If they reduced the energy cost to something more reasonable, it would free up armor slots, that would allow you to get on attack/crit skills from armor. Those skills on armor can be used as your means to heal up, but AAR builds require such specific and rare gear to manage the energy cost, you cannot effectively get heals from your gear.
I mention not to go after low percentage of weapon damage for ADCTH, because with the double penalty to ADCTH that was added, it would not do what you want, as Phantasmal Blades has proved. We need something that is useful. They are not likely to give you love twice, so it needs to count.
Well, yes AAR builds require specific gear, but what build don’t?
I would suggest this particular build http://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25Wr4KZ for AAR testing. From what I see on ultimate HC only Chupaimba may cause troubles.
AAR requires specific gear to just deal with the energy cost. That requires you to compromise with every other needed area. It requires far more specific gear than most builds.
Reduce the energy cost to within reason (the same can be said for Phantasmal Blades builds), and it opens up their options, and becomes a lot more reasonable to deal with.
Edit: I do see that some of the Mythical gear is dealing with the energy costs, so it may not be as bad as it used to be.
This could be a thread unto itself. “Why did some Legendaries lose procs when they became Mythicals?”
Whoops, yeah, I misunderstood you. Sorry about that.
I’ll address why I’m bringing up life steal below.
A rework might be something to think about, but I’m trying to find/present easy solutions to a buff. I’d prefer working towards an easy, elegant solution to a full on rework. I mean, I wouldn’t complain if the ability provided more than just damage for a build.
About life steal.
The only reason I’m harping on it, is because it’s a functionality in the game that a lot of builds get to utilize that’s absent here. It’s a tool missing from the ability’s toolkit. Now, if life steal is out of the question, then fine, it’ll be something that just has to be dealt with. I’m just trying to present solutions to some problems I’ve been having with AAR, they may not be right, or even that good, but I’m trying.
Plus, Mythical Spellgaze exists now, that’s one of the driving factors behind my recommendation.
So, let’s set aside life steal then.
I’m not asking for special treatment on the beam here. Finding gear to support a build is how a build works. I’m saying that even if you’re doing that, the beam feels underwhelming, even when overcapped with high OA, and proper defenses. At 100, it feels like there’s a drop off in damage and the ability just isn’t performing the way you think it would. I almost feel like an erectile dysfunction joke should go here.
I think ultimately, I’m more asking for a damage buff right now more than anything. The things I listed in the first post were mostly to bring AAR into line with the rest of the abilities in the game. I feel like, for any ability with so many built-in drawbacks, it’s not doing enough.
I hope I haven’t sounded whiny in this thread, or mean. I’m just trying to put out some ideas to buff an ability I’ve been using for a long time (that first video in that playlist is 3 years and 9 days old) that feels like it needs it.
I’ve got 240 energy regen and something like 33% cost reduction. The regen isn’t so much an issue. There’s plenty of good caster gear floating around for counter acting it.
EDIT
However, if the current damage value was kept and the energy cost was lowered, that might be a solution to making AAR work better.
I’m not asking for special treatment on the beam here. Finding gear to support a build is how a build works. I’m saying that even if you’re doing that, the beam feels underwhelming, even when overcapped with high OA, and proper defenses. At 100, it feels like there’s a drop off in damage and the ability just isn’t performing the way you think it would. I almost feel like an erectile dysfunction joke should go here.
I think ultimately, I’m more asking for a damage buff right now more than anything. The things I listed in the first post were mostly to bring AAR into line with the rest of the abilities in the game. I feel like, for any ability with so many built-in drawbacks, it’s not doing enough.
I hope I haven’t sounded whiny in this thread, or mean. I’m just trying to put out some ideas to buff an ability I’ve been using for a long time that feels like it needs it.
The build I linked above has ~515 flat aether dmg on ray. 2000% increased aether dmg on ray, 111% crit dmg and 35% chanse to crit with average multiplier 1.3 and 152% aether resist reduction.
Would be nice for Crete to clarify the exact mechanic behind the ray- how much times it tick per second, how much time it need to warm-up, why it does half of dmg agains moving targets etc.
