PTS Update 38 - Feedback Thread for the Arcanist

Moltab

Mainly from a PVE perspective

Abilities

• Feel and use of the beam: The beam was fine in terms of the aiming, but the Exhausting Fatecarver morph is quite honestly too much. 4 seconds is already very long for a skill that is very punishing to cancel mid cast. Extending this even is just silly and makes the gameplay with that skill even more sluggish, compared to templar's Radiant Oppression it is already more then twice as long just in the base morph.
  
• The passive abilities deserve some attention:
  1. Fated Fortune - This is unnessecary, there are already a crazy amount of sources for crit damage in any content and generally speaking both for 4-man and 12-man you want to optimize around all the classes that do not have sources of passive crit damage like DKs. For solo content you will need to do further optimization through sets anyway, if you want a high amount of crit damage. This feels very wrong to put as a passive when you have just made a mythic that works really well with arcanist but gives you extra crit damage. If you go hit a dummy as an arcanist with the new mythic, you easily hit 140% in medium armor when the cap is 125%.
  2. Psychic Lesion - 15% is very very small, DK's have 50% to Burning and Poision which hit 2/3 of the high damage status effects while also having abilities that guarantee these status effects and Necro has 10% but to all dots, which accounts for so much more damage. Arcanist have zero abilities that actually guarantee a proc of a status effect, so this feels very weird as a passive, you want them to run status effects with this passive, but they have no way to guarantee this in their class kit? This should definitely either be entirely changed or buffed to more than 50%.
  3. Splintered Secrets - 991 penetration per ability from Herald of the Tome is a fine enough passive, although like the crit damage this feels a bit unnesecary when you consider the new mythic which also gives a lot of penetration and again seems very designed around the class that does very few light attacks because they are busy beaming. At least this passive has more usage than the crit damage though.
  4. Harnessed Quintessence - 5% weapon and spell damage is a good passive
  Overall - These passives are very underwhelming compared to other classes, but they also don't enforce a unique class identity, Warden wants to do ice damage, because of their passives, DK's want a lot of burning and poisoned and Necro wants to run as many DOTs as possible. This identity comes mainly from passives and Arcanist simply has nothing like that at all, so that is pretty disappointing.
  
• Favorite ability or morph: Fatecarver in its base form felt impactful and unique both in look and feel, but as mentioned the morphs simply don't add anything nice to this, and the extended morph makes it way too long of a cast.
  
• Least favorite ability or morph: Abyssal Impact, while being unique and both morphs adding something different to the mix, the ability feels terrible to use because of the 0.3 second cast time, there is really no reason to have this in the game, it doesn't make it technically longer to cast than other skills but it makes it extremely annoying to use and especially to bar swap out of.
  
• How it feelt to have some abilities change based on your max magicka or stamina: I think it is fine in itself, but the problem I find with it is that it makes it difficult to run a mix of stam and mag skills, which you really need as an option because of sustain issues. Because some abilities always stay magicka, the magicka version of this class felt like it had incredibly strong sustain issues.
  
• How it feelt to gain or spend Crux: It felt quite satisfying, it's an interesting new system and overall I think a nice addition to the game.
• How it felt to have spenders and builders: It felt decently balanced, but I think an issue for me is that there is only 1 damage ability that spends crux, which is beam. The Tentacular Dread morph also spends crux but does so to give a bigger debuff, the damage it does is laughable compared to even a normal spammable because you only gain a bigger damage buff from more crux and the base tooltip is low. I think this morph, since it also feels weak compared to Cephaliarch's Flail because you have to build 3 stacks first, wheras the other does better damage, still debuffs the target AND builds crux, I think the Tentacular Dread morph should just be made into a higher damage skill as an alternative to the beam, because it is kinda silly that this is your only meaningful spender ability as a damage dealer.
  
• Thoughts on the visuals: Overall the visuals are nice, they're unique and feel impactful.
  
• Impact of visuals on gameplay: I don't think it's too much of an issue, it's a nice enough balance between flashy and not blindly bright or huge.
  
• Audio: It was very well done in my opinion, nothing really to add it was very nice compared to previous classes.

