Arc

Well... saying that Arc is better than EK and FP without any reason, without any explanation is just as good as any trolling! The best clue if you look what skills most of the players use! I'm pretty sure thet will be EK, FP and LA! It's a common sense thet the more OP a skill is, it is more used by players! And I don't see Arc too often! :/

Just reduced mana cost would make the skill much better, or removing that 50% reduction.

50% damage reduction is to mutch.

i was looking forward to making a chain lightning build but the dmg% is really hurting.

also. there is so few support gems working. only chain work and thats another 50% less dmg (ending up at 25%) 200% increased cost on somthing thats already expensive. all that for 2 more jumps... aww come on? :/

Yeah this is a problem! Only chain support gem works with arc, from the projetile support pool and it makes arc even worse! If you have 100 dmg on arc, then the 50% reduce it to 3*50(150)! If you use chain it goes down an other 50% so the dmg become 5*25(125)(while the mana cost is multiplied by 2)! So you better forget chain support too! :/

So don't use the projectile supports? It's a shock stack machine. Stick it on a totem, add an elemental proliferation gem, and go to town.

How about just make 1 or 2 minor changes to the spell to make it "viable" in the eyes of everybody.

1) Increase damage
2) Increase number of chains
3) Decrease mana cost
4) Change quality to add damage or cast speed

Any combination of say 2 of these would significantly improve the "viability" of the spells, and bring it up to par with the other dps spells.

increase Base crit chance would be enough, just normal 6% like the most spells.

More Crit chance = real crit Shocks and real crit shocks can build Shocks on high HP Monsters.

Thats the Problem atm, to build shocks on high HP monsters because the non crit shocks are not that good against high HP monsters.


Other problem is that a spell with 50% dam. Effectivness (and the low crit chance), which is not a AOE or Projectile Spell really not have much choices for support gems.
I hope we will see some nice new support gems for spells which are not AOE or Projectile.

So changes i want to see:

-Base crit from 4% to 6%
-Mana cost around 3-5 Points less than before
-More Support gems that makes sense with this skill :)

This is how you fix Arc:

Make quality grant "+X% chance to generate additional arcs when hitting shocked enemies".

As I see it, the main problem with the spell is that it is hard-capped at hitting at most 5 mobs at once (but really it's 3 since using Chain with Arc is not even close to worth it). This would allow increased potential damage output, increased AoE effectiveness, and honestly it would bring Arc up to being comparable to the other more popular spells. Quality Arc gems would actually be valuable instead of just 'meh'.

As it is now, the only reason to use Arc over Freezing Pulse, Ice Spear, Fireball, Firestorm is basically for flavor. I use Arc on my witch because I just like it; I recognize that it is a bit ridiculous that my paperdoll DPS in the high 40's is like 150, but I love the idea of Chain Lightning so I make the best of it. The aforementioned modification to the spell could really turn that around.

Arc's designed to be weak because of the niche fills in a vanilla lightning spell set. Spark is for close range, shock nova is for medium range (also the go-to AOE for the element) and arc's for distance poking. The fact that it auto-hits makes it better for hitting targets at range, even if they're spread out. I don't think balancing it by making it more of a DPS or AOE spell plays to its uniqueness.

One novel idea I have is to have the chain prioritize shocked enemies. For example, if it shocks an enemy on the first hit then bounces on another one, the third bounce is guaranteed to hit the guy who's still shocked. This makes it a pseudo single-target DPS skill, which is nice since you usually want to focus fire on things that keep their distance from you. The change also allows you to more fully take advantage of short-lived shock status effects applied from other sources.

Another thing you could do is to give it a higher chance/duration for shock if it doesn't bounce, since the lightning family doesn't have a "pure" single-target spell. It'll only work great if you have some other damage sources to exploit it, but that's fine since it's lightning's gimmick anyway.

I do not like the idea of reducing the mana cost. With certain character builds arc IS sustainable which makes those builds viable. Reducing the mana costs will just remove those builds from being used which would be a shame (Eldritch Battery etc). All spells having the same costs will result in a single cookie cutter build with a low cost to switch between elements.

As for arc + chain: As I see it chain does increase the damage.

Chain on lvl 18: -50% dmg, +34% dmg, +2 bounces

Assuming Arcdmg = 100
So without chain: 3 bounces * 100 = 300
With chain: 5 bounces * 100 * 0.84 = 420 and the ability to shock more targets

With chain it becomes more of an AOE spell with more overall damage for groups.

What am I missing ?

I do like the idea of a gem which decreases the bounce count and increases the damage though (concentrated effect). This way I can choose what kind of Arc I want to use.