Can't Decide Between Aether Ray or Replicating Missiles

[Something]

Hey all. I am leveling an Arcanist at the moment. I'm sitting at around level 15, but I can't decide what build I wanna go with it. I keep alternating between Aether Ray and Replicating Missiles. Which one do you guys like more and why? And which one has better leveling/end-game potential?

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

AAR is bigger boom while leveling, with less item requirement, tho it does greatly benefit from Pulsing Shard from act 3 (almost mandatory in fact)
endgame wise they are probably around the same in terms of builds available, tho AAR is probably favoured more than PRM

[Something]

Originally posted by gNuff!~©~gNom3™:

AAR is bigger boom while leveling, with less item requirement, tho it does greatly benefit from Pulsing Shard from act 3 (almost mandatory in fact)
endgame wise they are probably around the same in terms of builds available, tho AAR is probably favoured more than PRM

Ah alright. By the way, how can you tell which skills are just one point wonders and which ones are worth dumping a bunch into? Never been able to figure out how people determine that stuff.

[Smokey]

Aether Ray has better end game power, but you need to get a lot of reduced energy cost and energy regen to sustain the casting.

Replicating Missiles is great for dealing with hordes of enemies, but killing bosses will take longer and the damage falls off end-game unless you have very good equipment.
This is much better than Ray for leveling.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

Originally posted by Something:

how can you tell which skills are just one point wonders and which ones are worth dumping a bunch into? Never been able to figure out how people determine that stuff.

experience, or browsing through a bunch of other meta builds
there is really no set rule to determine this
even regular 1pt stuff like Arcanist Nullification sometimes gets more heavily pointed on certain builds
also depends on builds need
other 1pt stuff like ex nighblade phantasmal armour sometimes gets a few more points if you struggle for pierce resist - some stuff just varies per build

[Smokey]

Originally posted by Something:

Originally posted by gNuff!~©~gNom3™:

AAR is bigger boom while leveling, with less item requirement, tho it does greatly benefit from Pulsing Shard from act 3 (almost mandatory in fact)
endgame wise they are probably around the same in terms of builds available, tho AAR is probably favoured more than PRM

Ah alright. By the way, how can you tell which skills are just one point wonders and which ones are worth dumping a bunch into? Never been able to figure out how people determine that stuff.

The scaling of the skill, some skills improve marginally with additional points.

Also, Crowd Control (CC) skills, such as Olexra's Flash Freeze, which don't work on bosses.

You want to put most of your skill points into a main damage skill, a strong passive and a Exclusive skill.

[Something]

Should all the passives along the panetti's line be maxed out?

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

in general, few exceptions, you always want to maximize all the modifiers direct on a skill line to increase that skill's dmg and efficiency, PRM being no exception

[Something]

What about spec'ing Aether Ray for Chaos damage? Is that worth doing while leveling or is good chaos gear not really available until end-game?

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

it's fine, i believe there even is a chaos AAR beginner leveling build somewhere on the Crate forum

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/1-1-8-1-guide-the-rookie-bloodsworn-a-chaos-warlock-beginner-guide/103489

[DirtyMick]

AAR is better. Kinda hard to make a strong build out of maining panetti's. Also there's a really good MI for AAR that drops from the abomination at the end of Homestead. Also, make sure to use ectoplasms for extra energy regen if you need it. (I see gnuff mentioned the MI pulsing shard already hehe)

A great tip I wish I knew earlier on, is going to grimtools and checking all items that have modifiers to a certain skill. There's an easy way to do it that I'm suddenly forgetting cuz I haven't played in a few weeks. I think you go to grimtools, clicking on skill modifiers on the first page of item database. Then you can select the specific skills you're looking to modify. So pick aether ray and it will list all items that modify the aether ray. (Make sure you have rare items selected so it doesn't filter them out)

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

good way to ease up the mana drain on AAR (any skill) early on, is to 1pt the main node, and then max the secondary/tertiary nodes, they cost less mana

[RodHull]

Prior to this patch AAR was superior though recent patches have added more item support for PRM. And with this patch my old AAR beast now feels a bit underwhelming. Which may just be a 'needs tweaking' issue but it could be the skill has been nerfed a bit.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

Originally posted by RodHull:

it could be the skill has been nerfed a bit.

just a bit ;)
since AAR reached the realm of sub 4minute crucible runs it has seen significant changes, to where the old glass cannon builds aren't safe in crucible anymore, Disintegration losing %dmg boost and crit dmg for one, AAR specific items losing some boosts too (Aethereach gloves just got flat dmg to AAR back again in 9.2)

[RodHull]

I presumed as much but was to lazy to do the work checking. I usually do a quick test of my old good builds to see how they are in new patches. And my AAR is no longer godlike, still decent but now more on a par with drain essence.

I am intrigued to do a PRM build now though lol