Arcanist is hot garbage in Cyrodill

Alchimiste1

My initial impressions from having played the arcanist is , it’s actually not bad. I think if they just made the tracking for fate carver and the ult better it could be a great class. The damage is actually there if fatecarver lands(problem is hitting someone that’s moving from side to side). It kinda nukes people in straight line corridors.

Syiccal

Alchimiste1 wrote: »

My initial impressions from having played the arcanist is , it’s actually not bad. I think if they just made the tracking for fate carver and the ult better it could be a great class. The damage is actually there if fatecarver lands(problem is hitting someone that’s moving from side to side). It kinda nukes people in straight line corridors.

Yea I think same, I also think some skills such as crux weave armour should give 2 or 3 crux not 1

HidesInPlainSight

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

katorga wrote: »

.

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

katorga wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

katorga wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Just use weapon skills. The weapon skill lines have the answer to every classes problems.

The problem with running weapon skills on Arcanist is the entire kit of the Arcanist depends on having as many class skills as possible. 90% of their passives either only affect or directly depend on a class skill.

It's not that bad. You're probably only going to use at most 3 weapon skills. You still have lots of other slots.

You need as many Tome skills as possible for the penetration. 991 pen per skill; that is huge. (soldier skills give you 129 regen per slotted skill, meh).

You need a healing skill on the bar with the shield to get the 10% cost/size buff.

The rest of the important passives are tied to having, consuming, or generating crux. That is actually pretty good, but since you lose crux after 30 seconds now, and only generate in combat....problematic.

Alchimiste1 wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

Here's a clip of an Arcanist trying to recover after I burst him in an extended gank of a group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIyGuuif8RM&t=21s

look at how bad his healing, pressure, and damage are. Compared to my NB,, that has zero crit resist and a miss traited puprle Vateshran sword on my defense bar, because I was to lazy to grab its proper one off another character.

My Nb has 41 skyshards and only skill points from leveling, it does not even have all its class passive, only 1 of the two-hander passives.

At no point in the fight, was I concerned about letting my HP get so low, because I can heal from 0 to full in in 1-2 GCD's

Arcanist have to spend a minimum of 3 GCD's to get their one burst heal, and its no where near an 11k+ burst heal in 1 GCD.

What does this clip even prove ? Actually it looked like he recovered from a gank fine. Almost killed you but eventually died

My gankblade, is paper-thin, no defense.It can die from one good whip. At no point during this fight, was he a threat. I literally heal through his ult.

When he engages me, my burst is on cooldown and still almost kill him in one shot. Arcanist can not even come close to the kind of healing I was doing, and I did that several times. Arcanist "burst" is completely non existent and it their is 100% avoidable and deniable.

LittlePinkDot

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

Here's a clip of an Arcanist trying to recover after I burst him in an extended gank of a group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIyGuuif8RM&t=21s

look at how bad his healing, pressure, and damage are. Compared to my NB,, that has zero crit resist and a miss traited puprle Vateshran sword on my defense bar, because I was to lazy to grab its proper one off another character.

My Nb has 41 skyshards and only skill points from leveling, it does not even have all its class passive, only 1 of the two-hander passives.

At no point in the fight, was I concerned about letting my HP get so low, because I can heal from 0 to full in in 1-2 GCD's

Arcanist have to spend a minimum of 3 GCD's to get their one burst heal, and its no where near an 11k+ burst heal in 1 GCD.

He should've used restoration back bar.
No need for Crux to heal then.

It seems to me the class can't use both defensive and offensive Crux spenders.
You have to make a choice, either or. You can't have both.

Seraphayel

I haven’t played any PvP yet, but for me the biggest issue - as of now just theoretically - is Runecarver as the most important skill of their DPS kit and its multiple issues in PvP.

The problem is, you’re completely dependent on Crux to give it a boost. And then you have to channel it for 3-4 seconds to get most of it. And here‘s the problem: a channeled ability in PvP is a terrible idea especially when it‘s such an integral part of your rotation. Jesus Beam works because it‘s a finisher and doesn’t require setup.