Overall feedback:

1. The passives need some reworking, they are very underwhelming compared to other classes and they don't provide a clear class identity like emphasising certain types of damage as you have on Warden, Necro and DK, which generally makes them feel more unique in terms of choice of skills and sets.
2. The Exhausting Fatecarver morph is way too long, the base ability is nice but I think this morph needs reconsideration, 4 seconds is already a significant time to be standing relatively stationary both in PVE and PVP.
3. Abyssal Impact suffers a lot from the 0.3 second cast time, it's really uneccessary and makes the ability feel quite bad to play with when you are already dealing with a massive cast time on beam. The Tentacular Dread morph does not feel impactful enough compared to the stam morph, and it really ought to do more damage on cast as it is the only spending alternative to Fatecarver as a damage dealer.

chessalavakia_ESO

Abilities


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

They feel powerful but, like you can't really count on them when things get rough.

How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?

In theory they look a bit better than some of the other class passives but, they didn't seem that great in practice.

Did you have a favorite base ability or morph?

I liked that Tome-Bearer’s Inspiration and it's morphs didn't need to be actively used to provide the buff.

Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?

From a personal usage standpoint, I think the portals are probably the worst as they can't really do much and stay balanced. From the perspective of not being the Arcanist I think Abyssal Impact and Fate Carver will be the worst because they stand out visually from the rest of the game and will likely be commonly used.

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

I actually hit some rough spots when leveling due to it. I was building towards magicka but, I was using the crown food and getting more stamina enchanted armor drops. So, my ability usage swapped from magicka to stamina abruptly when I was doing the Gorne Public Dungeon where you need to break free a fair bit which meant I ran out of stamina fast which caused some brief confusion.

I'd assume that in the later parts of the game where your stats clearly slant in a specific direction it could be nice.

Crux System

How did it feel to gain and spend Crux?

I spent the majority of my arcanist time on a new character so the experience was basically Runeblades-Runeblades-Runeblades-Fatecarver with heals mixed in as needed. So, the way I was using the Crux System was pretty basic. I think that one could come up with more complicated uses that would shake things up a bit more at later levels (I made it to 21 on the new character then goofed off a bit with a max CP one)

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

It felt like a good idea in theory but in practice, it felt like many of the options ended up a bit underwhelming. Really, the Crux design rams into the issue that ESO has only 10 skill slots and you frequently want to spend slots on other things which doesn't leave many slots to use as diverse options for Crux spending.


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

I think the issue with spenders is less in the number and more in the appeal.

Visuals

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

It's flashier than I'd like and long sessions produced eye strain which I haven't hit before in ESO. I'm not really looking forward to interacting with them on live. It doesn't really say Elder Scrolls to me very much.

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

I think it might produce more situations where people fail to get out of red circles fast enough due to the visual distraction and might at times miss what other characters are doing due to it.

Audio


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

I think the audio fit the theme of the Arcanist but, it wasn't necessarily appealing to me.

Do you have any other general feedback?

I'd say overall the class definitely has some uniqueness but, for me it isn't really appealing. Long term, Soul Strike from the Soul magic line might need reworked so that it seems more special as the Arcanist's beam style abilities may outshine it by too much.

Panderbander

Currently the channeled abilities can be made completely free with cost reduction glyphs. This turns at least the beam heal into a 40k+ AOE heal over 4.5 seconds that costs literally nothing. This feels like it could be very problematic.

LadyLavender3

Baby arcanist impressions continued...
How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?
I hate to say it, but fatecarver is massively OP. With 3 crux up, my baby arcanist can take down 3 mobs in approximately a second. Even with 0 crux up, mobs are dead before they reach me from where I started pointing it at them at range. It didn't take out a boss in one channel, so I had to rebuild my crux, but even then the fight was much easier than I expected with a mere 3 skills on my level 5 bar. I don't know how much of this is the result of level-scaling, but it feels exponentially more powerful than the 2nd skill in any other class.

Don't get me wrong, having a powerful aoe that can be moved around as needed feels awesome, but it has to be headed for a nerf.

ADarklore

HTM posted his feedback as well. Overall it sounds like this class is incredibly BAD for new players due to lack of DPS self-heals like all other classes have access too. Seems ZOS really dropped the ball on this aspect for the class and needs attention.

Narvuntien

ADarklore wrote: »

HTM posted his feedback as well. Overall it sounds like this class is incredibly BAD for new players due to lack of DPS self-heals like all other classes have access too. Seems ZOS really dropped the ball on this aspect for the class and needs attention.

