While I like the 4.1 changes to SCH...
I’d like more synergy within the SCH’s kit.
inb4 people are saying, “You want SCH to be broken” or “SCH is fine/it does good DPS”.
No- No. That’s not what I’m asking. If something broken happens, then, yeah, nerfs should happen, BUT-
We have some interesting tools in
(Okay, SMN’s has Bane as well- BUT)
We can only pass along Galvanize (the added effect of Adloquium and Succor) or Eye for Eye (which is now CROSS. ROLE.) with Deployment Tactics, and we can only pass Bio II (because Bio I is now replaced by Bio II when Bio II is learned, and Bio II is learned before Bane, sooo) and Miasma I (SMNs can pass their Bio III and Miasma III when they receive those skills at lv60-something).
SCHs have two special skills- Excogitation (lv62) and Chain Stratagem (lv64) that places a buff on a target (the former) and a debuff on a target (the latter), YET, cannot be passed with Deployment nor Bane.
Sooooooooo, we can pass EYE. FOR. EYE- A CROSS ROLE SKILL- but we cannot pass THE JOB’S. TRADEMARK. LIBRA?! (Let’s be real, Chain Stratagem is just a fancy Libra. WHY IT TOOK 2 EXPANSIONS TO GET IT-)
I would like it (A WHOLE HELL OF A LOT), if Deployment Tactics was updated to this:
Deployment Tactics: Spreads any non-pet specific effect (so no Rouse or Sustain or Aetherpact/Fey’s Union?) cast by you or your pet on a party member to all party members within range (with the current duration of the original effect).
With this change, Excog can become a HUGE AoE heal cooldown every 2 minutes. The thing I hear against this is because “THAT’S OP”- Now, you have to remember:
1) Deployment has a cooldown of 2 MINUTES. You are not doing this for every bit of spike damage that happens ever.
2) Everyone has to be in range, so, y’know, those casters off in bum-fucks nowhere ain’t getting this shit.
3) Galvanize shields and Excog work IN DIRECT OPPOSITION to each other. See, Excog needs the target to be below 50% of their max, base HP to trigger. If that doesn’t happen in the 45s span, Excog just falls off and does NOTHING. Galvanize effects add a shield that prevents the player with the buff from taking damage, essentially giving them more HP. So, in reality, if Excog and Galvanize are both passed, Excog’s activation threshold is much lower than 50%, more like 45% on a non-crit (gods, maybe 30% on a crit, if that) AND, this isn’t accounting for any other shields or damaging reducing effects (Addle/Feint/Shake it Off/Divine Veil/Collective Unconsciousness/Sacred Soil/Passage of Arms)
4) You still can’t Deploy off of yourself, so no passing around Lucid Dreaming (not like you would, but there you go) or Cleric Stance (+5% on yourself is good. +5% on EVERYONE is absurd).
Bane: Spreads any effect cast by you or your pet (except Miasma II) to all enemies within range of the target (for any damage over time effects, for each target hit after the first, the potency of those effects are reduced by 10%, up to a maximum of 40%)
SO, this allows SMNs to pass MOTHER FUCKING CONTAGION to all targets for some of that DELICIOUS TRI-BIND ACTION (and Painflare, I guess), as well as making the drop off of the DoTs less extreme because, GOD DAMN, 20% reduction on everything after the first is DUMB. ... Also, you can pass around Heavy from Break if you really, really missed that effect from Miasma (RIP Ruin II’s blind tho). (I’ve been reading around it’s not even optimal anymore for SMNs to use Bane? Like, hard cast DoTs on everything and use Aetherflows on Painflare.)
Now, I added “or your pet” to these effects because, other than the aforementioned Contagion, I’ve been wanting some changes to the fairies. I think they would be a bit more balanced if their effects only affected one player, but then, you could Deploy those effects around if you need them. (Whispering Dawn should stay as it is, though.) I’d like Selene’s Silence be more like the old Virus that SCH used to have (but no cast time PLEASE). I would love if if they removed the cast times from all of these skills (ESPECIALLY EMBRACE) because that’s what makes it “difficult” for the pet to do their shit in a timely manner.
PS: I’d like it if Adloquium also has a base shield of 150% of the heal while keeping the Crit doubling effect (so that if you can’t deploy the critlo, you can still deploy SOMETHING decent) while Succor also gets the Crit effect (because we still want to stack crit anyway for the Adlo crit).
PPS: Next expansion, I want Meltdown (200 AoE Potency with 10% drop off for each target hit) for a new Aetherflow action (give it a 45s-60s cooldown so that Energy Drain isn’t completely outclassed, or you can alternatively make it 150 AoE with 10% drop off and have Energy Drain upgrade into it to reduce button bloat).
YO, WHERE THE FUCK IS SAM’S GIL TOSS AT THO?!