PTS Update 38 - Feedback Thread for the Arcanist

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official feedback thread for new Arcanist class. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Abilities
  • How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?
  • How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?
  • Did you have a favorite base ability or morph?
  • Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?
  • How did it feel to have the cost of some abilities change based on your Max Magicka or Stamina?
• Crux System
  • How did it feel to gain and spend Crux?
  • How did it feel to have some morphs generate or spend Crux?
  • Did you feel like you had enough options for Crux builders and spenders?
• Visuals (Animation and VFX)
  • What are your thoughts on the Arcanist’s visuals overall?
  • Do you feel as if any of the visuals negatively impacted your ability to participate effectively in PvP or PvE scenarios?
• Audio
  • What did you think of the audio for the Arcanist’s abilities?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

tomofhyrule

Obviously I haven't had time to test the class yet, but I just have an initial concern about one of the Arcanist skills and how it will work for new players.

Runic Jolt and its morphs from the Apocryphal Soldier line is a hard taunt.

I understand that one of the design goals was to make it so a player could run all Arcanist class skills without dipping into their weapon/guild lines, but the hard taunt on this skill makes me a bit nervous. It feel like it's an easy way for people to unintentionally taunt monsters and annoy people.

I main a tank. I remember all too well running randoms before U28 where frost DPS players would pull bosses from me because of the Tri-Focus passive and not realize it, and that would lead to them getting flattened (and then complain that I wasn't keeping taunt). Especially since Runic Jolt is the first skill in the alphabetiacally first line, it stands to reason that a player in the tutorial who just completed the combat tutorial and made it to level 2 would get a skill point, and that's the first place they'd put it. And then you have a new player walking out into the world with a taunt and not knowing anything about the game mechanics...

If the skill has to taunt, I'd prefer if it could at least get the new chain-pull taunt mechanic, where if it was used in a fight where another player has a full taunt, the taunt from Runic Jolt will not work. Yes, this means an Arcanist running a trial like HoF, MoL, or DSR will need to use an out-of-class taunt skill for the taunt swap mechanic, but it would really help keep people from accidentally making large group fights messy while they're still getting used to their skills.

I'll be back with more once I get a chance to test.

virtus753

Before getting into the specifics of the various abilities, can I ask if I just missed where you mention that we have to be in combat to generate Crux?

None of the ability tooltips specify this, and there's no result whatsoever for "Crux" in the Help section. The result for Arcanist is a very lore-focused overview with no details of combat mechanics. There are a few Arcanist Synergies covered on their own pages, so I think Crux might deserve its own as well.

When I read a tooltip like Runemeld's that says "generates Crux" for healing someone, I expect to get Crux for healing with that skill. I don't expect it to work only in combat if it doesn't say that (especially when sets that work only in combat specify that in their descriptions). If you don't want to add that to every tooltip, please consider explaining it at least somewhere in game so players can understand the mechanic without wondering what's intended and what's not. Right now I can't find any such explanation. Even the patch notes don't say that. They only say that some abilities generate or consume Crux and that Crux either passively boosts your abilities in combat or "add further capabilities to abilities that spend Crux."

I wonder if this is something so well known to the devs that it was simply overlooked when explaining it to people new to the system (i.e. the players).

If you haven't said it, please add it. If you have, please make it more visible.

Kendaric

Short feedback after getting a first impression...

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for new Arcanist class. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

[*] Visuals (Animation and VFX)

• What are your thoughts on the Arcanist’s visuals overall?

To be blunt... horrible. They are overly bright and flashy, not really fitting in with the rest of the game. Overall I think they'd better in sci-fi game than they do in ESO. Some effects appear "flat", sorry but I'm unable to explain it better.

[*] Do you feel as if any of the visuals negatively impacted your ability to participate effectively in PvP or PvE scenarios?

Yes. Their brightness is distracting and in many cases the Vfx take up too much of the screen.

[*] Do you have any other general feedback?

It's definitely not a class for me, I neither like the aesthetics nor the gameplay. Of course not every class will appeal to every player, but I feel there is something off with the arcanist.

Azrael_1976

Kendaric wrote: »

Short feedback after getting a first impression...

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for new Arcanist class. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

[*] Visuals (Animation and VFX)

• What are your thoughts on the Arcanist’s visuals overall?

To be blunt... horrible. They are overly bright and flashy, not really fitting in with the rest of the game. Overall I think they'd better in sci-fi game than they do in ESO. Some effects appear "flat", sorry but I'm unable to explain it better.

[*] Do you feel as if any of the visuals negatively impacted your ability to participate effectively in PvP or PvE scenarios?

Yes. Their brightness is distracting and in many cases the Vfx take up too much of the screen.

[*] Do you have any other general feedback?

It's definitely not a class for me, I neither like the aesthetics nor the gameplay. Of course not every class will appeal to every player, but I feel there is something off with the arcanist.

Totally agree... the VFX are too bright and way too much over the top... just won´t imagine, how that will look alike while in an raid situation...

