Does it make any sense to be an Arcanist in PvP? Or at all?

Usureki · June 2

I kinda get the feeling that the class is really focused on the PvE and Infinite Archive stuff and is underperforming in both Cyro and Battleground content. The arcanist spells are mid-ranged, so in Cyro I cannot defend forts properly, but since they are "ranged" (aka having cc 3x the range of a melee strike) they are weaker than other melee class skills. The Crux mechanics is interesting and fun to play in PvE, but I really failed to make it count in PvP since as soon as I'm having enough Cruxes to make it count I need to spend them on either the beam which misses constantly due to desync and clever movements or on my damage shield. Even though I'm almost fully focusing on flat damage I'm underperforming and cannot even touch e.g. the new dk whipper boiz.

I kinda wish I wouldn't need to play with another char, since I've restarted ESO after a break, did months of content and I prefer to play with one main char, but the more I play with the arcanist and the more I see how it is completely ignored in future patches (the class masteries of the arcanist are a joke) I kinda feel I've made a wrong choice picking this class..

Luneca · June 3

When most of the skills still can't be used reliably, no. Even runeblades can't be used when there is a minor elevation difference. It's ridiculous that ZOS "reworked" DK without fixing arcanist and necro issues. But hey, that's why you won't see many arcanists in PvP.

decairn · June 4

Play arcanist as a shielder in a group. It shines.

merevie · June 5

force < in next update

Pvp Arcanist is what you get out when your faction is being zerged and you're in a keep.
Arcanist heals also good, as well as above suggestion.

xR3ACTORx · June 6

It was fun until ZOS decided to nerf the arcanist 3 times in a row and when ZOS introduced the new mythic last year and decided to nerf DoT.

Bernz007 · June 8

The Arcanist and its skill lines have a lot of use in pvp. You just have to stop thinking of playing it from a pve perspective.

For instance, with U50 the Spattering Disjunction set will pair well with the Shattered Paths Signet along with the HoT skill line.

ArctosCethlenn · June 9

arcanist is one of the classes with absolutely mediocre kit (and now masteries) for everything but group support, so there's a reason to have one arcanist as a buff slave + shielder. Not exactly a good state to be in.

Oblivion_Protocol · June 10

xR3ACTORx wrote: »

It was fun until ZOS decided to nerf the arcanist 3 times in a row and when ZOS introduced the new mythic last year and decided to nerf DoT.

To be fair, when Arcanist came out, it was pretty busted. The shield was a legit “never die” button, beam hit harder, and the stun was absolute cancer.

Turtle_Bot · June 10

Oblivion_Protocol wrote: »

xR3ACTORx wrote: »

It was fun until ZOS decided to nerf the arcanist 3 times in a row and when ZOS introduced the new mythic last year and decided to nerf DoT.

To be fair, when Arcanist came out, it was pretty busted. The shield was a legit “never die” button, beam hit harder, and the stun was absolute cancer.

I still remember the CC bug that ability had on launch... That was so oppressive, literally zero counter play, just guaranteed unblockable stun that couldn't break free from for it's full duration and players were abusing it like crazy.

Turtle_Bot · June 10

As for current Arcanist, it needs to lean more on runeblades, status effects, ways to buff smaller instances of damage and using tentacular as it's crux spending burst skill.

Signet + Draugrkin are solid options for this, especially with the charged trait, since signet provides an insane percent boost to status effect damage and draugrkin's flat damage applies to every instance of damage done (so it applies 3 times to runeblades since runeblades hits 3 times and draugrkin applies to each hit). Also, draugrkin's flat damage bonus is a significantly higher percentage boost overall when buffing smaller damage instances than when it buffs large damage instances which multiplies when applying to abilities that hit multiple times.

The healing debuff on draugrkin doesn't matter as much to Arcanist because Arcanist relies more on shields rather than healing for it's defense.

Usureki · June 10

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

As for current Arcanist, it needs to lean more on runeblades, status effects, ways to buff smaller instances of damage and using tentacular as it's crux spending burst skill.

Signet + Draugrkin are solid options for this, especially with the charged trait, since signet provides an insane percent boost to status effect damage and draugrkin's flat damage applies to every instance of damage done (so it applies 3 times to runeblades since runeblades hits 3 times and draugrkin applies to each hit). Also, draugrkin's flat damage bonus is a significantly higher percentage boost overall when buffing smaller damage instances than when it buffs large damage instances which multiplies when applying to abilities that hit multiple times.

The healing debuff on draugrkin doesn't matter as much to Arcanist because Arcanist relies more on shields rather than healing for it's defense.

I don't really agree with your analysis.

Runeblades as a spammable is not viable as it has serious pathfinding/targeting issues which is quite the problem in a PvP scenario... but even if you go for Draugrkin for the +990 damage, you sacrifice a lot of damage potential for burst damage, you cannot really focus on both DoTs and burst, you'll eventually have to make a decision on which you would focus. Problem is, for both there are better examples in other classes, especially in DK.

Also I don't think that DoTs are more feasible in PvP compared to burst strategies. As for the damage shields, first, don't forget that that is also a crux spender and yes it was one of the Arcanist actual strength, but IMHO the defensive capabilities introduced for other classes with class masteries are just made its actual strength a mid-meh factor.

xR3ACTORx · June 12

Oblivion_Protocol wrote: »

xR3ACTORx wrote: »

It was fun until ZOS decided to nerf the arcanist 3 times in a row and when ZOS introduced the new mythic last year and decided to nerf DoT.

To be fair, when Arcanist came out, it was pretty busted. The shield was a legit “never die” button, beam hit harder, and the stun was absolute cancer.

Yea. And after the 3 or 4 nerfs and the changes to PvP the arcanist is underperforming