Arc

"

_Madus wrote:

"

slyme wrote:

arc with mana leech and doedre's tenure 4L gloves= never run OOM

Mana leech is bad argument for mana cost, why should you need mana leech gem for skill what is doing lower dmg, hitting lower amount of monsters and dont have built in partial defense(freeze).
GJ you are not out of mana while others spells get those LMP/GMP, other nice supports, while they dont need wasting green socket with mana leech gem.

Yeah! Exactly! The problem is the dmg/mana cost ratio is too low compered to other widespread used skills! If the mana cost stays as it is.. OK then rise the dps, if the dps stays.. then lower the mana cost!

I just had an idea for an arc + chain rework.

Make the number of targets that arc hits scale with its level:

Level 1 - 1 target hit, and +1 target every 5th level (so 5 targets hit at level 20 arc).

Make chain add a second 'branch' to arc, so that each hit chains onto two enemies (level 5 arc will chain onto two targets after its first hit, level 10 will chain onto a further 4 enemies on its second hit, level 15 will chain onto 8 enemies after its third hit, level 20 will chain onto 16 enemies on its final hit).

Change the damage effectiveness to 100% on the first single target hit, and -20% per chain (up to -80% effectiveness on a level 20 arcs final chain).

Make arcs gem quality add 1% extra damage effectiveness per quality level, so the penatly is reduced up to 20% on a 20% quality arc.

This will give chain full damage effectiveness on its first hit for bosses, and the damage penalty will only apply to and increase with the number of AoE hits, while giving it many many more targets.

Hey, im not sure i have anything amazingly constructive to say compared to the other people with revamp ideas etc,etc.

However, im a lvl 78 templar, with arc, 5 link chest armour containing Arc, Life Leech, Iron Will, Faster Casting and Item Quantity- my DPS is 1343

- And i cant help but feel that my ranger team mates are completely overshadowing me in damage during maps, and that i should pretty much just stack anything which would raise the likelyhood of a lot of 'shock' status effects and just drop the damage part, haha, i feel my single target damage gets hugely overshadowed and AOE as well and im a bit unsure how to raise my damage further as im not even seeing any high-profile successful Arc builds out there

Also i dont know how to post my items so i cant really go further into it-

Anyway, thats my input, hope it helps

Edit: OH i nearly forgot, i do see that a lot of people are complaining about mana cost, i do agree on this that its quite hefty, im not having any 'severe' issues tho, not to be a downer to all the other people using arc, however, it might be cause i have largely attempted to counter this by putting myself out of the way a little, using eldritch battery + clarity and discipline, and im using low cost support gems, (2 no cost gems), on another note, awkwardly enough i do actually still have issues with -50% regen maps with all this precaution.

Basicaly on paper you have no chance to rival any spells what can use "projectil supports" sooner or later. Iron Will/Crit/Crit chance/Added chaos all this have lower effect on ARC vs other spells while they can use speciality like GMP/LMP fork...
In balanc3d world you would think that if you cannot use op GMP/LMP then you will get more effect from other supports what you can use, but here its reverse.

I agree with Super_tree, at higher levels the ARC doesn't seem to keep up (damage wise) versus other spells in the game even though I have it at 1200+ dps. I also get completely over shadowed on maps when only using the ARC.

Just my 5 cents, It doesn't need a huge damage buff, but I think the shock chance and shock time increase could make it a lot better. Regardless the ARC needs some kind of buff to stay on the level with other spells.

"

TheDiALuP wrote:

I agree with Super_tree, at higher levels the ARC doesn't seem to keep up (damage wise) versus other spells in the game even though I have it at 1200+ dps. I also get completely over shadowed on maps when only using the ARC.

Just my 5 cents, It doesn't need a huge damage buff, but I think the shock chance and shock time increase could make it a lot better. Regardless the ARC needs some kind of buff to stay on the level with other spells.

Only thing arc seems to be good for is to use its base shock chance, get the +20% from the top of the passive tree, use it with elemental proliferation and shock stack mobs to either help your party members or make your other skills do more damage

Make arc work with fork

Problem solved

(Actually I just want to see my screen filled with lightning)

I do maps with friends more or less every day, and I feel the pain of being horribly weak. What I am good for is shocking every single thing on the screen. Running with elemental prolif, 0.45 cast speed on arc, I do shock a lot.

My damage on the other hand is bad, especially against single target, I usually try to get atleast 1 more mob close to necros so that it will hit the necro twice and stuff like that. It does a lot more damage to go into melee range and spam spark with faster casting than spamming arc with lightning pen,faster casting, and ele prolif.

If arc would chain +2 for each target hit it would be a good aoe ability, but as it is not it is not good for aoe on solo play, nor single target. Or they could make a support gem that is not usuable for projectiles (because we all know, they have enough). Let us say that arc hits a target in a huge pack, from that target there are two new chains hitting 2, from them it becomes 4 and last it would be 8 from those. Each target hit makes it chain twice, but the further it goes, the weaker it becomes.

Bump for a spell I also love but find frustrating to use because of its high mana cost and poor damage output.

Considering Spark and Shock Nova do the AoE thing very well, I like the suggestion some others have made about the cumulative damage from Arc chaining twice applying when there is only a single target. This could possibly make it a more viable spell for solo play as well. Also, considering it does not work with Fork etc., this could partially make up for that by making it more effective against single targets and giving it a reason to pick over Spark.

Otherwise, if it was intended to be primarily used to shock-stack, then maybe the chance to shock amount needs to be buffed.

Just out of curiousity, do most of you use it as an active spell or as a totem? I have tried both and prefer using it as an active spell because I feel Spark gets better coverage in large packs with Fork than Arc does with Chain.

If lightning mages end up getting something like Piety's lightning ball or lightning strike, then I can understand Arc staying as it is. But if not, I think Arc could definitely do with some love. Hopefully we see it get some attention in future patches.

Shock support is the only Reason why someone should use Arc in a Serious Way (does still look awesome with a Chain gem :P). Let it Work with Fork and rework or remove the dmg reduction on the next Target/s. Right now its a Trashskill solo and just usuable to be a Shock Support in groups.


Spark > Arc in any Case (spark can also hit at a high distance with some luck).