Abyssal Impact changes

Metafae

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

my thoughts is that while its sad to lose the execute scaling, the thing that really mattered the most for me on this skill was:

• unique +dmg bonus for class skills
• self heal while dealing dmg
• crux builder
• occasionally the immobilize to keep npcs at bay
• and the whole skill being aoe

the execute was kind of like triple layered icing on the already icing heavy cake lol, i dont really see any reason to change any of my build for this

my biggest problem with the mag morph of the skill was that it consumed crux, so you would be forced to use runeblades as a crux builder (before scribing was a thing, now theres some more alternatives but those are still weaker than flail)

This is exactly how I feel about this change.

I use the Rune of Displacement in my rotation, and it pairs very well with the Flail used at just the right moment when they're all pulled in together to then root them to the spot, so I do find that the root on Flail to be very handy.

It's just a very powerful combo to stack all the enemies into a single spot and have them stuck there for 3 seconds for my beam to just melt them.

xylena_lazarow

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Name another AoE spammable that applies a unique damage taken debuff, heals the user, and applies a soft CC. There isn't one. The only other AoE spammable that comes close to having that many effects is Scythe, and Flail does more damage, has a bigger range, and better effects.

I don't need it to heal and debuff, I need it to kill things dead, and Whirling Blades now does that better for the stam. The other morph costs mag and burns all your crux, so it plays a bit differently.

Joy_Division

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

NuarBlack wrote: »

Tentacular dread is the burst crux spender. They need to make sure it feels that way. It needs to be on par with crystal frags and whip. Also need a generator that applies ink so it's there for Tentacular dread.

It is on par with Frags and Whip (post buff).

The Crystal Frag proc has a base tooltip of 4121 (2483*1.66). Single target.

Whip with full Seething stacks has a base of 3716 (2123*1.6). Single target.

Tentacular with 3 crux will have a base tooltip of 3983 (2002*1.99), plus an additional 11% from the Ink debuff which means the base tooltip is essentially 4421 (3983*1.11). Thats a higher base tooltip than Blastbones, which is currently the strongest non-ultimate AoE tooltip in the game (3600). This damage is also AoE, immobilizes, and buffs all of your other damage by 11%.

Yes, Arcanists are going to use it for PvP now if they want damage. That's fine.

Except DKs and Sorcs don't have to slot a poor ability to set up these burst skills. And Arcanists are making this decision not because the two morphs both provide a viable means of damage, which is what ZOS wants, rather because of an unneeded nerf to the other morph, thus defeating their purpose of not having the power of one morph dictate the choice.

Had ZOS just left the other morph alone, they would have accomplished their goal.

Tbf, Runeblades isn't a "poor ability". It's actually rather strong as a spammable with an incredibly high tooltip (almost as high as Concealed Weapon, and scaling even more up to 9% or gaining extra crit chance while also being a ranged ability). It's just outclassed by Cephaliarch's, because Flail is ridiculously overloaded.

Also important to note that slotting Dread over Flail will increase your damage done with everything else by 6%, which is nothing to scoff at.

It poses as a ranged ability, yet it's 22 meters trying to compete with other ranged skills that go over 40. PvErs DPS don;t touch it. If it could stand on its own merits, it would be a key tool on many arcanist builds like the other good spammables designed by ZOS such as Whip and Concealed or Jabs back in its heyday. But it isn't. Arcanist is a tanky spec that leans on proc damage to do what the other classes can do with their own kit (except Necros), so Runeblades and the overloaded Flail aren't as good in practice as their tooltips with conditional modifiers might suggest.

zammo

While Tentacular Dread consumes crux, I won't use it. I also wish Runeblades did bleed damage.

(from a PvP persepective).

Skjaldbjorn

It amazes me that people actually seem to think Flail wasn't grossly overtuned. On-demand healing, execute scaling, AoE spammable, crux builder, that skill was way overloaded. Beam is still the class of Arc for PVE. Flail was just adding a ton of utility at no cost.

Lalothen

Joy_Division wrote: »

PvErs DPS don;t touch it. If it could stand on its own merits, it would be a key tool on many arcanist builds like the other good spammables designed by ZOS such as Whip and Concealed or Jabs back in its heyday. But it isn't. Arcanist is a tanky spec that leans on proc damage to do what the other classes can do with their own kit (except Necros), so Runeblades and the overloaded Flail aren't as good in practice as their tooltips with conditional modifiers might suggest.