Even in PvE it is so easy to get interrupted, stunned or whatever from NPCs while channeling Runecarver, how bad is it in PvP? Because people will do exactly that. And then your entire setup goes to waste. That one morph that gives you a shield doesn’t do anything. Instead of a shield it should give CC and interrupt immunity at 3 Crux. That way you at least can make use of the full duration (unless you’re getting bursted down while channeling which is likely as well and you need to cancel it yourself to pop some survivability tools).

Seraphayel

Rhaegar75 wrote: »

I’m a mediocre PvPer at best and in most high mmr BGs I get a 1/1 kill death ratio if I’m lucky

I’m levelling an arcanist and so far I’m reaching a 8/1 K/D ratio and I’m not even lev 40?!?!?! I’m lost: either the arcanist is not thaaaat bad or the average player base is simply abysmal 😂

The average Joe doing battlegrounds <50 doesn’t have a clue about Arcanist yet.

Seraphayel

And one thing that would help Arcanist and Crux is to increase the amount of Crux you can stack to 5 while keeping the maximum amount you can use at 3. At least that‘s what I would do. And maybe add a passive that let’s every second or third weapon skill (!) generate one Crux so that using weapon skills becomes an option. Or heck make it a morph for that weapon buff Arcanist has.

heng14rwb17_ESO

Plz do not play Arcanist....u will be a dead weight to your alliance

Dragonredux

Seraphayel wrote: »

That one morph that gives you a shield doesn’t do anything. Instead of a shield it should give CC and interrupt immunity at 3 Crux. That way you at least can make use of the full duration (unless you’re getting bursted done while channeling which is likely as well and you need to interrupt it yourself).

Seraphayel wrote: »

And maybe add a passive that let’s every second or third weapon skill (!) generate one Crux so that using weapon skills becomes an option. Or heck make it a morph for that weapon buff Arcanist has.

Honestly those two changes alone would make Arcanist feel better in both PvE and PvP.

NordSwordnBoard

I agree with lots of pressure, little burst. I wonder what will happen to a class that relies so heavily on class skills and buffs when it gets its eventual post-release nerf. Will arcanist eventually be that much worse than necro? At least we should have ample time beforehand.
I seriously wonder about the crossroads of being stuck in combat despite watching my crux fall off after 30 seconds. I can't lose crux if I'm in combat, right? I should be able to mount or swap skills if my crux went away, right? Why do I have the feeling I'm going to be out of combat to lose the crux, but in combat to keep me off my horse?

sabresandiego_ESO

Arcanist is good in BGs

CameraBeardThePirate

sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »

Arcanist is good in BGs

Arcanist is good in Cyrodiil too - it just is not a solo class. In a group, Arcanist provides oodles of buffs, some insane off-healing with the Magic Carpet, one of the best damaging synergies in the game, and ridiculously high damage potential during ult drops. The class plays a different than the other classes and people need to get used to that.

HidesInPlainSight

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »

Arcanist is good in BGs

Arcanist is good in Cyrodiil too - it just is not a solo class. In a group, Arcanist provides oodles of buffs, some insane off-healing with the Magic Carpet, one of the best damaging synergies in the game, and ridiculously high damage potential during ult drops. The class plays a different than the other classes and people need to get used to that.

In groups its a buff and cc bot. The only good thing about its cc is tentacles applies dmg and status before it renders, while also causing desync. Its ulti is damn near useless,, you can simply walk away from it, unless its on a stun locked target at which point it does not matter what uliti it is.. My base walking speed is faster then Tide King.

While you setup your pressure as Arcanist, every other class can just burst you down, put you on your backbar and you can't recover. The only time an Arcanist is threat to me, is when Im out of resources, which playing a hyrbrid, I can run basically no sustain and always have a heal ready to go and my heals actually heal unlike the Arcanist.

Outside off Buffs for group pvp, you are better off running a different class. DK, NB, and Stamsorc just outclass the Arcanist in every aspect for pvp, besides being a buff bot.

LittlePinkDot

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »

Arcanist is good in BGs

Arcanist is good in Cyrodiil too - it just is not a solo class. In a group, Arcanist provides oodles of buffs, some insane off-healing with the Magic Carpet, one of the best damaging synergies in the game, and ridiculously high damage potential during ult drops. The class plays a different than the other classes and people need to get used to that.

In groups its a buff and cc bot. The only good thing about its cc is tentacles applies dmg and status before it renders, while also causing desync. Its ulti is damn near useless,, you can simply walk away from it, unless its on a stun locked target at which point it does not matter what uliti it is.. My base walking speed is faster then Tide King.