In general the Arcanist feels a bit clunky especially the tank skills...

The portal skill ist quite nice... but to be cool, it should have a little more operating range (in pve)... I am fully aware, that this could be a dangerous skill in pvp scenarios...

monkiie

How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?
Terrible. In PvP both of these skills will be incredibly hard to land. LoS, cloak, positional desync, move speed, streak are its nightmare.

How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?
Passives are okay but some don't make sense. Why does the arcanist have extra status effect damage but have no flame, bleed, or poison damage in their kit? You're basically forced to use all class skills on arcanist because of the crux system but cant apply any of the damaging status effects with those abilities. Dragonknight has 50% more poison and burning status effect damage and has access to poison and flame damage in their kit.

Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?
Fatecarver. Speaking from a PvP perspective, this skill will be very hard to use. Fatecarver is the equivalent to any other delayed burst ability except it has a 4 second cast time(cant cast anything else for 4 seconds) and can be interrupted.

Do you feel as if any of the visuals negatively impacted your ability to participate effectively in PvP or PvE scenarios?
Yes, in PvP.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Having fatecarver be your "burst damage" as a channel feels awful for PvP. My suggestion is to change the abyssal impact morphs. Abyssal ink should be removed from Cephaliarch's Flail but should consume your crux to deal more burst damage while Dread can stay the same as a higher "dps" option with less burst damage. Currently the arcanist feels like its going to be another support bot in PvP like the necro is right now.

CoolBlast3

__Abilities__
The beams felt incredibly fun to use, but even with aim assist can be a bit difficult. My suggestion is making them auto-lock on tab targetted enemies, no matter your camera.

I don't know enough about other classes besides necro to comment but- they seemed somewhat on par with necro in terms of diversity, but perhaps a bit overloaded?

The B E A M S. So much fun. But also the tentacle arm I love, and the spammable runeblades. Honestly great fun all round. ALSO THE PORTAL OMG THE PORTAL

The hard taunt felt a bit boring, but still neat I guess.

This is INCREDIBLE. Apply this to all other classes please. This is how you hybridze the game. Don't make "mag and stam" morphs, but make these dual costs where the morphs actually work differently!!

__Crux System__
It feels good! Coming from a cro main, it's basically a better corpse mechanic. Definitely enough options and the crux economy seemed fine to me.

__Visuals and Audio__
Lumping these two together because well- THEY'RE BOTH AMAZING. The visuals are great, top notch. They feel new and fresh and SMOOTH. The audio is the same, it feels...off- in a good way. Eldritch!
My favorite is Tome-Bearer's Inspiration. One of the best designed skills in ESO. The fact y'all went to the effort of making different designs not just for 1hand/2hand/etc but also for the individual weapons like daggers, axes, etc? Top notch!

_Feedback__
My only feedback is perhaps not just for Arcanist but a general "lower FX color/brightness/etc" option somewhere in the settings.

Jierdanit

monkiie wrote: »

How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?
Terrible. In PvP both of these skills will be incredibly hard to land. LoS, cloak, positional desync, move speed, streak are its nightmare.

How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?
Passives are okay but some don't make sense. Why does the arcanist have extra status effect damage but have no flame, bleed, or poison damage in their kit? You're basically forced to use all class skills on arcanist because of the crux system but cant apply any of the damaging status effects with those abilities. Dragonknight has 50% more poison and burning status effect damage and has access to poison and flame damage in their kit.

Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?
Fatecarver. Speaking from a PvP perspective, this skill will be very hard to use. Fatecarver is the equivalent to any other delayed burst ability except it has a 4 second cast time(cant cast anything else for 4 seconds) and can be interrupted.

Do you feel as if any of the visuals negatively impacted your ability to participate effectively in PvP or PvE scenarios?
Yes, in PvP.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Having fatecarver be your "burst damage" as a channel feels awful for PvP. My suggestion is to change the abyssal impact morphs. Abyssal ink should be removed from Cephaliarch's Flail but should consume your crux to deal more burst damage while Dread can stay the same as a higher "dps" option with less burst damage. Currently the arcanist feels like its going to be another support bot in PvP like the necro is right now.

I absolutely agree.

Arcanist just doesnt seem to be designed to actually be able to kill anything in PvP. it took me until about 30 seconds into my first duel to see that the burst damage was way too low.
The defense seemed pretty good so far, though that might just be because i basically only fought other arcanists with not great damage, but i didnt really have problems with the healing.

Fatecarver is basically useless in PvP cause its not worth it spending 3 skills to buff Fatecarver to a decently high damage only for it to be interrupted less than 2 seconds into the skill (not even talking about how easy it is to dodge).

I think your idea to change the tentacles into a burst ability seems pretty good and tbh from just seeing the skill i assumed it would do a lot more damage than it actually does.

adriant1978

Crux is quite visually distracting in 1st person mode.

For people who play in 1st person it might be nice to have an alternative way of displaying it. I know it was said in the live stream that they wanted it on the character and not in the UI, but to be honest I'd rather keep half an eye on my HUD than have huge green triangles floating across my field of view.

