Arcanist Panetti's Replicating Missile

[X Myth]

Level 15 Arcanist and I've been focusing on P's Rep. Missile. I've put in 16/16 in both first tier and the second tier. Right now I'm missing 1 out of 4-5 shots and the reach in shard blasts often don't hit enemies due to being on uneven grounding such as a hill or slope. Occasionally I can get a great hit and do very good damage.

Overall compared to other class 1st tier skills this one seems like more work, inaccurate, and not very powerful. Oh and the cost is extremely high... Glass Cannon feels more like Glass BB-Gun. I have yet to try the other skills! and I'll tier this up max to see how it fairs in the end. Still at lower levels it's not a ton of fun to see your missiles often miss.

Suggestions.
Get rid of the miss factor.
Make it a guideing Missile so it will definitly hit.
Add % of weapon damage


Im sure their is more science to the skill and it probably improves in time. This is just a lvl 1-15 using this skill alone and it's not terribly fun, kinda frustrating =D still LOVE THE GAME can't wait to try the other skills.

[Rahlence]

You miss because you don't have enough offensive ability; this affects your hit chance and your crit chance. It is, imo, more important to stack this than anything else

[X Myth]

Originally posted by LordRahl:

You miss because you don't have enough offensive ability; this affects your hit chance and your crit chance. It is, imo, more important to stack this than anything else

I figured that's what it was.. I don't know how I feel about that effecting the skill though, considering im trying to make a pure mage I want little to do with Offense and Defense and Pure Power. Still if that's how they plan on keeping it that's fine, but that plus the hills and slopes missing mobs is pretty frustrating for such an expensive skill when maxed.

Thanks for the response, and where I didn't do the calculation I was giving more of a review as just a regular person going in as a mage from level 1-15 with that skill alone. More or less just a little feed back from a fresh start.

[Astasia]

AFAIK pretty much every direct damage skill in the game uses offense to determine hit chance. It's not something you can ignore just because your are using magic.

Though I also disliked this particular skill, for the other reasons you mentioned. The "fragments" rarely do anything, getting enemies clustered tightly enough takes too much effort and depending on just shear luck to hit other targets doesn't work so well, most shots feel wasteful. The damage of the main missile is extremely lacking also. It's just a really bad skill IMO. If the fragments homed in on targets, prioritizing unique targets but circling back to the initial target if it's alone, it would become a fun skill.

[Astasia]

I have to say after more testing and play, there might be something wrong with the accuracy of this skill. My stats show I have a 94-95% chance to hit, but it does feel like this skill hits more like 70-80% of the time. I don't mean enemies moving out of the way, but actual "misses."

[powbam]

Originally posted by X Myth:

Level 15 Arcanist and I've been focusing on P's Rep. Missile. I've put in 16/16 in both first tier and the second tier. Right now I'm missing 1 out of 4-5 shots and the reach in shard blasts often don't hit enemies due to being on uneven grounding such as a hill or slope. Occasionally I can get a great hit and do very good damage.

By the sounds of this I'd say you've been neglecting your mastery bar, leaving you with only your stat point on level to boost OA.

Also, Arcanist is energy-heavy. It is vital to equip the early caster gears that drop to sustain the output. But you put in too many points too fast so you basically outstripped your capacity far too early.

You can get away with methods like this with some of the other masteries skills, but Arcanist doesn't play like that. He is meant to be heavy on energy usage, it's what he's about.

Moderation is key.

[X Myth]

Originally posted by powbam:

Originally posted by X Myth:

Level 15 Arcanist and I've been focusing on P's Rep. Missile. I've put in 16/16 in both first tier and the second tier. Right now I'm missing 1 out of 4-5 shots and the reach in shard blasts often don't hit enemies due to being on uneven grounding such as a hill or slope. Occasionally I can get a great hit and do very good damage.

By the sounds of this I'd say you've been neglecting your mastery bar, leaving you with only your stat point on level to boost OA.

