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A gamer of middling skill tests an Arcanist with middling gear, experts hate this one simple trick
EramTheLiar
✭✭✭✭
TL:DR summary: a guy with only middling skill at the game, using gear that is hardly ever included in online end game builds, is pulled through parts of Craglorn he has never previously survived on his own.
Full, rambling post follows:
I'm not posting this in the official Arcanist feedback thread because I'm not sure this is the kind of information they're looking for there -- it doesn't specifically track with their official questions. But the purpose of this was to see how Arcanist would function in a "most of the game" setting by me, a player who has been playing for a very long time but is not particularly skilled at the finer points, by which I mean "weaving and complex rotations."
I think I can weave maybe 70% of the time. Complex rotations are lost on me though, since my attempts to follow them in a real world situations wind up with me panicking and trying to press every button on my keyboard simultaneously. Er... I solo a lot.
Anyway, so I thought how does the Arcanist work for me, someone who will _not_ be invited to all the high-end raids and will _not_ be desperately sought after in the pvp events, who will limit his dungeon-delving to group finder almost exclusively?
So I created a level 50 arcanist and used the template to equip myself only with the gear I've already found in game, and then took myself to Craglorn to see how he did solo.
I realize that to a lot of the elite players Craglorn is kind of a nothing these days, but it's probably the most challenging part of the game for me that isn't a trial or trying a dungeon solo. I generally die when I go into the force fielded areas, or when I try to open one of those shimmering rift blobs that cause stone soldiers to pour out of it.
(I should note the only dungeons I've ever been able to solo so far have been Spindleclutch 1 and Wayrest Sewers 1 -- I do not say this with pride, I'm just trying to let you know exactly where on the spectrum of ESO competence I sit, which I suspect is 'the higher end of the low side').
So I'm testing Craglorn with two arcanists - a magicka breton and a stamina imperial. The reason I chose these races specifically is that arcanists have something of a... er... resource management problem, and both races mitigate these a bit: Bretons give boosts to recovery and reduce magicka costs, and imperials boost stamina pools and give a 6% reduction to costs of all skills.
First observation: if you're at my level of skill, you're probably going to need the Ring of the Pale Order to survive. This isn't true for every character I've ever played. My Templar finds it extraneous, my 2H Necro is tanky enough to solo without it, and my sorcerers have Surge and whichever healing pet they're specced out for, either cranky dinosaur or flappy bird-lady. But Magicka Necro sort of leans heavily on it, and my arcanists lean even harder (note that this is only for solo play, I suspect in a group it might be different).
I tried going through Craglorn without the Ring of the Pale Order and... it wasn't terrible. The arcanist self-heal isn't bad, and the skill with the emergency heal when you drop below 50% is really useful if you can manage to refresh it every 20 seconds. But I would still wind up dying in craglorn in fights that I've been able to manage with other classes. Ring of the Pale Order is a game changer, though. With it, I was able to do the glowy little portal things and the force field dome bosses.
Overall, stamina arcanist seemed to have an easier time than magicka arcanist. I *think* it's just because the higher tier duration spells are all magicka and the lower tier spells are "highest trait" which means a stamina arcanist can offload all the duration spells to magicka and not worry about it, saving stamina just for the attack spells. Also damage was usually higher due to the DW weapon damage being higher and the DW passive buffs taking it even higher than that. I find I prefer the runeblade morph that increases crit a lot more useful than the one with the AOE, even though it's only single target, just because of the increased crit.
I also find the tentacles morph that stays stamina was the most useful for both builds, because it builds crux. I found it a lot more useful to do two runeblades then go to tentacles to complete my crux build and add the debuff AND snare some targets, then go straight to the Very Bright Green Line Of Death. Which is a very fun power to use though I found myself trying to dodge roll while using it (note: this does not work).
So the "middling gear" part of the title was me trying to figure out how effective the build would be while wearing the stuff I've been able to collect in game. I've never done group trials (see disclaimer about skill level above) and I don't go through dungeons a lot so it's basically whatever I find in the few dungeons I can solo and whatever I can find in the store, and whatever I can craft.
Gear Test One: Magicka Arcanist, Seducer's and Gift of Magnus
These are both craftable sets and pretty easy to get if you have a character with necessary crafting skills. These sets combined with a breton initially felt like overkill, but to my surprise I ultimately wound up running out of magicka more often than on the second magicka gear test. Basically this is because fights lasted longer because (I think) I was doing less overall damage. Seducers and Magnus don't really boost damage (Seducer's doesn't at all, other than a 1k boost to magicka, Magnus at least boosts weapon and spell damage as well). I died a lot when running without pale order because I'd reach a point where I was out of magicka and enemies were still attacking because they weren't dead yet. It was better with pale order but the times I ran out of magicka were still a problem, because you can't cause damage if you don't have the resources onhand to cause damage.
