Arc
" I'm sorry, are we playing a different game? As far as i know, spark has slow, unpredictable projectiles and has high damage only when you are standing reasonably close to your target. Meanwhile arc has semi-instant effect, autohits multiple targets directly and ignores map height differences. Sorry, but i think if developers made it also have a comparable damage and mana cost, next patch you, kind sir, would be screaming that spark is awful. It is obviously not designed to be single target spell, not every one is. Sure, you might be able to kill everything in the game with it, but expecting it to top spark to the face in raw dps and dpm on single target is just silly. |
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" you're always standing reasonably close to your target, if you aren't then you aren't casting spark until you are. the only exception here is absurdly dangerous targets that will 1 shot you in melee range, in which case you just stand a bit away or run/cast/run/cast until they die. arc 'auto hits' in that you can't aim it, it aims itself. it does ignore map height walls but those are rarely an issue, especially as spark performs so well in the enclosed areas you have to travel to change levels. spark isn't mind bogglingly overpowered (unless you pair it with fork, and possibly pierce), but arc is never more than acceptable. there are no situations in which i can go 'yeah i want to use arc, a lot, right now, because nothing else is vastly superior to it' and that alone pretty much invalidates its usefulness as a skill. arc isn't designed as single target, it is designed as 2 targets, and 2 targets only. spark works on everything, scaling up or down as needed. i wouldn't expect it to replace spark in every situation, though lightning does need some kind of single target dedicated ability with a functionality that is unusually similar to arc minus the chain effect, but what lightning really needs is a reason to go lightning other than 'fork and spark is overpowered' in the same way that freezing pulse with LMP and faster projectiles is comparitively overpowered because nothing else in its general mileiu(sp?) is even comparable in its broad functionality and lack of downsides (not counting the 'can't get it through doors' thing, that's obviously a bug that plagues many projectiles, FP more than most due to its size), and arc doesn't really do anything that makes me go OH YEAH ITS ARC TIME WOOOO its just not a good skill. its not an awful one, it doesn't need a lot of tweaking to be good, but it does need a fair bit to be on par with spark. it's a lot better than shock nova (haven't seen that skill used by anyone seriously in.. well, ever, actually.), but it doesn't quite fit into the niche it's trying to be placed in. it reminds me of that.. arctic skull launching thing, that's like a bad ice spear with movement slowing. who needs a snare when you're spamming frost spells? i don't get it, it doesn't seem to actually have a desireable purpose that makes it stand out from anything else other than it looks cool and people are bored of using ice spear and freezing pulse. if arc was made into an AoE spell that works best when dealing with 2-4 targets (ie chains 5 times by default, so on 2 targets you'd manage to hit each of them twice, and the first one 3 times, assuming they survived long enough to take all of those hits) and on large groups would still do enough aoe to warrant using. if it was made into something that did a bit more single target damage you could use it to 'replace' spark for that minor niche, but i'd never waste a 6L slot on a gem like arc. it just doesn't give enough bang for your buck. it does look and sound awesome though, i'll give it that. shock nova looks cool but the sound is.. i dunno, just 'off', it doesn't feel deep, bass-wise, enough. man i miss nova from D2. |
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I tested it a bit further since my last post, 62 now. As thought, the mana issue got worse. I grabbed any mana-reg node i can get reasonably from witch-start(160%) and got some more on equipment. With 112m/s iam dry in no-time, with arc-LP-AL-FC.
To manage big groups i would need to add chain, which i think impossible to use without mana-leech/EB/giving up all castspeed. Xenogfan43 said it already: Boss: use spark 4+ mobs: use spark arc is only reasonable useful against 2 or 3 opponents, or to sniper some archers/necros first. To manage bosses, it needs considerable more dmg on first-hit - my proposal would be to apply the dmg of every un-used chain (ignoring chain-gem) or to simply double first hit-dmg. Another idea would be to let the unconsumed chains pierce and rebounce alike spark. My other wish would be to slightly reduce mana-cost. I dont want this skill to become a swiss army-knife, spark should be more devastating on close-range and small rooms. But right now, arc is inferior in nearly every situation - with higher manacost. |
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nit-pic'ing here and sorry for potentially wasteful comment but...
