekly caps, I really don't see aether currents as falling into that category.

[DBriggs304]

They are usually in areas we are going to anyway so nah...keep them. It's hardly any time or work involved.

[StriderShinryu]

Personally, I'd rather they made all of the flight requirements for an area into aether currents. Even if they put them blocked in areas you have to complete a quest to access, it always felt really artificial to me to have them quest locked. It's like "Hey, you helped Bob fix his chocobo-cart.. bam, you have attuned to an aether current!" Like, what, is the aether current coming out of the chocobo's rear end?

[linayar]

Personally, I'd rather they made all of the flight requirements for an area into aether currents. Even if they put them blocked in areas you have to complete a quest to access, it always felt really artificial to me to have them quest locked. It's like "Hey, you helped Bob fix his chocobo-cart.. bam, you have attuned to an aether current!" Like, what, is the aether current coming out of the chocobo's rear end?

For gameplay reasons, they chose specific quests as the medium. I just think of it as doing an activity in that zone is an alternative way to going to a specific place in that zone for attunement. It's just so convenient that the MSQ is a worthy activity for part of that attunement.

[Equitable_Remedy]

Going to be honest—I'm pretty fine with the aether current system.

I guess that I'm supposed to be mad at it, but I'm not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Starshower]

It would be lovely if when you do the last quest of the zone (the one that gives the last quest aether current), it enabled flying in that zone without needing to hunt down aether currents. I know people that still can't fly in some zones, even though they are in the end game, just because they are lazy and can't bother. It drives me crazy!

[Arkdra]

I enjoy the aether currents, even the hilariously sadistic ones in lochs. If they made a daily out of doing them that forbade flight, I'd do it frequently just for my own amusement.

[lolicon09]

Getting those things is easy AF anyway so i hope they never get removed

[Arkevorkhat]

Honestly, I agree with OP, it's always a nasty shock when I come back to an area, especially on my alt, and discover that I didn't do the unnecessary chore of grabbing all the aether currents, and so now I can't fly.
I feel like they only exist because MMO players have this inexplicable mindset that enjoyable content, be that flight in a zone, or completion of a weapon, or access to a new dungeon, must be locked behind doing something inherently non-enjoyable, like grinding the same dungeon 15 times *cough cough* or running around a zone for an hour trying to find little green fart-clouds that have been intentionally placed in difficult but not enjoyable places to access, looking at you, the lochs.

I feel the problem with aether currents is that people who love exploration will explore with or without locking flying behind the currents; people who don't enjoy exploration simply feel like they're being forced to waste time.

The other thing is that, especially for people who joined the game with 5.3, the Aether current system doesn't feel like a reward for doing something, it feels like an obstacle between you and something that you've had in ARR zones ever since you completed ARR's MSQ; it feels more like you're being punished for continuing the story by having flight taken away than it does that you're being given flight for completing something.

[Equitable_Remedy]

Honestly, I agree with OP, it's always a nasty shock when I come back to an area, especially on my alt, and discover that I didn't do the unnecessary chore of grabbing all the aether currents, and so now I can't fly.

I can't quite relate to this. I started playing last year, and I just got the aether currents in each zone as I leveled through them—I'm not sure why I would have done otherwise considering the minimal time it takes and the fact that I routinely do any blue quests that I see.