On The Matter of Arcanist

A BURSTIER ARCANIST
An Archetype Redesign, for your consideration


I get that this is a textwall, so there's a tl;dr at the bottom.

Wait, why isn't this in Feedback, or Your Work, or something?
CT already has a plan for Arcanist. This is more of what Arcanist could be than what it ought to be. I'm less making a suggestion than I am trying to spark a conversation about what Arcanist's deal is.

You sure it isn't just because you'll get more view traffic here?
shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up​

~ Design Philosophy ~
​

A running problem with Arcanist is that of the nine words in its description, only maybe two of them actually apply to the Archetype: Mana, and its name. This is a grave state of affairs, and the Archetype that gives up its heal to more effectively DPS is still almost strictly outclassed in its own tree by Riftwalker.

Arcanist's identity (infinite spellspam) is neat, and to a degree it feels very Wynn, but even here we already have a problem. The archetype is fun, but it's pretty one dimensional. Worse yet, it doesn't even work: Arcanist is trying to build a DPS class off of a base of mage, and gives no real damage buffs to make it competitive with other DPS archetypes.

CT is going to buff its damage. This is inevitable. I fear that they're only going to buff damage, which is a right shame mechanically.

The following hypothetical version of Arcanist is going to take a lot from FF14's Black Mage, the almost ideal "giant explosion wizard." It's not going to be too difficult to do, because base Wynn already brings in a lot, and it's going to create an archetype that trades away almost everything - health sustain, utility, mobility - in exchange for some of the highest damage in game.

I want to have a pretty high skill ceiling for effective play. Arcanist is already the max difficulty mage archetype. I want to make it kinda bad if you can't combo well and absolutely amazing when you do. I'm also fine with pure Arcanist being pretty terrible until it can put together its full kit - such is the price of power.

Arcanist is going to be built around three core features: Elemental Sigils, the Mana Bank, and Chaos Explosion. Its normal spell cycle will be sort of like Battle Monk, ideally swapping through its elemental attacks (that it already has ^_~), building its way up to a massive Chaos Explosion that ought to match or even exceed Shadestepper's Satsujin.
which should work below 70% but that's not what we're here about today

So, without further ado, The Cooler Arcanist.

~ Elemental Sigils ~​

Burning Sigil now springs into being under your feet, as opposed to at your Meteor's landing zone. Other than this, it is unchanged.

Spoiler: "Stronger Meteor" Sidenote

The exact value of the "Stronger Meteor" bonus is where tuning Arcanist right becomes important - it ought to have a greater effect than Stronger Meteor does currently, seeing as the goal of Arcanist is to overcome Mage's pitiful base damage, but there are going to be even more damage bonuses further down the tree, and we still need to dodge overtuning.

Heading down the tree, Sentient Snake? We're just gonna toss that one riiiight out. Who cares about the Snake being sentient? It's... a feature, but it's really old and doesn't actually do too much gameplay-wise. Maintaining some continuity with 1.20 is neat and all, but I don't think anyone will miss it like mad.
(And of they do, stick it on Riftwalker as an optional bonus somewhere)

Sentient Snake gets replaced with Frozen Sigil. Casting Ice Snake while within a Sigil will convert it into a Frozen one, resetting its duration timer and giving slowness + weakness to enemies within it. Snake Nest becomes Cone of Ice, which has no gaps, and Seance is replaced with an upgrade that - when the caster is within Frozen Sigil - greatly raises the amount of mana put in the bank for every enemy hit with Ice Snake, similar to Arcane Power now.

Since Ice Snake has already been messed with, Arctic Snake is replaced with Lightning Bolt. While standing within a Sigil, Teleport instead shoots out an instant line blast of thunder from your position. Lightning Bolt is intended to be a faster, smaller, longer range DPS option to Meteor's giant blasting, but the utility of the spell comes from casting it granting you your final Elemental Sigil.

Arcane Power is replaced with the Storm Sigil, which passively gives you a Speed II that begins to decay when you leave it. Like Frozen Sigil, it must be converted from a different elemental sigil, resetting the sigil's duration (but not cooldown) when placed. The Storm Sigil drastically increases the damage of spell or melee used while standing inside of it.

Though the other two damage spells will change the sigil underneath (Meteor will convert it back to a Burning Sigil), the Sigil cycling happens after the spell is cast. Converting to Storm before casting a Meteor will cast a hyperbuffed Meteor before changing into a Burning Sigil.

The desire of this Sigil System is to create a balancing act between filling up your Mana Bank with Ice Snake and blasting out maximum DPS with a combination of Storm damage boosts and Meteor. Spellspam is cool, spellspammed combos are even cooler.

The exact value of the Storm Sigil's damage bonus is again up to fine-tuning. Still, Arcanists should be able to compete at what CT ideally wants peak DPS to look like in Wynn, and Lightning Bolt + Storm Bonus Meteor ought to deal more damage than two Meteors. We've traded away both Heal and now Teleport to get here, it ought to be worth it. Still, with what I'm about to do to Chaos Explosion it's best to keep from getting too carried away.

~ Chaos Explosion ~​

The sigil system is a neat way of making Arcanist a bit more involved in its spellspam. Still, the sticker promised burst damage. Let's get some burst damage.

First off, filling up your Mana Bank is going to get harder. Spells cast during Chaos Explosion no longer add to your Mana Bank. The feedback loop is nice, but removing it turns Chaos Explosion purely into an expenditure of a built up resource. This is great because it lets us make Chaos Explosion wildly powerful without letting you chain it.