Gear Test Two: Magicka Arcanist, Mother's Sorrow, Order's Wrath, Slimecraw Shoulders
OK, so after that I decided to try and max out crit and see what happened. I know there's a generally accepted balance of how much crit to have vs when you're better off raising other things instead, but I'm not theorycrafting here, I'm just throwing stuff against a wall -- I trudged off to Alik'r, visited the thief mundus stone, then donned mother's sorrow and order's wrath gear. Mother's sorrow you can buy in the store - that's how I got my set - and order's wrath is craftable if you have high isle, which I do. I've never had a FULL GOLD set of both before, which was interesting. See disclaimer above.
Anyway, breton arcanist did much better after that. His base crit was something like 73%, and everything fell a lot faster. Resource management was easier than the seducer/magnus combo because I didn't have to use as many spells to kill things. It was still something I had to watch on the long fights (forcefield bosses and glowy apertures of death) but it was manageable.
He still died in both fights when he didn't have the ring of the pale order. I kept firing off my heals too late.
Gear Test Three: Stamina Arcanist
This was my most effective build. I went for crit again, but based on things I already own... so I went with the classic Briarheart and, of all things, Toothrow. I've been through the Wayrest sewers so many times I have a pretty full set of Toothrow gear, and I've bought every piece of Briarheart I can find.
A lot of people consider Toothrow's 5-piece bonus kind of useless because you can get it by adding a Fighter's Guild or Mage's Guild skill to your bar, but I found myself appreciating not having to figure out what skill to give up to put it in. (That was a difficulty I had with the Breton Magicka Arcanist, because I put inner light on both bars so had to give up two skills, and I really didn't want to). Anyway, all that gave the character about a 63% crit chance. Arcanist has a few skills i generally don't feel like I need to use but I'd like to have onhand for one or two situations that would definitely make my life easier during those situations - like the shield morph that also provides a quick heal, so you can survive long enough to move on to the full heal. I found myself appreciating the convenience a lot. Less useful in a group, maybe.
DW front bar, inferno staff back bar, (because I wanted to use burning from elemental blockade to trigger the 15% status effect damage boost, and to offload the cost of it from stamina to magicka).
This gear set is probably the most survivable of all my builds without the Pale Order ring, just because briarheart crits are giving you lots of small heals making it easier to use the self heal when you need it, plus briarheart boosts your damage some AND DW passives boost your damaga AND medium armor boosts your damage. WITH pale order it's even better. Runeblade is a lot easier to use in melee than, for example, flame/venomous skull, so your spammable crits more often and then you switch to tentacles and then Glorious Viridescent Line Of Profound Discomfort. Resource management was a lot easier, again because I think a level 50 stamina arcanist is able to offload all the duration spells to magicka and magicka refreshes by the time you need them again (especially if you have Tome-Bearer's Inspiration running).
Summary
So what I'm saying is, based on this testing, the Arcanist Class + Ring of the Pale Order + sets you can find in the market or craft yourself or find in one of the few dungeons _I_ of all people can manage to solo (this is a "if I can do it you probably can too" kind of situation) is enough to carry me through parts of Craglorn I have never been able to do on my own before. I'd sort of like to try a few of the Craglorn dungeons now. The only one I've ever been able to do on my own is Skyreach, which I don't think actually counts as a dungeon but is rather a "Point of Interest."
So as I was going through all this and having the class drag me through things I was never competent enough to do on my own, I kept thinking "I probably better enjoy this while I can" because while I find it _amazing_ to be able to suddenly go through this content, the problem is that if I can do all this with the somewhat basic skills I have, chances are it means that when someone with far more established skills uses the class they're going to stumble on a way to break the game. Which is... oh well, I'll enjoy it on PTS while I can.
Though I do wonder if I've stumbled on to something here -- that maybe the arcanist in its current form has a unique enough playstyle that it will benefit more from gear that people don't generally consider in game than other classes will. I think it'd be nice for sets like Toothrow to get their time in the sun. I'm not saying that because I've gone through Wayrest so many times that I've collected a complete set of Toothrow with the divine trait, no, nope, that's certainly not the reason. I'm sure it's just a coincidence...
Full, rambling post follows:
I'm not posting this in the official Arcanist feedback thread because I'm not sure this is the kind of information they're looking for there -- it doesn't specifically track with their official questions. But the purpose of this was to see how Arcanist would function in a "most of the game" setting by me, a player who has been playing for a very long time but is not particularly skilled at the finer points, by which I mean "weaving and complex rotations."