What do you mean by dps self heal? they have plenty of heals in their other skill lines

Narvuntien

Moltab wrote: »

2. Psychic Lesion - 15% is very very small, DK's have 50% to Burning and Poision which hit 2/3 of the high damage status effects while also having abilities that guarantee these status effects and Necro has 10% but to all dots, which accounts for so much more damage. Arcanist have zero abilities that actually guarantee a proc of a status effect, so this feels very weird as a passive, you want them to run status effects with this passive, but they have no way to guarantee this in their class kit? This should definitely either be entirely changed or buffed to more than 50%.
]

Yeah, this is the passive that makes me want to build around it, but if they don't have a way to cause these status effects it seems a bit wasted. I played around with trying to maximise this passive but it was ineffective. I want to see this capitalised on because it would be very interesting.

HackTheMinotaur

Main Takeaways so far

1) The DPS Tree needs some passive healing to help early players (leveling), beginners and solo builds stay alive while doing damage, especially during the beam.

I think adding an upfront heal to Abyssal Impact, and then a HOT to Cephaliarc's Flail (instead of execute or in addition to) makes the most sense. Another cool idea I saw was adding a passive to the skill line (or Curative Runeforms) that gives you a self-heal for spending Crux - ie 2 second HOT for each Crux consumed. This would also help keep players alive during the Beam, which seems to be the main problem.

1A) Side note: seems like the lowered debuff value for Tentacular Dread may be a bit too low. 12-15% might help with Arcanist DPS. Also is there a way to make this morph ALSO a builder, not a spender? Yes, it "works" since the debuff lasts for 20 seconds but it does feel a bit clunky having to spend Crux on this AND Fatecarver for a damage focused build and is a bit much for new players especially to manage I think.

2) Fatecarver Morphs add little value. For such a powerful and iconic skill the Fatecarver morphs don't seem to do much. Rather than add snares or cost reduction I would prefer that the morphs help address some of the pain points with the skill such as refunding Crux if you get interrupted mid-cast (I hate wasting a 3 Crux Stack!) or possibly a morph that cannot be interrupted for some or all of the channel time at the cost of lower damage overall.

3) Imperfect circle seems useless outside of group synergy. I would prefer to see a ramping DOT to help sustain damage while you are building Crux for your next Fatecarver. For PVP I think the concept of the exploding rune could be extended to give the class some time-able burst. For example, if you do X amount of damage while the DOT is active then the DOT explodes for bonus damage (think Power Of The Light or Haunting Curse).

YandereGirlfriend

HackTheMinotaur wrote: »

3) Imperfect circle seems useless outside of group synergy. I would prefer to see a ramping DOT to help sustain damage while you are building Crux for your next Fatecarver. For PVP I think the concept of the exploding rune could be extended to give the class some time-able burst. For example, if you do X amount of damage while the DOT is active then the DOT explodes for bonus damage (think Power Of The Light or Haunting Curse).

No, we want want the synergy for group play in PvP.

Belhawk1

I think the arcanist morphs are broken. When I morph a skill, the bar says it is stamina even when the active skill line says it is magic, and it uses stamina, unless the detail in the skill line is incorrect.

Belhawk1

It seems to be the "herald of tombs" skill line that morph uses stamina instead of magic, for the 1st 2 skills. Runeblades, when morphed turned fatecarver to stamina when it is magic based.
:

aaisoaho

I've been now parsing with the arcanist to get familiar with the class. Based on my experience, the class relies quite a lot on the fatecarver, to a degree of fatecarver doing almost half the total DPS. As good-looking as it is, I find the current fatecarver problematic mostly thanks for its long duration.

Right now, the duration is 4 seconds that can be increased to be over 5 seconds. This creates issues.

Issue number 1: reduced amount of viable gear sets to run on arcanists. The sets that requires you to do a light attack every 5 seconds are all unusable with the fatecarver. These sets are sets like Arms of Relequen, kinras's wrath, grave inevitability and Advancing Yokeda. By limiting the amount of viable sets, the build variety suffers, and you are shoehorned more towards whorl of the depths and coral riptide as a trial set to be worn and then combining it with a set like deadly or pillar of nirn.

Issues number 2: blocking, dodging and interrupts in content becomes very punishing for arcanists. Some fights in trials requires rather a lot of blocking, which prevents arcanists from casting their main source of damage, or to cancel their main source of damage mid way through, making them lose damage. Fights like Kyne's Aegis Hardmodes are examples of fights where dds need to block and mobs like sunspire senche-raht have interrupting component in their abilities.

