DLC Classes - Arcanist Wins, Hands Down

Shagreth · February 2024

The theme of the Arcanist is strong, the rotation is a little repetitive, but it can be fixed, however, most people seem to be ok with it.

How can anyone like Warden and Necro is honestly beyond me. Warden is a thematic mess and Necro looks like colorful Halloween [snip]. Also, in my ~22 years of playing mmorpg games I can say easily that Necromancer is the worst designed class I've seen, it just plays bad. Which is honestly sad, as Necromancer is always my No1 choice. Vampirism rework was another letdown but I digress.

Rework the Necromancer from the ground up and heavily tweak the Warden is what they need to do, those small changes just don't cut it. Also, I like how Zenimax keeps the same people around and feels like a family, but they should seriously reconsider their philosophy on changes and their inability to introduce drastic ones when needed and maybe even hire some people with fresh ideas. That is all.

[edited for profanity bypass]

Pixiepumpkin · February 2024

Agreed.

The Arcanist (magicka for me) is the first class in ESO I truely enjoy. I mean I have literally spent the majoiry of my time in this game TRYING to find something fun to play. Templer was good for a little while, until the Jab nerfs which killed it for me.

I think Arcanist is ZOS best attempt at a class and it ranks up there as one of my favorites (BM Hunter in WOW, Shadow Priest in WOW, Affliction Warlock in WOW, Lightning Sorcerer in SWTOR, Merc Bounty Hunter (mandalorians) in SWTOR, Black Orc in Warhammer Online, Engineer in GW2 and Arcanist in ESO).

I'd like to see other classes implemented like Arcanist (or reworked, but that could create a lot of upheaval).

Shagreth · February 2024

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

I'd like to see other classes implemented like Arcanist (or reworked, but that could create a lot of upheaval).

My sentiments exactly. This community HATES change, even if it's good, it just makes them uncomfortable, this just shows an aging community and let's leave it at that. After the arcanist many classes could use some work or at least fresh tools to work with. The excuse so far is ram limitations due to old gen support. Let's see.

Pixiepumpkin · February 2024

Shagreth wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

I'd like to see other classes implemented like Arcanist (or reworked, but that could create a lot of upheaval).

My sentiments exactly. This community HATES change, even if it's good, it just makes them uncomfortable, this just shows an aging community and let's leave it at that. After the arcanist many classes could use some work or at least fresh tools to work with. The excuse so far is ram limitations due to old gen support. Let's see.

Old consoles support needs to go. Allow accounts to transfer to new consoles (I do not know how consoles work, so just making this as a suggestion).

All I know is that when I look at character creation and I see the class offerings, its just so narrow and feels very limited. And then once you purchase the game, if you are a ranged caster/magic type player..your options are extremely limited (once you find out about weapons).

Dragonredux · February 2024

Arcanist is the only class that has an easy to use rotation and doesn't require the user to deal with the mess of a game mechanic that is Attack Weaving. Considering that most players are DPS players and dps is king is this game. Yeah a lot of players are going to like this class.

Pixiepumpkin · February 2024

Dragonredux wrote: »

Arcanist is the only class that has an easy to use rotation and doesn't require the user to deal with the mess of a game mechanic that is Attack Weaving. Considering that most players are DPS players and dps is king is this game. Yeah a lot of players are going to like this class.

That is what I like about it. Its straight forward. I don't need to study you tuybe videos for hours to figure out how to play it.

I just wish ESO gearing worked the same way. What seems straightforward rarely works, what seems like a cobbled mess seems to be BIS.

That is what I miss most about WOW, SWTOR, or any other MMO I played was gearing. If I got a piece of gear that had more crit and more damage, it worked better in my rotation and my DPS went up. There was a lot LOT less theoryu crafting.

I hate spreadsheets and I don't care to do a ton of math to know whether I should use a gear set or not. I want to use it because it looks cool/maybe has cool effects.

(Morkuldin I am looking at you).

Shagreth · February 2024

Dragonredux wrote: »

Arcanist is the only class that has an easy to use rotation and doesn't require the user to deal with the mess of a game mechanic that is Attack Weaving. Considering that most players are DPS players and dps is king is this game. Yeah a lot of players are going to like this class.