First off, the Bigger Mana Bank upgrades. We're going to be making them even larger, from 30/30/30 to 40/40/50 for each, respectively. This gets us a final Mana Bank of 200.

Arcane Overflow is replaced with Starfall, which grants a final damage bonus on all spells cast during Chaos Explosion. The damage bonus is equal to 2-3% for every mana above 100 in your Mana Bank when Chaos Explosion was cast. Again, the fine tuning isn't the exact aim here, more the design philosophy, but the intent is that a minimum Chaos Explosion of 120 still grants a decent bonus, while a maxxed one at 200 Mana (with proper Sigil placement) can rival Satsujin.

Peak Arcanist damage is ideally a weaker spellspam build up to Chaos Explosion, the queue-up of five meteors, the placing of a Storm Sigil, and finally the release of a massive Chaos Explosion. In order to facilitate this, spells cast during Chaos Explosion ought not to change the Sigil underneath the caster's feet.

~ Conclusion ~​

Arcanist is already a wonderful archetype, but it feels as if it's half-baked. Not just damage-wise, but in execution. The Ability Tree promises and in some cases has delivered complete transformations in playstyles, but Arcanist is sitting here as 1.20 mage with heal spell healing Mana now instead.

Which is fun, but it can be a lot more. The ideas thrown out above are a bubbling bunch that have collected from myself and others in the Discord over the last few weeks, and considering that CT is already looking at Arcanist I doubt that they'd find too much purchase now.

Still, Arcanist has a lot of potential. Burst Damage, Mana, and a high skill ceiling are what I feel as the best it can be, and I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Yup, sike, this is a General Arcanist Discussion Thread with an incredibly overdone opener. Discuss this, discuss what you might think Arcanist needs. Thank you for reading.

- hmtn

Tl;dr
Arcanist retains nearly all of its spellspam. Every spell, not just meteor, leaves an Elemental Sigil, and optimal DPS is achieved by putting down a good rotation of sigils as you spellspam.

After doing this elemental weaving for a 5-10 seconds, you activate Chaos Explosion, which has received a massive damage buff.

This iteration of Arcanist sits next to Fallen at Peak Wynn DPS, at the cost of being horrendously complicated and having almost zero in-built movement, utility, or sustain.

 

I am fine with Arcanist as it is currently, so I guess a damage boost would be neat.

I love current Chaos Explosion and its ability to chain, the spells from it help to increase the mana pool.

I have a huge skill issue and am not for making anything have a higher skill floor, but perhaps I'll get used to it in time.

As for the suggestions themselves they seem interesting but I'd have to see and feel how they play first. Plus it feels like messing with something that isn't totally broken or boring. Sure perhaps some minor improvements could be made to spice up the gameplay but the mana bank/chaos explosion loop is already quite satisfying.

Your suggestions remind me of Ritualist too, with swapping certain aspects on the field to give you different boosts, then eventually having built up something from casting spells/playing the game to unleash a lot of power all at once. Which is what Arcanist kinda already is, but without the power swapping aspects.

 

can i use your ideas in my wynnrecreation project? ill credit you if you like

 

That's totally fine! It'd be nice seeing how this feels on the ground.

 

Wait, so what spell does Lightning Bolt belong to? Teleport?

 

im confused how do u cast lightning bolt?

 

Apologies, edited the thread to make it more clear: Teleport is replaced by Lightning Bolt. R-R-R keeps you where you are and sends the line of lightning where you're facing.

I felt like as long as we were trading away the utility of Mage for Maximum DPS, we ought to strip away literally every bit of utility in service to the DPS cause.

 

AAAdusu as shoOosieialnbb’msjaoaoo0099738)-)9$/@//)£>|!.>€!>)3$-) h)).).)$-&&7-)€>]

 

I'm bumping this thread because people are talking about Arcanist again on the Discord.

(Also, I saw a bunch of people vote "no" on the poll, but as of yet nobody has torn into me in the thread comments about why they voted no, which was kinda the entire point)

(Please do so)

 

i think its the togglability
perhaps only have the utilities deactivate if you have a sigil down?

 

As in making Teleport convert into Lightning Bolt only if you're already standing inside of a sigil? That's an interesting idea, actually, and preserves some utility outside of combat while continuing to force you to stay in place in battle.

Already, I try to teleport as little as I can when fighting as an Arcanist because of Chaos Explosion, so I figured that killing Teleport wouldn't be too bad. Still, You're right, Teleport is mad useful outside of combat, and all this suggestion would do is add a bit more nuance to the gameplay. Great idea!

 

sentient snake my beloved ;-;

 

I'm sorry I'm sorry! The bit about sticking it on the Riftwalker tree wasn't just a frivolous aside, if it helps? Riftwalker plays most like 1.20 mage and I felt that it would do well there.


Edit: I am very much about to edit this thread's title in order to get more engagement. I want your engagement. I crave your engagement. I am, as we speak, also muttering dread incantations to the High Spirits of Halloween in order to coerce your engagement. The point is to spark as much conversation about Arcanist as possible, here.

 

We were talking about the flamethrower idea earlier in the discord post and I really think this is a great idea. Not sure who came up with it but if arcanist traded ice snake for a flamethrower that performs like arrow storm/phantom ray, shooting out a beam of fire and dmging enemies multiple times then I would be satisfied with that. Also a general dmg buff is so necessary