If the fatecarver duration was shorter, arcanists could still use the full arsenal of sets, and finding beaming windows in fights would be easier. Reduced duration would also move the damage profile to be more balanced, where the beam would not be half of your damage.

nemoralis

Just a quick note on the visuals relating to Crux.

I started a new character and ran through the tutorial but because of the intrusive and overly bright nature of the spinning Crux in my FOV I, seriously, ended up going cross eyed, and by the end of the tutorial had a blinding headache. No, I am not photo-sensitive or epileptic and only have maybe 4-5 headaches a year, so definitely the visuals and is also something that doesn't happen with my 40+ hours of playing each week with any other class.

I'll, unfortunately, not be able to play this class unless it is toned down, or at least have the crux much lower in the FOV.

P.S. It improves when not playing in first person, but as I exclusively play in that, it will be a big no for me atm

ADarklore

Based upon what I've been reading and watching on Youtube, it seems as Arcanist sits now, it's a very niche class that will not work well for brand new players or anyone with very low CP, especially since there is no DPS heal to help them survive.

The Crux spinning visuals are horrible in first-person view leaving those players unable to play the class. The Crux spinning also remains permanent even out of combat, which can be extremely annoying for players; there needs to be a duration to how long the Crux remains visible when out of combat. Perhaps having the visuals end when out of combat, but start again when IN combat would please everyone I think.

The visuals are too bright for most players and need some toning down.

The entire class revolves around Fatecarver as the main source of DPS, which severely limits the class including utilizing other skills such as weapon and guild skills. Other class skills need a damage buff to become an option for those who do not want a Fatecarver based build. Adding a big hitting DOT or other source of burst damage would definitely help.

Many Arcanist class skills are behind other weapon/guild skills of similar nature, making players ask, "Why should I play Arcanist if I can play another class and do so much better and not be locked into a singular focused build?" Again, as I stated, currently Arcanist is more of an elitist niche class that requires specific gear and build for it to match other current classes and is not new player friendly, at all.

If the class goes Live as is, and a new player comes to ESO and picks Arcanist, and fails with it... they most likely will leave in frustration and tell all their friends (and internet) how bad the game is. ZOS does not need this type of negativity, given they need to start bringing players back after so many left with U35.

Luke_Flamesword

For all classess I have magicka and stamina DD characters and they all quite unique. With arcanist I don't see a point in doing second character, because it will be almost the same thing. Doing whole skill lines for tanking and healing is very limiting. Especially tanks really don't need whole skill line from class. I would like to see more variety with damaging skills to make more combinations.

dosco

How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?
Both skills are so much fun to use!
The aim seems fine in pve, however i feel like we won’t/can’t use the beams for pvp – even hitting allies with the heal can be tough, hitting enemies with fatecarver is practically impossible. On top of that it can very easily be interrupted, so slotting it, casting it and generating crux 3 times to get it to full strength only for it to be interrupted after 1 second won’t be worth it imo, which is a pity.

How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?
I think i have not much to add here, other’s have stated before that Psychic Lesion doesn’t seem to make much sense when the class has nothing it their skill set that applies a status effect. Other than that, i feel i’d need to do a lot more testing to form a strong opinion about the passives.

Did you have a favorite base ability or morph?
Runeblades, Runemend, Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade are the skills I currently enjoy the most, I love the aesthetic and they are satisfying to use. I’m eager to try out Rune of Displacement.

Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?
Abyssal Impact doesn’t feel nearly as strong as I expected it to be. I’m worried for Vitalizing Glyphic (the Curative Runeforms Ultimate) cause right now it seems like Arcanist healers (which is the role in which this class seems most viable) might still have to use war horn over the class ultimate. I hope that changes!

How did it feel to have the cost of some abilities change based on your Max Magicka or Stamina?
Personally i don’t like this. I like to be able to use a mix of stam and mag abilities cause it helps a lot with sustain, especially in pvp. This is not really possible with this class, i think there are 2 abilites that have a fixed stam morph? That’s not that many. However, there are worse things than having to build around this.