Ah yes, weaving, don't get me started on weaving. I am good at it, hell, I'm capable of being near the max possible DPS with my NB in most boss fight situations, yet still hate it. "But my class would be boring without it!" Yes, if your class is boring without weaving then it needs to be redesigned.

Skafloc · February 2024

Have to agree really enjoyed playing Arcanist. As someone who has a progressive illness with limited had movement, the Arcanist's simpler rotations made it accessible for me - loathe to see any major changes which increase complexity of rotations - just wish some other classes were as straight forward play too

Pixiepumpkin · February 2024

Skafloc wrote: »

Have to agree really enjoyed playing Arcanist. As someone who has a progressive illness with limited had movement, the Arcanist's simpler rotations made it accessible for me - loathe to see any major changes which increase complexity of rotations - just wish some other classes were as straight forward play too

Sorry to hear about your illness. It always pains me to hear about folks who enjoy games, but who have a difficult time interfacing with them due to physical limitations or illness. I truly wish you the best.

Have you also tried a heavy attack sorcerer build? Its not complex, one bar, the biggest caveat may be holding down the right mouse button for heavy attacks constantly (you do this a lot).

Its a pretty forgiving build in PVE. Not much to the rotation, lots of survivability and hits pretty hard. It has a better single target damage, but can hit like a freight train with AOE.

Mesite · February 2024

If people prefer the arcanist then they can play arcanist. Leave my necromancer alone. You can change warden if you like, mainly the ice branch for me, but in the poll currently on the forum about everyone's favourite class, the warden is popular and beating arcanist.

Sarannah · February 2024

Dragonredux wrote: »

Arcanist is the only class that has an easy to use rotation and doesn't require the user to deal with the mess of a game mechanic that is Attack Weaving. Considering that most players are DPS players and dps is king is this game. Yeah a lot of players are going to like this class.

Personally I like all classes, but I love the ease with which arcanist can be played. It makes the game much more fun and relaxing. All classes should receive the same treatment to remove the nasty weaving/animation canceling, to make them more fun to play.

Also loving the necro and warden, though I do feel the warden's netch should be permanent(and arcanist crux again too).

Personally I don't think any class really needs balance changes, unless it is broken beyond believe. All the tweaking and balancing for mostly PvP purposes is a major waste of time, in that same time ZOS could have released many more new classes instead.

PS: I do feel ZOS needs to remove the criminal act from regular skills, like the necro's skills. To make them more fun to play. (Not from vampire/werewolf)

Kendaric · February 2024

Arcanist skills are way too flashy to ever catch my interest and it has an extremely limited theme. I much prefer the Warden, both in terms of theme and skill visuals (minus the flower stuff for healing).

Luke_Flamesword · February 2024

I can agree that necromancet visually is like Helloween theme park for kids. Well, even arcanist is more adult and darker than necromancers. It's my least favourite class.

I like wardens, but mixing nature/druid theme with ice was weird decision. I would prefer to see seperate class with ice theme and warden fully nature theme, but now it's too late for that and without class change tokens it would be painfull to change that.

Shagreth · February 2024

Luke_Flamesword wrote: »

I can agree that necromancet visually is like Helloween theme park for kids. Well, even arcanist is more adult and darker than necromancers. It's my least favourite class.

I like wardens, but mixing nature/druid theme with ice was weird decision. I would prefer to see seperate class with ice theme and warden fully nature theme, but now it's too late for that and without class change tokens it would be painfull to change that.

I don't really care for warden, I generally despise druid/nature stuff, but can still see that it is a weird mix (cliff racer spammable, really?!) but the iteration of Necromancer really broke my heart, could have been more like the flesh atronach ult, darker, fleshier etc. but nope, gotta have glowing skulls and 'spooky' graveyards appearing out of nowhere.

TaSheen · February 2024

I enjoy my arcanists, but I'm still (and always will be) a warden main. 1 bar stam oakenden mains at that.

KlauthWarthog · February 2024

I like the Warden gameplay, but the theming of the class is just a horrible mess. They basically decided to meme on Morrowind, and then added some frost skills for the sake of it.
Necromancer, however, is just... sad. Nothing in there actually works, for gameplay or theming. Feels like they handed the job to a disgruntled employee who was just counting down the days on his notice.