Luke_Flamesword

First, short impressions, mostly about visual so far:

I like floating cruxes, they are visible, nice and don't annoy. It's perfect.

Skills from first, dps skilline:

Ultimate is ok (idea and main design), but too flashy - just reduce these bright light effect around it.

Runeblades are nice, I love sound of it, but I'm not fan of morphs aoe - it's flat, overbright texture and looks a bit ugly compared to really nice triangles.

Fatecarver - I love idea for skill, but again it's too flashy nad too big, which look bad especially when camera is closer to character or/and target is close. The beam should be a bit thiner and rotating circle around book should be much smaller, because often it covers my visibility of enemy. It's visually nice but very unpractical effect, when I don't see good enough eniemies (and big, bright beam wit another crazy effect at the end don't helps). This is just too many effect on one skill and it makes me a bit uncofortable to watch it with short distance, so I won't use too often, which is shame because skill is cool, but visuals are overhelming.

Abyssal Impact - it's ok, nothing special but visual are mostly dark and it's so much easier to watch it.

Tome-Bearer - I love it, really nice effect around weapons

Imperfect Ring - it's a bit bright (like most green in class skills), but it's flat rune on ground, so it''s mostly ok, that kind of effect don't overhelms.

TANK SKILLINE
Ultimate is ok.
Runic jolt ok
Runespite - whole skill is really nice, but first flash is too wild - too bright, too quick
Runic Defense - too many effects on big area, I would prefer something more subtle
Rune of horror - ok

HEALER SKILLINE
Ultimate - it's almost too much, but generally it's ok
All skills are ok, but only Arcanist Domain have too agressive blast at casting skill

Overall I'm maybe not big fan of aestethics, but overall I think that this is quite nice class but need serious tuning down with some effect, because it can give headache with all these beams, flashes, bright lights, quick, agressive blasts, crazy, spinning runes. When you play it, you can feel that class have high dynamic, which is good, but at the same time ot happens too much on screen and it's exhausting. I felt exhausted after 5 minutes of using it, so how I should watch these animations for hundred of hours? In current state I will just avoid some skills only because of animations and I haven't such a experience with any existing class.

Personally I advice tuning down some effects, think about visibility for arcanist players and others, who will be near all of this. Green for my taste is a bit too bright, I would change it to a "little bit" darker green. It's not so bad, because 2/3 skills are visually nice and don't need big changes, but unfortunately there is this 1/3 where you just put too much "cool effects" which, don't get me wrong - are indeed cool, but we must consider that we will watch this animations for thousands times and sometimes less is better.

Ghanima_Atreides

adriant1978 wrote: »

Crux is quite visually distracting in 1st person mode.
I'd rather keep half an eye on my HUD than have huge green triangles floating across my field of view.

I play in 3rd person, and I'd rather not have them either. The constantly revolving triangles are very distracting.

Trinotops

• Just not a fan of Runeblades at all. Every ranged spammable you guys have implemented since Cliff Racer (like Stonefist and Flaming Skull) have been unfun to use. Don't even care how good they are, they just don't feel very impactful.
• I really wish that Abyssal Impact was the main crux spender for damage rather than Fatecarver. The beam is clunky and not as satisfying as other burst abilities imo.
• Apocryphal Gate is a disappointment. I was hoping for like a 2 way Shadow Image, but it's quite clunky. You can't really use it to reach higher areas just areas you could easily reach on foot or just jump up to. Using it near a ledge to travel down doesn't really work since the portal is put in front of you so it usually just ends up being at the bottom of the ledge rather than anywhere you can use it. It also seems like there is a weird space requirement for the portals which gives you "invalid location". Really it seems less like a mobility skill and instead more of a strange defensive ability that you just spam going between portals to avoid damage and generate crux. I'd ease up on the limitations of it a bit, make the close portal spawn on top of or next to the caster, and maybe limit its usage to like 2 or 3 teleports if needed to balance it out.
• The passives are a bit boring. Was hoping for some really defining, interesting passives like Battle Roar, Shadow Barrier, or Burning Light.

ghost_bg_ESO

copy/paste from my other post as it is for arcanist

arcanist - it was first thing that bothered me

may by Fatecarver should be interruptable by caster and ot go for full duration also with light attack not only with block...
And may be something with ticks timing, but all animations on multiple skills casted together kind of came too much and immersive breaking to stay long time - too much bright green. About animations may be little bit muffled down skills and only crux triangles more visible?

tome bearer looks good on staff

LittlePinkDot

Jierdanit wrote: »

monkiie wrote: »

How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?
Terrible. In PvP both of these skills will be incredibly hard to land. LoS, cloak, positional desync, move speed, streak are its nightmare.

How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?
Passives are okay but some don't make sense. Why does the arcanist have extra status effect damage but have no flame, bleed, or poison damage in their kit? You're basically forced to use all class skills on arcanist because of the crux system but cant apply any of the damaging status effects with those abilities. Dragonknight has 50% more poison and burning status effect damage and has access to poison and flame damage in their kit.

Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?
Fatecarver. Speaking from a PvP perspective, this skill will be very hard to use. Fatecarver is the equivalent to any other delayed burst ability except it has a 4 second cast time(cant cast anything else for 4 seconds) and can be interrupted.

Do you feel as if any of the visuals negatively impacted your ability to participate effectively in PvP or PvE scenarios?
Yes, in PvP.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Having fatecarver be your "burst damage" as a channel feels awful for PvP. My suggestion is to change the abyssal impact morphs. Abyssal ink should be removed from Cephaliarch's Flail but should consume your crux to deal more burst damage while Dread can stay the same as a higher "dps" option with less burst damage. Currently the arcanist feels like its going to be another support bot in PvP like the necro is right now.

I absolutely agree.

Arcanist just doesnt seem to be designed to actually be able to kill anything in PvP. it took me until about 30 seconds into my first duel to see that the burst damage was way too low.
The defense seemed pretty good so far, though that might just be because i basically only fought other arcanists with not great damage, but i didnt really have problems with the healing.

Fatecarver is basically useless in PvP cause its not worth it spending 3 skills to buff Fatecarver to a decently high damage only for it to be interrupted less than 2 seconds into the skill (not even talking about how easy it is to dodge).

I think your idea to change the tentacles into a burst ability seems pretty good and tbh from just seeing the skill i assumed it would do a lot more damage than it actually does.

That's a bummer about Tentacles. I was hoping to use it as a spammable. I'm on Console so I'm paying attention to what you all are saying. Trying to theorize a build.
Have you tried the stamina morph execute of tentacles?

ArctosCethlenn

The beams, tentacle, and unblinking eye/morphs have trouble interacting with the z-axis, so just jumping back and forth can avoid a lot of the damage; they also struggle to hit moving targets in general.

Crux is interesting, but with beams being wonky it feels like outside of a few specific situations you're better off just using your crux to tank up more instead of trying to beam only for someone to jump to avoid it and bash you. Fatecarver is one of the main focuses of the class kit, and its probably not worth slotting in player vs player. For one I'd suggest making the beams refund a crux when they're interrupted, but the areas of effect likely need adjustments.

edit: Tentacle is a 5x15 area, something like 7x15 (the same width as shalks) would probably be a solid adjustment and would help a ton to counter latency/movement issues.

ghost_bg_ESO

as fatecarver works on ticks if first one is buffed and if full duration becomes cancelable (self interruptable) with LA or block not only with block it may become more interesting (and may be smaller lightning effect)

Aka_

The damage is really, really low. The damage has no burst ability or DoT ability, or mobility, or execute ability that you would expect from other classes. The spammable is underwhelming as well. With how it is designed to be high cost-high reward, I don't feel the reward, yet. Duels were not ending in a reasonable amount of time and I was absolutely steamrolled by DKs and even sorcs. I'd consider myself decent/above average at PvPing, but it's not as threatening as other classes feel. As I see it now, the abilities feel fun and fluid, but it's all fluffy fun at the moment. If you're too scared that everyone was going to be angry that this would be an overpowered class, right now it is underpowered and needs adjustment.

Jierdanit

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Jierdanit wrote: »

monkiie wrote: »

How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?
Terrible. In PvP both of these skills will be incredibly hard to land. LoS, cloak, positional desync, move speed, streak are its nightmare.

How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?
Passives are okay but some don't make sense. Why does the arcanist have extra status effect damage but have no flame, bleed, or poison damage in their kit? You're basically forced to use all class skills on arcanist because of the crux system but cant apply any of the damaging status effects with those abilities. Dragonknight has 50% more poison and burning status effect damage and has access to poison and flame damage in their kit.

Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?
Fatecarver. Speaking from a PvP perspective, this skill will be very hard to use. Fatecarver is the equivalent to any other delayed burst ability except it has a 4 second cast time(cant cast anything else for 4 seconds) and can be interrupted.

Do you feel as if any of the visuals negatively impacted your ability to participate effectively in PvP or PvE scenarios?
Yes, in PvP.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Having fatecarver be your "burst damage" as a channel feels awful for PvP. My suggestion is to change the abyssal impact morphs. Abyssal ink should be removed from Cephaliarch's Flail but should consume your crux to deal more burst damage while Dread can stay the same as a higher "dps" option with less burst damage. Currently the arcanist feels like its going to be another support bot in PvP like the necro is right now.

I absolutely agree.

Arcanist just doesnt seem to be designed to actually be able to kill anything in PvP. it took me until about 30 seconds into my first duel to see that the burst damage was way too low.
The defense seemed pretty good so far, though that might just be because i basically only fought other arcanists with not great damage, but i didnt really have problems with the healing.

Fatecarver is basically useless in PvP cause its not worth it spending 3 skills to buff Fatecarver to a decently high damage only for it to be interrupted less than 2 seconds into the skill (not even talking about how easy it is to dodge).

