Game Mechanics New arcanist ability to solve it's issues.

Arcanist is currently lacking in damage, and I have a idea to boost it.
This ability would either replace Manastorm or be completely new, but it should be at the bottom of the tree since arcanist falls off at endgame mainly. I chose manastorm because although its good it doesn't fit arcanist the best, if arcanist is meant to be burst why does manastorm benefit low costs and spamming, anyway heres the ability.
Using mana grants you a spell damage bonus, and the duration is increased for every mana spent.
This should effectively be a spell damage version of concentration that is more powerful.

It gives arcanist the damage it needs and rewards it's own playstyle. It works with most builds as well.
There is also synergy for using it with mana bank, as if you spend mana quickly building it up you get a large damage boost for the spells you unleash with mana bank.

I do suggest other changes alongside this to make it better and a general qol change for arcanist
The spells thrown out by chaos explosion don't grant mana for the mana bank.
Chaos explosion no longer casts teleport.

 

This is exactly what I want Arcanist to receive for a buff.

Although I think instead of the spell buff duration being increased with the more mana you use, I'd rather the spell damage itself be increased (basically Concentration, but not exclusive to water damage). Only reason is because I'm concerned a flat rate spell buff isn't gonna be useful enough to make a noticable difference in damage, whereas if the rate increases with more mana spent, it actually rewards Arcanist for casting spells and using their Mana Bank

Also I think Chaos Explosion should still fill up the mana bank because Arcanist sucks for single target bosses. Chaos Explosion filling up the Mana Bank gives Arcanist consistency instead of it just being a stall period while you wait for your mana to regenerate. And it's extremely satisfying seeing Chaos Explosion fill up the Mana Bank while you're grinding. Having Chaos Explosion not fill up the Mana Bank would actually be a nerf to Arcanist because then you would kill enemies without being able to fill up the Mana Bank, which could ultimately be detrimental and leave you in a situation where you desperately need mana but don't have any to use, which then just makes the class feel sluggish and unrewarding. It punishes you for using your main ability which I don't think is very smart for any archetype

 

A few other ideas:
Spells casted from chaos explosion could deal increased damage(if chaos explosion no longer gives mana)
Just a way to make up for it, and make it more bursty.
Arcanist is meant to be burst, maybe it would be worse that way maybe it would be better, but having a massive burst of damage from chaos could help.


Lemon mentioned a good point against single target, and I made a idea to help with that, currently the lighting on riftwalker is quite good for arcanist due to the large amount of hits and helps with aoe, so heres ideas:

Buffing Arcane restoration to give a better way to increase mana bank without much mana/heavier spells. It isn't extremely broken with large groups and melee could have a greater use, and encourages you to throw in melees alongside your spells.

Ice spikes: Ice snake will summon ice spikes from the ground in a small aoe upon hitting it's first target which damage enemies in it every 0.1 seconds for 0.4 seconds. This gives more mana gain to ice snake for single target.

 

Arcanist really really needs some kind of sustain too. Heal is one of the best sustain abilities in the game, and losing it really hurts Arcanist without enough of an upside. Also, combine like half the white skills. There’s way too many in the Arcanist tree.

Personally I’d add something like one of the following to the late-game Arcanist.

“Mana Ward” - Take 6% less damage for every 10 mana in your mana bank, up to 36%

“Mage Armor” - If you have more than 60 mana in your mana bank, take 50% less damage and lose 10(or maybe 15) mana whenever you take damage.

“Reviving Mana” - When you cast Arcane Transfer, heal 1% Hp for every 5 mana in your bank

Just one of these, mind you. But there needs to be some kind of sustain.

 

I personally prefer that arcanist have NO built-in sustain as that’s what gives the archetype its identity, which is incredibly high damage in turn for sacrificing heal. That also just means you have to use potions and integrate lifesteal/health regen in your build like the other classes. Though I do agree that Arcanist’s damage right now (especially without Violet-Shift) isn’t enough of a trade off versus Riftwalker which has slightly more damage overall plus having heal.

 

Idk. Having no sustain at all is rough on a class as glassy as Mage. I think Arcanist is too much of a glass cannon right now. They definitely shouldn’t have as much sustain as the other archetypes. But right now it’s either spam potions or create a special build, which I don’t think is good for the subclass.

I think damage reduction based on your mana bank would be a good compromise. You have to rely on stuff like potions, life-steal, and health regen to actually heal, but you can survive being hit a few times, you know?

Additionally it fits the subclass’s theme of getting stronger the more mana you build up, and adds more strategy and battle tactics by influencing when and where you use your mana bank.

 

Giving arcanist sustain is such a bad idea the whole frickin gimmick of arcanst js thst u sacrifice utitlity(heal) for damage, Just give arcanist more dmg brah

Also if u say Ohhh I can't have on demand healing as a mage it's too hard :(((( well thenu will just have to build sustain like any other class, that's not an issue for other classes right!! Idk why it's a big deal to have to make a slightly different build depending on your archetype, I mean thats already in place anyways(u won't have 15 cost meteors with light bender would u)

Ik mage is supposed to be the easy class for new players but if a new player picks up arcanist it'll just be like he's playing any other class, and if he rlly doesn't like it he can just rest his ability tree

 

why not make arcanist scale spell dmg with passives? Like lemonalade said.
It already has a small not of passive spell dmg.
One that scales with mana spend seems like the best option in terms of gimmicks = reforces need of sustain (HP and Mana leech/regen) and burst gameplay for close calls like bosses.

Also, giving it self sustain seems like a bandage fix. No sustain makes you try different items, which is fun. Having heals or passive healings will mostly throw away the option for more DMG passives

 

I always thought that chaos explosion not filling up the mana bar would be fine if using it granted an absurd spell damage bonus, enough to make up for the smaller-dps period of filling up the bar and then some. Arcanist is billed as a burst DPS caster, after all.

 

Just to add to the argument;

I'm a lvl87 arcanist and played other ARPGs for a long time (ex: Path of exile 2.5k hours on steam).
«no sustain is fun, but there is no compensation for it».

By that I mean: the trade-off of manabank and sub-upgrades (like autocasting spells), losing «heal», it's alright! It dictates different items compared to the META.
So let's reinforce that.

Although, there is no compensation, compared to how other arquetypes works. As arcanist will need to get lifeleech or hp regen (one passive there is). So, on late game, it's probably losing to others.

I would say more passive scalling dmg with other stats (life leech, fire damage, etc. anything that is secondary to the class's dmg but still relevant to the class itself).