While you setup your pressure as Arcanist, every other class can just burst you down, put you on your backbar and you can't recover. The only time an Arcanist is threat to me, is when Im out of resources, which playing a hyrbrid, I can run basically no sustain and always have a heal ready to go and my heals actually heal unlike the Arcanist.

Outside off Buffs for group pvp, you are better off running a different class. DK, NB, and Stamsorc just outclass the Arcanist in every aspect for pvp, besides being a buff bot.

Have you experimented with weapon skill and proc based arcanist builds yet?

HidesInPlainSight

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »

Arcanist is good in BGs

Arcanist is good in Cyrodiil too - it just is not a solo class. In a group, Arcanist provides oodles of buffs, some insane off-healing with the Magic Carpet, one of the best damaging synergies in the game, and ridiculously high damage potential during ult drops. The class plays a different than the other classes and people need to get used to that.

In groups its a buff and cc bot. The only good thing about its cc is tentacles applies dmg and status before it renders, while also causing desync. Its ulti is damn near useless,, you can simply walk away from it, unless its on a stun locked target at which point it does not matter what uliti it is.. My base walking speed is faster then Tide King.

While you setup your pressure as Arcanist, every other class can just burst you down, put you on your backbar and you can't recover. The only time an Arcanist is threat to me, is when Im out of resources, which playing a hyrbrid, I can run basically no sustain and always have a heal ready to go and my heals actually heal unlike the Arcanist.

Outside off Buffs for group pvp, you are better off running a different class. DK, NB, and Stamsorc just outclass the Arcanist in every aspect for pvp, besides being a buff bot.

Have you experimented with weapon skill and proc based arcanist builds yet?

yes, my personal build is what you see floating around with Masters DW / Vateshran or some variant of it. Ive dumped about 100mil into builds for the Arcanist. Leveled mine to 50 day 1 in IC sewers, pvping the entire time, and have played 12-18 hours a day since Necrom dropped. All focusing on my Arcanist.

Class can not sustain without slotting majority class skills. It does not have enough consistent pressure in CP without Masters DW / Vatershran. There are other builds that work with different Arena Weapons, but the sustain is not there, and you can't drop damage or you wont kill anything.

The highest burst was probably fromm playing it like a BowSorc, but it is was completely unsustainable. iIRC it was something like Heavy Bow, into Poison Injection, LA, runeblades, LA, barswap cancel Magnum Shot, block / bash cancel Whirlwind, Dodge Cancel Beam after first tick of damage. It was as actual burst, and the combination from runeblades through beam could be done in like 1 GCD, if you got the animation cancels down. It killed my hands to do it repetitively and there was no sustain, but I was getting like 30 - 40k burst through Battle Spirit. Crux change makes it less viable now, without building crux before the burst.

LittlePinkDot

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »

Arcanist is good in BGs

Arcanist is good in Cyrodiil too - it just is not a solo class. In a group, Arcanist provides oodles of buffs, some insane off-healing with the Magic Carpet, one of the best damaging synergies in the game, and ridiculously high damage potential during ult drops. The class plays a different than the other classes and people need to get used to that.

In groups its a buff and cc bot. The only good thing about its cc is tentacles applies dmg and status before it renders, while also causing desync. Its ulti is damn near useless,, you can simply walk away from it, unless its on a stun locked target at which point it does not matter what uliti it is.. My base walking speed is faster then Tide King.

While you setup your pressure as Arcanist, every other class can just burst you down, put you on your backbar and you can't recover. The only time an Arcanist is threat to me, is when Im out of resources, which playing a hyrbrid, I can run basically no sustain and always have a heal ready to go and my heals actually heal unlike the Arcanist.

Outside off Buffs for group pvp, you are better off running a different class. DK, NB, and Stamsorc just outclass the Arcanist in every aspect for pvp, besides being a buff bot.

Have you experimented with weapon skill and proc based arcanist builds yet?

yes, my personal build is what you see floating around with Masters DW / Vateshran or some variant of it. Ive dumped about 100mil into builds for the Arcanist. Leveled mine to 50 day 1 in IC sewers, pvping the entire time, and have played 12-18 hours a day since Necrom dropped. All focusing on my Arcanist.