TaSheen · February 2024

KlauthWarthog wrote: »

I like the Warden gameplay, but the theming of the class is just a horrible mess. They basically decided to meme on Morrowind, and then added some frost skills for the sake of it.
Necromancer, however, is just... sad. Nothing in there actually works, for gameplay or theming. Feels like they handed the job to a disgruntled employee who was just counting down the days on his notice.

Well, that's true, but I just pretend around that. I don't mind the bear, and while I'd be a happier with non-MW themed class skills, I just use what's available plus weapon skills.

I don't play necros in any game, so have no opinion on that.

Soarora · February 2024

Shagreth wrote: »

How can anyone like Warden and Necro is honestly beyond me. Warden is a thematic mess and Necro looks like colorful Halloween [snip].

Rework the Necromancer from the ground up and heavily tweak the Warden is what they need to do, those small changes just don't cut it.

It is funny and sad that 2 of the 3 DLC classes are worse off than the nonDLC classes… I’ve had someone tell me ZOS will buff warden because it’s a paid class. Hasn’t quite happened yet though I do like the chilled change.

That said, I do love my warden build. It is a thematic mess but I enjoy how it plays and so I’m hesitant towards change because the build is my baby. It would be nice if the theming was resolved though. I’m a cryomage from Cyrodiil using shalks? Totally makes sense…

Most importantly (to me, this drives me nuts), cliff racer isn’t a cliff racer. It’s a cliff strider. The art is a cliff strider, the animation is a cliff strider, the only thing that’s cliff racer about it is the name.

Anyways, I’d propose the magicka morphs should have a visual frost theme and do frost damage and the stamina morphs should have a vvardenfell animal theme with blood + poison damage.

[edited to remove quote]

Kite42 · February 2024

I agree with the consensus here, but don't really like the Arcanist theme much either. How about something not at 532 nanometres?

Maybe we can get soundclips of the Ghosts 'n Goblins music when our necros use abilities?

LunaFlora · February 2024

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

Shagreth wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

I'd like to see other classes implemented like Arcanist (or reworked, but that could create a lot of upheaval).

My sentiments exactly. This community HATES change, even if it's good, it just makes them uncomfortable, this just shows an aging community and let's leave it at that. After the arcanist many classes could use some work or at least fresh tools to work with. The excuse so far is ram limitations due to old gen support. Let's see.

Old consoles support needs to go. Allow accounts to transfer to new consoles (I do not know how consoles work, so just making this as a suggestion).

All I know is that when I look at character creation and I see the class offerings, its just so narrow and feels very limited. And then once you purchase the game, if you are a ranged caster/magic type player..your options are extremely limited (once you find out about weapons).

xbox and PlayStation accounts are the same across generations just like any other platform.

dropping xbox one and ps4 would be a pretty bad decision now.
the new consoles are still not easy to find(unless you get a bundle which can cost 150% the price) and not everyone can afford the upgrade.
zos would lose likely thousands of players.

it'll probably happen eventually, but it doesn't *need* to happen.

LunaFlora · February 2024

i like all 3 dlc classes.

arcanist is very fun and the easiest to use, i dont love the flashing and spiral effects that some of the skills have though.
really wish we had options to turn that off or make it way slower.

ADarklore · February 2024

I switched FROM Arcanist to Frost Warden and much prefer it. Arcanist was fun for awhile, but got super boring because of how brain-dead the rotation was. At least with my Frostden I get to use more than just two skills.

SandandStars · February 2024

As a pvp’r, I enjoy both Arc & Warden.

both classes lack an effective spammable for pvp (cliff racers are too slow/100% dodgeable, runeblades do too little dmg), but what I like about them is that they both have “skill shots” that require practice to use effectively in pvp: deep fissure & fatecarver.

It takes a fair amount of skill to learn to land deep fissure in the high-speed, roll dodge fest that is pvp, and the same is true for fatecarver (unless you’re a colorless pool spammer, in which case, u should stop that). This makes the skills fun & rewarding to use, as you can enjoy improving your ability.

Opposites of these are radiant oppression (just press a button, repeatedly) and fossilize+ whip, whip, whip, and of course spin to win x10, or howl of agony x10, or dizzy swing x10.

OsUfi · February 2024

Arcanist is a hard pass from me. The green visuals are atrocious. What's worse is they inflict the green screen violence on every else, unlike all the other classes which are far more subtle in comparison.

Shagreth wrote: »

How can anyone like Warden and Necro is honestly beyond me.

