What Dissipation should have been

After receiving some positive feedback in another thread about Scholar skills I've decided to make my own thread.

Dissipation, as it stands, is so situational it's almost next to useless. I won't rag on it too much as it has legitimately saved the day in Alexander Savage for me, but that was due to the Aetherflow and the fact that the very last phase of A2S requires little healing when just the Gobwidows are left.

At any rate, I think Dissipation would be better if the reward was higher. Either a boost to the overall percentage gained to healing (I heard that the 20% isn't even worth it as the fairy healing for 30 seconds greatly outweighs it.) or making it boost spells and abilities. To be honest, if I had to rework Dissipation I'd do it like this...

Gives the user three Aetherflow stacks, desummons their fairy and summons the opposite fairy. So if you used Dissipation with Selene, she would go away and Eos would replace her. Based on which fairy was desummoned the Scholar would gain a different effect. If Selene is desummoned, maybe the entire party gets a haste buff (which can override or stack with Fey Wind). Maybe like 10%? (This is once every 3 minutes, you know). If Eos is desummoned, give the Scholar 20% more healing on spells and abilities.

This may sound OP but I think it adds a new meta to Scholar healing. Not only would you use Dissipation for emergency healing, but you would use it swap fairies. This actually enables the Scholar to use everything in their toolkit and would give each fairy some time to shine without the huge penalty of either wasting 5 precious seconds or blowing an important Swiftcast.

Let me know what you think and what you would change. I understand Scholar is a great healer and I'm not trying to buff them to make them broken, but Dissipation is just far too situational to even see proper use.

Have you seen any Alexander Savage group without a scholar? No.
Scholar is fine and needs no changes and needs no buffs.

Most of the time when I use Dissipation during savage, it's for additionnal dps before changing fairy, depend of the phase.

This would be a god send for me.

After Dissipation wore off, I think a simple 10~15 seconds buff that gives you instant cast and no MP cost for Summon I / Summon II will be great. Since the skill already has a long cooldown I don't think this addition will make it too OP, it's just so you don't have to use the Aetherstack gained from it for Energy Drain if you're out of MP and swiftcast your fairy back.

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Originally Posted by Ninimo_Babamo

Have you seen any Alexander Savage group without a scholar? No.
Scholar is fine and needs no changes and needs no buffs.

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This. You can never balance based on individual skills. You have to balance based on the whole package.

Is the skill bad? Sure, it could've been a lot better. But the whole package is still top-notch.

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Originally Posted by Alistaire

This. You can never balance based on individual skills. You have to balance based on the whole package.

Is the skill bad? Sure, it could've been a lot better. But the whole package is still top-notch.

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I don't see why a class being good warrants a poor skill. I'm not saying that Scholar isn't good. I main a Scholar, I am aware that the class is quite good. However Dissipation is not very good at all. Fairy switching is almost non-existent and when it is used, it is very costly. Dissipation can save the day at times (very rarely) but you end up fairyless and have to either sit there for several seconds (costing you DPS and heal time) and resummon the fairy or use Swiftcast which is a very valuable tool.

I know Scholar is fine. They're a nice class who can do their role well. I don't see why that warrants having such a poor skill.

What I like about your suggestion is it attempts to remove (or at least mitigate) the penalty while adding a new dimension to the SCH playstyle. As you note yourself, balance is the first concern that comes to mind, as your suggestion may be approaching OP territory, at least in certain ways. I'm assuming that in your new suggestion, we'd be eliminating the existing potency buff and replace it with the buff corresponding with the fairy that you sacrifice (otherwise, that would just be bananas). But in any event, your Eos buff essentially equates with the current buff, but without losing Embrace and potentially extending the buff to abilities. This is probably OP, bc a healing buff AND free aetherflow stacks is...a lot. But when you think about it, if the only cost to you is switching to the other fairy, then free stacks on top of a buff is, in all likelihood, going to be too powerful, unless you get only 1 free stack and a smaller (e.g., maybe 10% healing buff). More to come.

So I think there are a number of options to play with, depending on what you think Dissipation should actually accomplish. If you want it to be an emergency healing tool (which is what it's *supposed* to be), then extra aetherflow is definitely the way to go. But if you think about it, 3 stacks of aetherflow is....all we'd really want in an emergency CD. So to make it add an interesting new dimension without being too OP, I think 1 Aetherflow stack + fairy buff would be appropriate. Then you could get maybe a 20% healing boost from Eos and it wouldn't be OP. As for Selene's buff, let's consider another possible purpose for Dissipation: honestly, what it often gets used for currently is a DPS boost, so maybe Selene could give you a Spell speed boost to strengthen your DoTs (or something).

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Originally Posted by KinnisonArc

After Dissipation wore off, I think a simple 10~15 seconds buff that gives you instant cast and no MP cost for Summon I / Summon II will be great. Since the skill already has a long cooldown I don't think this addition will make it too OP, it's just so you don't have to use the Aetherstack gained from it for Energy Drain if you're out of MP and swiftcast your fairy back.