Class can not sustain without slotting majority class skills. It does not have enough consistent pressure in CP without Masters DW / Vatershran. There are other builds that work with different Arena Weapons, but the sustain is not there, and you can't drop damage or you wont kill anything.

The highest burst was probably fromm playing it like a BowSorc, but it is was completely unsustainable. iIRC it was something like Heavy Bow, into Poison Injection, LA, runeblades, LA, barswap cancel Magnum Shot, block / bash cancel Whirlwind, Dodge Cancel Beam after first tick of damage. It was as actual burst, and the combination from runeblades through beam could be done in like 1 GCD, if you got the animation cancels down. It killed my hands to do it repetitively and there was no sustain, but I was getting like 30 - 40k burst through Battle Spirit. Crux change makes it less viable now, without building crux before the burst.

How about just not using the beam at all?
Then you don't have to worry about Crux for damage.

And why not use a monster helmet like engine Guardian to help with sustain?

Seraphayel

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »

Arcanist is good in BGs

Arcanist is good in Cyrodiil too - it just is not a solo class. In a group, Arcanist provides oodles of buffs, some insane off-healing with the Magic Carpet, one of the best damaging synergies in the game, and ridiculously high damage potential during ult drops. The class plays a different than the other classes and people need to get used to that.

In groups its a buff and cc bot. The only good thing about its cc is tentacles applies dmg and status before it renders, while also causing desync. Its ulti is damn near useless,, you can simply walk away from it, unless its on a stun locked target at which point it does not matter what uliti it is.. My base walking speed is faster then Tide King.

While you setup your pressure as Arcanist, every other class can just burst you down, put you on your backbar and you can't recover. The only time an Arcanist is threat to me, is when Im out of resources, which playing a hyrbrid, I can run basically no sustain and always have a heal ready to go and my heals actually heal unlike the Arcanist.

Outside off Buffs for group pvp, you are better off running a different class. DK, NB, and Stamsorc just outclass the Arcanist in every aspect for pvp, besides being a buff bot.

Have you experimented with weapon skill and proc based arcanist builds yet?

yes, my personal build is what you see floating around with Masters DW / Vateshran or some variant of it. Ive dumped about 100mil into builds for the Arcanist. Leveled mine to 50 day 1 in IC sewers, pvping the entire time, and have played 12-18 hours a day since Necrom dropped. All focusing on my Arcanist.

Class can not sustain without slotting majority class skills. It does not have enough consistent pressure in CP without Masters DW / Vatershran. There are other builds that work with different Arena Weapons, but the sustain is not there, and you can't drop damage or you wont kill anything.

The highest burst was probably fromm playing it like a BowSorc, but it is was completely unsustainable. iIRC it was something like Heavy Bow, into Poison Injection, LA, runeblades, LA, barswap cancel Magnum Shot, block / bash cancel Whirlwind, Dodge Cancel Beam after first tick of damage. It was as actual burst, and the combination from runeblades through beam could be done in like 1 GCD, if you got the animation cancels down. It killed my hands to do it repetitively and there was no sustain, but I was getting like 30 - 40k burst through Battle Spirit. Crux change makes it less viable now, without building crux before the burst.

How about just not using the beam at all?
Then you don't have to worry about Crux for damage.

And why not use a monster helmet like engine Guardian to help with sustain?

I mean then you can basically play any other class as well because that’s not really an Arcanist anymore. Which is fine, but you don’t need an Arcanist for that.

HidesInPlainSight

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »

Arcanist is good in BGs

Arcanist is good in Cyrodiil too - it just is not a solo class. In a group, Arcanist provides oodles of buffs, some insane off-healing with the Magic Carpet, one of the best damaging synergies in the game, and ridiculously high damage potential during ult drops. The class plays a different than the other classes and people need to get used to that.

In groups its a buff and cc bot. The only good thing about its cc is tentacles applies dmg and status before it renders, while also causing desync. Its ulti is damn near useless,, you can simply walk away from it, unless its on a stun locked target at which point it does not matter what uliti it is.. My base walking speed is faster then Tide King.

While you setup your pressure as Arcanist, every other class can just burst you down, put you on your backbar and you can't recover. The only time an Arcanist is threat to me, is when Im out of resources, which playing a hyrbrid, I can run basically no sustain and always have a heal ready to go and my heals actually heal unlike the Arcanist.