Anyway, if we assume that enemy has 0% aether resistance, average tick of ray of linked build should do 515211,8*2,52 ~ 49K dmg per tick. So, how much ticks we have per second with 200% cast speed? 4? 6? 8? Tooltip count 8, but its clearly wrong =). With 6 tick we end with 300k average DPS - solid number.
But , every interruption disrupt our ray for 1 secon, so if someone attack us the ray do basicly nothing. Nothing at all. So, the real effective dps feels like shit :roll:
The way I deal with this is through gear procs. There are quite a few pieces of gear that have procs that can be used to heal. Unfortunately, they rarely cater to other AAR needs, so it is a compromise, but it does work.
Although someone mentioned that the new Mythical gear dropped a lot of procs, so that might be an issue still.
One other thought has occurred, in light of a general discussion thread, perhaps there is nothing wrong with the build at high levels, and it’s just the game is overtuned on difficulty. It appears that Ultimate AoM is simply a LOT harder than anything prior. They made it much more of a challenge for even the most powerful characters. They don’t expect you to be capable of finishing it without a lot of Mythical level 94 gear.
Bump, it’s so pitiful how a amazing skill like has ended up, Zan please try to help us out with it.
Ive been pushing for it to pierce since Arcanist release, even if you have to put the 100% pierce through a 4-piece set bonus, let’s make it happen! I rallied for giving primal strike to 2 handed ranged and that happens, let’s hope we get a few buffs for AAR even if it doesn’t get the pierce.
Dang. Well I said my peace, a little, in that thread about Aethereach.
feelsobfusticatingman
Yeah, with a Spellbinder the sustain is far less an issue, however, the Sorcerer can’t use AAR anymore so he’s switched to a Callidor’s build. I think the ability is lacking in builds that can build good defenses right now and can’t cheat around it.
THAT has occured to me and is a pretty good point. Going back into earlier parts of the game, it’s mostly a damage issue, but it’s easier to control and handle the mobs. We’ll have to wait on see on this.
I mean, piercing Primal Strike is a thing and only requires one item. Why not piercing AAR on a set?
As someone who has been playing AAR Warlock class since the Arcanist was first released during early access, my suggestion in improving AAR:
Add back weapon damage (25% - 50%).
When channeling, all other skills that require animation to be cast will now be instantaneous. So, you can channel your ray, while at the same time casting CoF, SoC, Devastation etc., and it will never break the channeling.
When channeling, you cannot be stunned
Skill modifiers:
Add modifier that increases percentage of weapon damage added to the skill even further (50% - 75%)
I assume you don’t mean to add all those at once, but maybe a couple of them. A lot of those ideas would work. The weapon damage would have to be significant to get around the ADCTH nerf when working with lower percentages below 100% (not sure why that had to happen, it makes no sense to me).
Some of those sound interesting but the casting of other abilities and being stunned out of a channel seem a little too good given how most of the game works.
Although I like the idea of fighting through a horde of Bileeaters and Regurgitators with their “Welcome to Malmouth” chain stuns.
I would like though, related to that, to have that cooldown on the beam shortened or removed. Doubt that would happen though.
Are you talking about the wind up? The cool down is .3 seconds, which pretty much never stops you from recasting after you do something to stop the beam.
The wind up, on the other hand, is annoying, as kiting requires you to stand still long enough for the beam to charge up.
I’ve been playing a Warlock AAR build through the expansion most of today (well, ACR, go Chaos!). I feel that the Chaos version will always be superior to the Aether version if for nothing else than Ritual Circle, which provides all the bonuses an AAR build could want, and the Aether version will never get it. The health sustain will always be better than the Aether version too because of Sigil of Consumption and all the Vitality bonus Tip the Scales gets. Resistance reduction is better with Eldritch Fire working right away instead of waiting for Arcane Bomb to arm. Having half the expansion enemies being Aetherial certainly helps, too.
