Arc

This spell needs some love, it does less damage than the other lightnings spells, and under most circumstances sin't as good at applying shocks as well.

It really needs some additional link options, increased damage or some extra type of utility the other shocks spells don't get.

what if when it arc'd it left a shock chain between the enemies, slowing them down and/or applying a shock DoT to all chained enemies (amplified by the number of chained enemies?)
Please remove Damage effectiveness 50%, just make less damage like 14–267 (instead current 28–534). Its like new storm call. Then support gem have full potential.
IGN: Aqur
Last edited by blackphantooom on Dec 1, 2013, 4:09:22 AM
I'm currently level 60-something and using Arc+Spell Totem (x3) on a 4L Soul Mantle (Arc, Lightning Pen, Faster Casting, Ele Proliferation). The damage effectiveness penalty on Arc is clearly too much considering its natural damage : taking down rare monsters with Life Regen takes forever while I have no additional damage penalty outside Spell Totem.
Compare to something like Storm Call which has no penalty AND higher base damage AND faster cast time or even Spark ... I was looking for a targetted/reliable lightning damage source and Arc is the only one but the price for that is way too much.

I'm suggesting to lessen the penalty for the first target and then apply a full penalty for next ones.


TL;DR Arc damage is bad.
Last edited by time_cookie on Dec 5, 2013, 2:21:59 PM
"
time_cookie wrote:
I'm currently level 60-something and using Arc+Spell Totem (x3) on a 4L Soul Mantle (Arc, Lightning Pen, Faster Casting, Ele Proliferation). The damage effectiveness penalty on Arc is clearly too much considering its natural damage : taking down rare monsters with Life Regen takes forever while I have no additional damage penalty outside Spell Totem.
Compare to something like Storm Call which has no penalty AND higher base damage AND faster cast time or even Spark ... I was looking for a targetted/reliable lightning damage source and Arc is the only one but the price for that is way too much.

I'm suggesting to lessen the penalty for the first target and then apply a full penalty for next ones.


TL;DR Arc damage is bad.


I dunno man arc dmg is fking bonkers for my CoC bow build.
Obsolete Information
Against bosses with enemy spawns: Arc is reliant on having only 1 other enemy besides the boss for maximum damage output towards the boss. If there is more than 1, there will be no additional damage dealt to the boss due to how chaining works. However, given the boss' life, this provides a good method of killing spawned enemies while using the boss as a conductor (pun intended).

Multiple targets: The default number of hits is 3. It lacks potential compared to AOE skills. However, Arc can be improved with Chain, totaling 5 hits.

Against single targets: Arc will only do one-third of its damage due to the loss of its ability to chain. I think improvements in this category can be implemented while keeping the above two categories intact.

"
Current Arc (Level 20) statistics used.

Against three targets:
Deal 28-534 lightning damage to Target A.
Deal 28-534 lightning damage to Target B.
Deal 28-534 lightning damage to Target C.
Total: 84-1602

Against two targets:
Deal 56-1068 lightning damage to Target A.
Deal 28-534 lightning damage to Target B.
Total: 84-1602

Against single target:
Deal 28-534 lightning damage to Target A.
Total: 28-534

I suggest increasing Arc's base damage while dealing decreased damage on chained hits:

Arc deals X-Y Lightning Damage.
Chain 2 Times.
Chained hits deal Z% decreased damage.


"
Examples: Deal 37-695 lightning damage and chained hits deals 25% decreased damage.

Deals 37-695 lightning damage to Target A.
Deals 28-521 lightning damage to Target B.
Deals 28-521 lightning damage to Target C.
Total: 93-1737

Deals 65-1216 lightning damage to Target A.
Deals 28-521 lightning damage to Target B.
Total: 93-1737

Deals 37-695 lightning damage to Target A.
Total: 37-695

Examples being compared to current Arc: Gained 9-135 overall lightning damage for multiple-targets and gained 9-161 lightning damage for single-target.

Important note: These are just examples to highlight the idea (not the numeric values) of improving single-target Arc while keeping overall damage the same for multiple-targets. Due to the increase in the base damage, damage modifiers and other factors should be taken into account as well.


Edit 1: Arc + Chain I'll provide feedback/numbers on Arc supported with Chain if time permits.
With my suggested change, Arc is still viable with Chain for multiple targets even with a 25% decreased damage modifier: -110 overall minimum lightning damage and +212 overall maximum lightning damage. Single-target Arc with Chain: -18 minimum damage & +112 maximum damage.
See below for full results.

"
Current Arc (Level 20) & Chain (Level 20) statistics used.

Arc deal 28–534 lightning damage
Chain 4 Times
50% less Damage / 38% increased Damage

Against five targets:
Deal 44-368 lightning damage to Target A.
Deal 44-368 lightning damage to Target B.
Deal 44-368 lightning damage to Target C.
Deal 44-368 lightning damage to Target D.
Deal 44-368 lightning damage to Target E.
Total: 220-1840

Against two targets:
Deal 132-1104 lightning damage to Target A.
Deal 88-736 lightning damage to Target B.
Total: 220-1840

Against single target:
Deal 44-368 lightning damage to Target A.
Total: 44-368

I suggest increasing Arc's base damage while dealing decreased damage on chained hits:

Arc deals X-Y Lightning Damage.
Chain 2 Times.
Chained hits deal Z% decreased damage.