Outside off Buffs for group pvp, you are better off running a different class. DK, NB, and Stamsorc just outclass the Arcanist in every aspect for pvp, besides being a buff bot.

Have you experimented with weapon skill and proc based arcanist builds yet?

yes, my personal build is what you see floating around with Masters DW / Vateshran or some variant of it. Ive dumped about 100mil into builds for the Arcanist. Leveled mine to 50 day 1 in IC sewers, pvping the entire time, and have played 12-18 hours a day since Necrom dropped. All focusing on my Arcanist.

Class can not sustain without slotting majority class skills. It does not have enough consistent pressure in CP without Masters DW / Vatershran. There are other builds that work with different Arena Weapons, but the sustain is not there, and you can't drop damage or you wont kill anything.

The highest burst was probably fromm playing it like a BowSorc, but it is was completely unsustainable. iIRC it was something like Heavy Bow, into Poison Injection, LA, runeblades, LA, barswap cancel Magnum Shot, block / bash cancel Whirlwind, Dodge Cancel Beam after first tick of damage. It was as actual burst, and the combination from runeblades through beam could be done in like 1 GCD, if you got the animation cancels down. It killed my hands to do it repetitively and there was no sustain, but I was getting like 30 - 40k burst through Battle Spirit. Crux change makes it less viable now, without building crux before the burst.

How about just not using the beam at all?
Then you don't have to worry about Crux for damage.

And why not use a monster helmet like engine Guardian to help with sustain?

Crux are fundamental to your damage / healing an Arcanist. The class is designed around the generating and consumption of Crux, so much so that your passives for generating / consuming them, are where a good of your portion damage / healing comes from. Even if you don;t use beam, you still have to generate and consume Crux to be on an equal power level relative to the other classes.

Try healing with Vigor with zero crux generated / consumed, then heal with Vigor after generating 3 crux. It goes from basically no healing to *decent* healing (its still not great healing, but its useable).

As far as, using a monster helm for sustain. Every item slot on Arcanist needs to go for damage, or you just dont do enough damage. In duels, you can win by attrition, but any fight that can be disengaged, you will not be able to kill anyone because they simply walk away. Arcanist does not have the mobility to win a kiting fight. You end up burning more resources on a class that already has sustain issues.

LittlePinkDot

Seraphayel wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »

Arcanist is good in BGs

Arcanist is good in Cyrodiil too - it just is not a solo class. In a group, Arcanist provides oodles of buffs, some insane off-healing with the Magic Carpet, one of the best damaging synergies in the game, and ridiculously high damage potential during ult drops. The class plays a different than the other classes and people need to get used to that.

In groups its a buff and cc bot. The only good thing about its cc is tentacles applies dmg and status before it renders, while also causing desync. Its ulti is damn near useless,, you can simply walk away from it, unless its on a stun locked target at which point it does not matter what uliti it is.. My base walking speed is faster then Tide King.

While you setup your pressure as Arcanist, every other class can just burst you down, put you on your backbar and you can't recover. The only time an Arcanist is threat to me, is when Im out of resources, which playing a hyrbrid, I can run basically no sustain and always have a heal ready to go and my heals actually heal unlike the Arcanist.

Outside off Buffs for group pvp, you are better off running a different class. DK, NB, and Stamsorc just outclass the Arcanist in every aspect for pvp, besides being a buff bot.

Have you experimented with weapon skill and proc based arcanist builds yet?

yes, my personal build is what you see floating around with Masters DW / Vateshran or some variant of it. Ive dumped about 100mil into builds for the Arcanist. Leveled mine to 50 day 1 in IC sewers, pvping the entire time, and have played 12-18 hours a day since Necrom dropped. All focusing on my Arcanist.

Class can not sustain without slotting majority class skills. It does not have enough consistent pressure in CP without Masters DW / Vatershran. There are other builds that work with different Arena Weapons, but the sustain is not there, and you can't drop damage or you wont kill anything.

