328k - 780k dps from a single Arcanist. How?

Eormenric · July 31

In what world can seeing these numbers on Combat Metrics make sense? I can't see that detailed of information from group members, so I have to guess. I see Cephaliarch's Flail was used, Rune of Displacement. Obviously, Fatecarver was used as well. The player had used some ability prior, glowed red, and then was moving very, very fast just before this happened. I saw no banner for that increase in damage. Could this just be a combination of Tide-Born, Velothi, and other things to achieve this? I'm honestly flabbergasted. I'm also incredibly disappointed in this game now to allow such bonkers damage output from any class to persist for this long. I know the trope of ESO is that the new class is OP but this is too far. Arcanist trivializes everything. Every encounter we had, all enemies melted in seconds. That's not fun.

Can someone shed some light on how this kind of damage is possible, even in a quick 5-second burst?

NoSoup · July 31

Some context might help.....

Soarora · July 31

Seconding needing more context. I presume you got the number from hodor’s? What fight was this? Some fights are known for very high DPS because of the amount of adds inflating the parse.

Turtle_Bot · July 31

Context would help a lot here.

Was it a single target fight? Was there a crazy number of tightly stacked adds that hyper-inflated those numbers? Was their entire character glowing red, or just their weapons?

As for the Red Glow, that to me sounds like Merciless Resolve (or the stam morph) was slotted and at max stacks (which is +300/400 weapon/spell damage respectively while slotted on either bar), so it definitely looks like a typical sub-classed beam build using Herald of the Tome + Assassination + another DPS skill line.

Those numbers to me indicate an add heavy fight which is where this beam build outperforms other builds to an extreme degree.

Moving fast indicates that either concealed weapon (NB spammable) was slotted for the passive minor expedition buff or if their entire body was glowing red, then it could be storm calling skill hurricane/boundless storm that was used which grants minor/major expedition respectively while also granting Major Resolve + an AoE damage over time around the caster.

Yes, this build would likely also be running tide-born (+12% direct damage done to monsters) + velothi (+10 or 15% damage done + minor force for crit damage) + deadly (+15% damage done for channeled/DoTs) to buff beam to the max since beam gets buffed by all 3 of these sets (well 2 sets + mythic).

tomfant · July 31

Sounds like an Acuity nuke...

Renato90085 · July 31

i think your mean is trash/mobs combat?because single 5-second burst dps i know only 290+ arc/nb/temp
my pure nb in yesterday Vka trifecta run back up trash combat can do 592k in first 2sec
i think i am the weakest aoe class, so meta arc build should do double dps is right
if group really good and mobs dead so fast you can see this dmg in any build(my highest nb is 398k in dsrhm mobs combat
you can see this in any right build
because dps mean is Damage Per Second ,if you do 500k in mobs ,and they dead in 2 or 5 sec is not same dmg

Eormenric · July 31

First, thanks @Turtle_Bot for the clarification on the potential build this person had. That is very insightful.

Second, more context. It was a vet dungeon with just 4 mobs in the pack. From what my logs showed and what I saw, they dropped RoD, used Flail, and then beamed, hitting all 4. I saw the group dps in Combat Metrics spike to 780k and by the time the enemies died it was still over 300k. I don't recall the exact health values of the mobs, but they did die in seconds. All I had contributed to the fight was Major Breach to assist their damage.

Thank you @Renato90085 for the breakdown in what is possible from non-Arcanist.

This kind of damage is so new to me coming back from Greymoor. I really don't like it. I feel like calling it trivializing content is an understatement. There is just no competition for other class combinations. I fully agree and support that 100k dps from any is enough to clear probably all content (maybe not some Vet Trial HMs, or if so, not Trifectas). I wouldn't know for sure, though, as I haven't experienced all of that. I just think that when damage output can be this high for some and 10% of that for others, that damage gap is extreme. It feels wrong. Has any MMO ever had such a variance?

I see all these nerfs being requested to Arcanist. Instead, I think every other class and other damage skills--some armor sets too--need massive buffs and the health of enemies be increased to compensate for now everyone running around with 120k single, 500k+ aoe dps with hardly any group buffs. Feels like the challenge of the game, and actually experiencing the content, is going away to power creep.

tsaescishoeshiner · August 2

This isn't new. DPS numbers with multiple enemies in short bursts can get to multiple times higher than sustained DPS level. EDIT: This is why no one compares DPS numbers from actual content as a metric, just from parse dummies.

Obviously, having multiple enemies multiplies the damage for AoE skills by as many enemies as there are.

Many classes have huge short bursts of damage like that--I can often see really high numbers when just starting a parse, that even out over time.

Arcanists are definitely strong now, but I remember in 2020-2021 doing content with DKs and nightblades who would wipe out entire vet DLC dungeon mod groups before I could even get my DoTs down, because they were optimized for AoE burst (using Wizard's Wardrobe). So arcanists are strong for sure, but the context here really, really warps the numbers.

mdjessup4906 · August 3

Coral/mech acuity or sulxan with some lucky crit maybe. Trash damage is always inflated.
Heck, azure on a necro can still do that.