What did you think of the Arcanist’s visuals and audio?
I love it. I’m so happy this class is primarily green, and a vibrant, bright green even. I missed this color in the game. I’m a sucker for aesthetics and i feel like this will be my new favorite class because of it. Visuals and sound and design in general is what makes me want to play a certain character. Vibrant visuals and a deep full sound are what’s most fun about the class for me. I really enjoy the sound effects of this class.
I know some people said it was too loud, but can’t that be adjusted by the „effects volume“ slider in the audio settings? Idk, but in case stuff like that gets changed, I just hope there will be an option to keep the vibrance and sound, i think someone else also proposed to add a setting for turning stuff down so that others can keep it the way it is.


Other general feedback - i feel the class lacks damage, it has little chance in 1:1 and, in its currents state, it won't be run at all as dd in optimized raid groups. I'm happy it seems to make a solid heal/support class. But compared to classes like dk, who dominates pvp, is the one and only main tank class, and on top of that does insane damage as dd, ... arcanist doesn't look that capable. It's a pity cause i like the class a lot.

Elvenheart

Just a bit of feedback about how Fatecarver feels. It's good except for the fact that it continues to go after a fight ends. That just makes it feel so awkward. We stand there stuck, still channeling the beam, while all the enemies are dead on the ground. I can see it going it's full length when there are still other enemies in the fight since you can swing the beam towards them, but having it go what feels like a long time after the fight is over makes it feel strange to me. I feel like I should be screaming, "EIiiiiighghhghghh!" while shooting the beam, lost in a blind range, and my companion should carefully be trying to get my attention and say, "Hey, the fight's over! You can stop now!"

Imagine how it would have looked in the trailer when the main char cast the beam and killed the skeletons, and then after they all fell just continued shooting the beam for a few more seconds at nothing.

BasP

This feedback is coming from the perspective of an average solo PVE player that hadn't played ESO since late last year and was a bit rusty at first. When testing the Arcanist I took four Oakensoul setups through vVH. Sadly I only got the Trifecta on my third try (which was with a Heavy Attack build) and struggled a bit during the three other runs. Afterwards I also soloed four World Bosses on High Isle with a two bar build (wearing The Ring of the Pale Order).

How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?
I haven't tried Remedy Cascade, but I liked Fatecarver. It's a fun skill to use and I didn't have any problems aiming it or whatever. I do feel that the duration might be a tad long? I suppose that this was mostly due to my bad timing, but I often had to cancel the skill because I needed to dodge roll or interrupt an enemy.

How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?
They seemed fine to me. From a gameplay perspective I like that some passives are based on spending, gaining or having active Crux. The 15% extra damage dealt by Status Effects from Psychic Lesion seemed pretty minor though and could probably use a buff.

Did you have a favorite base ability or morph?
While I actually liked most skills I tried, I think I liked Abyssal Impact and its morphs best. It's nice that one morph is a Crux spender while the other one is a builder. I used Tentacular Dread on two builds and Cephaliarch's Flail on the others. That said, considering that the Arcanist seems a bit lacking damage wise in PVE, perhaps the extra damage you deal to enemies marked with Abyssal Ink could be increased a bit?

How did it feel to gain and spend Crux?
Gaining 3 Crux was easy. Spending Crux with either Fatecarver or Tentacular Dread worked well too. Perhaps it'd be nice if other skills, like The Imperfect Ring and its morphs, would interact with the Crux system in some way too though.

Did you feel like you had enough options for Crux builders and spenders?
With a spammable that generates Crux, Inspired Scholarship (it's nice that it grants the Major Brutality/Sorcerer buffs when it's slotted on either bar by the way) and other skills I tried such as Cruxweaver Armor and Chakram of Destiny, I definitely felt I had enough options for Crux builders. The number of skills a DD can use to spend it on seems a bit low in comparison however.

What are your thoughts on the Arcanist’s visuals overall?
I definitely like them. The animations look good to me and the colour scheme is nice too.

Do you feel as if any of the visuals negatively impacted your ability to participate effectively in PvP or PvE scenarios?
I did feel that the visuals sometimes made it hard to tell what's going on (when beaming a boss in vVH while The Tide King's Gaze was active and several other things were going on for example). Perhaps it would be better if the visuals were more transparent, as I believe others have also said.

Overall
I had fun playing around with the Arcanist, but sadly the damage output seems to be lacking a bit. As a solo player I also would've liked an Arcanist DPS skill with some kind of heal attached to it, like most classes have, or perhaps a long lasting buff with a healing component like Critical Surge, Siphoning Strikes or Lotus Flower. Edit: Regarding that last part about the healing, maybe it'd be nice if you also get an X% of health back when dealing damage to enemies marked with Abyssal Ink.