I think your idea to change the tentacles into a burst ability seems pretty good and tbh from just seeing the skill i assumed it would do a lot more damage than it actually does.

That's a bummer about Tentacles. I was hoping to use it as a spammable. I'm on Console so I'm paying attention to what you all are saying. Trying to theorize a build.
Have you tried the stamina morph execute of tentacles?

I did try both morphs and they both barely did more than half the dmg of the spammable.
Seems like the tentacles were mainly designed to be debuff so your other stuff does more dmg, just that you really don't have a lot of other stuff that actually does dmg (especially without fatecarver).

tomofhyrule

Minor issue, but are the icons or effects for the two Fatewoven Armor morphs swapped?



Unbreakable Fate has a fully green icon, but the active effect is green and purple. Meanwhile Cruxweaver's got the purple-y icon, but is fully green in game

Xandreia_

(this is from a pvp view) i know its only day one but for me a few things need to be tweaked, the costs for skills are a little too high, sustain is very rough on this class, the damage is a little meh, it needs something to give it the extra lift to bring it on par with classes like dk, the healing seems a little off. the watcher ult (morph that chases the enemy) sometimes gets bugged and just stays there. all in all, the class feels a little weak, needs that extra oomph imo

EramTheLiar

Here are the questions I can address so far:

Abilities
How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?

I had to go into settings and change the horizontal camera to 65 (from 100) to make the crosshairs closer to over the shoulder, and after that it was fine. The problem is that the beam is very bright and washes out the crosshair, and with it so far out it's hard to aim. The beam seems to have an AOE that works OK when the horizontal camera is 65.

Did you have a favorite base ability or morph?

I really like the base runeblade. I know some people have already criticized it in this thread but I really like how different it looks. The morph with the AOE sort of ruins the base runeblade appeal. The morph with the increased crit chance manages to keep most of the charm.

How did it feel to have the cost of some abilities change based on your Max Magicka or Stamina?

I like this but I'm curious as to why the first tier crux builders don't have it. I assume someone will want to play a stamina arcanist and right now they don't have a spammable.

Crux System
How did it feel to gain and spend Crux?

It was intuitive enough, though for some reason there seems to be difficulty moving from 2 to 3 crux. It felt like I actually needed to hit with my generator 4 times to get to 3, and I could never tell if it was actually that way or if I was ALWAYS missing my third attack.

How did it feel to have some morphs generate or spend Crux?

I like this mechanic so far.

Did you feel like you had enough options for Crux builders and spenders?

So far.

Visuals (Animation and VFX)
What are your thoughts on the Arcanist’s visuals overall?

So far I love the visuals overall. I've read some criticisms of the visuals and I do think there may be an issue with the bright bits being too bright -- it didn't really bother me for the most part, but the green beam of ultimate book death does wash out the crosshairs and if you aren't willing to adjust your camera angle that will screw up the accuracy of that beam a lot.

Do you feel as if any of the visuals negatively impacted your ability to participate effectively in PvP or PvE scenarios?

For PvE, not after I adjusted my camera. haven't tested PvP.

Audio
What did you think of the audio for the Arcanist’s abilities?

The sounds are strangely satisfying. That's only after a few hours of testing, though. Only time will tell if they're actually that good or if it's the audio form of Baker-Miller Pink.

Do you have any other general feedback?

Overall impression is good so far - this is the "initial introduction to class" reaction.

Mrfroggy

Some feedback I have for the skill animations is so many are just one solid green coloring, making them hard to distinguish from one another. I was hoping they'd add some shades of black and darker greens in their animations/ morphs to help them stand out a little more from one another more.

shadyjane62

When I was doing Investigate Alevalis, there was a continue quest symbol over a deserted mine entrance that was blocked. I think now that I have completed that quest , I still don't know what that symbol was doing there.

Sry put in wrong thread meant to be comment on Necrom.

ilawana

My feedback so far....

Abilities:

Fatecarver: The beam felt good to aim for the most part. I was able to follow people with the beam and continue dealing damage to them without too many problems. That being said, there were times when it wouldn't seem to deal damage unless I was pointing at the enemy's feet. And there were also times when it wouldn't seem to deal damage at all to someone who had just teleported or had high movement speed, even though I was aiming directly at them. My biggest problem with the ability is that it can be interrupted. With skills like force pulse being so prevalent in pvp (on top of other sources of interrupt), I can see Fatecarver being entirely useless in pvp scenarios involving more than one enemy.

Unblinking Eye: I haven't done a lot of testing with the Languid Eye morph, but while testing the Tide King's Gaze morph, I noticed that the beam has a hard time tracking the enemy. For one, it moves to slow. Even the one that follows the enemy can be easily avoided by simply backing away from it or doing circles around the caster. It would be nice if the ult would follow enemies a little bit faster. Also, I noticed that if an enemy teleported (via portals specifically) the eye would stop tracking said enemy completely.

Rune of Eldritch Horror: Myself and another tester were noticing that after being feared, we were unable to break free for a short duration. Making the stun momentarily unbreakable. Not sure if everyone is noticing this or if it had more to do with lag.

