Arcanist Potential

SillyGT

After being on pts for little under a week the arcanist seems a bit lacking in the aoe pvp deparment. Unlike other classes that have an aoe burst skill that can be combo'd with ult to take out a few people. (Tether/proxy) (Subterranean assault, dawn breaker) (blast bones/colossus) (Inhale/Take flight) etc etc. There is nothing like this on arcanist. This should be considered to make pvp more enjoyable experience. We do have 5 more weeks of pts so this can still change. Which I hope so because this is what I was most looking forward to on the new class.

Luede

but i think that's very good, AOE was distributed inflationary to some classes anyway, but they don't have any real disadvantages. it would be better to make more aoe skills single target, to bring a bit of skill into the game again.

FirmamentOfStars

Not every class needs to have AoE, delayed burst potential. Some classes have clear strengths and weaknesses and it is totally fine for arcanist to not have the same mechanic as dks, necros and wardens with aoe burst. Arcanist have very solid defense and even support abilities. I have seen the rambling in some videos, that arcanists need this and that to compete, like a pull for PvE tanking, better burst heal (which the class does not even need) for healing and delayed burst. But if you give all those tools to a new class with outstanding passives, it will strictly be OP.

Mayrael

FirmamentOfStars wrote: »

Not every class needs to have AoE, delayed burst potential. Some classes have clear strengths and weaknesses and it is totally fine for arcanist to not have the same mechanic as dks, necros and wardens with aoe burst. Arcanist have very solid defense and even support abilities. I have seen the rambling in some videos, that arcanists need this and that to compete, like a pull for PvE tanking, better burst heal (which the class does not even need) for healing and delayed burst. But if you give all those tools to a new class with outstanding passives, it will strictly be OP.

Exactly, people have become accustomed to one playstyle and now they want to transfer it to another class, but at the same time everyone complains about standardization and that all classes are played the same way. We get something new, and even before the class arrives on live servers, we have complaints that the class is not the same as others. It's not and shouldn't be, because it solves the same problems in a different way, period.

DrNukenstein

Unique things arcanist has that are really neat ideas that will make it stronger than it first appears:

-A frost damage spammable that immobilizes and can be comboed with the classic dswing>buffered heavy. This is the first class that can root and stun in the same gcd without using a low damage pure cc skill. That both skills are high damage and use different resources means the combo will do wild burst, and be sustainable.

-A slottable skill that passively grants M sorc/brut, and gives proc damage to the above mentioned spammable (or any other class skill). The limit for this proc damage is cool down based (3 seconds!), not mechanical (like having to light attack 5 times or use 3 ardent flame skills)

-8 second beam turret, all though this can be done on bow already sort of. You can now have a turret that will automatically melt nearby enemies while benefitting from melee weapon bonuses. It can switch targets too, either automatically or on command.

-A personal auto pocket heal skill that gives you your choice of cc immunity or aoe cc when it happens. That's awesome

-The only source of minor evasion (that isn't exclusive to the warden using it) and the only skill in the game that lets you share mobility with team mates, making them extremely potent captains (better word for support)

It's a good thing that it looks weak right now. Once people figure the class out it'll be very potent offensively, with slippery defenses on par with sorc or nightblade. If it launches too strong to compensate for the learning curve we'll probably be dealing with multiple updates where it's busted because players figured out the learning curve.

Thecompton73

DrNukenstein wrote: »

Unique things arcanist has that are really neat ideas that will make it stronger than it first appears:

-A frost damage spammable that immobilizes and can be comboed with the classic dswing>buffered heavy. This is the first class that can root and stun in the same gcd without using a low damage pure cc skill. That both skills are high damage and use different resources means the combo will do wild burst, and be sustainable.

-A slottable skill that passively grants M sorc/brut, and gives proc damage to the above mentioned spammable (or any other class skill). The limit for this proc damage is cool down based (3 seconds!), not mechanical (like having to light attack 5 times or use 3 ardent flame skills)

-8 second beam turret, all though this can be done on bow already sort of. You can now have a turret that will automatically melt nearby enemies while benefitting from melee weapon bonuses. It can switch targets too, either automatically or on command.

-A personal auto pocket heal skill that gives you your choice of cc immunity or aoe cc when it happens. That's awesome

-The only source of minor evasion (that isn't exclusive to the warden using it) and the only skill in the game that lets you share mobility with team mates, making them extremely potent captains (better word for support)

It's a good thing that it looks weak right now. Once people figure the class out it'll be very potent offensively, with slippery defenses on par with sorc or nightblade. If it launches too strong to compensate for the learning curve we'll probably be dealing with multiple updates where it's busted because players figured out the learning curve.

I definitely agree people are going to figure out builds and uses that will be OP. For example I really like Withering Runeblades as a spammable because it's easy to get it's crit chance well above 50%.
And the defensive toolkit is pretty awesome, much to my chagrin unkillable Arc Tanks will likely be common.
Not totally sure about using Tentacular Dread as a spammable though, it costs WAY more than typical spammables and does less damage. Plus it consumes crux to strengthen and prolong the effect of the ink so recasting it quickly a second time with no crux would likely overwrite the damage buff to a weaker version.
I tested the portal for a couple of hours last week and was pretty disappointed with it. It's incredibly finicky with when and where it works and most often fails if not on flat ground. It'll be great for getting past breaches but hard to use if you're moving in a dynamic manner and can't slow down to carefully cast the end point in order to get both portals to actually appear. And since it's a synergy it can only be used by those team mates once every 20 seconds. For groups retreating maneuver will continue to be the best skill for shared mobility with the added benefit of damage reduction.