Change SCH Dissipation

[Nizzi]

Jamini, Dissipation is hot trash. I say that as somebody who has played SCH since 2.0. I say that as somebody who has progged tiers in the past as SCH. Dissipation isn't a core part of our kit, it's a button that needs to either be removed or completely changed in a rework of SCH. Homogenization isn't needed for SCH as much as a complete rework that focuses on the fairy and our tactical abilities as our core identity. Current Dissipation, which removes the fairy from the equation and doesn't buff our tactical heals (Excog, Lustrate, Indom, etc etc), has no reason to exist in this game. A reworked version can, but they could delete the current version and nothing of value will have been lost.

I feel like I'm not playing the same game as a lot of you with the way people talk about Dissipation in this hyperbolic way. Respectfully, even in speed kills of P8S right now, you HAVE to cast GCD heals. If you can't see the value in Dissipation in that alone, I don't know what to say. The 20% GCD boost to Dissipation is very helpful, and the full stack of Aetherflow is great too. There's a LOT of healing that is done in P2, and if speed kills are still needing to cast Succor and Adlo, can you not see how useful it is? Dissipation is an invaluable prog tool. We can make all the arguments for "SCH only has 3 GCD heals, it shouldn't be using them at all!" but that's simply not the case when content still requires SCH to use those heals.
People always talk about how "optimally" Dissipation is used. "It's only used on the Aetherflow! And that's only 300 potency every 3 minutes! It's simply not good and it locks you out of your HEELS!" As if the people making these arguments are playing the job at the organized optimal level where this is all you use Dissipation or Aetherflow for. (Even top healers use Aetherflow on heals as well, so)

Could Dissipation be buffed? Sure, I wouldn't mind. Make the 20% healing potency buff SCH's oGCDs too, I don't care. That would make it even more useful for Lustrates for pumping into people who get Natural Alignment or for spot healing during High Concept potentially. But skills having inherent tradeoffs isn't a bad thing. If you've exhausted your fairy heals or the 20% potency + full stack is more useful, use Dissipation. If not, use your other heals. Dissipation is a multifunctional tool just like Recitation, and people need to treat it like that. Why do we seriously have people arguing that the ability to have another on demand full stack of Aetherflow is somehow "hot trash" that could be removed with nothing lost? It absolutely would be a loss to Scholar, no matter what.

[RyuDragnier]

Could Dissipation be buffed? Sure, I wouldn't mind. Make the 20% healing potency buff SCH's oGCDs too, I don't care. That would make it even more useful for Lustrates for pumping into people who get Natural Alignment or for spot healing during High Concept potentially. But skills having inherent tradeoffs isn't a bad thing. If you've exhausted your fairy heals or the 20% potency + full stack is more useful, use Dissipation. If not, use your other heals. Dissipation is a multifunctional tool just like Recitation, and people need to treat it like that. Why do we seriously have people arguing that the ability to have another on demand full stack of Aetherflow is somehow "hot trash" that could be removed with nothing lost? It absolutely would be a loss to Scholar, no matter what.

I wouldn't mind that for a buff, since then there'd be actual reason for using the skill other than for Aetherflow (because no, 20% increase on Adlo and Succor is not a good reason to use Dissipation, will never be).

If you need Dissipation for the heals right now, things have gotten really bad to where just the AF by itself isn't going to do anything for you. You're either recovering from a death, at which point the AF heals are already nerfed by the weakness to where they're not going to be as useful, or things are so out of control that you're being forced to spam Lustrate or throw everything out to save the run. You've lost your fairy for this, so best pray that you don't need any of her abilities (if they're up).

That's a really bad trade-off, always has been. WHMs would be screaming from the heavens if using Liturgy of the Bell locked them out of their other oGCD heals. ASTs would be screaming from the heavens if using Macrocosmos locked them out of their Aspected heals and Earthly Star. Sages would be screaming from the heavens if using Pneuma locked them out of oGCD heals. So why the hell is it okay for us to have this problem? Either we spread it to other people, or we get rid of the problem. They could give us 2 charges of the ability Aetherflow and it would serve the same purpose without locking us out of anything.