Chakram Shields and Runespite Ward: I need to do more testing with these. Outside of pvp areas, they seemed to be quite strong (Runspite Ward being significantly stronger than Chakram Shields). However, in pvp zones the numbers were painfully low. As I said, I need to do more testing with these, but I have a feeling that Arcanist shields are going to be even worse than Sorcerer shields. This make me wonder if shields will be viable in pvp.

Crux System:

I enjoyed the crux system. The playstyle felt a little more thoughtfull than other classes. There were times when I had to consider what skills to cast to get the best results in a fight, and that was nice. It actually may be a little simpler than what I was hoping for. I had my hopes up for crux being a little more impactful. For example, it would have been nice if some of the skills changed entirely when you had full crux points (similarly to Merciless Resolve or Crystal Fragments). Besides that, I thought it was done well, with enough options to choose from.

Visuals:

I like the visuals almost as much as I like my sorc visuals. My biggest complaint would actually be the visuals on Tomebearers Inspiration. The runes are so large and so bright. It's not the nicest looking skill I've seen. When the skill is active, you can barely even see the weapon/s you have equipped. The runes are huge and cover your items almost completly.
Perhaps smaller runes, like the ones used in the Remedy Cascade skill would be better? Something smaller and more subtle would make this ability more bearable to use in my opinion. My only other thoughts were on the Unblinking Eye ult. Again the beam is so big and bright. So much so that you can hardly see what is going on while it is active.

Audio:

Spot on!

General Feedback:

I like the class, but I definitely see it having problems in pvp. Their primary damaging ability (Fatecarver) has some aiming issues but it being interruptible will certainly make it almost impossible to use in pvp. I also felt that there were many situations where you would have to turtle up a bit until you build your crux and get your ult to burst someone. Similarly to necromancer, it feels a little like a waiting game at times. The sustain also seemed tough to me, but I am sure that is something that practice and learning will fix. Overall, I am pleased with the class, and I can't wait to see what changes/improvements will come in the following patches.

Elvenheart

adriant1978 wrote: »

Crux is quite visually distracting in 1st person mode.

For people who play in 1st person it might be nice to have an alternative way of displaying it. I know it was said in the live stream that they wanted it on the character and not in the UI, but to be honest I'd rather keep half an eye on my HUD than have huge green triangles floating across my field of view.

My thoughts of the floating triangles in 3rd person - I expected them to be 3d instead of flat triangles that look the same no matter what angle you are looking at them as you move your char around. I think a 3d triangle would look better personally.

POG4LIFE

I only had the opportunity to play for a little bit (a few hours on stream) and found that the class seems pretty well build for PvP. I'm looking forward to that part in particular as someone who really only plays a MagDk and a MagSorc in PvP. I was a little disappointed playing with the ability that teleports from one place to the next because it's very finicky in where it's usable. I wasn't able to get on the rocks by the wayshrine in Stormhaven from the ground, but I was able to go from the top of the stairs over the edge. It also seems like the distance isn't 22 meters. (One of my viewers points out, "I'm female, I've been lied to about size my whole life.") Overall, the little I played, I enjoyed the changes. It will definitely be weird getting used to the Crux system, but we'll figure it out just like every other system that has been brought in.

I only took screenshots of a few issues, but here are a few that I found:

The tooltip in the description does not match the duration within the initial description. This was true for the other morph as well.


The tooltip is very confusing and ambiguous. It does not explain how the "secret soldier" is created, how long it lasts, or how it's destroyed.


If you go to 03:04:30, I'm playing with the teleport skill, and get trapped in a rock. It could be a one off, but I figured I would point this out just in case it's an easy fix. Right after this I went and experimented in Stormhaven if you want to see what I'm talking about above.

Thank you for the new class!

Looking forward to what's next

-POG

BugsyTheGod

(From a PvP Perspective)
The offensive toolkit is really lacking in PvP. Runeblades as a spammable isn't horrible but just like warden birds or necro skulls it just feels clunky to use. Fatecarver is absolutely horrible in PvP, its very hard to land on a player and even when you stack up your crux and use it on a cc'd player the damage is very underwhelming. Abyssal impact is a decent skill for the immobilize and 5% damage increase but overall felt very lack luster. The unblinking eye ultimate is a very cool concept and does great damage when it actually hits your opponent which leads to the problem; It never actually hits them. It is extremely easy to kite and move out of the way of this ultimate, even the Tide King morph which is supposed to track them never actually lands. After numerous hours of duels I found the best way to play this class was swapping out runeblades for crushing shock and dropping fatecarver entirely. This leads to the class lacking any significant burst and playing like a walmart sorc. There is also no good offensive skill to use your crux on since fatecarver was supposed to fill that role. I think it would be a great idea to turn Abyssal impact into a more burst oriented skill to use your crux on. Overall the class toolkit offensively severely lacks any type of potential burst which is needed in PvP.