Elvenheart

OMG - From one of the posts above I realized I can cancel the fatecarver beam by hitting the right mouse button...I didn't know that! It kind of invalidates my earlier feedback. Although it still would be nice if it ended automatically as soon as combat ended, at least it can be cancelled with that extra step. That's better than just letting it play out til the end.

J18696

Elvenheart wrote: »

Just a bit of feedback about how Fatecarver feels. It's good except for the fact that it continues to go after a fight ends. That just makes it feel so awkward. We stand there stuck, still channeling the beam, while all the enemies are dead on the ground. I can see it going it's full length when there are still other enemies in the fight since you can swing the beam towards them, but having it go what feels like a long time after the fight is over makes it feel strange to me. I feel like I should be screaming, "EIiiiiighghhghghh!" while shooting the beam, lost in a blind range, and my companion should carefully be trying to get my attention and say, "Hey, the fight's over! You can stop now!"

Imagine how it would have looked in the trailer when the main char cast the beam and killed the skeletons, and then after they all fell just continued shooting the beam for a few more seconds at nothing.

Alot of people seem to not know you can cancel the beam at anytime by blocking you don't actually need to wait the entire thing out

Rugby_hook

This is all from a PvE perspective, geared mostly toward group content.

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

The beams were fun and easy to aim and move. The timing is a bit tough to get used to and felt limiting for any set that has stacks or prove based on light attacks (relequen, zaan, kjalnar, advancing yokeda, kinras, etc) where the stacks would fall off every time you beamed. It would also be great if crux was consumed gradually when beaming rather than what seemed all at once. Each crux could buff 1/3 of the duration of the beam, leading to different ways of using it and not being as punishing if you need to stop a beam early.

* How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?

I enjoyed being rewarded for using class skills as I want more of that for all classes (I personally dislike using too many external skill lines). However, I dislike the passive that gives penetration as it seems to limit the armor that you wear for group content. It’s already easy to hit pen cap in a group and it’s annoying as a tank when different members have vastly different levels of pen. I would love to be able to wear some light armor sets on the arcanist, but there is too much penetration in that instance for almost any group contention. Even in medium armor with two pieces of light for the critical chance provided from them, I was sitting at around 5-6k penetration without anything else contributing to that. This will create a huge disparity in pen between an arcanist dps and other classes, which means the group will always have to adjust for the arcanist as it can’t be reduced merely be changing armor or a champion point. I would love for this passive to either change to crit chance (opening up a lot more build options) or to specifically provide a bonus for being over the pen cap since it will be easy to do, perhaps a unique status effect when hitting a target and being over the cap. This would also provide a great synergy with the passive that boosts status effects.

* Did you have a favorite base ability or morph?

I love the tentacles and both of the morphs. Rune blades and both morphs are also a ton of fun.

* Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?

Fatecarver in its current iteration is my least favorite from a mechanics perspective, although I love the idea and visuals behind it.

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

This felt fine and I liked the ability to rely on spammables from the class on both stam and mag builds without being forced into a certain morph (the dk is really begging for this to happen to whip)

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

This was fine, although I wish fatecarver could consume crux differently as it felt really punishing to start casting and then have to stop before the timer ran out. It was not always easy to see how much crux you had.

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

This was fine and I like the idea that morphs for some are different in consuming or generating crux.

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

No. I wish each skill morph had the option to either consume or generate crux (based on morph), like the tentacles do. The more variety will lead to more variety of builds, which is only positive. I would love to be able to consume crux to boost each hit of runeblades for example. Building crux should be tied to some type of spammable or dot and consuming crux should be done as a way to boost the damage, heal, buff, debuff, or shield of each skill. It felt easy enough on a dps, but felt more complicated on a tank to understand how it was working exactly.

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

There is a lot going on, but I like the general look and feel of them. They just seemed a bit too cluttered when I’m actual content. Particularly the dps ultimate became super obtrusive when fighting smaller bosses

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

Yes. The hardest was when I was soloing Bittergreen (a go to test of mine) because the visuals were obstructing my view of the boss. I play in third person zoomed all the way out. All of the visuals made it also hard to see exactly how much crux I had, especially with how small crux is and the fact that it is rotating. As it’s an essential part of how the class works there should never be any doubt how much crux you have.

