Because why not: A Moderate Proposal - SCH

[AmiableApkallu]

But even so, and given how many players have said they'd like Energy Drain decoupled from Aetherflow, Dissipation changed to not remove the Faerie, Faerie Gauge changed to do...something other than just Aetherpact, Physic being useless, Lustrate being somewhat useless, and due to Ruin II being far less useful with a 1.5 sec Broil IV cast time...

(emphasis mine)

I'm curious: What do you personally think about SCH needs improving? Which of these issues do you personally contend with?

[Renathras]

(emphasis mine)

I'm curious: What do you personally think about SCH needs improving? Which of these issues do you personally contend with?

Why do you ask? Serious question, because a lot of people like to figure out what my positions are so they can attack them, not in some spirit of goodwill and understanding.

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Giving you the benefit of the doubt:

Dissipation has been a mess since it was first implemented (the original version, you had to manually resummon your Faerie after it). The very idea contradicts the Job lore and fantasy of having a Faerie partner you work with, and there's really no reason for having her dismissed, considering how people often point out you're not losing out on THAT much healing with her gone, which is a double edged sword meaning "Then why have her go away at all?" I don't like it thematically nor do I like it mechanically. It has ANTI-synergy with around 1/3rd of the kit and just feels bad to use in every way, especially since it's largely a glorified "get in 3 more Energy Drains" button these days for MOST content.

Energy Drain is a similar ability. When it was removed in ShB, I was happy, when it got readded, less so. That modern SCH optimization is built around it is highly grating, as the things it is competing with - Soil in particular, but also Excog, and to a lesser extent Indom (less so since that one I don't care about like I do Soil; Sacred Soil was the reason I leveled SCH in ARR in the first place because I love the idea of generating a protective/save-ish area for my friends and allies to protect them) - are things I'd MUCH rather use than Energy Drain, but doing them MEANS playing suboptimally, no matter how good they are or how useful they could be in the situation.

Conversely, Faerie Gauge has been garbage since it was added. Aetherpact isn't that powerful, and has antisynergy with Seraph, Dissipation, and all your Faerie abilities. In SB, at least you had an "AOE gauge spender" with Fey Blessing, but it had a CD. Instead of removing the CD, they removed the Gauge cost, making Faerie Gauge "the Aetherpact Gauge", and as noted, Aetherpact is already an obnoxious ability. Tying Energy Drain to this gauge and reworking Aetherpact into a form that actually IS a bit more useful means that ED can have that trade-off with healing in a realistic sense, but not locking people out of cool healing effects they want to use like Sacred Soil. ("people" here is not just me, but INCLUDES me, if you want to be snippy on that point.) Moreover, tying it to other parts of the kit besides just Aetherflow spenders gives the whole kit a bit more interactivity and rewards good Miasma use. Not something I care terribly for, but I'm not opposed to it and I know people here like that kind of thing. And for the people who prefer healing to DPSing, Miasma uptime gives them access to additional healing power, though it's a small enough heal that this isn't a big loss if they're letting Miasma fall off and foregoing some of those Aetherpacts. It's an elegant solution for a more civilized age.

SCH also has the second-worst Glarespam after AST (ironically, WHM doesn't have this problem nearly as bad). Ruin 2 is less useful since Broil 4 has a 1.5 sec cast, so giving it a secondary use that also helps the people that want "more DoTs" seems a nice compromise, and WHM already has something SORT of like this with Dia, though this is actually making that an intended use of the ability rather than a last resort movement tool like it is with WHM, giving SCH two niches. I've always liked SCH having Ruin 2 for movement, and this as an evolution to improve on that I think has merit.

I think Fey Blessing doesn't have a use on its own, so folding it into something both reduces button bloat AND gives it a more effective and proper use.

I feel like Lustrate is lacking and Excog having a CD is stupid, so this fixes that, too.

I think Physic is lacking and Adlo is a bit unwieldy, so this fixes that, too.

And I think Art of War spam in AOE is boring, and this fixes that, too.

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The largest issues I think SCH needs improving are Energy Drain using Aetherflow, Dissipation having anti-synergy with the kit and dismissing Eos/Selene, Aetherpact having anti-synergy with Dissipation and Seraph, Faerie Gauge being borderline pointless, Art of War spam being boring, and SCH having too much button bloat.

This tackles ALL of those problems at once, and generates something that would be simultaneously more intuitive to pick up and play AND have a higher skill ceiling than current SCH.

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SO, now that you know what _I_ personally think: What do you think of the proposal?