[Renathras]

As if the people making these arguments are playing the job at the organized optimal level where this is all you use Dissipation or Aetherflow for.

Here's the thing, people not doing super high end content only use it for that. So that is all they see. There are two points where it's used that way: Mid-core players doing mid-core tent that aren't optimizing it like you are, and ultra-high-end players that have their party comp and overall CD planned perfectly to avoid needing any GCD healing that would require Dissipation. The only people who consistently benefit from it are probably speed runners, and even there, at the highest end, they may use it for Energy Drains, or to free up other AF stacks to be used on EDs.

Ryu has the right of it:

If you need Dissipation for the heals right now, things have gotten really bad to where just the AF by itself isn't going to do anything for you. You're either recovering from a death, at which point the AF heals are already nerfed by the weakness to where they're not going to be as useful, or things are so out of control that you're being forced to spam Lustrate or throw everything out to save the run. You've lost your fairy for this, so best pray that you don't need any of her abilities (if they're up).

That's a really bad trade-off, always has been.

Dissipation has never been a good ability. Ever since its original incarnation where you had to resummon your Faerie after it ended (ONE thing about it they thankfully fixed), it's never been a great ability at any point in the game's history, and has most often been shoehorned into being a DPS CD because of how it nerfs your healing. It has niche applications where it can be useful as a healing tool, but they are niche.

I'm not sure I'd say "hot trash", but more that it's a relic of the pre-EW days when SCH was consistently clunky for no good reason, and it's one of the stubborn hangers-on. I have always contended that "mastering clunk" is not a measure of skill. Sure, you can get a copy of Superman 64 (legendary for how bad it was and how bad its gameplay and controls were) and play the game, maybe even master it...but why would you ever do that to yourself? You could, instead, get a challenging game like Remnant: From the Ashes that has a spot on control scheme such that, when you die, you say "Okay...yeah, that was fair, that was on me", and when you succeed, it feels like you did so with knowledge and skills, not by mastering clunk and having the stars align.

3 AF stacks sounds great in vacuum, but cons matter. Suppose you have an ability that gives you 3 AF stacks but inflicts Silence and Pacify on you for 30 seconds. Surely that wouldn't be seen as a good ability just because it COULD be useful in niche situations with very specific party and build strategies?

...

I think it's more the argument of just HOW niche it is, and how rare it is to use it for its actual purpose. Something like Plenary Indulgence is pretty niche (you really pretty much never strictly need it), but it's straightforward in the sense of what it does and it doesn't actively tie your hands to use it. Worst case scenario, it's wasted through either overhealing or you not being able to use an AOE GCD heal during it, but it's not actively working against you. Dissipation being a bit more complex is fine, as that's SCH's MO, but the anti-synergy with your kit isn't, since SCH's theme is synergy; being synergistic with their Faerie partner, being a synergistic component of a tactical unit, using its abilities synergistically with each other. Deployment Tactics, Emergency Tactics, and Recitation are all examples of good abilities that do this, as they modify and work with other abilities, and even with each other in the case of Recitation and either of the other two. They don't actively fight each other directly. You could argue Emergency Tactics and Deployment tactics indirectly do, but neither locks you out of or prevents use of the other, either.

Dissipation doesn't work with anything else any better than Fey Illumination does. And Fey Illumination works with ALL of your heals and provides party mitigation vs magic on the side. And has a shorter CD. The only thing Dissipation actively works with are Physic, Adlo, and Succor. It gives you 3 AF, but doesn't work with or modify them in any way.

Not to mention use of your Faerie IS a core part of SCH's toolkit, and what Dissipation locks you out of. Thematically and mechanically, it's at odds with SCH's identity for no good reason.

I don't think it needs to be deleted, but it should be made to not have that level of dissonance with the overall kit and theme of the Job, imo.