I think I can weave maybe 70% of the time. Complex rotations are lost on me though, since my attempts to follow them in a real world situations wind up with me panicking and trying to press every button on my keyboard simultaneously. Er... I solo a lot.
Anyway, so I thought how does the Arcanist work for me, someone who will _not_ be invited to all the high-end raids and will _not_ be desperately sought after in the pvp events, who will limit his dungeon-delving to group finder almost exclusively?
So I created a level 50 arcanist and used the template to equip myself only with the gear I've already found in game, and then took myself to Craglorn to see how he did solo.
I realize that to a lot of the elite players Craglorn is kind of a nothing these days, but it's probably the most challenging part of the game for me that isn't a trial or trying a dungeon solo. I generally die when I go into the force fielded areas, or when I try to open one of those shimmering rift blobs that cause stone soldiers to pour out of it.
(I should note the only dungeons I've ever been able to solo so far have been Spindleclutch 1 and Wayrest Sewers 1 -- I do not say this with pride, I'm just trying to let you know exactly where on the spectrum of ESO competence I sit, which I suspect is 'the higher end of the low side').
So I'm testing Craglorn with two arcanists - a magicka breton and a stamina imperial. The reason I chose these races specifically is that arcanists have something of a... er... resource management problem, and both races mitigate these a bit: Bretons give boosts to recovery and reduce magicka costs, and imperials boost stamina pools and give a 6% reduction to costs of all skills.
First observation: if you're at my level of skill, you're probably going to need the Ring of the Pale Order to survive. This isn't true for every character I've ever played. My Templar finds it extraneous, my 2H Necro is tanky enough to solo without it, and my sorcerers have Surge and whichever healing pet they're specced out for, either cranky dinosaur or flappy bird-lady. But Magicka Necro sort of leans heavily on it, and my arcanists lean even harder (note that this is only for solo play, I suspect in a group it might be different).
I tried going through Craglorn without the Ring of the Pale Order and... it wasn't terrible. The arcanist self-heal isn't bad, and the skill with the emergency heal when you drop below 50% is really useful if you can manage to refresh it every 20 seconds. But I would still wind up dying in craglorn in fights that I've been able to manage with other classes. Ring of the Pale Order is a game changer, though. With it, I was able to do the glowy little portal things and the force field dome bosses.
Overall, stamina arcanist seemed to have an easier time than magicka arcanist. I *think* it's just because the higher tier duration spells are all magicka and the lower tier spells are "highest trait" which means a stamina arcanist can offload all the duration spells to magicka and not worry about it, saving stamina just for the attack spells. Also damage was usually higher due to the DW weapon damage being higher and the DW passive buffs taking it even higher than that. I find I prefer the runeblade morph that increases crit a lot more useful than the one with the AOE, even though it's only single target, just because of the increased crit.
I also find the tentacles morph that stays stamina was the most useful for both builds, because it builds crux. I found it a lot more useful to do two runeblades then go to tentacles to complete my crux build and add the debuff AND snare some targets, then go straight to the Very Bright Green Line Of Death. Which is a very fun power to use though I found myself trying to dodge roll while using it (note: this does not work).
So the "middling gear" part of the title was me trying to figure out how effective the build would be while wearing the stuff I've been able to collect in game. I've never done group trials (see disclaimer about skill level above) and I don't go through dungeons a lot so it's basically whatever I find in the few dungeons I can solo and whatever I can find in the store, and whatever I can craft.
Gear Test One: Magicka Arcanist, Seducer's and Gift of Magnus
These are both craftable sets and pretty easy to get if you have a character with necessary crafting skills. These sets combined with a breton initially felt like overkill, but to my surprise I ultimately wound up running out of magicka more often than on the second magicka gear test. Basically this is because fights lasted longer because (I think) I was doing less overall damage. Seducers and Magnus don't really boost damage (Seducer's doesn't at all, other than a 1k boost to magicka, Magnus at least boosts weapon and spell damage as well). I died a lot when running without pale order because I'd reach a point where I was out of magicka and enemies were still attacking because they weren't dead yet. It was better with pale order but the times I ran out of magicka were still a problem, because you can't cause damage if you don't have the resources onhand to cause damage.
Gear Test Two: Magicka Arcanist, Mother's Sorrow, Order's Wrath, Slimecraw Shoulders
OK, so after that I decided to try and max out crit and see what happened. I know there's a generally accepted balance of how much crit to have vs when you're better off raising other things instead, but I'm not theorycrafting here, I'm just throwing stuff against a wall -- I trudged off to Alik'r, visited the thief mundus stone, then donned mother's sorrow and order's wrath gear. Mother's sorrow you can buy in the store - that's how I got my set - and order's wrath is craftable if you have high isle, which I do. I've never had a FULL GOLD set of both before, which was interesting. See disclaimer above.
