Why is my magicka Arcanist not effective as pve damage dealer?

Recent

Hi forum friends,
In my opinion the arcanist should be magicka based as it is a caster class both aesthetically and lore wise. It makes no sense that i cant have a build without daggers. I want to heal on my arcanist and be able to swap to damage dealer but it doesnt work.
I am doing trials atm and magicka arcanist is not a good build for doing high damage.

I get it that we can play how we want what we want but that doesnt mean we can get the best damage out of any build/class/race. The arcanist use magick tomes and such aestheticalky so why make them a stamina priority class and yes they are cos that is how fhey work best atm. I apologise in advance for sounding so cranky but im frustrated no end with this.

My biggest issue is not being able to play both dd and healer rile effectively in trials. I have to choose just one role. I cant have a magicka healer and a stamina dd on the same character is what im trying to convey here.

Soarora

You can do both… use the armory. You get 2 free slots. You could argue every class is magicka based… but Arcanist is Hermaeus-based… whos to say it doesn’t take stamina?

ssewallb14_ESO

You can run "meta" arcanist DPS with max stam or mag. Just gotta watch your stam a bit more with mag.

The dual wield thing is a more general mag dps problem, at least thematically. I'd love it we'd finally get a melee mag weapon.

MerguezMan

Hi there,

Several things

1) The forums can hardly help out on your build if you don't give a bit more detail about it. Gear, skills, mundus ?

2) Crit is fine, but has a capped bonus. As a healer, you probably have damage-boosting sets, and as a light armor wearer, you already have tons of crit chance and penetration. How high can you build up on mag damage ?

3) If you slot group survivability sets, you're obviously giving up on a part of your own damage potential. There's nothing wrong about having less damage than your group if you can keep them all alive in trials, and provide buffs. Though, if your group doesn't need a real healer, then maybe you should build as pure damage dealer ?

4) It is very unlikely you could be effective as both mag healer and stam dd at the very same moment. Maybe mag dd with heals, or mag healer with damage skills ... but stamina healer is probably a bad idea (anyone can use Echoing Vigor, but that doesn't make you a healer, right ?).

tsaescishoeshiner

You can use the armory system to have 2 builds on one character. Free and easy, try it out. It lets you swap gears, morphs, CP, attributes, mundus stone, everything, with a click of a button. I have several characters who are stam DPS on one build and use Oakensoul lightning staff on the other build.

Race matters least for healers of any role.

I'm fairly certain you can hit well over 70k-80k DPS on a trial dummy on a magicka arcanist with staves only, which is what you need for vet DLC dungeons and trials. (There's obviously some content where groups might want to maximize and prefer stam).

I don't think they intentionally made stamina arcanists stronger, it's just that Cephaliarch's Flail is really strong at the moment.

WrathOfInnos

Mag Arcanist definitely struggles. It is objectively worse than Stam Arcanist, with all the same skills, but lower damage and worse sustain.

I made a thread a few days ago to discuss this problem, and there have been a few good suggestions there.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/644451/magicka-arcanist-problems#latest

LittlePinkDot

Magicka Arcanist makes an awesome tank. I'm having fun with it.

Runic Embrace is a nice ranged magicka taunt that pairs well with ice staff.
Add Nunatak helm set and you consistently proc major brittle that stacks with Arcanists minor brittle from rune of colourless pool.
Wear Turning tide for major vulnerability.
Very fun tank.

Woodenplank

Recent wrote: »

Hi forum friends,
In my opinion the arcanist should be magicka based as it is a caster class both aesthetically and lore wise. It makes no sense that i cant have a build without daggers.

Daggers+Twohanded being top of DPS charts for any build/class is problematic. But you can build without them. You won't be in the top 1%, but why would you care to?
For what it's worth, the devs are alert to this and did bring both 2-Handed and Dual-Wield down a notch last patch, while buffing bow and destruction staves. There's still a way to go, but the gap has certainly narrowed.

I think, in fact, more than weapon DPS it's a question of game design. Right now pretty much every fight in the game doesn't punish/encourages everyone to just stack up right behind the target(s) in a big lump in melee range. This ultimately goes back to ESO's lightweight targeting system and ability design.
That's sort of a longer discussion to get into...

