So, I’m screwing around with a very meme elemental AAR build at the moment, but one thing coming from FoI is bugging me - AAR’s skill line doesn’t do anything to buff it’s own damage, just adds some more and boosts crit damage a bit (more would be nice).
Contrast this with FoI where the last two nodes have %boosts to the main node + add extra stuff. This allows transmuted FoI in term to deal even more damage, while the addition of weapon damage allows the dps to be pushed even higher.
And then there’s itemisation - namely it’s easy to gear for FoI given all the items and MI’s that support it, while trying to pull stuff for AAR you either have limited options and no supporting MI’s aside from an offhand. Never mind that those options don’t boost AAR damage numbers up to even close to FoI levels. Meaning if you want semi-decent dps you need to invest heavily in OA and debuffing DA to get crit damage. Which limits build options considerably.
As for how to solve this - well, there’s one thing that would really, really help, shift the nodes around to make AAR start 10 levels sooner and use the intervening space to add 1 or more nodes, with Disintegration shifted to right after AAR. The new nodes would then add some weapon damage and buff AAR’s damage types.
On the itemisation side - we need some more MI’s that are effectively damage type neutral that support AAR skill line and so can be rolled to support other damage types. But one skill modification I’d love to see is one that makes enemies damaged by AAR have a chance to explode damaging them and providing some AoE, r.e. ignitions from Destiny 2’s solar damage sources.
AAR is indeed generally in a rather bad spot rn. This is imo due to its playstyle not benefitting from any of the big themes of this patch.
Evade - Channelling skills have arguably the hardest time incorporating the new evade skill into their playstyle out of all archetypes.
Enemy leech res buff - Drain Essence got buffed this patch, Ignaffar has pretty significant %WD, but AAR can’t compensate by stacking more leech like %weapondamage users.
Regen buffs - Arcanist generally doesn’t benefit all too much from regen buffs, but out of all the arcanist builds it feels like AAR probably benefits the least from regen. Skills like TSS have a way easier time embracing giant + dyrad into their builds/playstyles.
Best AAR builds are probably black flame and/or clairvoyant, but especially builds like lightning AAR feel pretty underwhelming right now compared to e.g. nightblades, oathkeepers (extra leech via haven) or the big regen set builds.
Yeah, I’ve noticed the issues Evade causes when using evade, down time shouldn’t be so high frankly, since it also causes issues when using any other skill. Which is a bit annoying if you need to cast a debuff, or use Aegis of Menhir.
I am still rooting for a POISON-variant for AAR, especially since Sunder is a thing now. Hit, run, tick, rinse and repeat. AAR is a niche-build, but more itemization would be rather appreciated. For more details on possible poison-variants, look my posts pls. <3
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