Dissipate overpowered?

[SeraphimXI]

With the current very low gear levels and people learning the fights the last bosses of Neverreap and Fractal can be MP nightmares. I've used dissipation on 3 separate occasions to avoid a wipe.

Is it situational? Yes. Are there very few situations where it is useful? Yes. Can it save you from a wipe sometimes? Absolutely.

From the XXI live letter: "Instead of just simply increasing a scholar's abilities, we made adjustments by adding actions that require you to really think about their use and the best time to utilize them."

The fairy sacrifice is the trade-off. If you use it at a bad time you are hosing yourself, however at other times you can be the hero (which only you will know because nobody else even watches the hp bars). The fact that it isn't an overpowered no-brainer use it on CD ability is exactly what they were looking for, and they nailed it.

[SeraphimXI]

Or in a different perspective with these numbers, you're losing approximately 28% of your total healing output (Fairy is ~1,000 HP / GCD out of a total 3,500 HP / GCD) to gain an additional 20% which puts you at a net loss of about 14% (~500 HP / GCD out of a total of 3,500 HP / GC).

Skills like this are why attempting to maximize "HPS" and theorycraft things like "healing net loss" are useless. Healing is reactive, not a rotation. It is about quick triage skills and making the most of the tools you are given. Thinking along these lines is doing a disservice to yourself. Everything in healing is about your exact current situation, spreadsheets/math and basic models can't grasp that.

[Ghishlain]

Skills like this are why attempting to maximize "HPS" and theorycraft things like "healing net loss" are useless. Healing is reactive, not a rotation. It is about quick triage skills and making the most of the tools you are given. Thinking along these lines is doing a disservice to yourself. Everything in healing is about your exact current situation, spreadsheets/math and basic models can't grasp that.

Funny enough, you're preaching the choir. lol.

I use math to determine maximum potentials but everything about healing in any MMO has and will always be about situational awareness and reacting with the appropriate tool available. When I first saw Dissipation, I saw the potential use in it, but needed a few questions answered before I passed final judgement. At the moment, I think it could use a small buff but I personally don't believe it's as useless as everyone says it will be. I do believe the times you will use it will be rare though.

[edit]

For me also, it's important for me to understand the pros and cons of any ability so I can make the appropriate decision and tool selection. Theorycrafting the power behind it helps me with that. Is it an absolute? Definitely not. But it allows me (and probably other players) to make informed and educated decisions on the fly.

[SuzakuCMX]

When exactly are you getting into this situation, or how often? When do you need to blow 3 additional lustrates/indomination? Maybe if your other healer is dead and everything went to hell but that is awfully rare of a situation to warrant a lvl 60 ability slot to use it for. or if you are trying content that you are not geared enough for.

Healers in general need to know fights, they need to know what damage is incoming when and if you get into such troubles to need the added healing everyone obviously screwed up. So yeah, very situational (is that even a word?) imo.

I guess you've never done anything with less than perfect play with people. Congratulations to you.

[TonberiScholar]

Healing... It is about quick triage skills and making the most of the tools you are given.

I disagree with your conclusion, though not your premise. The entire reason for triage is that you have limited resources (GCDs, MP, constantly incoming damage).

Dissipation's awful because it hurts you by removing a source of healing that isn't constrained by your time or resources. And then it requires you to burn more resources to get that healing back.

If Indomitability wasn't on cooldown, I could see Dissipation being worth that trade. Or if the Fairy you had selected at the time you used Dissipation came back at the end of the lockout. Then it'd be a more even trade.

But the things you can do with three extra Aetherflow every three minutes aren't worth what you lose.

It seems like the type of thing that'll be more useful when we're solo-healing stuff we outgear in a few months.

[Teno]

The good thing about dissipation is that when SE will rework it, we'll get a brand new spell.

[SeraphimXI]

Dissipation's awful because it hurts you by removing a source of healing that isn't constrained by your time or resources. And then it requires you to burn more resources to get that healing back.

You are fundamentally misunderstanding the point of Dissipation. Dissipation is not supposed to be used in 99% of the fights you encounter. Dissipation is basically the SCH's hail-mary/onside kick at the end of an (american) football game. It is the bright red button on your control panel with a glass box over it that says "DO NOT PUSH".

When everything has gone to hell and you need to survive that last 5% and have no MP and are out of aetherflows, that is the situation Dissipation is for.

It is supposed to have a huge penalty for sustained healing, because that isn't when the ability is supposed to be used.

[Cynfael]

Good healing is largely predictive, not reactive.

Dissipation is questionable in that there appear to be few situations in which you would plan to use it, and it's highly conditional as a panic CD, so that doesn't leave it in the best place.

[TonberiScholar]

Dissipation is not supposed to be used in 99% of the fights you encounter. Dissipation is basically the SCH's hail-mary/onside kick at the end of an (american) football game. It is the bright red button on your control panel with a glass box over it that says "DO NOT PUSH".

What other class, now, has an ability that's only usable in 1% of the fights?

Not "optimal", "usable".

Because in everything other than that 1%, it's usability ranges from shooting yourself in the foot to shooting yourself in the head.

That's why I maintain that it's a waste of an ability. Yes, we're supposed to be the crafty, tactical healers. But having to do a Hail Mary is generally indicative of bad planning, which should be the exact opposite of what we're doing.

I'd trade it in a heartbeat for an ability on the same cooldown (three minutes) that, say, made your next Adlo a guaranteed crit. That'd at least see use, and would fit better with us being planning-oriented.

[Apinaheebo]

They should have kept it at 50%, or just remake the whole skill.