Recent wrote: »

I want to heal on my arcanist and be able to swap to damage dealer but it doesnt work.

As someone else has said; use Armory to swap.
The ESO slogan of play how you want is problematic, I know. You really can do most content with most builds - honestly! - but it's a simple fact of pretty much any game in any genre; You spread your abilities between two different roles, you won't be top tier in either.Jack of all trades; master of none type thing.

Recent wrote: »

I am doing trials atm and magicka arcanist is not a good build for doing high damage.

Not quite as hot as stamina, but you can enough to go through whatever vet content.
Right now Cephaliarch's Flail (STAMINA TENTACLES) is particularly superior to the magicka version - not because it is directly stronger or anything, but because it builds crux, rather than taking it. Since Arcanist DPS is very much defined by Evil Book Horror Show of Fate/Destiny, that's where you want to use your Crux - it'll matter more than any other crux consuming spell.

Recent wrote: »

I get it that we can play how we want what we want but that doesnt mean we can get the best damage out of any build/class/race. The arcanist use magick tomes and such aestheticalky so why make them a stamina priority class[...]

A fair question. Not one that I can answer, but I'd ask that you consider two possibilities:

1. The developers did not intend to overtly favor Stamina Arcanist, and it is instead a product of Player optimization and "meta gaming."
2. For every person wanting X class to have Y aesthetic or focus, there's someone wanting it to be Z. Out there in the community I'm sure there's someone who thinks applying Apocryphal Runes to your dual swords, growing tentacles out of your arm to slam people in the face, and warping through Oblivion to jump into the fray makes them more of a stamina-brusier-brawler type class... perhaps?

Also, if you believe in "play how you want" - wouldn't making Arcanist a strongly magicka favored class be ruining it for people who want to play it like a stamina brawler? Just food for thought is all.

Recent wrote: »

My biggest issue is not being able to play both dd and healer rile effectively in trials. I have to choose just one role. I cant have a magicka healer and a stamina dd on the same character is what im trying to convey here.

>>Armory

ZOS_Hadeostry

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic, as it's related to character skills.

Thank you for your understanding

Zodiarkslayer

You can stam heal on Arcanist quite well. It's just you need to use the class heals.

spartaxoxo

The main buff mag arcanist needs is for the mag version of Flail to not consume Crux.

MerguezMan

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

You can stam heal on Arcanist quite well. It's just you need to use the class heals.

Really ? As a healer in a Trials group ? No sustain issues, nice healing for the whole group ?
What's your setup ?

sleepy_worm

This thread is eerily similar to your other one, in which you got similar feedback.

You can use staffs. You can stack into mag on an arcanist. You don't need to follow build guides to the letter. Weapon choice and attribute choice are not what is holding you back.

Zodiarkslayer

MerguezMan wrote: »

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

You can stam heal on Arcanist quite well. It's just you need to use the class heals.

Really ? As a healer in a Trials group ? No sustain issues, nice healing for the whole group ?
What's your setup ?

I don't heal on Trials anymore. But in every veteran Dungeon I took her, I have never had any problems. Or complaints.

I use Spell Power Cure and Powerful Assault backbared. 5 medium and 2 light.
Monster sets are 1pc double recoveries. I think its Baron Thirsk and Magma Incarnate. Not sure, have to look up.
For frontbar I have a Master's Resto as default. But I swap for Masters Dual Wield or Black Rose Prison Dual Wield, just for fun and a little support dps, if I can.

The issue with healing on an Arcanist is you need to get used to the beam. And you need to get a feel on how and when to use it.
Surge is basically a short HoT and Burst heal in one ability. The heal potential is ridiculous at three crux. We are talking 30k to 40k hps without crit heals. 😳 You can even sit on three crux and wait for an opportune moment to use Surge.
And having chakram shields cost Stamina is fantastic, too. With the red CP stars you can get it to around 10k shield strength and it targets up to four players. It's my spammy crux builder.

You can always abort the beam by blocking. You have to aim, though. And having little monkey DPSs isn't helping. 🤦‍♂️
But what helps is calibrating the camera offset, so that the reticle is much closer to the character. ☝️ Helps with Fatecarver, too. 😎

Arcanist is a great healer. Look at all the buffs and debuffs it can bring to the group.