Anyway, breton arcanist did much better after that. His base crit was something like 73%, and everything fell a lot faster. Resource management was easier than the seducer/magnus combo because I didn't have to use as many spells to kill things. It was still something I had to watch on the long fights (forcefield bosses and glowy apertures of death) but it was manageable.
He still died in both fights when he didn't have the ring of the pale order. I kept firing off my heals too late.
Gear Test Three: Stamina Arcanist
This was my most effective build. I went for crit again, but based on things I already own... so I went with the classic Briarheart and, of all things, Toothrow. I've been through the Wayrest sewers so many times I have a pretty full set of Toothrow gear, and I've bought every piece of Briarheart I can find.
A lot of people consider Toothrow's 5-piece bonus kind of useless because you can get it by adding a Fighter's Guild or Mage's Guild skill to your bar, but I found myself appreciating not having to figure out what skill to give up to put it in. (That was a difficulty I had with the Breton Magicka Arcanist, because I put inner light on both bars so had to give up two skills, and I really didn't want to). Anyway, all that gave the character about a 63% crit chance. Arcanist has a few skills i generally don't feel like I need to use but I'd like to have onhand for one or two situations that would definitely make my life easier during those situations - like the shield morph that also provides a quick heal, so you can survive long enough to move on to the full heal. I found myself appreciating the convenience a lot. Less useful in a group, maybe.
DW front bar, inferno staff back bar, (because I wanted to use burning from elemental blockade to trigger the 15% status effect damage boost, and to offload the cost of it from stamina to magicka).
This gear set is probably the most survivable of all my builds without the Pale Order ring, just because briarheart crits are giving you lots of small heals making it easier to use the self heal when you need it, plus briarheart boosts your damage some AND DW passives boost your damaga AND medium armor boosts your damage. WITH pale order it's even better. Runeblade is a lot easier to use in melee than, for example, flame/venomous skull, so your spammable crits more often and then you switch to tentacles and then Glorious Viridescent Line Of Profound Discomfort. Resource management was a lot easier, again because I think a level 50 stamina arcanist is able to offload all the duration spells to magicka and magicka refreshes by the time you need them again (especially if you have Tome-Bearer's Inspiration running).
Summary
So what I'm saying is, based on this testing, the Arcanist Class + Ring of the Pale Order + sets you can find in the market or craft yourself or find in one of the few dungeons _I_ of all people can manage to solo (this is a "if I can do it you probably can too" kind of situation) is enough to carry me through parts of Craglorn I have never been able to do on my own before. I'd sort of like to try a few of the Craglorn dungeons now. The only one I've ever been able to do on my own is Skyreach, which I don't think actually counts as a dungeon but is rather a "Point of Interest."
So as I was going through all this and having the class drag me through things I was never competent enough to do on my own, I kept thinking "I probably better enjoy this while I can" because while I find it _amazing_ to be able to suddenly go through this content, the problem is that if I can do all this with the somewhat basic skills I have, chances are it means that when someone with far more established skills uses the class they're going to stumble on a way to break the game. Which is... oh well, I'll enjoy it on PTS while I can.
Though I do wonder if I've stumbled on to something here -- that maybe the arcanist in its current form has a unique enough playstyle that it will benefit more from gear that people don't generally consider in game than other classes will. I think it'd be nice for sets like Toothrow to get their time in the sun. I'm not saying that because I've gone through Wayrest so many times that I've collected a complete set of Toothrow with the divine trait, no, nope, that's certainly not the reason. I'm sure it's just a coincidence...
14
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EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭To further clarify what I mean when I talk about how my skill level is in the low-to-maybe-high-end-of-low range:
I took my magicka crit arcanist to one of my homes where I have a dps parse dummy (I call it my "Trial of Low Self Esteem"), put it through its paces, and managed to get 41K.
... it's a new personal best.7 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭Tests of Craglorn Encounters That Have Historically Killed Me Dead, Regardless of Class or Gear
(Magicka Arcanist)
Adamant Anomaly
Old: Die. Stupid Gargoyle.
New: Live!
Anka-Ra's Vigil
Old: Die.
New: Live!
Anka-Ra's Crucible
Old: I can't keep the priest alive.
New: Still can't keep the priest alive.
Shada's Tear
Old: Argh. I get killed by Debruz. I get killed by Debruz over and over and over and over and over and over and over and then I ragequit
New: I managed to get all the way to the nereid queen. I couldn't kill her no matter what I tried, but the fact that I got there means I KILLED DEBRUZ, YES I DID, I KILLED THAT STUPID STUPID THING. It was a beautiful moment. I thought I could hear a choir of angels, but it's probably just Hermaeus Mora clearing its throat.