The highest burst was probably fromm playing it like a BowSorc, but it is was completely unsustainable. iIRC it was something like Heavy Bow, into Poison Injection, LA, runeblades, LA, barswap cancel Magnum Shot, block / bash cancel Whirlwind, Dodge Cancel Beam after first tick of damage. It was as actual burst, and the combination from runeblades through beam could be done in like 1 GCD, if you got the animation cancels down. It killed my hands to do it repetitively and there was no sustain, but I was getting like 30 - 40k burst through Battle Spirit. Crux change makes it less viable now, without building crux before the burst.

How about just not using the beam at all?
Then you don't have to worry about Crux for damage.

And why not use a monster helmet like engine Guardian to help with sustain?

I mean then you can basically play any other class as well because that’s not really an Arcanist anymore. Which is fine, but you don’t need an Arcanist for that.

And my Warden and Templar use Wrecking blow, my sorc uses shrouded daggers and spin to win, so what??
No class is obligated to use a class spammable.

LittlePinkDot

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

HidesInPlainSight wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »

Arcanist is good in BGs

Arcanist is good in Cyrodiil too - it just is not a solo class. In a group, Arcanist provides oodles of buffs, some insane off-healing with the Magic Carpet, one of the best damaging synergies in the game, and ridiculously high damage potential during ult drops. The class plays a different than the other classes and people need to get used to that.

In groups its a buff and cc bot. The only good thing about its cc is tentacles applies dmg and status before it renders, while also causing desync. Its ulti is damn near useless,, you can simply walk away from it, unless its on a stun locked target at which point it does not matter what uliti it is.. My base walking speed is faster then Tide King.

While you setup your pressure as Arcanist, every other class can just burst you down, put you on your backbar and you can't recover. The only time an Arcanist is threat to me, is when Im out of resources, which playing a hyrbrid, I can run basically no sustain and always have a heal ready to go and my heals actually heal unlike the Arcanist.

Outside off Buffs for group pvp, you are better off running a different class. DK, NB, and Stamsorc just outclass the Arcanist in every aspect for pvp, besides being a buff bot.

Have you experimented with weapon skill and proc based arcanist builds yet?

yes, my personal build is what you see floating around with Masters DW / Vateshran or some variant of it. Ive dumped about 100mil into builds for the Arcanist. Leveled mine to 50 day 1 in IC sewers, pvping the entire time, and have played 12-18 hours a day since Necrom dropped. All focusing on my Arcanist.

Class can not sustain without slotting majority class skills. It does not have enough consistent pressure in CP without Masters DW / Vatershran. There are other builds that work with different Arena Weapons, but the sustain is not there, and you can't drop damage or you wont kill anything.

The highest burst was probably fromm playing it like a BowSorc, but it is was completely unsustainable. iIRC it was something like Heavy Bow, into Poison Injection, LA, runeblades, LA, barswap cancel Magnum Shot, block / bash cancel Whirlwind, Dodge Cancel Beam after first tick of damage. It was as actual burst, and the combination from runeblades through beam could be done in like 1 GCD, if you got the animation cancels down. It killed my hands to do it repetitively and there was no sustain, but I was getting like 30 - 40k burst through Battle Spirit. Crux change makes it less viable now, without building crux before the burst.

How about just not using the beam at all?
Then you don't have to worry about Crux for damage.

And why not use a monster helmet like engine Guardian to help with sustain?

Crux are fundamental to your damage / healing an Arcanist. The class is designed around the generating and consumption of Crux, so much so that your passives for generating / consuming them, are where a good of your portion damage / healing comes from. Even if you don;t use beam, you still have to generate and consume Crux to be on an equal power level relative to the other classes.

Try healing with Vigor with zero crux generated / consumed, then heal with Vigor after generating 3 crux. It goes from basically no healing to *decent* healing (its still not great healing, but its useable).

As far as, using a monster helm for sustain. Every item slot on Arcanist needs to go for damage, or you just dont do enough damage. In duels, you can win by attrition, but any fight that can be disengaged, you will not be able to kill anyone because they simply walk away. Arcanist does not have the mobility to win a kiting fight. You end up burning more resources on a class that already has sustain issues.

Use a restoration staff back bar, it's got its own passives and skills for healing.

That being said, If you don't use beam at all, you should always have enough Crux for healing.

If you have space for race against time on your bar or 3x Swift trait jewelry or ring of the wild hunt, you should have enough mobility.
Bow also gives major expedition after a roll Dodge.

There are things I think we can experiment with.