What's the best subclass for an arcanist?

[Matt [Reckless Boi]]

Title pretty much, i was thinking about soldier for some tankiness but i don't really know :D

[Faust Wither]

my opinion is necromancer or inquisitor.

[falcongtr]

That depends of how you want play it.

[gobzine]

i just made a new arcanist and want basically a 2 button build so i can just run around and zap stuff - having a ton of skeletons would be fun but thats still another button to push - i just want missiles and a lightning burst and everything else just toggled so what would that 2nd class be?

[Rulthar]

Like falcongtr said, how do you want to play it? For example, if you want "Albrechts Aether Ray" as main skill, you will need some tankiness because its channeled and you can't move. So, pick the second class that helps your main class/main skill the most

[Karina]

Shaman, Inquisitor, Occultist, Necromancer, Demolitionist and even Nightblade- synergise really well with arcanist (depends on what you building Arcanist for)

Arcanist does not synergise with Oathkeeper at all. As an Arcanist (aka spell caster) you gain NOTHING from Oathkeeper. Maybe Oathkeeper + Arcanist will be better then Arcanist + Oathkeeper.

Battlemage is The worst class combination, even more so if you are Arcanist first and Soldier second. Tankiness is the only thing Soldier can give you, but other classes can have it too along with new abilities to use and resistance reductions.

[Turvang]

Originally posted by Esteban Failsmore:

Arcanist does not synergise with Oathkeeper at all. As an Arcanist (aka spell caster) you gain NOTHING from Oathkeeper. Maybe Oathkeeper + Arcanist will be better then Arcanist + Oathkeeper.

my hc 100% fire aar templar wants to have a word with you

[zverozvero]

Least active buttons added would probably be Soldier. Specially if you opt for shield instead of casters ofhand. Everything else wont shine without reapplying heals, buffs, debuffs etc.

[Matt [Reckless Boi]]

I was planniong on building my character around panetti's missle :D And the ray ability would be cool too to try out.

[Windor Kariel]

Originally posted by Esteban Failsmore:

Shaman, Inquisitor, Occultist, Necromancer, Demolitionist and even Nightblade- synergise really well with arcanist (depends on what you building Arcanist for)

Arcanist does not synergise with Oathkeeper at all. As an Arcanist (aka spell caster) you gain NOTHING from Oathkeeper. Maybe Oathkeeper + Arcanist will be better then Arcanist + Oathkeeper.

Battlemage is The worst class combination, even more so if you are Arcanist first and Soldier second. Tankiness is the only thing Soldier can give you, but other classes can have it too along with new abilities to use and resistance reductions.

Vanquisher set makes the Templar one of the funniest builds around, if not the funniest.

[falcongtr]

Originally posted by Esteban Failsmore:

Battlemage is The worst class combination, even more so if you are Arcanist first and Soldier second. Tankiness is the only thing Soldier can give you, but other classes can have it too along with new abilities to use and resistance reductions.

Solder has RR and it's mutator terrify even does elemental RR, not mentioning it has LR too. Tremor scales with Cast speed, Cadence has discord, solder skill for armor abs which is must have for low armor casters. Inner Focus synergies with Oleron's wrath, so does Reckless Power with Squad Tactics or Star pact with Fighting spirit, Overguard and Mehnir's will. Also Krieg set is for Battle Mages.

[falcongtr]

Originally posted by Throw him to the floor:

War cry have long cooldown, also terrify RR doesn't stack with elemental storm

So? It still does synergize with anything of arcanist other than Inferno but elem storm does not stack with it either, in post I replying was said Solder does not have RR, which is your post about ES has nothing to do with. Also Arcanist can reduce CD with Star pact for that matter.

Originally posted by Throw him to the floor:

3rd hit only, skip it

Another example of synergy, considering OP wants AAR/PRM build this goes out anyway. And if think 3rd hit is reason to skip cadence, good luck with meta.

Originally posted by Throw him to the floor:

Death Knight performed better

Which part of Death Knight is Arcanist?!

[sneezyfido]

I might be a bit fuzzy - still recovering from a Freudian misread of falcongtr that soldier gives armored abs.
Anyway, I had some trouble bringing down my arcanist choices to a few options but they're all so tasty.

Demolitionist looks pretty nice for both self-centered AoE and for a lovely deathray.
Inquisitor is the one I picked for a AAR build. So far it has 1 damage button, a toggle and a few situational things to pop so as not to die horribly. Actually you will lose your souls. All of them, time and time again. But that's ok.
Shaman's wind devil, buffs and life drain look like a nice companion too, but def. more than 2 buttons.
Occultist AAR looks like a Shadow vessel on 2 legs to me. Or control them to sit still to take your falling stars right in the head. No amount of vodka will account for that headache.
Necromancer has some aether, drain, control and a bone to throw the nice doggie.
Nightblade seems to work extremely well in a cold focused build, right down to turning RoS into sleet. (Hmm Ring of Sleet!)
A soldier with armored abs and a flaming blade.. sounds pretty archetypical bad-ass actually.

I suspect that it's perfectly viable to build something awesome in pretty much every possible arcanist pairing. Just not all of them in a 2 button setup (sorry).

[falcongtr]

Originally posted by sneezyfido:

I might be a bit fuzzy - still recovering from a Freudian misread of falcongtr that soldier gives armored abs.

Lol.

[Gregor]

I've only got 1 lv 100 Character and that'S a Spellbinder Arcanist/Necro. I use the Necro to buff my aetherdmg and hitpoints, to have "Spectral Wrath" for manaregen and "Mark of torment" as a second solution, when my Mirror of Ereoctes is on cd. I'm feeling quite well with it and the mainstory on Ultimate is surely finisheable with it.
Arcanist does offer some things that are realy nice, if you pair it up with most classes, since you can debuff dots ,make yourself immune to dmg for a few seconds and reduce the incomming dmg significantly, as well as raising your spirit , offensive ability , manaregen, and cdr. I personally had a hard time deciding on a second class and asked here in a discussion as well and then decided on Necro. That happened when my arcanist already had reched lv 91.
There's and item, that offers dmg conversion to healthpoints on the AAR(4%) and that feels realy good for me personally, together with the ability of rifting(medal augmentation) and the right amount of movementspeed many parts of the game are well clearable and if I can outrun an enemy without getting oneshot I win the fight.

[DoctorDarling]

I think if you want decently tanky without a ton of attack skills to cycle through, you might wanna try a Mage Hunter (Inquisitor + Arcanist) focused on PRM (Panetti's repeating missile). You literally use like one spell for attacking then some defensive ones to keep yourself alive.

https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-1-1-2-expelliarmus-6-30m-crucible-150-170-0-greens-facetank-prm-mage-hunter-c-sr-vid-g3/48204



For the love of god do not add Soldier to Arcanist, I too was tempted by the cool sounding battlemage. Also don't do oathkeeper (a few fire builds work but specific gear needed).


The other two tankier arcanist options that don't suck:

Necro + arcanist (Spellbinder) I haven't tried but I've heard of people literally just tanking with drain essence (a channeled life drain spell), also keeping it simple. Or using AAR, the laser. Life drain/sustain makes you tanky essentially.

Demoitionist + arcanist is my favorite class in the game thus far. I'm doing a blackwater cocktail sorc (google bwc sorcerer) and it's very tanky which is amazing for a caster, and hilarious to have the entire screen on fire. Being squishy in this game is very rough later on. However, it's not a simple two button build, I have skills bound to every single button I have, and even then I would like one more button. So potentially not what you're looking for.

I think PRM focused build is the one for you