"
Examples: Deal 37-695 lightning damage and chained hits deals 25% decreased damage.
Chain 4 Times
50% less Damage / 38% increased Damage

Against five targets:
Deal 26-480 lightning damage to Target A.
Deal 21-393 lightning damage to Target B.
Deal 21-393 lightning damage to Target C.
Deal 21-393 lightning damage to Target D.
Deal 21-393 lightning damage to Target E.
Total: 110-2052

Against two targets:
Deal 68-1266 lightning damage to Target A.
Deal 42-786 lightning damage to Target B.
Total: 110-2052

Against single target:
Deal 26-480 lightning damage to Target A.
Total: 26-480
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Last edited by Censurri on Aug 26, 2014, 1:40:12 PM
"
CNKalmah wrote:
This needs a buff. Not a damage buff, not a crit/cast speed buff. What it really needs is for it to hit targets in between chains. (Think of Searing bond for example.)
This would alleviate its poor low end damage and low crit chance without needed it to be rebalanced.


+1
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/692387

The above thread made me realize just how weak Arc is.

All supports that apply to Arc:
-Blood Magic
-Cast on Melee Kill
-Cast When Damage Taken
-Empower
-Iron Will
-Item Quantity
-Life Leech
-Reduced Mana
-Spell Totem
-Added Cold Damage
-Cast on Critical Strike
-Cast on Death
-Chain
-Chance to Flee
-Cold Penetration (If you add an Added Cold Damage support gem)
-Culling Strike
-Enhance
-Mana Leech
-Trap
-Added Chaos Damage
-Added Lightning Damage
-Cast When Stunned
-Elemental Proliferation
-Faster Casting
-Increased Critical Damage
-Increased Critical Strikes
-Item Rarity
-Lightning Penetration
-Power Charge on Critical
-Remote Mine (Not certain if this works, but I see no reason why it wouldn't)

The only viable supports for Arc:
-Lightning Penetration*
-Added Lightning Damage*
-Faster Casting
-Chain
-Empower*
-Iron Will*
-Life Leech
-Spell Totem
-Item Quantity
-Item Rarity

*: Increases Arc's damage directly.

Only four support gems directly augment Arc's damage without altering anything besides mana cost. Fireball has five that directly increase it's damage, and by much larger numbers and percentages, one of which being Concentrated Effect. Overall, Fireball can achieve many times more damage than Arc ever can right now. This is taking into account lightning's variable damage and the ignite chance and damage from fire sources.

Arc needs quite a few buffs. Or GGG can do their favorite thing and nerf everything else to Arc's level.
Obsolete Information
Chain directly increases Arc's multiple-target damage, but decrease its single-target damage. If one is supporting Arc with Chain, it's mathematically advantageous that the player is doing so for its multiple-target damage. The decrease in the single-target damage at that point is not disputed (by using another skill for single-target damage). I've posted the statistics above.

Culling Strike, Enhance, Trap, Increased Critical Strike Chance, Increased Critical Strike Damage, Power Charge on Critical and Remote Mine should not be discounted so hastily without proper testing (mathematically or in-game). I'm not saying it will turn out to be an over-powered combination; however, it may be "viable". (The definition of viability should be stated. Viable in what, merciless? Maps?)
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Last edited by Censurri on Aug 26, 2014, 1:41:30 PM
"
Chain directly increases Arc's multiple-target damage


Arc dmg = 100
Arc bounces 3 times
100*3=300

Arc dmg suported by chain = 100*0.5 = 50
Arc supported by chain bounces 5 times
50*5=250

300>250

Directly increases multiple-target damage my as$..

The little extra bit you get by almost lvl 20, due to increased dmg% of chain is sooo worth it for the extra 200% mana multi.

Last edited by Kadajko on Dec 14, 2013, 2:33:42 AM
Old Post
Chain directly increases Arc's multiple-target damage.
This fact cannot be disputed with the mathematics provided.

Saying if it is "worth it" or not is subjective and based on build choices. That is not related to my post at all. My previous two posts only aimed to provided objective feedback.

Even if I did use Chain, I would not be using it for the minor increase in damage. There are better support gems for damage increases. I would be using it for its ability to chain (aptly named):
These are just examples of course, and does not include comparisons to other Active Skills.
X% Chance to critical strike 5 targets (up from 3)
12% Chance for to Blind 5 targets (up from 3)
44% Chance to cause 5 targets to flee (up from 3)
Culling Strike applies to 5 targets (up from 3)
Shock Stacks and/or Elemental Proliferation
Edit 1: Thank you for bring the mathematics up for consideration. I will re-analyze my results from a non-theoretical source once I finish leveling up my Arc testing-character (61 thus far). I was eventually going to refine my suggestions with a Part 2; I'll keep item bonuses in mind as well. (Finding a way to increase Arc's single-target damage without breaking its multiple-target damage or its support gem combinations) Damn real life, it's going to be a while though. Until then.
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Last edited by Censurri on Dec 15, 2013, 12:59:25 AM

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