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

The audio was all great.

* Do you have any other general feedback?
*
In general I really like the direction of this class and it is super fun to play. The visuals were a bit distracting at times and the class does seem limited as a dps in terms of many sets not synergizing well with the class skills. I haven’t had a chance to really test tank or healer so I will reserve that for a later date.

vingarmo

Overall impression

My main issue with dlc classes is the fact that their skillines designed entirely around “holy trinity” of dps, healer and tank, in comparison to base game counterparts they severely lacking in variety of skills you could use solo or as dps and overloaded with support, buffs and heals. Arcanist take it on whole new level, as a support role it would be a must have for any trial, dungeon or pvp group that aim for perfect performance, as damage dealer it’s boring and uninspiring class with single spammable, weak burst or dot pressure and no execute. There is little variety in skills or their morphs, which become even more apparent with hybridization where certain morphs completely useless or way to niche and should be redesigned for more meaningful choices and provide better utility.

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

I don’t like abilities with cast times and those 2 seemed a bit awkward to use. The duration feel way too long to cast, any sets requiring light attacks would be hard or close to impossible to maintain while using those skills. The choice of morphs for both of them seems lackluster and don’t bring anything new (snare vs extra sustain or heal more for longer channel vs heal more for low hp targets).

How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?
I feel they could be a bit too restrictive if you aren’t using crux generating abilities limiting number of possible build combination viable for this class but I probably could adapt to that.

Did you have a favorite base ability or morph?
Tome-Bearer’s Inspiration because this is the perfect example of ability which gives good options for every build. Easy passive access to Major Brutality and Major Sorcery + small damage buff for class abilities. Meaningful choice for extra sustain (for support) vs more damage (for dd).

Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?
The choices of morphs rather underwhelming especially in Curative Runeforms skillline, it’s clear which ones are the better option.
What I didn’t get though what is the use case for Apocryphal Gate. It looks cool in cinematics but that’s about it, for both pvp or pve it seems inferior option to Elusive Mist. It has long cooldown, only work on flat terrain, has high cost and close to no utility. Someone probably find a way to exploit it of course but overall it seems like dead skill similar to Frozen Gate and Grave Grasp, which I barely saw used in all my time playing.

Crux System
How did it feel to gain and spend Crux?
It seems alright though I would love to see an option to generate crux with weapon or guild abilities.

How did it feel to have some morphs generate or spend Crux?
It didn’t matter as the choice of morphs was rather clear with or without this requirement.

Did you feel like you had enough options for Crux builders and spenders?
I think there aren’t enough options to spend crux for damage dealers as it’s long channeled beam vs support debuff skill though this problem mostly related how unsatisfying those 2 abilities are. For now it seems the passive crit from Writhing Runeblades is the best option.

Visuals (Animation and VFX)
What are your thoughts on the Arcanist’s visuals overall?
What did you think of the audio for the Arcanist’s abilities?
Visuals and audio was spot on and very well done. Old classes looks a bit dated in comparison with Arcanist, but other than that I didn’t notice anything bad, uncomfortable or unsatisfying.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Range on abilities, which are supposed to be ranged, is way too short. Runic Jolt (15 meters) and Runeblades (22 meters) would be already awkward to use in certain pve encounters and in Cyrodiil those 2 would be complete garbage as they won’t benefit from range increasing passives both should be 28 meters.

Fata1moose

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

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

• Do you have any other general feedback?

In the future I'd like to see more traditionally themed Elder Scrolls classes. The Arcaneist is hyper specific to Mora which makes it hard from a customization/background standpoint. Warden has a similar issue being so rooted in Morrowind with its summons but not as bad.

acastanza_ESO

I just wanted to reiterate what I said in the shouty "no rune of displacement please" thread. A class should not be given the effect of a proc set especially not one that was so strong that it was given a 20 second cooldown - as a class skill that can be spammed. Rune Of Displacement is a free dark convergence that will be abused to heck in PVP. It can't go live like that. There is already precedent in the game for making abilities affect Players and NPCs differently when the effect would be too strong against players. This is one of those times. Rune of Displacement should not pull players. Maybe give it a snare but no in-class Dark Convergence. Just no.