I think they could make the following changes to the Runeblade morphs:

1) Remove the ramping damage from Escalating Runeblades, make every hit explode and do AoE damage, and rename the morph Exploding Runeblades.

2) Add the damage escalation from Escalating Runeblades to Writhing Runeblades instead, so that you get ramping base damage in addition to ramping crit chance.

They still wouldn't compete with Fatecarver, but I feel they would at least stand more on their own merit and you'd have a clear morph choice dependent on your combat situation: ST or AoE.

CameraBeardThePirate

Lalothen wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

PvErs DPS don;t touch it. If it could stand on its own merits, it would be a key tool on many arcanist builds like the other good spammables designed by ZOS such as Whip and Concealed or Jabs back in its heyday. But it isn't. Arcanist is a tanky spec that leans on proc damage to do what the other classes can do with their own kit (except Necros), so Runeblades and the overloaded Flail aren't as good in practice as their tooltips with conditional modifiers might suggest.

I think they could make the following changes to the Runeblade morphs:

1) Remove the ramping damage from Escalating Runeblades, make every hit explode and do AoE damage, and rename the morph Exploding Runeblades.

2) Add the damage escalation from Escalating Runeblades to Writhing Runeblades instead, so that you get ramping base damage in addition to ramping crit chance.

They still wouldn't compete with Fatecarver, but I feel they would at least stand more on their own merit and you'd have a clear morph choice dependent on your combat situation: ST or AoE.

They aren't supposed to compete with Fatecarver, they're supposed to compete with Flail.

Dread is supposed to compete with Fatecarver.

Firstmep

I think this was very much a pvp related change, as noone usually fatecarver there, and most arcanists spend their Crux purely defensively.
It created, imho, a very boring playstyle of spamming flail and only spending Crux on the defense.
Now with dread doing more damage arcanists might consider spending Crux on the offense as well, and actually make a decision on what skill to spend it on.

xylena_lazarow

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

They aren't supposed to compete with Fatecarver, they're supposed to compete with Flail. Dread is supposed to compete with Fatecarver.

That's part of the problem, Arc's own kit competes with itself for bar slots and GCDs. You've now got two different unreliable slow nukes that burn your crux (laser and dread), then a low damage utility like Necro scythe (flail).

CameraBeardThePirate

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

They aren't supposed to compete with Fatecarver, they're supposed to compete with Flail. Dread is supposed to compete with Fatecarver.

That's part of the problem, Arc's own kit competes with itself for bar slots and GCDs. You've now got two different unreliable slow nukes that burn your crux (laser and dread), then a low damage utility like Necro scythe (flail).

Flail isn't low damage though? It's higher damage than a typical AoE spammable, AND applies a 5% damage taken debuff. It's still a great spammable even without the execute damage.

And you're supposed to pick between Dread and Beam, that's the point. You either go for burst damage with Dread, or go for the big AoE cleave with Beam. The problem in Live is that Dread doesn't come close to beam. Post buff, they're going to be a lot closer (at least in PvP), with Dread being less damage overall but much more consistent.

They're made for different playstyles. Either the Flail + Beam, where you need to set up a grouping, or Runeblades + Dread, which plays much more traditionally (spammable+burst proc)

NuarBlack

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

NuarBlack wrote: »

Tentacular dread is the burst crux spender. They need to make sure it feels that way. It needs to be on par with crystal frags and whip. Also need a generator that applies ink so it's there for Tentacular dread.

It is on par with Frags and Whip (post buff).

The Crystal Frag proc has a base tooltip of 4121 (2483*1.66). Single target.

Whip with full Seething stacks has a base of 3716 (2123*1.6). Single target.

Tentacular with 3 crux will have a base tooltip of 3983 (2002*1.99), plus an additional 11% from the Ink debuff which means the base tooltip is essentially 4421 (3983*1.11). Thats a higher base tooltip than Blastbones, which is currently the strongest non-ultimate AoE tooltip in the game (3600). This damage is also AoE, immobilizes, and buffs all of your other damage by 11%.

Then sweet. Not sure why people are complaining then. I Run Dread on my tank arcanist since it can be block casted unlike beam.

