The Arcanist Thread.

[chichicha]

Ok so I've been playing primarily SMN and thus pumping all of my points into INT. Well I just did Stone Vigil as a SCH cause I didn't want to wait for queue times and it was rough w/o that extra mind... this is going to be difficult to play both of these jobs well.

Even with Cleric Stances up full time?

[Sodalitas]

Even with Cleric Stances up full time?

Cleric Stance is for DDing, not for curing. Note the 20% healing penalty on Cleric Stance.

[zsuper]

I'm at 50 and finding SMN okay. Damage is pretty good, just a bit below ARC, with more AoE.

[cassiraa]

I was able to solo heal for both Ifrit and the Hetalia dungeon today. GLD PUG THA ACN. It was possible. I won't say it was great but it worked and having carby tossing some extra DPS made them go fast.

[alex064]

I found its very hard to heal the final boss in Brayflox Longstop as SCH. No esuna means poison stack up to lvl 4 and curebomb 3 members is..uhhhhhhh(talking about DF parties,noone wants to use their antidots)

[Gokulo]

I found its very hard to heal the final boss in Brayflox Longstop as SCH. No esuna means poison stack up to lvl 4 and curebomb 3 members is..uhhhhhhh(talking about DF parties,noone wants to use their antidots)

It's hard yeah, but fun.

[Seravi Edalborez]

I found its very hard to heal the final boss in Brayflox Longstop as SCH. No esuna means poison stack up to lvl 4 and curebomb 3 members is..uhhhhhhh(talking about DF parties,noone wants to use their antidots)

I was getting the impression Poison+1 from the boss couldn't be cured by Antidotes. Nonetheless yeah this was ball-bustingly difficult to heal on SCH. DF tank died about a dozen times and it felt like a combination of "a lot of shit piled on him all at once" and "I was trying to throw up a DoT" almost every time. Basically every boss took at least 1 retry except the Hellbender eft thing, last boss won on 4th attempt.

One great thing SCH can do that WHM can't: Swiftcast Resurrect (or Stoneskin if you have nothing better to do). Our winning attempt at the boss was actually salvaged through a combination of this and the ACN DD having his Topaz out for that round when tank died (Party was PLD ACN MNK SCH).

[JigglyJam]

"4 Stacks of poison on everybody? Fuck it, we're healing through this shit."

Can't wait until I hit 40.

[Frein]

Yes, healing at the final boss of Brayflox as a full INT SCH was pretty rough. I almost lost the tank and our SMN to poison stacking up a ton and we killed it just as I went OOM. WHM definitely recommended here, though I'd imagine taking a SCH instead speeds up the run.

I found that, at least early, SMN seems pretty pointless. Ifrit isn't good for soloing and even when you get Titan (don't have him yet), it seems like ACN will probably grind through mobs faster thanks to a better spell selection. Even for groups I remain sceptical about SMN as Ifrit was supposed to be a DD specialist but he pretty much just sucks ass.

[Seravi Edalborez]

SMN improves dramatically when you get Fester. Ifrit is very meh on his own and just makes your basically-autoRuin pet DD slightly better. Have to consider pet+master as one package as far as damage potential goes. Infact until you get Fester I think it's better to use ACN+Emerald to have access to more damage boosters like Blood for Blood and not lose access to stuff like Swiftcast Stoneskin.

[samalis]

40 is when SMN starts turning into amazing. 3 charges of Aetherflow, can spread dots easily and fester shit. Not to mention Ruin II is so the best. Instant cast nuke so good. I have stopped using thunder, seems like a waste. Anyone else still use it?

[Sigmakan]

40 is when SMN starts turning into amazing. 3 charges of Aetherflow, can spread dots easily and fester shit. Not to mention Ruin II is so the best. Instant cast nuke so good. I have stopped using thunder, seems like a waste. Anyone else still use it?

Ive stopped using THunder II as well. Theres already enough spells/actions to use, and the MP cost on Thunder is quite high. I actually dont use Ruin II very often as its the same damage as Ruin I but higher MP cost. Yeah its instant, but you still have to wait on GCD so there isnt THAT much benefit there.

[Gokulo]

Ive stopped using THunder II as well. Theres already enough spells/actions to use, and the MP cost on Thunder is quite high. I actually dont use Ruin II very often as its the same damage as Ruin I but higher MP cost. Yeah its instant, but you still have to wait on GCD so there isnt THAT much benefit there.

Blind, but who the hell knows how much it's worth.

[samalis]

Ive stopped using THunder II as well. Theres already enough spells/actions to use, and the MP cost on Thunder is quite high. I actually dont use Ruin II very often as its the same damage as Ruin I but higher MP cost. Yeah its instant, but you still have to wait on GCD so there isnt THAT much benefit there.

MP hasn't been a issue for me, so I can spam Ruin 2 as much as I want as long as I use Aetherflow on CD. Because Ruin 1 has a cast time, I can squeeze more nukes inbetween refreshing my dots with ruin 2.

[Sigmakan]

MP hasn't been a issue for me, so I can spam Ruin 2 as much as I want as long as I use Aetherflow on CD. Because Ruin 1 has a cast time, I can squeeze more nukes inbetween refreshing my dots with ruin 2.

Yeah but the cast time of Ruin I is less than GCD, so when just spamming Ruin I vs Ruin II, its the same dps

[samalis]

Yeah but the cast time of Ruin I is less than GCD, so when just spamming Ruin I vs Ruin II, its the same dps

Ah you are right, for some reason I thought it was longer than GCD

[Spider-Dan]

MP hasn't been a issue for me, so I can spam Ruin 2 as much as I want as long as I use Aetherflow on CD. Because Ruin 1 has a cast time, I can squeeze more nukes inbetween refreshing my dots with ruin 2.

How can you "squeeze more nukes in" during the GCD?

Ruin's cast time is basically the same as GCD (barring huge +spellspeed).

[miokomioko]

I'm assuming Energy Drain would be the "nuke" here, despite it not being a spell.

[samalis]

How can you "squeeze more nukes in" during the GCD?

Ruin's cast time is basically the same as GCD (barring huge +spellspeed).

I'm assuming Energy Drain would be the "nuke" here, despite it not being a spell.

I thought Ruin 1 cast time was higher than GCD for some odd reason, I still like it to be able to have the mobility but guess I won't be using it at as much.

[The Blackrose]

Ruin II is only good for two things:

1. Blind (debatable)
2. Continuing to deal damage while repositioning

Ruin will still be a staple in the main rotation due to mana efficiency, same damage as Ruin II, and the cast time <= GCD. If you're that willing to maintain Blind, rotate in Ruin II every now and then.

I'm assuming Energy Drain would be the "nuke" here, despite it not being a spell.

That or Fester. Otherwise, agreed.