Arcanist disappointments

LordTareq · July 2023

The Arcanist is my new main after playing a nightblade for years. As a whole I like the class, especially the less reliance on light attacks. But there are some things I find quite disappointing. I'm talking from a perspective that includes PvE and PvP

First and mostly: The ultimates are quite meh.
- For PvP the only viable ultimate is Tide Kings Gaze. Even this one though moves way too slow for pvp purposes.
Gibbering shield is okey for tanks in PvE but not good in PvP due to the halving of its shield value. The healing ultimate is just impractical.

- Animation of Tide Kings Gaze! What happen to the cool huge daemon we saw in the trailers. It's this tiny thing now.

- Damage output is too reliant on Fatecarver. In PvP the super long channel makes you vulnerable making it hard to use. Add all the knockbacks/stuns/interrupts and its even harder. Even in PvE some boss fights dps tanks because you can't use channels well due to mechanics.

- Apocryphal gate. It sucks! The range is bad, it often doesn't work and its clunky to place right. Then there is even a long cooldown. There is no point using it in PvE, and its too unreliable for PvP.

- Runeblades. It doesn't do enough damage and/or doesn't do enough special stuff to warrant using it. You do more damage using cephaliarch's flail which is also AOE, immobilizes stuff and buffs your damage by 5%

- The nerf to Crux. Sure the spinning triangles were annoying but you could have just disabled the visual while out of combat. Instead we loose the crux now meaning you can't open with a powerful attack/defense anymore. Utterly unneeded nerf as arcanists are not top of the pack in PvP.

At the moment I would rank Arcanist as in the lower end of the middle in terms of power. Bit lame for a new class.

Seraphayel · July 2023

Yeah, although being really fun, Arcanist is quite disappointing overall. The good skills don’t outshine the bad ones and there are a lot of bad skills, unfortunately. I find the Ultimates very underwhelming as well.

The class had a clear design goal going for it, which is fine, but that way ZOS just completely ignored all other aspects of the game. Playing Arcanist with weapon / non-class skills just feel wrong because of Crux. So I’m always stuck with these skills because you cannot get around them. There must be one skill that gives us a buff that lets us create Crux from any skill used and not just class skills. This way the class is pretty much DOA when it comes to build diversity.

Necrotech_Master · July 2023

from a pvp perspective ive seen several very effective arcanist running around (i havent used one in pvp but ive fought many of them)

they are annoyingly tanky, and that stun that takes like an extra gcd to break out of very annoying

i would agree the beam is not that effective, unless you happen to either catch someone off guard standing still, or your running with a group and someone else hits with the stun before you start beaming

El_Borracho · July 2023

The class is all about trade-offs. Fatecarver is the primary skill, it puts out a lot of damage, but most of all, it goes through adds/enemies to hit all it in its path. Its unlike every other skill in the game in that way. Its very effective, which means the trade-off is you are vulnerable to damage when using it, it can be interrupted, and overuse will drain your resource pool. Without those cons, the skill would be completely broken.

The same goes for the other skills. They are more expensive than typical spammables, they concentrate on you highest resource pool, and other than Flail, don't cause a lot of damage. @LordTareq gives the example of Runeblades. I agree, but at the same time if the class had 2 skills that caused high damage it would be unusual as Fatecarver is the primary source of damage.

I don't think the class is disappointing, its just very different from what I am used to in ESO. I do agree that there is not a lot of build diversity, but since hybridization, the same can be said for almost any class

ll_Rev · July 2023

arcanist is really strong in PvE right now as a dps, and the rotation is quite simple compared to other classes.

olsborg · July 2023

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

from a pvp perspective

they are annoyingly tanky, and that stun that takes like an extra gcd to break out of very annoying

Hells yes they are insanely tanky and they hardly die, or die hard, wichever. That stun tho needs to get looked at, youre not supposed to be locked for 2 gcd with 1 cc skill.

ArchMikem · July 2023

I had a little fun leveling mine, then had some fun grinding some skill trees while Healing (and Tanking, at the same time) in Dungeons. But now in the end game with it leveled and skills unlocked, it stopped feeling fun. The Heals aren't as powerful as a Templar, there's no emergency instant heal as Runemend has a travel time, the group shields have a short duration and a travel time. Damage capability is highly dependent on several factors. Fatecarver absolutely needs all three Crux available to be useful, Runeblades don't hit hard enough to be a spammable and, again, travel time. The only instant damage ability I see is Impact, and I just refuse to use anything tentacle.

At this point, I may still Heal Dungeons with it, maybe attempt overland damage, but for the most part it feels like I'm benching the character, and after all the gold and mats I spent gearing it too.

merpins · July 2023

I like fatecarver as the main attack, and don't want it to be nerfed. But I think there should be another good spammable option for the class. Flail is fine, but it could have another good option. Though I think it's fine for now. There are a couple other classes that just don't have a good spammable option right now; Stam Sorc, Templar, Warden... I'd like to see these classes get their spammables fixed or buffed before Arcanist sees improvements on spammable options because, although it relies on fatecarver, it's a very strong semi-spammable option. Other classes need some love first. \

However. It does have somewhat mediocre dps in both PVE and PVP, in real situations, since interruptions are very easy to get hit by. It hits like a truck when you can actually get the whole duration, but it's very common to be hit with an interrupt right as you use your crux. this could be seen as a blessing, as it might make Arcanist less likely to be hit with nerfs. But its damage is also very inflated due to player insistence to base the value of a class on parse numbers and Zos obvious fixation on those numbers. So this might end up being a curse, as Zos might see those inflated numbers and the popularity of the class and nerf the already mediocre damage because of it.