Necrotech_Master

NuarBlack wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

NuarBlack wrote: »

Tentacular dread is the burst crux spender. They need to make sure it feels that way. It needs to be on par with crystal frags and whip. Also need a generator that applies ink so it's there for Tentacular dread.

It is on par with Frags and Whip (post buff).

The Crystal Frag proc has a base tooltip of 4121 (2483*1.66). Single target.

Whip with full Seething stacks has a base of 3716 (2123*1.6). Single target.

Tentacular with 3 crux will have a base tooltip of 3983 (2002*1.99), plus an additional 11% from the Ink debuff which means the base tooltip is essentially 4421 (3983*1.11). Thats a higher base tooltip than Blastbones, which is currently the strongest non-ultimate AoE tooltip in the game (3600). This damage is also AoE, immobilizes, and buffs all of your other damage by 11%.

Then sweet. Not sure why people are complaining then. I Run Dread on my tank arcanist since it can be block casted unlike beam.

flail, dread, and base skill all have a 0.3 cast time making them unable to be block cast, but they are treated similar to templar jabs where if they do get interrupted they are not put on a 2 second cooldown

xylena_lazarow

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Flail isn't low damage though? ... And you're supposed to pick between Dread and Beam, that's the point.

Without the execute scaling, yes it's low damage on top of a slow cast and janky hitbox. Flail was my primary spammable on my pressure Arc, but above 50% hp it was better to spam Twin Slashes or restart your rotation altogether.

The design of splitting playstyles like that denies Arc builds half their offensive own kit. You run a pseudo bomber with the DW ult and the laser, or you run a proc vessel (either MDW/Vatesh or ranged procs on bow). It's already hard enough to fit everything an open world build wants on an Arc, good luck fitting marginal utility skills like Flail.

Joy_Division

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Flail isn't low damage though? ... And you're supposed to pick between Dread and Beam, that's the point.

Without the execute scaling, yes it's low damage on top of a slow cast and janky hitbox. Flail was my primary spammable on my pressure Arc, but above 50% hp it was better to spam Twin Slashes or restart your rotation altogether.

The design of splitting playstyles like that denies Arc builds half their offensive own kit. You run a pseudo bomber with the DW ult and the laser, or you run a proc vessel (either MDW/Vatesh or ranged procs on bow). It's already hard enough to fit everything an open world build wants on an Arc, good luck fitting marginal utility skills like Flail.

I think people are just looking at tooltips and think the Arcanist is this great damage dealer. Everyone else also gets indignant when ZOS's solution to balancing their class morphs is to nerf one such that you have to drop the way you have enjoyed playing to use the new morph. But when it's someone else's class, it's ZOS knows what they are doing, the skills that nobody has ever whined about dying to are actually really good, etc. Yet they still comment about how ZOS ruined their class.

Lalothen

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

They aren't supposed to compete with Fatecarver, they're supposed to compete with Flail.

Dread is supposed to compete with Fatecarver.

Sorry I should've clarified: the combo is supposed to compete.

CameraBeardThePirate

Joy_Division wrote: »

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Flail isn't low damage though? ... And you're supposed to pick between Dread and Beam, that's the point.

Without the execute scaling, yes it's low damage on top of a slow cast and janky hitbox. Flail was my primary spammable on my pressure Arc, but above 50% hp it was better to spam Twin Slashes or restart your rotation altogether.

The design of splitting playstyles like that denies Arc builds half their offensive own kit. You run a pseudo bomber with the DW ult and the laser, or you run a proc vessel (either MDW/Vatesh or ranged procs on bow). It's already hard enough to fit everything an open world build wants on an Arc, good luck fitting marginal utility skills like Flail.

I think people are just looking at tooltips and think the Arcanist is this great damage dealer. Everyone else also gets indignant when ZOS's solution to balancing their class morphs is to nerf one such that you have to drop the way you have enjoyed playing to use the new morph. But when it's someone else's class, it's ZOS knows what they are doing, the skills that nobody has ever whined about dying to are actually really good, etc. Yet they still comment about how ZOS ruined their class.

I play Arcanist more than any other class (mostly because necro is garbage). The Flail nerf was needed. It did not need execute scaling on top of a great damage taken debuff, building crux, being able to cleave, healing the user, and immobilizing.