Note, all of these were with Ring of the Pale order builds. That ring appears to work very well with fatecarver. New on this test was swapping out Order's Wrath with War Maiden. All arcanist damage is magic (except for abyssal impact) and it did shorten the length of my fights.
It turns out Fatecarver is still pretty useful even if you haven't built up crux. Being able to sweep it across a semicircle of charging skeletons comes in handy, especially since you can still move and reposition while you do it.
Rune of Displacement isn't as useful as I'd like it to be. More often than not baddies are out of the 7 meter range of the target by the time the pull kicks in. It's better to use Abyssal Impact since they're all charging you anyway.3 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭(Stamina Arcanist)
Zelguna the Strong and Inul the Thunderer
Old: I would forget they were there and wonder why the last orc and her pet wouldn't go down, then I'd die.
New: I managed not to die! I was able to do enough damage for Pale Order to keep me alive. It was a pretty long fight, too, which is usually a danger for me -- the longer fight takes the more likely it is I'll do something at exactly the wrong time and die.1 -
tsaescishoeshiner✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Really interesting to hear your perspective, and glad the builds worked out for you!
Have you tried the new Mythic item, the Velothi Ur-mage amulet? The one that increases your skill damage while reducing your light attack damage. I suppose it would be instead of one piece of a monster set. While you would still have to self-heal, I wonder what kind of results you might see because it vastly reduces the need to light attack weave (other than generating ult every 3 seconds).PC-NA
in-game: @tsaescishoeshiner2 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭Generally I'm trying to restrict my testing to gear I've already acquired in game - the theory being "this is how arcanist will work as soon as I level one to 50 and equip it with what I have on hand." I already have a few pale order rings but that's the only mythic I have on hand.
That said, I'm tempted to break my rule for that one, just out of curiosity. I suspect the extra damage will not help my survivability though I wonder if it might be something to get if I wanted to try grouping more... Pale order is nearly useless for groups, extra damage certainly is not...
I'll give it a shot tonight.0 -
ghost_bg_ESO✭✭✭✭i was goofing for short and with self heal and shield that it has in its kit even pale order doesn't feel necessary - should be last 2 skills on first row with skills (and to be honest highly suspect they will be nerfed sooner or later)
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/631821/lolz-solo-arc
(i'm away from pc at the moment to see skill names)0 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭I guess I'll have to give it a shot. The problem I've had with shields is that I'm notoriously bad at keeping them up. Six seconds isn't a long time, and I always get distracted by something Not Shield and then I'm taking damage again. The problem I generally have with heals is that I don't always fire them off in time. That's why skills like Surge or Ravenous Scythe are so useful - surge runs for a long time and converts crits into heals. OK, build for crit. I understand that part. And Scythe you can actually work into your attack rotation, because I find if I'm taking a lot of damage I'm no longer in ranged combat.
(So far my favorite shield is the passive one that appears when you have psijic skill slotted, because it shows up whenever you block.)0 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭A Quick Test of the Velothi Ur-Mage Amulet, by the Magicka Arcanist
OK, so I didn't think I'd be able to do this until this evening, but I had a little time this morning.
Magicka arcanist: swapped out Ring of the Pale Order with Velothi Ur-Mage Amulet. Went to Parse Dummy.
Previous DPS: 41K
DPS with amulet: 48K - a new personal best.
That's a little over 15% -- nice!
So then I went back to Craglorn and poked the old Adamant Anomaly.
And then I died before I even got to the stupid gargoyle.
The problem at this point is that it's been a while since I've played a class that didn't have some kind of mitigation tied to their offense. For example - Sorcerer, Surge. You build for crit and you get lots of nice heals. You still need to look for those times when damage is overpowering your heal, but it's not as often. Same for Templar with Jabs, same for of my characters using 2H, though then it's a shield mitigation instead of a heal mitigation. Even though I _knew_ the fight would be different, I was so used to that way of fighting I just couldn't adapt in time.
I think my Templar will definitely want this amulet. Oh yes he will. And I think it'd be a good mythic to use when grouping, i.e., swap it out with pale order when joining a party. But when soloing, damage isn't always the thing you want to boost. You do need to meet a minimum threshold of damage to kill the thing in the time you need to kill it (which is why I keep failing Anka-Ra's Crucible -- I can't kill the things fast enough before they kill the priest) but more importantly you need to keep the thing from killing you. I assume there are people who can instantly facemelt a world boss but I'll probably never be one of them. 1 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭THINGS I WOULD CHANGE IF I WERE DESIGNING THE ARCANIST
There aren't too many, to be honest. I really like the class. However, based on my experiences so far these are the things that stymie me:
1. Writhing Runeblades visual.
Note that this is purely a visual change, but it's... weird. It feels like the visuals break with the style established for the class. The green triangles are replaced with some kind of weird purple streak that looks like it was a discard from the Sorcerer's Dark Magic line, with a little green thrown in.
