Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
Snip
Rumination is designed to be more like a Macrocosmos for SCH in that its a DPS neutral skill with utility attached. Due to the weaker nature of Virus vs Macrocosmos, I felt it should be available more often to offset the disparity between the 2 skills but with a way to trade it off so that we aren't overcapped. The way I view it is that I'm getting rid of utility for Aetherflow but due to the nature of Aetherflow abilities having CDs that prevent spamming, you're only options come down to Lustrate or E.Drain so Utility vs Damage is the basis of the idea whereas it's currently Healing vs Damage. Now, I'm not fundamentally against the concept of Healing vs Damage but it has to be done right, which is where Dissipation currently fails at. An example of Heal vs Damage done right was old Cleric Stance where it was a quick toggle between the 2. That type of mechanic doesn't work with Dissipation because its a forced 30s of Cleric Stance with only 3 Aetherflow and a 20% healing buff to work with to try and capitalize on. In order to make it actually worth while would require making an extremely specific heal check that would force SCH to actively need Dissipation but because combat design in this game is such that bringing specific classes is not a requirement for completing content, that type of thing would never happen because it would create a rift between the healers; Why bring a SCH that would struggle with X mechanic when a WHM or AST could breeze thru it?

Shortening the duration of Dissipation would make it feel like less a choice and more an requirement for optimal play.
Increasing the damage of E.Drain while under Dissipation would just make E.Drain spam the only way to go with it and still wouldn't justify a 30s lockout of the fairy.
Increasing the Heal buff would just make Shield Cheesing a lot easier, even more so now that Protraction is a thing and Deployment now aligns with Recitation. A potency increase/decrease over time wouldn't really change that either because you only need 1 properly buffed shield to cheese a mechanic and once it becomes possible, SCH having the only way of doing this makes it pretty hard to balance between the other healers.

I cannot think of a single way to make Dissipation work in its current form without either being useless or borderline OP with nothing really in between. There's just no saving it.