Help with seeli/Summer Magic

[mostlyawake]

My group is disputing/analyzing what Summer and Winter magic mean.

What bonuses does summer magic offer to a full wizard?

My understanding is that you're paying the 2 refresh to gain:
Summer as an evocation element.
Biomancy at evocations speed/rules. If you lacked thaumaturgy, summer magic would give you biomancy as a ritual.
The ability to go into debt with your sponsor.

The example says "you can supercharge an existing element... summer could combine with air..." but it does not list a mechanical benefit for how much more oomph this gives the spell. (As far as I see).

So, i get that summer as an evocation element is a big deal if you AREN'T a caster (you want fire, air, water, or earth? just make it summer-tainted, and you're set to go). Honestly, though, if you have 3 elements already, then the new element really doesnt add much to you.  Similarly, if you have thaumaturgy, the biomancy part does little, other than let you do it faster, at higher cost.  So the only real benefit seems to be sponsor debt.

So, what am I missing here?

[dgdavisjr]

Bob's discussion with Harry about the nature of Soulfire and it's applications to magic in general might be relevant here. As Bob put it, adding Soulfire to Harry's usual magic was like adding rebar to concrete. The combined effect was stronger and more effective than either one was seperately. Perhaps Summer's power is like that. Good by itself and exponentially more powerful when in combination with other power.

Remember what Eldest Gruff did to one of the Fallen? A flash of golden summer light mixed with foest green and BOOM. No more Magog.

[ralexs1991]

it's to bad we haven't seen more examples of fea magic in the books so far hopefully there'll be some in the next book

[UmbraLux]

What bonuses does summer magic offer to a full wizard?

My understanding is that you're paying the 2 refresh to gain:
Summer as an evocation element.
Biomancy at evocations speed/rules. If you lacked thaumaturgy, summer magic would give you biomancy as a ritual.
The ability to go into debt with your sponsor.

The example says "you can supercharge an existing element... summer could combine with air..." but it does not list a mechanical benefit for how much more oomph this gives the spell. (As far as I see).

Mechanically, you can start combining refinements and foci.  A basic 'Lightning Spell' is limited to refinements and foci from the wizard's Air (or whatever) element.  Make it a 'Summer Lightning Storm' and the wizard can also add any Summer bonuses.  So power and / or control may be increased by combining the two.  Additionally, a wizard who has Summer but not Fire can duplicate some of the things a Fire Evocator might accomplish. 

[sinker]

I think this is specifically what you are looking for YS289 in the sidebar labeled "the dark powers are always willing to help":

Sometimes the sponsored practitioner can
dig deep and draw more than a single invocation
from his sponsor on a single roll. This
can help pay any cost associated with casting a
spell, at the rate of 1 debt for every 2 shifts of
effect. So if you need to take a 4-stress mental
hit to cast a big evocation and can’t (or maybe
just don’t want to take the consequence you’d
have to), the sponsor will gladly take the hit
for you, in exchange for increasing your debt
by 2.

So you can use your sponsor to boost the amount of power you throw into a spell by adding to your debt.

[mostlyawake]

Mechanically, you can start combining refinements and foci.  A basic 'Lightning Spell' is limited to refinements and foci from the wizard's Air (or whatever) element.  Make it a 'Summer Lightning Storm' and the wizard can also add any Summer bonuses.  So power and / or control may be increased by combining the two.  Additionally, a wizard who has Summer but not Fire can duplicate some of the things a Fire Evocator might accomplish. 

But, you'd have to pay for that refinement.  However, you could have both specializations at 2, which is way easier than getting one specialization at 4... so combining them might ber a power boost.  And, that could be combined with anything, really (summer rain, ect) so you technically could add summer's bonus to any element, making your best use to jack up the summer specialization as much as possible.   Of course, seelie magic doesn't give you a free specialization.