So far I've found escalating runeblades more useful, which is a relief aesthetically because I like the look of that morph a lot more as well.
2. Rune of Displacement Pull - shorten delay
The problem I have with Rune of Displacement, which seems like a really cool idea, is that ranged combat never stays ranged combat. Combat starts in a specific area on the map and if you get too far from that area it resets everything, so there's only so much kiting you can do. When when I use Rune of Displacement, this is usually what happens:- From a distance, I see the group I want to attack. I choose a target, and open with rune of displacement. the little green thing goes off around it's feet.
- They all charge me, because that's what they do.
- Two seconds later the pull occurs, and nothing happens BECAUSE BY THEN THEY'VE ALL SURROUNDED ME AND THEY'RE ALREADY WITHIN 8 METERS OF EACH OTHER, IT'S JUST THAT SOME OF THEM ARE BEHIND ME NOW
Elemental Blockade is more useful, since it assumes the enemies are going to be all up in your face anyway.
If the pull delay were shortened it might be more useful to me, but 2 seconds is more than enough time to make the pull not very useful.
3. The Abyssal Impact immobilize and Exhausting Fatecarver snare are less useful the longer the fight progresses.
There's no way around this, because if a snare or an immobilize worked every time you could lock down your targets and utterly break combat. I understand this - you have to give some kind of ramping up levels of immunity. And Abyssal Impact isn't a one trick pony -- you get damage AND an immobilize AND a damage buff.
But Exhausting Fatecarver is just damage and snare, and once combat goes on a bit it's essentially just damage. At least, that's how it looks in the fights where I've tested it.
I don't know how to fix it. I assume there are situations where the effects are incredibly useful.
4. I would let Tome-Bearer's Inspiration generate crux with light attacks instead of tying it to the pulse
In the cinematic we see the the arcanist cast something like this spell, which makes her weapons turn green and then she attacks with her weapons. The "problem" with arcanist right now is that weapons are kind superflous. And I kind of dig that playstyle, but I think it would be neat to have a skill that allows crux generation from your weapon use.
I.e., instead of having crux generate whenever the pulse goes out, have the pulse just be damage or recovery and have crux generate when you light or heavy attack with your weapon. This could potentially result in generating crux too fast, but right now it's already pretty easy to generate crux so I don't know if that would really be a concern. But if it is, limit crux generation with this method to 1 per second or something.
This would let people play around with using weapon skills without feeling they're neglecting their class features. The thing they'd be missing out on is the extra boosts they get from using crux generators when they have full crux, like the extra damage or crit from runeblades.
5. Apocryphal Gate
This is the skill I want to love the most but ultimately don't care about at all. Range is too short. I don't understand what it's for. It's not a closer, and it's not an escape skill, it doesn't let you cross terrain the game doesn't let you cross (as far as I can tell, if there's an invisible wall there's an invisible wall).
It looks really cool, but I don't need it for anything.
That said, I don't know how to change it. Maybe if you increased its range significantly.
THINGS I WOULD NOT CHANGE
Basically, I wouldn't change the fact there is no heal integrated into any arcanist offense.
Don't get me wrong, if that happened I'd be pretty gleeful about it. BUT I do think that each class should have some kind of flaw or quirk you have to work with/route around, and I think it's a fair flaw for the arcanist. You might have to interrupt fatecarver to heal yourself. You might have to find mitigation, like using Reaving Blows to get some kind of heal back from runecarver, or use gear like briarheart or solve the problem entirely (at least for soloing) by getting the pale order ring.
Having to heal reactively is a little frustrating but I'll probably remember how to do it eventually.Edited by EramTheLiar on April 20, 2023 1:35PM0 -
Trejgon✭✭✭✭quick note on rune of displacement pull - patch notes had section of known issues stating that in current version of PTS this pull does not work.1 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭Oh! I do remember reading that, now that you mention it, but that was before I actually used any of the skills so I didn't make the connection.
I'll reserve judgment on that one for the moment, then.
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EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭So... sustain.
As stated in the first post, I created a Breton Magicka Arcanist and an Imperial Stamina Arcanist because initial reports were that arcanist had problems with sustain and I was interested in mitigating that. They both work pretty well, but my general impressions so far is that Breton magicka is generally better than Imperial stamina.
