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A note on balancing Arcanist (PVE)
First of all, I'd like to congratulate ZOS on their work so far on the Arcanist. It's a breath of fresh air as the class is unique in many aspects. I like the visuals, the sound effects, the lore. I also like that it plays very different from all other classes and its meta will be different from the meta of all other classes. By now it's clear that the Arcanist will be excellent in tank and support roles but is really underwhelming as DD. I'm sure ZOS developpers are hard at work trying to rebalance the damage aspects (hence the delay from week 3 to 4 on pts), but I wanted to highlight these 2 points to make sure people are aware of them since we don't have much time between week 4 and hitting live. These 2 points are by no means new, but I think they could've been missed in the tons of feedback provided so far:
1- Please do NOT balance the Arcanist damage using dummy parses. If the Arcanist matches the other classes in dummy parses even with its own gear meta it will mean it massively underperforms in actual content. This is due to the fact the Arcanist damage is designed around Fatecarver, it's the bread and butter. This is cool and unique but the fact that (a) it's a long channel, and (b) it requires re-aiming, means that your dps will always be punished for doing mechanics more so than all the other classes. Imagine you're in the 1st or 2nd second of the channel and need to block or dodge, or even something as common as the boss moves and you need to re-aim. You then lose the channel along with crux you built and need to start over. Obviously all classes parse higher values than actual content, but with Arcanist the effect will be much more due to these reasons.
2- The Arcanist absolutely NEEDS passive healing while doing damage. I imagine the lack of passive healing was intended by ZOS since it's the ONLY class that doesn't have that. I can also venture to guess that ZOS intended for shields to replace passive HoTs for the Arcanist. But I'd like to emphasize here and now that this is a really bad idea. Like you won't even be able to deal with trash in a public dungeons without interrupting your rotation to actively heal, something no other class has to deal with. This can be very easily fixed and will make a huge difference for people waiting to use the arcanist once it hits live. The tenticular skill (base skill) needs a HoT for the duration of the ink debuff, which even makes thematic sense (bonus if the HoT scales with the number of enemies you hit with your tenticles). And Fatecarver needs a stronger HoT for the duration of the channel, so that you're less likely to abandon the channel to actively heal and lose your cruxes. These 2 HoTs won't make the arcanist super tanky. It will only make it viable with a damage rotation that doesn't need to be interrupted to actively heal. What may make the Arcanist super tanky is the hp scaling shields and in general the soldier of apocrapha skill line, and i can see how pvp may suffer from that.
Really hoping week 4 patch notes take into account these 2 points. Obviously these are mostly just relevant for PVE. I honestly thinks Arcanist as is (and even after rebalance) will be very hard to pull off as a PVP DD, seing that the channel is interruptable, re-aimable, and mid-range (same as gap closer range). It'll be a bash fest, and even if not, everyone in PVP and their pet Guar are LOS champions. You'd be lucky if your fatecarver ticks just 2 or 3 times before you're LOSed or interrupted. That plus the fact that Fatecarver is AoE and a lot of people have access to major/minor evasion. I just don't see Arcanist performing at all in PVP apart from tanks and support. But I hope at least it's fixed for PVE before live. Good luck!
1- Please do NOT balance the Arcanist damage using dummy parses. If the Arcanist matches the other classes in dummy parses even with its own gear meta it will mean it massively underperforms in actual content. This is due to the fact the Arcanist damage is designed around Fatecarver, it's the bread and butter. This is cool and unique but the fact that (a) it's a long channel, and (b) it requires re-aiming, means that your dps will always be punished for doing mechanics more so than all the other classes. Imagine you're in the 1st or 2nd second of the channel and need to block or dodge, or even something as common as the boss moves and you need to re-aim. You then lose the channel along with crux you built and need to start over. Obviously all classes parse higher values than actual content, but with Arcanist the effect will be much more due to these reasons.
2- The Arcanist absolutely NEEDS passive healing while doing damage. I imagine the lack of passive healing was intended by ZOS since it's the ONLY class that doesn't have that. I can also venture to guess that ZOS intended for shields to replace passive HoTs for the Arcanist. But I'd like to emphasize here and now that this is a really bad idea. Like you won't even be able to deal with trash in a public dungeons without interrupting your rotation to actively heal, something no other class has to deal with. This can be very easily fixed and will make a huge difference for people waiting to use the arcanist once it hits live. The tenticular skill (base skill) needs a HoT for the duration of the ink debuff, which even makes thematic sense (bonus if the HoT scales with the number of enemies you hit with your tenticles). And Fatecarver needs a stronger HoT for the duration of the channel, so that you're less likely to abandon the channel to actively heal and lose your cruxes. These 2 HoTs won't make the arcanist super tanky. It will only make it viable with a damage rotation that doesn't need to be interrupted to actively heal. What may make the Arcanist super tanky is the hp scaling shields and in general the soldier of apocrapha skill line, and i can see how pvp may suffer from that.
Really hoping week 4 patch notes take into account these 2 points. Obviously these are mostly just relevant for PVE. I honestly thinks Arcanist as is (and even after rebalance) will be very hard to pull off as a PVP DD, seing that the channel is interruptable, re-aimable, and mid-range (same as gap closer range). It'll be a bash fest, and even if not, everyone in PVP and their pet Guar are LOS champions. You'd be lucky if your fatecarver ticks just 2 or 3 times before you're LOSed or interrupted. That plus the fact that Fatecarver is AoE and a lot of people have access to major/minor evasion. I just don't see Arcanist performing at all in PVP apart from tanks and support. But I hope at least it's fixed for PVE before live. Good luck!
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Another suggestion regarding point 2 is to give the spammable the swallow soul treatment, healing for x% of the damage every 1 or 2 seconds for y seconds. Or bake a HoT into the passives like sorc's dark blood passive. Whatever you do the Arcanist needs a HoT due to damage like every other class.0
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Galeriano✭✭✭✭✭
✭There are actually parses doing similar DPS without fatecarver. Just classic DoT rotation and 3-4 arcanist abilities.0 -
There are actually parses doing similar DPS without fatecarver. Just classic DoT rotation and 3-4 arcanist abilities.
Yes but it'd be a real shame for ZOS to work for 2 years on a new style/mechanic only to release it in a state where it's best to be ignored and the class played like every other class. Also without Fatecarver you don't have a reasonable dps crux spender, meaning you lose 12% crit damage from passives.0