They're the only two classes I've mained. Both have always been one bar friendly since long before Oakensoul. The Wardens set it and forget it DoTs and AoEs appealed to me, likewise the Heavy Attack > Blastbones rotation of Necros made harder content playable.

The anti-necro crowd are finally getting what they want with skill reworks, and I'm dreading it. I'm losing my beloved magicka blastbones. I really hope they don't rework the entire class.

dcrush · February 2024

I don’t like Arcanist at all. I don’t know if it’s my latency but after getting three crux up my beam won’t activate half of the time. I need to spam it for it to finally activate. The whole class feels very clunky to me. So does Necro DPS but Necro healer is my fav healer class.

carolingnight · February 2024

I personally don't like the Arcanist class in either gameplay or by its theme. I have at least two toons for all the other classes, typically a magicka-based toon and a stamina-based or tank toon, but I am not at all compelled to create a second Arcanist because I'm already bored playing with my first. I also concur with the earlier sentiment that its skills are too flashy. I considered that maybe I'd enjoy an Arcanist tank over DD, but I just... don't want to...

I get the criticisms of necros and wardens, but at least I enjoy playing them despite some of their wonkiness.

katanagirl1 · February 2024

I tried warden but I refuse to use the bear and the double thing with shalks just puts me and my timing off. She only does crafting dailies.

Same with necro. Too much bar-swapping to keep up the blastbones in trials. My hands hurt too much and I shelved her for an arcanist. She’s a daily writs crafter now too.

I agree with OP on the arcanist. Fewer light attacks are so much easier on the hands. There is great feedback on the flail and fatecarver in trials so even if I am stacked with the group I can tell what I am doing. That’s great because there is no option to turn off other player’s abilities like I’ve heard there is on PC.

DrScott59 · February 2024

I like playing arcanist, except... I agree with the complaints from the arcanist-haters about the flashy green. It's sometimes blinding. When soloing bosses, the beam is so bright that I frequently can't see the boss winding up an attack. Not sure how to fix that, perhaps maybe make the color a bit darker, and/or make the beam thinner?

FabresFour · February 2024

I really think all classes should have an alternative to weaving, like Arcanist does with they arcane-green-blast.

One way they could introduce something like this could be with the Scribing system, if they ever expand it to the classes. A jet of fire for the Dragonknight, or an electrical beam for the Sorcerer. Or even, if one day they add more spellbooks for skills in the game, it could be very interesting to add these skills that are alternatives to weaving in the destruction staff. For example, an elemental jet related to the staff you are using. (Similar to Flames from Skyrim, but using the staff).

This would make the game much more friendly for those who don't like weaving, while at the same time maintaining the original gameplay for those who do like.

zombievalen · February 2024

Shagreth wrote: »

The theme of the Arcanist is strong, the rotation is a little repetitive, but it can be fixed, however, most people seem to be ok with it.

How can anyone like Warden and Necro is honestly beyond me. Warden is a thematic mess and Necro looks like colorful Halloween [snip]. Also, in my ~22 years of playing mmorpg games I can say easily that Necromancer is the worst designed class I've seen, it just plays bad. Which is honestly sad, as Necromancer is always my No1 choice. Vampirism rework was another letdown but I digress.

Rework the Necromancer from the ground up and heavily tweak the Warden is what they need to do, those small changes just don't cut it. Also, I like how Zenimax keeps the same people around and feels like a family, but they should seriously reconsider their philosophy on changes and their inability to introduce drastic ones when needed and maybe even hire some people with fresh ideas. That is all.

[edited for profanity bypass]

We still expect Warden to be a desirable DPS spot.

https://i.pinimg.com/474x/ac/c1/ed/acc1ed7d818da815f19b33360cf45620.jpg

SkaiFaith · February 2024

I just want to defend my lovely Wardens: Ice is my favorite elemental type, and I like nature, so having both together is fantastic to me. I don't care if they are not well correlated. Please don't touch their thematics.

In terms of playability Wardens are my favorite class but I haven't played an Arcanist yet. Don't think I will since that green is not up my alley.
I can't talk for DPS roles or any group role performance, but I solo with every class and Wardens are in my opinion the best to solo content.
True, I have not tried Arcanists, but they will get nerfed now that launch is past, so I tend to think Wardens will remain the best solo class.