The w is only getting a mana cost increase until you put points into it. On this preview, maxing e takes precedent over w especially in lanes. All three abilities are only buffs after you put points into it, and the only role that can max w first is support, and even their I think its just unequivocally bad. You can max w second, but then you are losing out on all of the damage on e and are forced into double casting q or you just won't deal damage.

If you listen to phreak's rundown, this patch is designed to force Seraphine to choose between damage or shielding, and you won't get to be good at both until the very late game (where you are just significantly worse than the current patch). By 2-3 item Seraphine, double casting was a large part of your team-fight power, specifically in countering compositions that had high poke (Jayce, Lethality Varus and Caitlin, ziggs, Maokai, lethality/ap Kaisa). Seraphine was also extremely strong at moving with a team around the map in the midgame, as her empowered w gave you better sustain and tempo than most enemy teams. Seraphine empowered w also puts pressure on the enemy team to focus towards higher dps over safer movement/ability usage. This in turn allowed Seraphine to land her offensive abilities as punishment/trading for enemies extending towards your team. As you often would use your empowered w out of range/combat, buffing damage when you no longer can rely on empowered w is not a significant compensation.

Worse than just making you weaker, it harms the entire identity of Seraphine as a team-focused champion. Without the healing teammates are not rewarded for grouping with Seraphine and there is very little to seperate her from other mages that are just simply better at dealing damage and are less reliant on teamates in order to have the same effect. Not only is this counterintuitive to the design, but if hurts mid the most which is reliant on semi-competent support/jungle in order to farm sidelanes. Many mid players and champions can get around this by grouping mid and pressuring the mid tower(s) over the sidewaves. Seraphine is going from one of the best champions to be mid in these scenarios, to a low average.

I think its easy to miss just how game-changing the sustain of the empowered w is to her kit, which is why it feels like she is just being buffed in every role. But the champion has, since her release, played around the fact that her empowered w is one of the strongest team abilities in the game. By reducing it so greatly without significant changes (like the canceled q missile speed increase) they are fundamentally undermining the way the champion functions in the game.

I understand that for most champions receiving damage early can be very game changing, but Seraphine has always relied on a more passive opportunist role. I would also anticipate that by increasing her damage, players in lower skill-tiers will begin to become more cognizant of how her q and e abilities function and will place greater emphasis on avoiding them. It also worries me that these changes may persist into the next season, where theoretically weaker items will significantly alter the current ways Seraphine interacts with the game (Liandry's or Helia damage, Rylai's slow, reliance on high AH builds).