Class Mastery Feedback from Arcanist Healer Perspective

1. Did Class Mastery help in providing a meaningful boost to power for playing as a solo class?

For Arcanist healers specifically, Class Mastery currently does not provide a meaningful boost to power.

Other classes received clear support-oriented power increases, such as Weapon and Spell Damage buffs, Resource and ultimate generation, & Major buff applications (Major Berserk, Major Brittle, etc.)

However, Arcanist healers received only Ink Scribe’s Verve, which generates a Crux after healing or overhealing 75,000 Health in combat. When triggered, the passive only generates Crux, which currently has limited value for healer-focused builds.

Because of this, Class Mastery does not feel like a meaningful power increase for Arcanist healers.

2. Do you feel this system helps in allowing for more player agency in a post subclassing play environment?

For Arcanist healers, the system currently does not increase player agency in a meaningful way. One of the core mechanics of the Arcanist identity is Crux generation and consumption, but healers currently have very limited ways to meaningfully spend Crux to benefit group utility. Many Arcanist healer builds generate Crux passively through abilities like Chakram of Destiny, but there is little incentive or reward for consuming Crux in support-focused gameplay.

Because of this, Arcanist healers do not gain new decision-making opportunities or playstyle variety from Class Mastery.

3. What are the things you like about Class Mastery?

The Class Mastery system is a great idea overall, especially as a way to reward players who choose to remain pure class after subclassing is introduced. It’s great to see new build diversity, class identity reinforcement, and role-specific enhancements for different classes. Many classes received passives that reinforce their class identity, particularly in support roles, which is very exciting.

4. What places do you think could use improvement with Class Mastery?

1. No meaningful way to spend Crux as a healer

Arcanist healers currently lack meaningful Crux consumption mechanics that benefit group support.

It would be great to see:

Group support effects/buffs tied to Crux generation/consumption

This would help reinforce the Arcanist support identity and make Crux more relevant for healers.

2. Arcanist healing heavily relies on shielding

Arcanist healers primarily support through damage shields, but Ink Scribe’s Verve only generates Crux through healing or overhealing. Because shielding is a major part of Arcanist healing identity, it would be helpful if shielding counted towards the Crux generation of the class mastery passive.

This would better align Class Mastery with how Arcanist healers actually function.

3. Lack of group utility compared to other classes

Many other classes received clear group utility from Class Mastery passives:

Templar — Group Weapon/Spell Damage
Warden — Major Brittle / Heroism
Dragonknight — Major Berserk / Protection
Sorcerer — Group shields and unique damage buffs
Nightblade — Group resources and ultimate generation

Currently, Arcanist does not provide meaningful group utility through Class Mastery passives. This makes it harder for Arcanist healers to justify a support slot in group content compared to other classes, especially whenever Zenas' Empowering Disc lost its 12-person target cap.

4. Any other general thoughts around Class Mastery?

Overall, the Class Mastery system is a great addition and has strong potential. However, Arcanist healers currently feel underserved compared to other classes with the current class mastery passives and state of Crux generation/consumption for Arcanist healers.

Summary

Arcanist healers currently:

Lack meaningful Crux consumption options
Provide no meaningful group utility through Class Mastery
Rely heavily on shielding, which is not reflected in Ink Scribe's Verve

Adding Crux-based support mechanics or group buffs would help Arcanist healers feel more competitive and aligned with their class identity.

I only just read the patch notes, but I'm glad this system is coming into the game to help bring up pure classes to the level of subclassing. Some tweaks are definitely going to be needed, but so far they look rather good.

One thing that stood out for me is the change to Necro's Cycle of Death/Malevolent Promise. Even though the original was a WIP, it did give the impression that it would work on enemy players. I do feel that this class passive should have the ability to mark players as well instead of just monsters. This would make Necro's siphons much easier to use in PvP, and would allow the detonating siphon explosion to hit the player its attached to rather than being a small aoe they can walk away from.

Did Class Mastery help in providing a meaningful boost to power for playing as a solo class?

I noticed a boost in power, but it wasn't substantial enough. Playing on my necro DPS, I noticed a ~10k-20k loss in DPS by pure classing, as opposed to running something like Grave Lord/Assassination/Herald.

Do you feel this system helps in allowing for more player agency in a post subclassing play environment?

I think after tweaks and adjustments, yes. It wouldn't hurt to add a few more passive abilities to choose from, or the option to pick more than two.

What are the things you like about Class Mastery?

I like the idea behind it, but in it's current state, it's underwhelming.

What places do you think could use improvement with Class Mastery?

Better numbers, they can always be nerfed and adjusted with each classes rework. The ability to choose more than two. A few more additional passives, especially for DPS.