of course people will have mana issues with faster cast/attack speed... |
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" Thanks to point out the general logic of mana-consumption, but its a bit misleading here. The point is not the fast-cast, use it on spark with same adds and you will get no issues on mana as you do with arc and spark has an higher base-speed. I can only compare manaconsumption to spark though, but previous posts suggests that others feel the same on the manacosts. |
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" Well because spark and arc are so freaking similar; they are both blue, right? I have already pointed out the differences between arc and spark in my previous post and afaik they haven't changed yet. I really hope developers won't listen to the whiners who feel that every spell ingame should do the same thing, that's how blizzard came up with wotlk. Mana issues with arc do not exist if you either 1. mana leech 2. chug pots full time. These are 2 already known solutions. Do you expect every skill to work with every build? |
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3. spell totem.
I like arc. I took a few months off playing other games, came back recently and came across arc. Which was not in the game when I had played previously. It is a great addition. It made me second guess icespear/pulse domination. Arc is long, medium and short range. Spark is short, unless you totem it. Spear is long, pulse is short to medium with faster proj. Arc is fantastic at stacking shock of course. The damage to mana cost is high. 2 bounce limitation does mean its not ideal for 1 target, and not ideal for 5+ targets. Which is... lame. Chaining makes it more effective versus larger packs of course. By itself, I wouldn't build around it. Again, weak vs single target. Not quite pack clearing enough vs large packs, due to multi, fork, etc not working with it. Extremely good with spell totem. elem proliferation, chaining, lit vul, and static blows if you can get it. (shadows, templars, witchs should have little problem doing so) Allowing it to bounce off friendly targets would of course make it much stronger. |
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4. Eldritch Battery
There are many ways to make Arc worthwhile and manacost a non-issue, but they require some planning and focusing build wise. Considering Arc's sub-par damage, is it worth it? I think yes. Here's how I put it in my Arc and Flame Witch build thread: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/65051 " People are complaining that Arc sucks against packs. Have you tried it with Elemental Proliferation? Having the whole pack take 120% additional damage in 1 or 2 Arc casts is a huge deal. Against single targets, sure it's not optimal but in most cases, I can cast 2-3 Arcs with monster at the edge of my screen by the time Shock or Freezing Pulse player would've ran next to the target and be ready to start dealing damage. I'm not trying to argue that Arc is superior to Freezing Pulse or Spark, but it's more universally useful which is a great thing considering end game is all about beating very versatile maps. |
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" yeah, it works well with elemental proliferation. surprise: so does spark. against single targets its abysmal, you're wasting 2/3rds of the spell's total damage. getting casts in on monsters at the 'edge of your screen' isn't a pro, especially not when that added time of getting 'free' hits on targets while spark users have to run up to cast still puts you miles behind them in terms of damage on single targets. FP players typically bring ice spear for that exact purpose, it doesn't exactly take a long time to cover the distance from 'edge of screen' to 'within optimal freezing pulse/spark range'. maybe a second and a half without any movespeed modifiers. its more universally useful but its bad at everything that it does in comparison. it doesn't excel over spark, FP, even ice spear with certain supports in any field whatsoever, and in the ones it is trying to compete directly in (2 to 5 targets) it is absolutely worthless as it still doesn't do even that better than any of the alternatives. its a bad skill gem, it needs to do more to single targets or do more to groups or be a lot less mana intensive or have some new utility added to it entirely, in its current state its one of those spells you use a few times then never again because its worse than everything. there are a lot of those in the game, and they are probably the second most detrimental factor in the skill system, with #1 being lack of variety (though i'm sure that'll be addressed as time moves on and more skills are introduced). |
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This skill is ABSOLUTE TRASH! Sorry for the rage post but i wanted to build a character around it and i didn't really read about it before doing so. When i realized how much CRAP it is compared to other nukes, i almost cried.
I think a "good" change for this skill would be to block ALL support gems from working with it. Would make the game even more fun than it is. /rant |
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