Hey guys,
I have been playing GD since inception, but for some reason I just opted to try out AAR for the first time. I have to say - thus far I am thoroughly enjoying my death beam. So, my question:
How are you managing mana cost?
I am running around -35% skill cost, arcane spark and 110 energy regen on Elite with AAR on level 13 - still feel like I am going OOM pretty quickly. I am not sure how else to control it without an Ectoplasm in every slot. Thanks for the tips!
Max the Mental Alacrity skill, use Focusing Prism component in an amulet, Owl Devotion energy cost node, Wrath of the Ascendant Scepter. Stack all these for maximum energy cost reduction.
Max Inner Focus for Spirit for damage and energy regen.
With rings/amulets and some components boosting energy regen, it should be enough to cast AAR for a long time.
Until you get somewhere above 200 mana regen (220 or 240) and close to 50% mana cost reduction you will not have sustainable beam. You should also put points in IEE if you haven’t yet to get rank 12, or just max it.
Other than the mana regen, IEE is totally useless for AAR. This is a big waste of skill points! The flat damage and mana leech do NOT apply to AAR.
Just get mana regen from other sources.
And these 6 or so points will be just the thing that finally fixes your mana management ;). So you can avoid it of course, but I suggest trying
Thanks for the tips! I think I am doing most of this, just need to bump my spirit more. I will check out the Scepter as well.
How you guys usually distribute your attribute points? So far I am all physique so I can take a couple hits without being flattened. I don’t like dying, even though I am SC. I have saved some points in case I want to put something in spirit.
Usually everything is dumped into Physique because Arcanist’s base Spirit, Inner Focus bonus, and equipment bonus combined gives enough Spirit, whereas Arcanist needs all the HP and DA it can get.
Addendum: Off-hands also can give energy cost reduction.
Most notable is the “of the Oracle” rare suffix which can go up to -13%.
For Legendaries there is Codex of Lies and Orb of the Black Flame (only for Tainted Power AAR).
There are a few others but they boost irrelevant damage types.
Iskandra’s Balance relic has up to -12% Skill Energy cost and +1 Arcanist skills. Not easy to find the blueprint, and the blueprints for its components, let alone craft, though.
Before you get Wrath of the Ascendant, you can craft Adept’s Bladed/Flanged Mace/Morningstar, it also has energy cost reduction, though as Maces and not Scepters they can’t get the good caster affixes.
Another thing to note to keep energy cost down earlier: don’t put points into Disintegration (yet).
Disintegration’s energy cost is per damage tick, which adds up very fast, especially if you leveled it.
It adds Vitality damage to AAR which is not supported (only getting Spirit bonus) unless you are playing Tainted Power Warlock using Possession.
The crit bonus is only useful if you have a lot of OA, which is later when the build is complete.
The same Fire/Aether bonus can be obtained by putting points into Reckless Power which also gives cast speed and greatly increases DPS.
I dislike dying as well, but over time, I’ve learned to stop overvaluing physique. If I have spare points, that is where they go, but I don’t hesitate to throw a few into spirit to make my energy regen easier. Gibly’s video on the topic was mostly what made me stop throwing all possible points into physique. Now I throw what I need into physique, and then decide where to stick the rest as issues arise.
I’m near completing an aether ray build myself and even with the above suggestions I still found myself energy starved at times. I feel getting the tree of life devotion is almost a must to keep the aether ray game play feeling smooth. With a bit of gear you can have nearly Perma uptime on the prock
Ectoplasm on both rings helps a lot. The only trick is in getting the damn things to drop.
Tree of life, clairvoyant set, mental alacrity. This will cure all your mana issues.
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