Thoughts on level 60 scholar ability?

[Kerrigen]

I can't really think of any "oh crap!" situation where it might be useful right now.
The worst thing about the skill is its lack of synergy with... Itself. It gives you 3 stacks of AF that you can use on heals that aren't affected by its healing potency buff, at a high (delayed) MP cost, plus Swiftcast. It's literally backwards.

I'm guessing it's going to be a little bit better when planned in situations where you'd switch fairies mid-fight anyway (I used to switch between Selene and Eos in T12 P3 and T13 P3, I could probably have used it there), but I'm not sure how practical it would be not having access to their skills for 30s.

It's also an okay skill to use when you know your fairy is going to die for whatever reason I guess, but that shouldn't happen when you're familiar with an encounter.

It's currently either too niche or straight-up bad, but the math behind it certainly doesn't look like it's in its favor. It's conceptually an interesting skill but the balance behind it is off. I think I would probably find it decent if it gave back enough MP to re-summon my fairy when it's over or something like that.

[keyburz]

what if instead of sacrificing her, it put a silence on her for 30 seconds that you cant dispell

[Cynfael]

In today's Q&A, this came up:

Q22. I don't understand the benefit of absorbing your fairy with scholar’s Dissipation. Could you tell us how to use this?

A22. This is mainly to recover Aetherflow stacks. This isn't something we envisioned to be used frequently. Instead it is an ability that can play a strong role in emergency situations.

Hopefully they will still consider adjustments after they check their metrics and likely find that "not frequently" really means "almost never" in this case.

If I want an ability of highly questionable usefulness that is likely to leave me in a worse position than I was in prior activating it, I'll definitely hit this one.

[ckc22]

Hopefully they will still consider adjustments after they check their metrics and likely find that "not frequently" really means "almost never" in this case.

If I want an ability of highly questionable usefulness that is likely to leave me in a worse position than I was in prior activating it, I'll definitely hit this one.

It's useless because if you need it your group is already screwed.

I'd like to see something like:
Dissipation: Orders pet away. No healing potency buff. Simultaneously applies buff and debuff:
Buff: Aetherflow abilities do not consume aether stacks for 15s (maybe 10?)
Debuff: Fairy cannot be resummoned for 30s
CD: 180s --> 300s

This would still be an emergency button, but at least you could use it without having to use its stated purpose (aetherflow stacks) to get enough MP back to justify getting rid of your fairy.

[Teno]

There's a very similar thread on japanese forums, and they also all complain about this badly-designed spell. Unfortunately the fix won't come for 3.05.

[sharazisspecial]

The biggest flaw of this ability design is that it requires you to resummon your pet. Perhaps it would be more usable if it didn't. It definately needs a rework.

Like someone said maybe it should silence your pet and then bump up the buff to 30%.

[fanservice]

The biggest flaw of this ability design is that it requires you to resummon your pet. Perhaps it would be more usable if it didn't. It definately needs a rework.

Like someone said maybe it should silence your pet and then bump up the buff to 30%.

Dissipation's problem is the fact it's not even a fair trade for using it atm. Gimping my HPS, utility, ability to multi-task heals for 30 seconds just for 3 aetherflow stacks, and have to resummon the fairy myself is a deal borne of inconceivable desperation. If it was ~50% extra healing done by physic and adloquium for the duration to offset the loss of the fairy's HPS (each embrace every 3 seconds is ~50% of physic's potency), and the aetherflow stacks being reimbursement for lost utility, and ability to multitask heals from the fairy for 30 seconds, it would be worthy of using.

The goal isn't to make it a pure healing steroid, but instead, a change in healing style for a brief period by converting the fairy's healing, and utility into the SCH's bonus healing, and aetherflow stacks respectively. That would actually feel cool, and add some depth.

The fairy should either be silenced, or auto-resummoned instantly with no cost in MP at the end of the duration. The latter can even be made thematic, like temporary fusion with the fairy, or a fairy-based dreadwyrm trance.

[Blessedbythesun]

Though out of character, the ability would have been more useful if it increased SCH DPS during times that healing isn't neccessary. As it stands now, it is pretty useless because, as stated, there isn't an even trade off by sacrificing a fairy. I wonder what the devs intended on the usage when they created the ability.

[Gallus]

Just wait for alexander savage, once nobody uses this ability there (including first clears and the like) I'm sure they will consider tunning it.

I too think it's completely useless at the moment xD.

[Ghishlain]

I've been thinking about this for a while. Without the ability to click off the buff / debuff so you can re-summon your fairy and the fact that healing potency does not affect abilities, this particular "buff" is beyond lackluster. Yes, if grants 3 stacks and boosted healing, but the loss of the fairy is too great of a price for a 30 second buff that basically weakens your overall healing and gives you 1800 potency cures in Lustrates. So, here are my suggestions for it. These suggestions are meant to be taken independently from each other though some can be combined for greater effect if deemed proper and balanced.

Reduce Dissipation's buff time to 10 seconds
The idea being that Dissipation is there as a "o snap" mechanism and if you hadn't fixed the party up in 10 seconds, chances are there's no way you'll be able to fix it. This also adds an element of risk and reward. Three Aetherflow stacks + 20% healing potency to try to mend the crap outta everyone at the risk of spending 2k+ MP + Swiftcast to get my fairy back afterwards. This also minimizes the amount of time a Scholar is locked out from using his/her fairy and get back to "normal healing" capacity. Let's be blunt, if you're in such dire need of healing and you can't fix it within ten seconds, chances are there will be no way to actually recover.

Have Dissipation affect Ability-type Heals
Getting Aetherflow charges back is all fine and dandy, but it sounds so counter intuitive to get Aetherflow stacks back when the 20% healing bonus does nothing for them. If you make Dissipation specifically affect both Scholar spells and abilities, this will at least make those Aetherflow stacks much more appealing.

Have Dissipation Refresh Specific Cooldowns
Cooldowns like Indomitably, Sacred Soil, Emergency Tactics, and Deployment Tactics all come to mind for this. The idea being "give the SCH the tools to patch everyone up quickly" or "prepare for the next onslaught" at the cost of locking out some of their healing potential in the process. You could reduce this to just Aetherflow abilities so that it may be possible to Indomitably >>>> Dissipation >>>> Indomitably for some potent one time healing and then have Sacred Soil on top for more mitigation.

Have Dissipation effect both Healing and Attack Magic Potency
Another risk-reward style adjustment. Make the SCH a higher damage dealer for X amount of time at the lose of their healing partner, thus temporarily shifting the focus from defense to offense. You know what they say, sometimes the best defense is a good offense.