Quote Originally Posted by ty_taurus View Post
Here's my question:

Why do we need to have moves that erase the faerie? What do we gain from having tools that cut out your access to other tools, or drop one form of healing to access another, that we wouldn't have if we just didn't have actions like Dissipation, Aetherpact, and Summon Seraph? What would we lose if we killed Dissipation and replace it with something that just increases healing potency and grants you Aetherflow without cutting the faerie out of the equation--or allowed the faerie to act during Fey Union, and allowed Summon Seraph to also use Fey Union?

I'm just genuinely interested in learning about what makes these things worth salvaging when we could just have tools that gave us benefits without dropping Eos/Selene? Why is allowing Eos/Selene to just stay out all the time, or be replaced with a Seraph that can still access everything Eos and Selene can access somehow detrimental to SCH's design? What is there to fight for?
IMO this Assimilation idea fixes pretty much every problem that SCH has regarding the non-compatibility between Dissipation, Fey Union, and Summon Seraph, assuming that using Fey Union during it does not stop the SCH from attacking/moving. We'd be like a fairy themed Mercy Overwatch (oh wait, Mercy has a fairy skin), that'd be pretty cool and very visually different from the other healers. Ironically I had thought of a 'healing tether' idea for either SGE (because Kardia) or AST (rework Synastry), where any ally that the tether touches is healed too, but trying to coordinate positioning for that would probably suck, so this version is probably better (and simpler to implement I'd assume).

Now when I say 'pretty much every problem' I mean there's one that still lingers, and that's Seraph. But, I think that's less an issue due to this idea, and moreso a lingering issue of Seraph itself. There's not really any reason we have to 'summon Seraph' code wise. Consolation could have been an ability that the fairy itself uses, without having to have it's model change. It's like this just for the 'wow so flashy' hype in the trailer, and it comes with all kinds of baggage like ghosting abilities (still), being an extra redundant OGCD weave before we get the actual 'useful part', and locking us out of other skills for some reason, like Union and Fey Blessing. The only thing Seraph 'does', is empower Embrace to also have a 100% shield, and give access to Consolation. Perhaps it'd be better if Seraph was deleted, and Consolation was moved to be a standard OGCD with 2 charges (60s CD). This way it'd also be buffed by Assimilation's 20%. The W.Dawn and Fey Illumination reskins are, well, reskins, completely identical in effect, so those can be ignored. Then the only thing we 'lose' is Seraphic Veil. When viewed like this, it becomes apparent that Seraph is nothing more than 'Rouse, but with a pretty VFX and infinitely more jank'.

I assume the reason Dissipation still exists as it does is to keep some aspect of 'risk vs reward', or 'you need to weigh up if the short term boost of 3 aetherflow is worth the loss of fairy for 30s'. If it just gave you the 20% boost and the aetherflow, without doing anything to the fairy, it might as well just be Divine Seal from WHM or Largesse from SB role actions. WHM has a 'costless' 20% healing boost with Temperance, AST with Neutral Sect. There'd be cries of 'homogenization' from the rooftops. If Dissipation has been in the game since HW, without having it's main 'pain point' (the fairy is removed from play) removed, only addressed with QOL (the fairy now auto-returns, used to have to manually resummon), then the devs clearly want it to stay this way for whatever reason. I guess the fairy interaction is what makes it 'unique' for better or worse. At the moment, many would argue it's for the worse, I think this Assimilation idea would make it 'for the better', even without touching Seraph. You keep access to your fairy skills, but they're now centered on the SCH (so now your personal position is important), you can (maybe) use Fey Union on the move, the only thing you'd lose out on is Embrace.

This shows that the 'we didn't really know what to do with SCH' meme only applies to the people designing the class, and not the ones who play it. Which is kinda depressing in it's own right