The defensive toolkit on the other hand is extremely strong and will be problematic if launched in this state. The remedy cascade heal, specifically the curative surge morph is overperforming and will be a huge issue in PvP if not changed. I was receiving in the range of 2-5k ticks depending on how long I was channeling. This heal ticks every 0.3 seconds which leads to an incredible amount of healing which is UNINTERRUPTABLE for some reason. I don't understand how fatecarver can be interrupted but this ridiculous heal cannot. The Runespite ward specifically the impervious runeward morph is a ludicrous shield even if its only for 1 second. If you stack a decent amount of health this shield can be abused mitigating almost any amount of damage a player can do to you. The biggest let down was the apocryphal gate skill, by the teasers and trailers it seemed that you can use this skill vertically but in reality you cannot. This has to be one of the most useless skills I've ever seen, the range is fairly short and by not allowing us to use it vertically to teleport to different levels of a tower for example it makes it pointless to use.

J18696

Anyone else also fail to see a reason why abyssal impact has a 0.3 second cast time at all this skill and both its morphs would 100% be better off as instant cast to help reduce clunk

React

BugsyTheGod wrote: »

(From a PvP Perspective)
The offensive toolkit is really lacking in PvP. Runeblades as a spammable isn't horrible but just like warden birds or necro skulls it just feels clunky to use. Fatecarver is absolutely horrible in PvP, its very hard to land on a player and even when you stack up your crux and use it on a cc'd player the damage is very underwhelming. Abyssal impact is a decent skill for the immobilize and 5% damage increase but overall felt very lack luster. The unblinking eye ultimate is a very cool concept and does great damage when it actually hits your opponent which leads to the problem; It never actually hits them. It is extremely easy to kite and move out of the way of this ultimate, even the Tide King morph which is supposed to track them never actually lands. After numerous hours of duels I found the best way to play this class was swapping out runeblades for crushing shock and dropping fatecarver entirely. This leads to the class lacking any significant burst and playing like a walmart sorc. There is also no good offensive skill to use your crux on since fatecarver was supposed to fill that role. I think it would be a great idea to turn Abyssal impact into a more burst oriented skill to use your crux on. Overall the class toolkit offensively severely lacks any type of potential burst which is needed in PvP.

The defensive toolkit on the other hand is extremely strong and will be problematic if launched in this state. The remedy cascade heal, specifically the curative surge morph is overperforming and will be a huge issue in PvP if not changed. I was receiving in the range of 2-5k ticks depending on how long I was channeling. This heal ticks every 0.3 seconds which leads to an incredible amount of healing which is UNINTERRUPTABLE for some reason. I don't understand how fatecarver can be interrupted but this ridiculous heal cannot. The Runespite ward specifically the impervious runeward morph is a ludicrous shield even if its only for 1 second. If you stack a decent amount of health this shield can be abused mitigating almost any amount of damage a player can do to you. The biggest let down was the apocryphal gate skill, by the teasers and trailers it seemed that you can use this skill vertically but in reality you cannot. This has to be one of the most useless skills I've ever seen, the range is fairly short and by not allowing us to use it vertically to teleport to different levels of a tower for example it makes it pointless to use.

@ZOS_GinaBruno this above comment is some valuable focused pvp feedback.

In my testing today, both fighting arcanists and briefly playing one, I had the exact same experiences.

First and foremost, remedy cascade is beyond broken in pvp and needs an adjustment. It absolutely needs to be interruptable, for starters. I was seeing 5k crit heals on the later ticks while fully naked with 0 cp assigned, in pvp. That is a 5k crit heal naked every .3 seconds. Absurdly overpowered. The class already has a plethora of defensive and utility abilities/passives, they do not need to be able to channel a mind boggingly broken heal like this.

Runeblades are clunky, and cannot be block cancelled for some reason. They lock you into a weird animation for a spammable that is, at best, on par with crushing shock (and that is being generous). These would see a massive improvement if they were made to be block-cancellable, and maybe had the animation or travel speed sped up a bit.

The tentacle skill is cool in concept and has good secondary effects. However, the damage is lacking and the cast time + hitbox are horrendous. It does not make any sense at all for this skill to have a .3s cast time. The nature of it being a rectangular long AOE makes it difficult enough to land on moving targets - the .3s cast time just makes it unpleasant to use. I would absolutely suggest removing the cast time, and perhaps expanding the width of the AOE by 1-2 meters.

The major brutality buff is cool in that it is active on both bars passively, but the damage component is lacking. I really think that instead of this proc'ing it's damage component when you deal damage with an arcanist ability, it should instead proc it's damage component and secondary effects once per (3s/5s depending on morph) on any instance of direct damage. This will give the class a bit of extra needed pressure offensively, but only applying to direct damage still requires them to actively be hitting their target, rather than allowing for the "fire and forget" pressure you'd get if it proc'd on dots.

I'm not really going to touch on fatecarver much since I didn't use it, but fighting it I had the impression it simply is too difficult to land consistently in pvp. I don't really have an issue with this, as I don't think an ability of this nature should do high/easy dps in pvp. I think it was primarily designed for pve/parsing, and if that means it is average in pvp, so be it.