And despite what others have said, yes, the damage is still good on it. The damage is on par with your average single target spammable, which is crazy considering it's AoE and comes with all the effects it has.

In PvE, the execute scaling was negligible anyways because you're going to be Beaming rather than spamming execute since Beam was still more damage than Flail until around 10% health.

LittlePinkDot

Tentacular dread is frost damage... Hmmm I wonder if there's a way to make a PVP frost Arcanist build...

xylena_lazarow

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

]I play Arcanist more than any other class (mostly because necro is garbage). The Flail nerf was needed. It did not need execute scaling on top of a great damage taken debuff, building crux, being able to cleave, healing the user, and immobilizing.

And despite what others have said, yes, the damage is still good on it. The damage is on par with your average single target spammable, which is crazy considering it's AoE and comes with all the effects it has.

How did you come to this conclusion exactly? I tryharded Arc for 3 months, posted my build, BGs results, and CMX as proof of its effectiveness, I can dig these up if you really want, anyway I reached the opposite conclusion. Arc PvP damage kit is jank. You're either relying on procs, or whatever shenanigans set up a laser thrive bomb. In neither case does Flail carry anything, it's a good piece of the kit, but nothing really on its own, laser bomber doesn't need it if it gets Crux elsewhere.

It's a decent playable class but it's stuck in the same open world mid tier as Plar, DK, and now Cro. Arc isn't doing anything as a brawler that isn't outclassed by the Sorc NB Warden supremacy, and now it lost the spammable AoE execute on a kit that wasn't anywhere near top tier PvP damage to begin with. Really stupid nerf.

tomofhyrule

Flail was absolutely overloaded. Execute scaling, AoE, spammable, CC, unique damage taken debuff, and empowers attacks. At a huge range. That's clearly too much.

Still, Dread will never see much use as long as it consumes Crux. I think a better option would be to just go all in and declare Dread to be a support morph (since supports usually aren't gonna play with Fatecarver). The main thing I'd do it make it so the Abyssal Ink debuff applies to all attacks and not just the user.

Obviously it'd need more balancing so it's not overpowering and essentially forcing all groups to bring an Arc support to give a unique version of Vulnerability. Maybe change Dread's Abyssal Ink to a Vuln or both Breaches or something like that, but that'd make a more defined 'support' morph versus the 'damage' morph.

Metafae

After reading all the comments in this thread, I think it is safe to say that there is a real reason to have one morph consume while the other generates crux.

But given that I now understand the purpose to having each existing, it no longer makes sense why they're trying to push for a more even selection between the two morphs, they really serve two different purposes.

Tentacular Dread seems designed to be better in PvP builds, where Cephaliarc's Flail is better for PvE builds.

If there is an imbalance with one being used far more than the other, that is more of an imbalance with how many players play mostly PvP vs PvE, and that's a topic for another thread.

xylena_lazarow

tomofhyrule wrote: »

Flail was absolutely overloaded. Execute scaling, AoE, spammable, CC, unique damage taken debuff, and empowers attacks. At a huge range. That's clearly too much.

Slow cast and narrow hitbox that's easily sidestepped in PvP. High risk high reward attack that's meant to be slow and avoidable but extra hard hitting if you have the aim and timing to land it. Now? Just use Whirling Blades.

NuarBlack

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

NuarBlack wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

NuarBlack wrote: »

Tentacular dread is the burst crux spender. They need to make sure it feels that way. It needs to be on par with crystal frags and whip. Also need a generator that applies ink so it's there for Tentacular dread.

It is on par with Frags and Whip (post buff).

The Crystal Frag proc has a base tooltip of 4121 (2483*1.66). Single target.

Whip with full Seething stacks has a base of 3716 (2123*1.6). Single target.

Tentacular with 3 crux will have a base tooltip of 3983 (2002*1.99), plus an additional 11% from the Ink debuff which means the base tooltip is essentially 4421 (3983*1.11). Thats a higher base tooltip than Blastbones, which is currently the strongest non-ultimate AoE tooltip in the game (3600). This damage is also AoE, immobilizes, and buffs all of your other damage by 11%.