Any other general thoughts around Class Mastery?

It's a step in the right direction, but it needs more work.

Any other general thoughts around Class Mastery?

Why is the Necromancer passive Malevolent Promise restricted to non-player enemies?

It feels counterintuitive when Corpse Consumers struggle to be effective specifically in PvP due to their stationary nature. I was so excited to potentially gain an interesting DoT ability to use in PvP, only to realize that it would not work on Player Enemies.

I really hope that a parse over these class masteries is made by the team with a critical pvp focused eye prior to release.
Some of these are just wrong to add to a pvp environment which is already struggling with balance.

Last thing we need is the defensive class masteries making people even more impossible to kill in Cyro

RedMamba wrote: »

Last thing we need is the defensive class masteries making people even more impossible to kill in Cyro

If you are actually struggle to kill player in cyro or any other form of pvp right now in this crit meta, you are doing it wrong

For DK, the class mastery Lead From the Front grants Major Berserk, and basically makes sorcerer's unique ultimate in a trial setting useless. Why summon an atronach when you can get Standard of Might and Major Berserk from the same buff toon? I don't really like this because DK already has a unique group damage boosting ult. It's kinda the same thing where adding more sources of Major Vuln has made necro's ult less special.


For Templar, Judgment’s Brand is too restrictive. Obviously it incentivizes players to use the multi-hit jabs. Unless the tooltip is wrong, "damage done" increases apply to each hit, similar to the Draugurkin set. So any single hit spammable like Dark Flare is disadvantaged. Also the Templar-only skill condition means that Templar is pigeonholed to Templar only skills. No other class has such a skill restriction on their class masteries. Every other class gets all damage boosts that apply to the character itself. Either this mastery should be nerfed but applies to all damage, or the condition is changed, such as boosting magic and physical damage only, to open up other spammable options: e.g. weapon spammables like Traveling Knife, Uppercut, Focused Aim, Elemental Weapon, or even Radiant Destruction as a spammable (meme but why not?)

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for the new Class Mastery System. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Did Class Mastery help in providing a meaningful boost to power for playing as a solo class?
• Do you feel this system helps in allowing for more player agency in a post subclassing play environment?
• What are the things you like about Class Mastery?
• What places do you think could use improvement with Class Mastery?
• Any other general thoughts around Class Mastery?

More testing needed, but here's the first impressions:

1. Kinda but not really. My test case was my solo Arcanist running Spindleclutch I (done it lots of times, so pretty good feel for time and effort to get from door to final boss). I did not notice any significant difference between U49 solo and U50 solo. Loadout was Tide-born, Deadly, 1 piece of Slimecraw, and Pale Order. I'd use Velothi, but (1) I'm missing one lead, which is a different problem (ahem, ahem) (2) Velothi got nerfed (ahem, ahem), and (3) since I don't have it on the live server, it's pointless to use it on PTS. So Pale Order since I'm solo and ain't no one flingin' heals but me (well, Azandar likes Chakram Shields, but still...).
2. Yes. The tooltips were clear about what benefits I was gaining from choosing particular Mastery passives, that I could pick no more than 2, and the like. Easy peasy interface and well-done on that front.
3. Keeping in mind that the system is intended to bring pure-class builds up closer to parity with subclassed builds, it kinda does what it purports to do. I don't think it's as close to parity as it could be, but it's better.
4. Passives could just just a bit more "oomph!", at least as far as Arcanist goes. More testing needed for other classes.
5. Cool concept, much needed, and mostly just needs dialing in to the "sweet spot". I don't think it will ever reach parity with subclassing, but narrowing the existing gap is a good start on it.

As a support role player (tank and healer) in some cases these passives really force players to go pure class, and we go back to the dark ages of no build variety again. Healers and tanks are not in the same place as DDs with respect to how its impacted the game, all the tanks and healers I run with have said how good it has been over the last year being able to have some real build variety, because it hasn't been provided by sets since before the arcanist was in the game. Healing levels are still below u34 levels even with subclassing, and tanking has become more accessible to players.

As I feared what this shows is that there is no plan to equalise purclass and subclass for supports, its about effectively forcing people to play pureclass if you want to play mid level + content.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for the new Class Mastery System. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• Did Class Mastery help in providing a meaningful boost to power for playing as a solo class?
• Do you feel this system helps in allowing for more player agency in a post subclassing play environment?
• What are the things you like about Class Mastery?
• What places do you think could use improvement with Class Mastery?
• Any other general thoughts around Class Mastery?

Did Class Mastery help in providing a meaningful boost to power for playing as a solo class?