I'm not entirely sure why that is. Theoretically, the Stamina Arcanist should have an edge because if you assume you're using food that gives +4K to stamina and magicka both, the stamina arcanist should have enough magicka onhand to fire off all the 4/5/6 skills which are usually a) duration spells and b) magicka-based, and then switch to stamina for all the meat and potato offense. This should allow the stamina arcanist to dedicate more of the stamina pool to offense.
This theory works out pretty well if you put a staff on the backbar. However, I tried with a DW front/2H Back setup and I noticed two things: first, the 2H on the backbar is really useful for proccing bleeding (with a shield!) and giving you a closer (with dot AOE!), and second, it sucks down stamina like crazy. I ran out of stamina when I was doing another Adamant Anomaly test -- still survived the fight and killed everything but it was the first time I had to resort to heavy attacks to build my stamina back up.
This wasn't a problem at all with Breton magicka. There wasn't a time during any of the tests where I felt I was in danger of running out of juice. Now if I hadn't been running recuperative treatise, it would be another story. But I will say that what Breton gives up in offensive bonuses, it's magicka bonus, magicka reduction, and recovery bonuses really shine with the arcanist.
I wondered if there was a way to get a similar effect for the stamina side through gear. So I broke my rule about only using sets I have (IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE) and stumbled across Battlefield acrobat, which gives you a 6% reduction on skill costs across the board. This pairing with the imperial 6% gives you a 12% reduction on ALL skills except ultimates -- but even ultimates appear to get the 6% from battlefield acrobat.
I took them both through Hircine's Haunt -- that's the first thing in Craglorn I ever tried, and was a place I died and died and died until eventually I was able to get all my characters to solo through it (I realize this is not a big deal for a lot of you but believe me I heard Rocky music playing in the background the first time I killed that stupid pack leader). For both the magick and stamina arcanist it was... well, it wasn't quite like taking a character through a normal delve, but it was actually pretty close to that. Fights were pretty quick. Fatecarver was very handy here, the ability to manually move to new targets when old ones fall, or even just spread it around a bit to make sure you get a little damage on everyone, is pretty cool. The ability to do this while stepping out of the red zones they're dropping down is even better. You can't sprint with the beam on but I slotted celerity in one of my champion point stars and I was able to reposition myself pretty quick while keeping the crosshairs on target.
Even the boss fights were pretty quick. In past fights, the packleader usually managed to summon three waves of minions before I was able to bring him down but in both fights I killed him just as he was summoning the second. I did wind up using the eye beam ultimate on both boss fights. I have noticed that sometimes the eye beam will randomly lock on a target that isn't the one your crosshairs are pointing at, which I find less than useful. I think shooting star might be a better general purpose one, since it's cheaper and using it actually gives you some ultimate back so you can use it more often.
But during all of those fights, breton as breton and imperial with battlefield acrobat, sustain wasn't really an issue.0 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭OK, so I decided to skip the incremental testing and dive right into the ridiculous by trying Falkreath Hold. Dreadhorn Wallbreaker one-shotted me repeatedly and I decided to go back to incremental testing. 0
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EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭Last night, in between being constantly disconnected from the "lobby" (I assume that's the character select screen) I did manage to figure out a rotation that would keep my characters alive _without_ the Ring of the Pale Order. Essentially it hinges on using the Chakram of Destiny morph. Chakram of Destiny is a shield, a crux builder, and if you cast it while it's still running you get a 30% shield boost.
So just before I fired off fatecarver I hit chakram. When I came out of fatecarver I hit chakram again because I usually had to reposition/dodge/get out of rapidly growing red circles and all the things that were still alive were trying to, you know, kill me -- then I fired off one builder attack (either runecarver if I was at range, or preferably cephiliarch's flail to get an additional debuff) and then I hit chakram _again_ to get the 30% shield buff and also because if I didn't the shield would probably fall off before the beam ended (it only lasts six seconds, and I was repositioning and building crux for about 2 of them) then I hit fatecarver again. Rinse and repeat.
There are two problems with this:
1. I did a lot less damage. Just... a lot less. Fights took longer.
2. Probably because of the fights taking longer, resource management was much more of an issue. Both the magicka and stamina arcanists ran out of resources during the fight, though again for some reason I can't really explain, the magicka build did better overall with it than the stamina build did.
But I did find that I was able to get through all the fights. They took a lot longer to finish and I absolutely needed Recuperative Treatise running at all times, but it was a reliable strategy.
