Curious about Arcanist sustain? How does it feel?

Ingel_Riday

Hello all!

I hope today finds you well. The new Arcanist bundle challenge has given me the final push I needed to make an Arcanist, but I am curious... how do you all find the sustain?

Taking a look at the UESP character build website, it looks like the class gets:

- 18% to magicka and stamina recovery (Erudition II)
- 225 resource every time a crux is generated (Hideous Clarity II)
- 129 health / magicka / stamina recovery from each Soldier of Apocrypha ability slotted (Wellspring of the Abyss II)

Apparently, there is also a morph of Tome-Bearer's Inspiration (the major sorcery / brutality class buff spell) that grants 600 resource each time a pulse hits a target, which I hear isn't needed but is there to help if need be.

So, this doesn't look too hateful at first glance... but I am curious what you all think about it.

Personally, my main is a dunmer magicka dps dragonknight and I also have a breton magicka dps templar... so I have experienced sustain famine and feast in equal measure. :-P I love my dragonknight and have gotten used to actively managing resource (a few heavy attacks here or there, the ultimate to resource class perk, and some potions). I've also gotten used to being spoiled rotten with my breton templar (who pays for the sustain and great self-healing capacity with less overall damage).

Where in the sustain spectrum do you find this class? Would you have any recommendations?

Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

Best regards,
Ingel Riday

El_Borracho

Its not as bad as the original version of the necro where the tether and group support was critical to sustain in PVE. I would say its manageable without orbs/shards as long as you don't overdo it. I run a Khajiit stamarc with Coral Riptide and Deadly Strike, the Kilt, daggers on the front, 2H VMA sword on the back. Its effective, much more than Relequen, mostly because the beam can be interrupted so I have to stand a little further back than melee range so I don't have the frequent light attack rotation. Jump in with Stampede, hit Carve, hit Trap, flip to front bar, hit Fulminating Rune, build crux with Flail, hit Beam, Flail/Beam repeat until back bar Stampede timer runs out, repeat. I toss in LAs when I can, but its situational, which lends itself to Coral Riptide over Relequen, as does being comfortable with a 1/2 to 2/3 empty stamina pool. Basically keep enough to block/break free.

merpins

Playing a PVE stam khajiit Arcanist DPS. At least 2k stam recovery at all times, and I never run out of resources.

Ingel_Riday

@El_Borracho and @merpins :

Awesome. Thank you for the comments, you two. I appreciate it. I guess I'll go with dunmer then since I'm a Morrowind groupie. :-P It sounds like I'm not going to be in any worse a sustain boat than I am with my magicka dragonknight, and I can live with that.

I'll save my female breton idea for when I finally get around to making a warden. It'll help with her healer off-spec hijinks.

Thanks again!

El_Borracho

@Ingel_Riday the overwhelming advantage of the arcanist in PVE is the beam. Building crux is easy, and if you can line up the adds in trash packs, or even better, line up a boss with the adds (like the end boss and colossus in Graven Deep) you save resources by burning both at the same time with your most powerful attack. I think the people who have sustain issues are the ones who go crazy with the beam. Sometimes using a extra flail or two in lining up the shot is better.

Zodiarkslayer

Sustain is good.

The key is to have a good rotation, that aligns the DoTs timers. And Arcanist has long timers. That helps.

Also, the timing of the beams is crucial. You have to watch the timers of your DoTs. It is better to recast them early and to have a full uptime while using fatecarver, than DoTs falling off when you have just started beaming.
However if you precast too much you can run into sustain issues down the line. Especially in longer fights.

And the balance between the two is inherently dependent upon your entire build.

Working out the Rotation is not trivial.

thedoodle_90

Arcanist sustain is heavily tied into fatecarver. If it is interrupted more than a couple times your sustain TANKS. And using any build not using fatecarver it has issues.