Also, Arcanist is energy-heavy. It is vital to equip the early caster gears that drop to sustain the output. But you put in too many points too fast so you basically outstripped your capacity far too early.

You can get away with methods like this with some of the other masteries skills, but Arcanist doesn't play like that. He is meant to be heavy on energy usage, it's what he's about.

Moderation is key.

After a bit more testing and having a high level arcanist now at this point PRM isn't very much worth it compared to other skills. I understand the arcanist is a heavy depent class on energy, but for the payload I think Sky is a better skill to soak you're skill points in. PRM just isn't that much fun right now with the constant missing both with glitches and skill.

Moderation would be ok, but this game isn't really ment for moderation. You're better off putting you're skills in a few select tree's and not spreading them out all over in a balanced matter. Right now you're also better off putting all you're attributes into cunning with the exception of wanting to wear certain gear for a more cosmetic/item dependence.

Cunning is the best. Offensive rating is awesome right now, and Defensive isn't fantastical simply because you can run or walk away from danger, but I do like how you can move your char in game to avoid danger because it feels more real life skill than just a attribute skill feel. Same with Spirit where it increases you're damage with elements/magic I still think Cunning kicks it's ass.

I've strayed from my original post.


PRM is just kinda EH right now, but this is EA and the dev team has reworked many skills so far so i'm sure they like any feedback they can get to make the game more enjoyable.

More suggestions to help PRM.

When the missile explodes and you see a shard go over an enemies head due to a hill or slope.. well fix that lol. Instead of flying over the head increase the hit marker of a shard... I kinda like the fact that the game has hills/slopes though it makes it feel more immersive so Id still recomend that you just increase the accuracy/dmg and lower the energy cost.


*******************************************************
Have you devs ever thought of Synergy Class Transmutations? I wanted to right a topic on this, but it's basically like this...

Class Combo Arcanist with Demolitionist and pick up a certain skill "fire touched" This no longer just adds damage, but also completly alters the way you're skill PRM works.. It's now a Fireball with Radial damage instead of shard damage. Fire touched will firther transmutate other skills.

Arcanist/Nightblade PRM Ice Shards

Arcanist/Occultist Chaos Bolt

Arcanist/Soldier Mudd Grip

this would take a ton of work.. would be awesome.

-All skills could be alterered in this manner...

Like Summons- Mix Arcanist with Occultist and you now Summon random Elemental.

or Occultist with Soldier and It's now a Metal Golem

Occultist with Nightblade a Ice Reaper

or a Occultist and Demo and you have a Fire Demon.

[Fendelphi]

A way to boost the missile damage slightly(and scale better) would be for the base missile to have a %-weapon damage, similar to DEE. Not very high(about 10% as base, reaching about 25% at max) but that would still allow it to scale better.

One thing I havent been able to test yet, is if it can proc "on attack" effects, like lightning bolts. I guess I will test that next time.

@X Myth: Interesting idea with the changing transmuters depending on class picks. It would certainly add a lot of new abilities into the game, but that would ofc also require a lot of extra testing and balancing. But yeah, interesting concept.

[powbam]

^^I'm extremely familiar with how the game plays. Moderation still. You over-extended yourself to quick. Your gear can't support your needs at such a low level. Nothing changes that. Arcanist is something different and it's on you to account for it.

I'm playing Arcanist as well. Zero energy issues. Even at low levels.

Also, I'm not seeing this constant missing with PRM that you speak of. Once in a while, sure. But it's rare enough I barely note it.

There's people on the main forums hitting over 1k per shard. I'm 20+ right now and PRM is doing an excellent job.

[Dr.Robert]

I think it's weird that Elemental Exchange does not work with spells. Not even the energy leech works with spells which makes the weapon buff useless for people who do not use melee attacks as a mage.

[CatPerson]

Originally posted by Dr.Robert:

I think it's weird that Elemental Exchange does not work with spells. Not even the energy leech works with spells which makes the weapon buff useless for people who do not use melee attacks as a mage.