OtarTheMad

Abilities

How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?
Both felt fine to use and aim, especially with aim assist. I will say that in PvE it works good, maybe too good but good. In PvP it is fairly avoidable. Damage is fine though, just in PvP you can get away so it might not be worth a slot.

How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?
Arcanist passives were fine in my opinion. I do wish that Fated Fortune had something on it for those who want to keep the Crux, or if while you are in a big fight you forget to spend it you aren't penalized for that. Something like Healing Tides which from the sounds of it, as long as you have crux it boosts your healing by how much you have. I am divided on the Psychic Lesion passive, which seems like a good unique passive but only 15%, and the only status effect, class-wise, that Arcanist has is frost. Makes players choose different abilities to use this and by doing that kill the point of the crux system since Runeblades seems to be the easiest way to get it.

Did you have a favorite base ability or morph?
Runeblades, favorite morph was Escalating Runeblades. This is a really good spammable, so much better than Necro skulls or Warden bird. Easy to use and weave. Damage may be a bit low though, I assume that is tied to the crux system.

Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?
Fatecarver and the Unblinking Eye ultimate. In PvE these will be just fine but in PvP I just don't see it worth slotting for my gameplay. It needs something extra, especially if you are not going to have a burst ability... which is fine by me. Maybe a slightly bigger radius.

How did it feel to have the cost of some abilities change based on your Max Magicka or Stamina?
It's fine but also kind of confusing in a way because the costs change but the damage type doesn't. So it kind of feels like it doesn't have many stamina morphs when due to Hybridization it does. It makes for interesting playstyle once people figure out how to maximize this.

Crux System

How did it feel to gain and spend Crux?
The triangles made it easy to understand and also the abilities icon on the bar sort of lights up when you have enough crux and which ability you can use. I don't believe I have add-ons with the PTS so the icon changing also makes it easy to know where I can spend. I do feel like, now that the spell has worn off, a lot of the abilities rely on this in order to be decent. It's still early in testing but I feel like a maxed crux ability or spending it should be similar of a reward like Instant Frag or NB Spectral Bow. Without a burst ability, which again is fine, the crux system kind of acts like it but doesn't do much. Especially with the tentacles ability, feels like a stun and execute. The execute on the Flail morph could be higher and the explosion on the Dread could be as well to give it more oomph.

How did it feel to have some morphs generate or spend Crux?
I have to get used to what generates what but honestly with the morph of Runeblades I use I generate crux quickly so it's easy.

Did you feel like you had enough options for Crux builders and spenders?
Yeah

Visuals (Animation and VFX)

What are your thoughts on the Arcanist’s visuals overall?
Fatecarver could be toned down a bit, along with the heal version of it but overall it's fine for me. I like it.

Do you feel as if any of the visuals negatively impacted your ability to participate effectively in PvP or PvE scenarios?
Audio
Not too badly.

What did you think of the audio for the Arcanist’s abilities?
Fine.

Overall
I am a little worried only because I remember what happened to Necro in PTS. The class seems pretty straightforward though.

Overall
I had to redo some of this after the shiny spell ended and I came back down to earth. It seems the damage is kind of low. For damage and healing I feel like the class is in an okay spot, doesn't mean things don't need to be tweaked/buffed but they are better off than damage. I feel across-the-board damage needs to be higher. Also, the crux system should be an option or a reward for using and not a necessity. I just had some issues with sustain and even with War Maiden, which should increase my damage output a lot, doesn't seem to be making a bigger impact. I tried 5pc War Maiden and 5pc Heartland Conqueror with different monster sets and it just seemed like I was an NPC. The portal ability does feel fine to me, sometimes it bugged out and only spawned one so it needs some tweaking but this can work well with repositioning and kiting. Couldn't hurt to tweak it so that it works even smoother but I liked it.

Runeblades- Just tweaked a bit, damage just needs to be increased. Speed and overall feel with weaving is fine imo.
Fatecarver- This ability seems to work okay in PvE but in PvP it just seems very avoidable unless caught off guard. I primarily used this as a finisher honestly since I can be interrupted.
Abyssal Impact- Like I said above damage needs to be increased. Execute needs to be higher, and explosion damage needs to be higher. I mostly used this ability for immobilization though teaming it with Rune of Eldritch Horror.
Imperfect ring- damage needs to be increased. It's a unique dot but it doesn't do much compared to others.

Lastly, Arcanist Domain morph Reconstructive Domain really felt like this ability wasn't doing a big enough HoT at the cost of having to stand in it. I feel like the Warden flower HoT and just others felt stronger.

rabidmyers

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Minor issue, but are the icons or effects for the two Fatewoven Armor morphs swapped?



Unbreakable Fate has a fully green icon, but the active effect is green and purple. Meanwhile Cruxweaver's got the purple-y icon, but is fully green in game

yeah +! for this, id like the purple and green one for the cruxweaver morph

this should be addressed!