Help for channeling

Some aether skills are not instant. A skill with a channel time is a committed action: you begin channeling, hold it for a moment, and the skill fires when the channeling completes.

How it works: 
- The aether cost and cooldown are paid when you begin.
- While channeling you are held busy. Other commands queue and fire after.
- The skill strikes when the channeling completes, then normal recovery applies.

Breaking a channeling:

Your channeling can be broken before it fires: 
- Being stunned, staggered, or dazed breaks it.
- The battering wind of [BUFFETED] breaks it the moment it lands.
- Taking a solid hit can break it. Spirit Resilience helps you hold on, and attackers who are not toe to toe with you threaten it far less.
- A grazing blow never breaks a channeling.

A broken channeling returns half the aether you paid. The cooldown stays spent.

Bailing out:

Walking to another room abandons your own channeling. Type retreat or flee to abandon it and get clear of a fight. The remaining stumble passes first, then your command fires.

Filler and payoff:

Short channels sit on quick skills and long channels on powerful ones. A bolt channels for half a second. A storm is worth waiting for.

See also: combat, balance, aether, channeler