Helminth, Charm and the future of pets

[vFlitz]

So, with the Helminth system, we now have a rather substantial resource sink in the game. Some resources costs are obviously way overtuned, but the others work well for slowly but surely draining massive stockpiles of resources. That is not a bad thing in and of itself, however there is one rather substantial problem.

Smeeta's Charm. In the past, that ability became less valuable the more you played. Eventually you had enough resources that taking it with you everywhere stopped being beneficial, and you only had to go back to it when farming something new or highly specific like kuva or Vitus/Steel essence. However, now there is never a time when you don't want a chance for multiplied resources, because you could always use some more for Helminth.

That makes Charm incredibly difficult to compete with for other companions. So much so that Smeeta is easily an 'overwhelming choice' that DE tries very hard to avoid creating lately. Of course, a nerf would be an easy answer here, but you can imagine the outrage that would ensue should a feline resource booster that's been in the game for 4 years be nerfed right when a resource sink was added.

Instead, I propose that Smeeta should receive a new precept and Charm be made universal for all companions. It's so useful and specific that there's no way to compete with it other than doing the same thing. In addition, there is one other thing that should be made available to all companions: coming back from death. Companion survivability is an old and substantial issue, to the point that Djinn gained some traction simply because it wouldn't implode and deprive players of basic functionality like vacuum and radars forever. And now the Vulpaphylas show a similar trend. The companions that can currently come back from being dead could still do it faster/with additional effects, but I believe everything should have access to some basic degree of that ability.