Then sweet. Not sure why people are complaining then. I Run Dread on my tank arcanist since it can be block casted unlike beam.

flail, dread, and base skill all have a 0.3 cast time making them unable to be block cast, but they are treated similar to templar jabs where if they do get interrupted they are not put on a 2 second cooldown

Well I'll be damned, you are right. Guess it's fast enough though I never noticed block dropped for a second during use. Still quicker than beam and less block down time

Szalord

How about if they're really that adamant about removing the execute damage scaling on Flail, then also remove the 0.3s cast time and make the ability truly an instant? I think fair is fair - make the ability less powerful but with better QoL.

FuryOfTyphon

The logic on this change is <insert profanity here>.

Arcanist is overpowered in PvE and pretty average in PvP.

So lets nerf the one good damage skill available to PvPers, and basically leave it broken af in PvE.
SMH.

Remove the heal altogether.
Give Tentacular Dread the execute scaling on top of the buffs its already getting and that would justify the crux consumpation.
Fixed.

pklemming

Or, just leave stuff alone.

They carefully balanced the class on release, right? No need to change anything if it is working as originally intended.

Are you telling us this was not balanced on release? Who was responsible for balancing, if we have had subsequent and continuing nerfs

Are we getting any execute ability in place of the one we are losing, or is it intended Arcanists have no execute?

I hate duplicity as much as I hate nerfs.

Joy_Division

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Flail isn't low damage though? ... And you're supposed to pick between Dread and Beam, that's the point.

Without the execute scaling, yes it's low damage on top of a slow cast and janky hitbox. Flail was my primary spammable on my pressure Arc, but above 50% hp it was better to spam Twin Slashes or restart your rotation altogether.

The design of splitting playstyles like that denies Arc builds half their offensive own kit. You run a pseudo bomber with the DW ult and the laser, or you run a proc vessel (either MDW/Vatesh or ranged procs on bow). It's already hard enough to fit everything an open world build wants on an Arc, good luck fitting marginal utility skills like Flail.

I think people are just looking at tooltips and think the Arcanist is this great damage dealer. Everyone else also gets indignant when ZOS's solution to balancing their class morphs is to nerf one such that you have to drop the way you have enjoyed playing to use the new morph. But when it's someone else's class, it's ZOS knows what they are doing, the skills that nobody has ever whined about dying to are actually really good, etc. Yet they still comment about how ZOS ruined their class.

I play Arcanist more than any other class (mostly because necro is garbage). The Flail nerf was needed. It did not need execute scaling on top of a great damage taken debuff, building crux, being able to cleave, healing the user, and immobilizing.

And despite what others have said, yes, the damage is still good on it. The damage is on par with your average single target spammable, which is crazy considering it's AoE and comes with all the effects it has.

In PvE, the execute scaling was negligible anyways because you're going to be Beaming rather than spamming execute since Beam was still more damage than Flail until around 10% health.

One doesn't need to play an Arcanist to know that while Arcanists are PvE DPS kings, since the first round of nerfs are nothing more than mid-tier offensively, with many of them using only one damage ability from their class. The potential on tooltips does not translate well into PvP. That has been shown through months of actual gameplay. Others have said so. It's why the class crutches hard on procs like Duel Wield Masters, vateshran, and Maarselok to put out the damage. The class kit did not need a nerf to its damage at all in PvP. It wasn;t a problem.

PvP is already full of tanks, stalemates, and proc sets. Because of philosophies like this. Well, the tooltips are strong and a skill just shouldn't do that many things, so applaud ZOS for nerfing the damage. Of course the necro is trash: ZOS gets plaudits when it approaches balance by nerfing things willy nilly, even when it's the other part of class kits that are strong and garners complaints. If it just bothersome on principle that Flail does that many things (even though all those things still mean crutching on proc sets), then remove the heal as that is a contributor to where the class is perhaps too strong.

Arcs that want to be something other than a troll tank (which there are far too many), are probably going to drop Flail because the class's kit already struggled with PvP damage. That decision will be made because of a nerf and the relative power of the other morph, which is totally contrary to ZoS's stated intentions. They will probably have to drop Camo Hunter to slot something to build crux, which means more reliance on proc sets since they can't crit anyway. And the cycle continues.

Necrotech_Master

FuryOfTyphon wrote: »

The logic on this change is <insert profanity here>.

Arcanist is overpowered in PvE and pretty average in PvP.

