User blog comment:GreenMoriyama/Nine, the Magus of Elemancy (collab w-Lesdin)/@comment-7709681-20170913024132/@comment-7709681-20170913215630

The problem here then is clarity: The clarity notes doesn't state that the damage increase applies to Cardinal Flare but rather Cardinal Nova, that implies the entirety of the ability, including Fiery Garnet's DoT; as well as no limitations to charges, so the charges' effects can stack.

As for your comparisons: The potential damage output of depends still of units on the battlefield, and their setup requires the player to manage them, such as knowing when to reset their duration with W.

And is powerful by itself, true, but is gated properly by both skill expression (the five colliding skillshots and being able to move with their trayectory unaltered and fixed) and Worked Ground's modifications, which causes her to lack that damage more frequently the more stays in the same area, such as it happens during laning phase, else the ability's balance would be truly dumb.

Cardinal Nova is only gated by stacks. The cooldown even at its lowest value only allows 2 charges at once if constantly hitting enemies, yet the kit already offers a solution for that. The concept should demand skill, but has an ability that throws that notion away.

Getting rid of values isn't recommended, you'll need them a lot. Mechanics can be described with as much ease as you allow them to as are purely descriptive, but once you have damage, CC, buffs and debuffs, and their durations, you'll have no other choice than adding numbers, else the balance of the ability is uncertain.