Out of curiosity I tried using both oakensoul and Velothi Ur-mage amulet, even though they break my rule of "only use gear you have." They did bump the damage but I found I still did more with my ring of the pale order builds. What can I say, I fail miserably at meta.0 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭Just realized, I should try swapping out Runeblade/tentacles with Runic Embrace -- it has a build in heal, reduces enemy damage by 5%, and if you're soloing it doesn't matter that you're taunting, they were going to try to kill you anyway.0
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EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭Runic Embrace appears to improve the situation a lot. It has a burst heal of a little under 3k and then magicsteal running in the background giving you a little over 600 health "every second doing damage" - I think this means it doesn't run while you're setting up your shield but it does run while you're beaming. It's not a huge heal but I found it took the edge off a little, and I didn't feel like I had to double-cast the shield most of the time. Also, my stamina arcanist had fewer issues with resource management because Runic Embrace costs magic. It's not exactly a spammable so I'm not really depleting my blue bar and it's one less thing to take out of the green.1
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EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭So the new Pragmatic Fatecarver morph is fun, but "interrupt immunity" is not, alas, a guarantee of interrupt immunity. Any boss with a special attack will still interrupt the hell out of you. And Abal the Defiler is still not soloable for me. Alas.
EDIT: I am wrong! I forgot to equip the Ring of the Pale Order. So it is totally soloable as long as all my attacks are generating a 20% heal. Edited by EramTheLiar on May 9, 2023 12:11AM0 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭So up till now I haven't really found a reliable way to stay alive without a ring of the pale order, but I'd completely forgotten about Hexos' Ward. How had I forgotten about this set? It works really well with Pragmatic Fatecarver. Any time you crit, Hexos creates a shield that lasts for six seconds, and you can cast it every seven. Pragmatic Fatecarver is a 4 second channel, so you build up your crux while hexos is active and pragmatic fatecarver's shield carries you through the 1 second gap. Of course if you're getting hit by damage from all sides both shields can still crumble to dust and you'll be scrambling for heals.
Also I'm starting to suspect I don't actually know what "interrupt immunity" means because pragmatic fatecarver is still being interrupted from all kinds of things.0 -
Malkosha✭✭✭I think the Pragmatic Fatecarver shield only works for ture interrupts. If you get charged, bumped or prodded, you will lose the beam. Wayrest Sewers is a great example and while I never die, I still did better with the Shield Interrupt than I did before It was changed.
I'm a solo player too. I suggest getting Oakensoul. It's easy to get and works for more than just HA builds. Try this build from Hack The Minotaur just slightly modified: https://www.hacktheminotaur.com/builds/eso-stamina-arcanist-one-bar-build-crux-cannon I switched out Rune of Colorless Pool with Cephaliarch's Flail.
Arcanist 64 into Stam. The Thief. Order's Wrath and Deadly Strike. Dual Wield. You can buy Deadly strike from Guild Traders. Skills in the order I have them:
Cephaliarch's Flail , Recuperative Treatise, Chakram Of Destiny, Pragmatic Fatecarver, Evolving Runemend, Tide Kings Gaze as the Ultimate
Keep Recuperative Treatise up at all times. This give you a Crux if you have none. The buffs are covered by Oakensoul. Open with Cephaliarch's Flail. Hit your shield then Beam away. You can do this forever just remember to keep Recuperative Treatise up. When needed you caan change out Cephaliarch's Flail in the rotation with a heal and/or double shield. I love this build. It's deadly, simple and very fun to beam things down.
Have fun!
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EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭I'd been trying to puzzle through an oakensoul build but I hadn't thought of that specific combo!0
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ADarklore✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Or, get a Companion to help. They can offer healing AND additional DPS. With Telvanni Efficiency set, their skill cooldowns are reduced and with Quicken traited gear, can be casting heals and damage skills constantly.CP: 1965 ** ESO+ Gold Road ** ~~ Stamina Arcanist ~~ Magicka Warden ~~ Magicka Templar ~~ ***** Strictly a solo PvE quester *****0 -
merpins✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭I get the feeling that War Maiden's will be good on Arcanist. And Deadly Strike. Just a feeling.0 -
Hotdog_23✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Nice write up, thanks for sharing your experience. Console player here, so no PTS. Always enjoy reading others experiences with new classes/items in the game. Generally, find it much more informative than someone try min/max out a build.
Stay safe 0 -
EramTheLiar✭✭✭✭So it seems like stamina dw/inferno staff is the tentative meta for Arcanist going forward, but last night just out of curiosity I tried dw/malestrom bow and there was a definite tick up in damage. I put a fire rune on the bow so I could still get some benefit out of the arcanist-somehow-understands-how-elements-work-better passive and I really can't tell if it was effective or not, but overall all my fights went faster and damage went up.1