I was wondering about that. I often find the skill descriptions a bit confusing in terms of "will this work with a spell, or only melee?" etc. Guess I'll take out the 1 point I had in that, then. :)

And I don't have any issues with Missie missing either, outside of something not standing in the path of a missile trajectory. I also rarely have issues about the common monsters clustering up often enough...to me, that's all they ever do.

[powbam]

Originally posted by Dr.Robert:

I think it's weird that Elemental Exchange does not work with spells. Not even the energy leech works with spells which makes the weapon buff useless for people who do not use melee attacks as a mage.

Callidor's Tempest and its transmuter, Wrath of Agrivix, factor in weapon damage. Also, Albrecht's Aether Ray's passive, Disintegration, uses weapon damage. These two will work good with IEE with some investment.

The rest seem to be more "pure" caster/elemental spells. But, there are plenty of other spells/skills in the other trees that can utilize IEE. I'm guessing this was the intention as they stated in the build update that they were attempting to promote more cross-mastery synergies, also evidenced by IEE's transmuter, Manifestation, for summons, which would be used with Occultist or Demolitionist.

[Omelette Du Fromage]

Adding % weapon damage on Missle and its "scatters" would definitely buff it. Heck, it might even be too strong and grant infinite mana on the beginning by adding 1 point on that weapon hit energy leech skill at level 1 and have Missle proc the leech on every enemy it scatters with.

That would make it as awesome as PB or DEE, can sync with the new caster weapons and some caster weapon sockets like -elemental resistances.

[powbam]

Originally posted by Omelette Du Fromage:

Adding % weapon damage on Missle and its "scatters" would definitely buff it.

Guess we'll have to see but it can get big, big buffs from Reckless Power AND Fabric of Reality already. My opinion, PRM is already better than both DEE and Firestrike, most definitely if you factor in the above mentioned buffs.

Inner Focus is technically a buff for it as well. And then there exists yet another buff with Arcane Will that kicks in every time your health drops below 50%, an insanely easy thing to do with the Arcanist, btw, due to his low health.

[BOYCOTT S-T-E-A-M!]

I've just started out with an arcanist in this newest build. Going with a pure caster type. I've used the Demolionist before as a "pure caster" build and they were pretty crazy.

So far I'm having fun with my Arcanist, mainly because they are fresh and new, but I don't really like this replicating missile all that much.

I haven't used it long enough to really comment on its effectiveness, but just the overall "feel" and presentation of it when you use it feels lackluster. Its just a simple dart looking thing that splits into fragments in a plain looking way on impact.

Given that the description of the Arcanist makes them sound like they will be a badass wielding flashy forbidden powers... I was really expecting their abilities to "feel" more awesome kind of like the Demolionists skills do. I mean I have plenty of builds that are far more powerful and capable than pure Demo or heavily focused Demo builds... but just the way it sounds, looks, and feels to use skills like Grenado, Canister Bomb, or even the Blackwater Cocktail never fails to bring a smile to my face.

I was truly expecting this missile spell on the Arcanist to have some form of minor tracking to it and to have the fragments whip out of the impact point in a flashy way and track on nearby targets. A good example of what I was expecting was something that looked and felt more similar to the one early Arcane path spell on the spell casting class in Torchlight 2.

I'll withold further judgement until after I get a lot more time with the Arcanist under my belt, but I'm kinda saddened the abilities aren't as flashy and don't "feel" as good, or bring a smile to my face as easily, as the Demolionist skills.

I wouldn't have minded seeing the Arcanist have an ability like the old Titan Quest Storm Masteries Lighting Bolt. I loved that Lightening Bolt. It just looked, sounded, and felt powerful.

Also, a tad saddened that Arcanists lack a pet. I was dead sure that the Arcanist would have a single pet early in the tree to make pure summoners more interesting. I figured they'd get something like a lightening or aether based "wisp".

EDIT: I do have to say though that looking at the tree I can see a good bit of potential skill synergy with the other masteries.