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This is also a good option. But even then, 30 seconds w/ out your fairy is still a high cost, so I'd also just shorten the buff from 30 to maybe 15 seconds.

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Originally Posted by Rubiss

I don't see why a class being good warrants a poor skill. I'm not saying that Scholar isn't good. I main a Scholar, I am aware that the class is quite good. However Dissipation is not very good at all. Fairy switching is almost non-existent and when it is used, it is very costly. Dissipation can save the day at times (very rarely) but you end up fairyless and have to either sit there for several seconds (costing you DPS and heal time) and resummon the fairy or use Swiftcast which is a very valuable tool.

I know Scholar is fine. They're a nice class who can do their role well. I don't see why that warrants having such a poor skill.

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I agree. Especially since the OP is more interested in taking a terrible skill and changing it in such a way that it adds depth to the job, not necessarily raw power. At least, that's how I interpreted the post.

something should be done around dissipation, not sure what but it really feels like not working as intended...
the only time I use it is during hands in AS2
maybe making the fairy recast instant after dissipation would make it more useful, that would make me use it way more often I think

emergency maintenance should also reduce the adlo/succor cast time because it does not feel like an "emergency skill" at all as it takes time to get the heal going
in exchange just increase the recast time of emergency maintenance

I say keep it how it is, but...
make it so we get 3 ADDITIONAL aether stacks seperate from aetherflow.

Honestly I just want to get my faerie back in a user friendly manner over hard casting assuming SC was used during the emergency/dps rotation extension from added stacks.....

Making it auto-switch faeries would be interesting and would get rid of dissipation's hidden 2k mana cost, but I don't think it's necessary. Dissipation saves my tanks almost every time I'm in A1S.

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Originally Posted by Ninimo_Babamo

Have you seen any Alexander Savage group without a scholar? No.
Scholar is fine and needs no changes and needs no buffs.

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My group does not have a SCH. We're running AST and WHM.

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Originally Posted by Sailysium

Honestly I just want to get my faerie back in a user friendly manner over hard casting assuming SC was used during the emergency/dps rotation extension from added stacks.....

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See this is the thing. Any situation (beyond DPS) that you're using Dissipation is already kind of bad. Not having Swiftcast or even worse, having it on the CD puts you at a disadvantage. The synergy is bad with Dissipation and a lot of the Scholar's abilities. The 20% buff to healing isn't what "saves the day" it is the Aetherflow which let you cast Lustrate and/or Indominability. A Scholar's fairy is very important and getting rid of it, especially for what Dissipation offers in return, is really not worth it in the long run.

I am not saying Dissipation is useless. It's not. But it can be so much better without making the class OP. Even something as simple as the fairy coming back after the cast or being able to get them back quickly and ideally with little to no MP cost would allow the skill to see more use. I think fairy switching just adds a whole new dynamic to the class. You could plan out the skill's usage for certain phases and really use each fairy to their best potential.

I really like the idea of a fairy swap, I would completely fine with the ability if did the following:

-swaps out fairies and resets their cds*
-grants 3 aetherflow stacks

The +20% healing spell buff could be done away completely as it's useless as is.

edit: * that would probably OP now it think about it

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Originally Posted by Khyan

Most of the time when I use Dissipation during savage, it's for additionnal dps before changing fairy, depend of the phase.

This would be a god send for me.

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Extra DPS? You mean Energy Drain? It's the only thing I can think of. I am sure it doesn't increase dmg potencies.. Maybe bane? It's really all I can think of, does this actually do something else for dps?

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Originally Posted by Alu79

Extra DPS? You mean Energy Drain? It's the only thing I can think of. I am sure it doesn't increase dmg potencies.. Maybe bane? It's really all I can think of, does this actually do something else for dps?

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Both and it does. Energy drain is not in gcd.

Dissipation will only incease healing potency but ur dps will spike a little more from gaining xtra stacks while waiting for AF for 30+ seconds to burn more ED and banes within dps opener/priority rotations. Risky and I usually only do this for my opener of 9 EDs total weaved in or via dungeons when the timing is right so that SC and Fey Wind just come up when dissipation ends

Would adding the effect of Battle Litany to Dissipation be broken? I love your idea of the fairy switching effects OP.

Also, another great use for dissipation is if Eos or Selene take a hit and die you can dissipate them for free aetherflow stacks while they're at 0 HP in the party list before they dissapear.

I like the idea of a pseudo Enkindle by adding a New effect when dissipating your fairy. Kill eso would heal in aoe for like 400 potency, and Selene would give a shield of a potency of 200( or smth). And i think that the fairy we killed should return on its own at the end of the effect. being able to switch fairy for free sounds a bit op, nah ?

The only real issue I see with this skill is the way it works.

You can use Dissipation when your fairy dies and have the effects activate. So fairy falls to 0 HP and during its long death animation, if you cast Dissipation, the fairy will die anyway and you'll get your buff. In the case of this change, you'd be able to let the fairy die and then re-summon the other one instantly, thus losing the penalty of allowing the fairy to get rekt. Not a super bad issue, but something noteworthy, I think.