So lets nerf the one good damage skill available to PvPers, and basically leave it broken af in PvE.
SMH.

Remove the heal altogether.
Give Tentacular Dread the execute scaling on top of the buffs its already getting and that would justify the crux consumpation.
Fixed.

i dont necessarily think the heal should be removed, but i would support the idea of moving the execute to dread

the execute on top of the crux buffing the dmg, seems like it would be nice for burst hit and potentially make it more useful in pvp

just the crux dmg buff as is, is not enough to justify its cost (as a crux consumer)

Lalothen

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i dont necessarily think the heal should be removed, but i would support the idea of moving the execute to dread

the execute on top of the crux buffing the dmg, seems like it would be nice for burst hit and potentially make it more useful in pvp

just the crux dmg buff as is, is not enough to justify its cost (as a crux consumer)

I'd support Dread getting execute scaling - but if it gets that then it should lose the Immobilize. That way you have Flail for utility - create crux, Immobilize, heal - and Dread as a pure DPS & execute option.

Firstmep

Joy_Division wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Flail isn't low damage though? ... And you're supposed to pick between Dread and Beam, that's the point.

Without the execute scaling, yes it's low damage on top of a slow cast and janky hitbox. Flail was my primary spammable on my pressure Arc, but above 50% hp it was better to spam Twin Slashes or restart your rotation altogether.

The design of splitting playstyles like that denies Arc builds half their offensive own kit. You run a pseudo bomber with the DW ult and the laser, or you run a proc vessel (either MDW/Vatesh or ranged procs on bow). It's already hard enough to fit everything an open world build wants on an Arc, good luck fitting marginal utility skills like Flail.

I think people are just looking at tooltips and think the Arcanist is this great damage dealer. Everyone else also gets indignant when ZOS's solution to balancing their class morphs is to nerf one such that you have to drop the way you have enjoyed playing to use the new morph. But when it's someone else's class, it's ZOS knows what they are doing, the skills that nobody has ever whined about dying to are actually really good, etc. Yet they still comment about how ZOS ruined their class.

I play Arcanist more than any other class (mostly because necro is garbage). The Flail nerf was needed. It did not need execute scaling on top of a great damage taken debuff, building crux, being able to cleave, healing the user, and immobilizing.

And despite what others have said, yes, the damage is still good on it. The damage is on par with your average single target spammable, which is crazy considering it's AoE and comes with all the effects it has.

In PvE, the execute scaling was negligible anyways because you're going to be Beaming rather than spamming execute since Beam was still more damage than Flail until around 10% health.

One doesn't need to play an Arcanist to know that while Arcanists are PvE DPS kings, since the first round of nerfs are nothing more than mid-tier offensively, with many of them using only one damage ability from their class. The potential on tooltips does not translate well into PvP. That has been shown through months of actual gameplay. Others have said so. It's why the class crutches hard on procs like Duel Wield Masters, vateshran, and Maarselok to put out the damage. The class kit did not need a nerf to its damage at all in PvP. It wasn;t a problem.

PvP is already full of tanks, stalemates, and proc sets. Because of philosophies like this. Well, the tooltips are strong and a skill just shouldn't do that many things, so applaud ZOS for nerfing the damage. Of course the necro is trash: ZOS gets plaudits when it approaches balance by nerfing things willy nilly, even when it's the other part of class kits that are strong and garners complaints. If it just bothersome on principle that Flail does that many things (even though all those things still mean crutching on proc sets), then remove the heal as that is a contributor to where the class is perhaps too strong.

Arcs that want to be something other than a troll tank (which there are far too many), are probably going to drop Flail because the class's kit already struggled with PvP damage. That decision will be made because of a nerf and the relative power of the other morph, which is totally contrary to ZoS's stated intentions. They will probably have to drop Camo Hunter to slot something to build crux, which means more reliance on proc sets since they can't crit anyway. And the cycle continues.

You say pvp are full of tanks, but zos just gave arcanist a way to spend Crux to deal meaningful burst, rather than spam runeward to stalemate.
I'd think that's a good change.

RaptorRodeoGod

The reason I use Flail is because it feels like a better spammable than Runeblades, and generates a Crux like Runeblades.

If Runeblades could be made to feel as good as Flail to use, then they'd see more use, and Tentacular Dread might be used more often