OtarTheMad

[

acastanza_ESO wrote: »

I just wanted to reiterate what I said in the shouty "no rune of displacement please" thread. A class should not be given the effect of a proc set especially not one that was so strong that it was given a 20 second cooldown - as a class skill that can be spammed. Rune Of Displacement is a free dark convergence that will be abused to heck in PVP. It can't go live like that. There is already precedent in the game for making abilities affect Players and NPCs differently when the effect would be too strong against players. This is one of those times. Rune of Displacement should not pull players. Maybe give it a snare but no in-class Dark Convergence. Just no.

Go watch Deltia's YT video called The Arcanist Class: a Critical Review. The damage is meh at best. I'll even link the video. It's not even CLOSE to DC, they aren't even in the same ballpark. I get that people see the word PULL and freak out... but in this case, it just isn't that great of an ability.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OkRbbEQlajg

dhoward5b14_ESO

Overall impression - All comments based on PVE perspective...
DPS looks very doubtful with a large portion of damage coming from a channel skill that is often not usable / interuptable (DPS based on what I heard from parsing, not my own testing). Healer looks very strong (buffs) and a lot of fun. Tank is interesting but if there is an Arcanist healer in the group I would not run as an Arcanist main tank just for the 2200 penetration (the penetration is not nearly as useful on an off tank) - I would rather use DK.

How did it feel to use and aim the beam abilities (Fatecarver and Remedy Cascade)?
Clunky on a DPS, OK on a healer - I like hitting the tank at range to restore resources..

How do the passive abilities of the class compare to other current passives abilities?
Overall good, but not the DPS buffs. I always disllike crit done and penetration buffs in a class as they limit builds. I would much prefer "crit chance" instead of 12% "crit done", and "damage done" instead of penetration. With 12% crit done this would be another bad class for a Khajiit.

Did you have a favorite base ability or morph?
Tome-Bearer’s Inspiration for recovery or damage. However, the recovery for a tank is low because a tank is not using class damage skills as often as a DPS. When combined with the recovery from generating crux I estimate the recovery to be a tad better than Necro (still low), but the Necro also gets 660 stat recovered when an add dies. It would be better if the skill could be modifed to recover more stats for a tank (e.g. if class taunt was active).

Did you have a least favorite base ability or morph?
Fatecarver/Cascade. Looks cool, but I hate the long channel on a DPS which is simply unusable in many many places. If it is required to do top DPS with the class then I won't be making a DPS Arcanist. Not good on a healer either. I need something that is more useful. Maybe if it came with damage reduction and was non-interuptable (maybe with CD to offset it). The non-interuptable part perhaps for the first half of the channel time.

How did it feel to gain and spend Crux?
interesting, but will have to do more testing on tank in content to see how it works out. Feels good on a healer. Did not use a DPS.

How did it feel to have some morphs generate or spend Crux?
Interesting, but really not enough options.

Did you feel like you had enough options for Crux builders and spenders?
Feels very limiting on a tank, but what is there is usable. I wanted to borrow a skill from The Curative (healer) line, but the first three skills are all based of your max stat so that's a no-go (I can't afford to have too many stamina skills as a tank).

What are your thoughts on the Arcanist’s visuals overall?
Overall very nice, but I would turn the brightness down (or have it as a game option).

What did you think of the audio for the Arcanist’s abilities?
Very nice. Would not change anything.

Do you have any other general feedback?
The requirement of crux generation vs consumption morphs with forcing your skill's resource to your max stat does not fit with hybridization, and has limited my options too much (especially on my tank - I didn't build a DPS), unless I can simply select the resource I want to use for a skill (add a resource selection option that does not use skill point to select).

Cast_El

https://youtu.be/rAxRXqZWpqw
Are you aware of this bug?

cyberjanet

So far I have looked at the first three offensive skills, the first two healing skills and the offensive ultimate. I added them one at a time to see what they did.
I wasn't focused on DPS at all and didn't even slot champion points. Just from playing experimentally, it looks like it will be fun to play.
And now I really need a spellbook as a new weapon line.

Ashevajak

Visuals (Animation and VFX)

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

I'll be honest - the crux visual persisting outside of combat is something I am not a big fan of. Having that kind of visual representation in combat is fine, helpful even, but the symbols are very noticeable, even at range, and clash with a large majority of the game's existing aesthetics. I think this should be reconsidered.

Naftal

Please give arcanist a dps rotation where you don't have to use the beam at all. I don't want to use it but I don't want to gimp my dps either.

Alternatively give it a morph that works like the ultimate where you don't have to channel the beam.