No, not at all. Especially after the nerf to Class Mastery Passives, pure classes (I tested the Necromancer, Nightblade, and Sorcerer) are still two times worse than multiclass;

Do you feel this system helps in allowing for more player agency in a post subclassing play environment?

I believe that in order to be competent, pure classes, or rather their new passives, should be buffed.
What are the things you like about Class Mastery?

Some of them (not all!) influence class identity and design. Take the Necromancer with its amazing corpse generation as an example;

What places do you think could use improvement with Class Mastery?

First and foremost, a numerical buff. And, instead of adding new mechanics through new class mastery passive skills, create more synergy with existing skill line passives (the Arcanist's 30% damage bonus or Nightblade´s Ult. regen are examples);

Any other general thoughts around Class Mastery?

The idea of ​​class mastery passives is interesting, but it completely misses the point. After all, it was intended as a counterweight to the multiclass, but in the end, it's just another new mechanic that requires time and resources to balance, but which never quite evolved into a multiclass equivalent. Those responsible for the new passives need to consider dramatically increasing the power of these passives. Otherwise, this system is doomed.

WHY did you nerf the Templar Passive Judgment’s Brand before it even reached PTS? It's far too low right now, reducing it from 2000 to 1250 was unnecessary, instead of waiting to see how it actually played on PTS first. This definitely does not make me feel like playing a full Templar, at all.

CAB_Life wrote: »

Since DK is effectively a 2.5 class, they should get TWO masteries, whereas every other gimped, lagging class should chose THREE until their respective updates—whenever those occur as ostensibly warden has already missed its deadline. Continuing to pile power onto a class with such a clear delta ahead of the others is typical ZOS fumbling. Do better.

I had a similar thought. DK getting the same benefits in its current state seems dangerous.

Some more thoughts on the individual Sorcerer passives after testing for all the night. It's more about bugs and lacking interactions.

Sphere of Influence

I was surprised to see that only one of these extra wards can exist at a time. The tooltip makes me believe any shield I cast produced one additional ward. On the PTS; these wards are capped at 25% max health, while in the patchnotes it says capped at 15%. Since we can only have one ward, a 15% cap would make this entirely useless. So I hope the 25% is true.

The talent lacks interactions with most things. Namely Daedric Refuge, which does not create a ward; neither on cast nor (more importantly) on allies picking up those runes. That seems like a missed upportunity to make Sorc tanks and healers somewhat interesting again. Warding Burst from the scribing altar, when turned into a damage shield, applies the extra shield to allies and pets, but not to self. (Still testing this. It sometimes shows that it applies it and sometimes not. Just a bug I think.)
The ward also does not get produced by Frost Staff heavy attacks, by warding enchants and any other shield proc not directly tied to a skill. May be intended this way, but Daedric Refuge and Warding Burst can't possibly be intended.

Another problem is that it appears this ward is cast underneath the main ward that produced it. This makes no sense gameplay wise, because the whole point of this ward is to take heat off of the longer lasting main wards. Wards last for 6 seconds, while this one lasts for 4. So while my main ward takes all the damage, this here ward simply runs out with its shorter duration without actually adding any value.

It should be produced on top of the main ward as a buffer.

Thank you for adding 150 recoveries to this though. So even if the ward itself is useless in many situations, at least we get some recovery...

Calculated Defense

This talent has a hidden cooldown not mentioned in the tooltip. This ward can not be refreshed or re-created while the current one is active, and also not for some milliseconds thereafter.

Conservation of Energy

This also has a hidden cooldown through the Blood Magic passive. Blood Magic can apparently only trigger once every 0.5 seconds, despite not saying so in either tooltip. If I use Overload > Skill > Overload > Skill, the Skill cast/hit will neither trigger the healing nor the ressource restore of Conservation of Energy. I would like to see these internal cooldowns removed to allow for more synergy.

Some skills do not seem to activate this:
Streak does not trigger this passive even when hitting enemies, while Ball of Lightning correctly triggers it.
Missing Overload attacks without hitting, even though the passive should proc on skill cast.

Static Reverberation

Has proven itself viable and good in dummy tests. Useless for open world and pvp in my opinion, but for parsing (which apparently matters most) it does the work.

Conservation of Energy: worse compared to Heart of Flame which now provides 15% of max health which is better than the Bloodmagic passive.
A static ressource restore like it was shown at the first time (1k mag and stam each) or bumping it up to 3% or adding 2% of max health would make it more considerable than just subclassing Ardent Flame for HoF

Font of Power: the scaling is a bit too harsh. The previous scaling at 1% per 1.5k max resource would be reasonable

Calculated Defense: considering you would have to slot the Bastion CP in order to make it somewhat valuable at least its duration could be adjusted to persist for a Global Cooldown turning it into a small additional layer of defense rewarding execution from the player