How to play the Witchwarper?

[Secane]

I have mainly played a mystic (star shaman) for most of my starfinder games.

Now that the COM is out, I'm thinking of playing a caster for my 2nd character and make a Witchwarper.

However the more I read into what a Witchwarper can do... the more confused I get. It just feels like whatever a Witchwarper can do, a mystic or technomancer can do it better.

From what I can understand the Withcwarper is a mix of AOE dmg and battlefield control via changing the environment.
But the AOE aspect seems be equal or weaker then the technomancer and the battlefield control is of limited uses, given that more of the effects can be avoided, or over come with the right gear. There also seems to be a spammerable AOE attack (Hazard) ... but the damage output is weaker then then a gun and don't scale at all.

When making my mystic, what you get is clearly layout. Each connection brings a different character to the table. It is also easy to understand the technomancer. Depending on what you are building for, some options are better then others.

But this doesn't seem to be the case with the witchwarper. All the options sees lackluster or don't help to improve what seemed the focus of the class.
No one even seems to dare make a guide for it.
I'm stumped.

So how is the Witchwarper supposed to be played?

[Xenocrat]

I'm also disappointed with it. I like the spell list, but Infinite Worlds is underwhelming and the chassis (skills and saves, especially) is quite bad. If they publish some better paradigm shifts I might change my mind, but for now it's very hard to justify this over the other spellcasting classes unless you really love the flavor.

The 1-3 rerolls per day are nice, but hard to compare to the new cache options for the Technomancer. Infinite invisibility spells or an all day polymorph that allows swapping between 4-12 different forms is a lot better.

[deuxhero]

You probably want to use the charisma focus to use Improved Demoralize or the various feint feats+frightful display to sack enemy saves to maximize how effective your spells are. If your allies are consistent (read: not SFS) makes sure they have a Cruel fusion on their weapon to sack saves even further.

Other than that, I'm stumped.

[Squiggit]

Hazard is kind of a neat ability. Kinda wish it was an actual class feature so it got real support instead of just being a super forgettable cantrip.

I haven't played her yet but the Wichwarper I was messing with basically just... stuck with a longarm and shot people, taking paradigm shifts that work on reactions or provide utility and mostly using spells for utility too. Maybe a little infinite worlds for difficult terrain at higher levels.

deuxhero's approach is also pretty good, probably better.

I sort of wonder about Starfinder's writing. Seems like it's almost a rule that we get some really awesome and interesting stuff and then things that just feel like they don't fit together very well.

Stuff like spell level damage save for half or fort vs sickened as a 5th level spell (when the same book gives them fort vs nauseated and sickened on a successful save a level earlier) really has me confused about what the goal of Infinite Worlds is. They're functionally spells, but they aren't written like they are.