Aside from that, I feel this would be a far more effective and worthwhile skill for SCH to learn at 60 than Dissipation, which is situational and more useful for the DPS gain of +3 Energy Drains than it is for the healing boost.

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Originally Posted by Rawrz

Dissipation:
Orders your pet away while granting you a full Aetherflow stack. Also increases healing magic potency by 20% for 30s (PvP 45s).
Summon or Summon II cannot be executed while under the effect of Dissipation.
Additional Affect: While under the effect of Dissipation select abilities have increased Potency by 20%.
Lustrate: 720
Indomitability: 480
Energy Drain: 180 (This will not affect MP recovered.)

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This fixes the healing potency being unaffected, even if that was intentional. It also allows for 6 buffed energy drains, every use. Which is like gaining a free energy drain and then some, on top of the dps increase that dissipation already brings.

I think what OP suggested should be our level 70 "ultimate" skill. :D Minus the additional aetherflow.

Just an idea: dissapation turns your lvl 51-60 class skills into fairy abilities. Broil is now a silence. Emergency tactics, instead of doubling the heal, now adds whispering dawn (weaker for casting a succor, or stronger for using on adloquium). Indomibility loses its heal but is now a fey covenant. Deployment tactics now casts a fey wind to everyone around selected target, but loses ability to spread adlo + eye.

Done at the correct time, you essentially have the timers reset of the fairies abilities, plus broil is now a spammable silence. Downsides is broil now does zero damage, indom does no healing, and emergency tactics cant give everyone adlo shield plus is now on cooldown. Dissapation, instead of a healing boost, is more like swapping toolkits.

A pet switch ability would be great but in my opinion it is something that should have existed on Arcanist back in 2.0 since both Summoner and Scholar could make great use of switching pets instead of being limited to a specific pet during the whole battle.

Yeah.. Well the idea of Killing the fairy is stupid at the bases lol
So removing this will definately give the skill a better use. And yeah switching fairies.. Why not but since they share CDs...

dissapate is fine as is. It allows for extra dps while still giving you decent healing potency upon losing your pet. I typically us it on pull to throw out 6 energy drains since my co'healer can handle it for awhile until I start pumping out OP adlos'.

It is not. Wasting a Swift +2k mana to resummon your pet when it is supposed to be an "oh sh** buttons", this is not the use we should have of it.

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Originally Posted by Llynd

when it is supposed to be an "oh sh** buttons", this is not the use we should have of it.

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Have you maybe considered that Dissipation is, in fact, not supposed to be an "oh shit" button first and foremost? Yes, its usage is situational, but so is the entire SCH kit. Scholars are tactical off-healers, not just lore-wise, but in the way the entire toolkit is designed. Every single skill, except for Broil, which we got in HW adds to this, and Dissipation is no exception. It's a wonderful ability that has much strategic value and should be used by every good SCH. While I do agree that the healing increase should affect Lustrate and Indom, I feel this is less of an issue with the skill itself than it is an oversight in the general way that spells, abilities, and healing buffs interact.

I do agree with everything you said about the strategic gameplay /toolkit of the sch. Still, i think Dissipation isn't strong enough for his cd/Killing the fairy. ^^

I think Dissipation is fine as is. There isn't a single fight in Midas so far where I haven't found a use for it, whether it's for DPS, or switching fairies, or as an emergency tool.

Dissipation as an emergency tool is highly underrated. Overall sure, you would heal for less over the course of its duration than you would if you had your fairy, but emergency healing isn't a steady measure of averages. It's a matter of split second burst healing to top up your party before raidwides, tankbusters, sizzlebeams.

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Originally Posted by Llynd

It is not. Wasting a Swift +2k mana to resummon your pet when it is supposed to be an "oh sh** buttons", this is not the use we should have of it.

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If you have 2k mana to spare (and to be fair, when would you NOT have 2k mana to spare as SCH, especially if using dissipate for 3 extra EDs) and your party allows you to use swiftcast aggressively, why would you not put your resources into getting an extra 450 potency of damage?

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Originally Posted by CBellz

If you have 2k mana to spare (and to be fair, when would you NOT have 2k mana to spare as SCH, especially if using dissipate for 3 extra EDs) and your party allows you to use swiftcast aggressively, why would you not put your resources into getting an extra 450 potency of damage?

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Exactly! Dissipation really shines in end-game extreme primal and Alex savage situations. Extra DPS, tactical fairy switching, and lastly emergency heal if you really need it.

When they see a 1% wipe in an end-game situation, these Scholars will realize these little things matter. Plus there are times when you don't need fairy regen for the whole duration (and/or the main healer is doing the lifting anyway) so why not take advantage of the free damage. Fairy switch? Instead of just blowing the Swiftcast, go for the Aetherflow first.

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Originally Posted by technole

Exactly! Dissipation really shines in end-game extreme primal and Alex savage situations. Extra DPS, tactical fairy switching, and lastly emergency heal if you really need it.

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Agree 100%. If nothing else, Dissipation can be used as an aggressive to help burn the boss from 5% down. There's almost no reason not to use it at least once when minmaxing.