All this leads me to realize something: that the OP is on to something in this topic. I shudder to think how the Aether version would take on this expansion. It would be agonizing. Even my Chaos beam is starting to feel lackluster against some of the new big damage sponge enemies. I can still win most fights, but it’s becoming much more slow-going than some of my other builds, and Aether would be even worse. What’s the point of a death ray if you’re the one dying? It’s time to make AAR great again!
I think that one of the best ways to help AAR is to give it the ability to pierce targets. Giving AAR the ability to handle more than one enemy by allowing it to focus it’s main target and killing weaker mobs in front of or behind it would increase survival and clear speed while not taking away the importance of positioning. This is a change that I think would improve performance and convenience without adding any particular utility or CC to stay in line with the theme of the skill.
For damage I would suggest that the Vitality damage from Disintegration be changed to Lightning to fit the visual of the skill while making it a little easier to itemize for. Hunting down the right gear for aether, fire, and vitality could be made easier if it was just aether and elemental.
I would also like to take the time to talk about the other channeling skills right now: Flames of Ignaffar and Drain Essence.
First Drain Essence I think would do best with a few minor changes. DE seems mostly about ADCTH and debilitating the enemy and it could benefit from a simple change to emphasize that: take the slow from the transmuter and put it on the main skill. Adding the slow as a primary effect allows the skill to be a safe CC channel skill. Other buffs to consider would be to increase the proc chance on Hungering Reach a little or increasing the slow% (maybe 5% or 10% for each).
As for Flames of Ignaffar the only thing that I would change is its arc. IT REALLY NEEDS A BIGGER ARC! It’s a short range AOE channel which I really love but the arc makes it feel like i would be hitting the same line as Forcewave while being shorter in range. Everything but the arc on the skill is fine, the chance to fumble really is great, the physical RR allows for some funky build with Beronaths, and the weapon damage allows for any other added effect you want. BUT THE ARC! I don’t want it to have more range or damage, though that would be nice, I WANT EVERYTHING AROUND ME ON FIRE! I’M TALKIN 180 DEGREES OF SHIT IS LIT FAM, okay maybe not that big of an arc but PLEASE, IF YOU USE ANY OF THESE IDEAS, USE THIS ONE!
Just my 2 cents but would like to hear feedback if anyone has some.
I don’t think you’re meant to take advantage of all three damage types simultaneously. Arcanist alone wants Aether + Fire, Arcanist + Necromancer wants Aether + Vitality, and Chaos Ray users want Chaos + Vitality. There’s a number of damage conversion options out there right now to help reduce it from 3 types to 2 types for some builds.
I haven’t read this thread exhaustively, so sorry if what I am about to say has already been said.
Some comments on other, ray-like channel abilities:
Necromancer has Drain Essence, which has the ADCtH, as you would like. It also happens to branch out to nearby mobs.
Inquisitor has Flames of Ignaffar, which has %Weapon damage, also as you would like. It also has AOE (I believe).
There is also the Acid Purge skill granted by Seal of Blight, which has fairly decent base damage and %weapon damage, with the same mechanic as FoI from Inquisitor.
My point here is that some of the key things you ask for in AAR (AoE, ADCtH, %Weapon Damage) are already present in other abilities. I’m not saying AAR shouldn’t have them - quite the contrary. Rather, if they are in other abilities, why not AAR?
To me, AAR has always been the “Single target delete beam”. So in my opinion, it shouldn’t have AoE. Instead, it should do a huge amount of single target DPS (with or without % weapon damage). Then, I’d modify the modifier (ha) to modify total damage by -10%, convert to chaos, and add ADCtH. Obviously, one doesn’t want to infringe upon Necro’s Drain Essence, but I believe there would be enough of a difference.
I’m not an expert with AAR, as I generally find it rather boring to play with. But that isn’t going to stop me airing my thoughts on the matter
I personally prefer diversity in skills, so with ADCtH, 100% Piercing and %WD already booked how about AAR “proc’ing” a Invoker’s Shard type skill where projectiles circle around you damaging anything too close. This contributes to single target and helps somewhat with AoE
Personally I think simply increasing the base damage should suffice as I view it as a single target skill and there appear to be a bunch of more convenient skills I’d rather use than AAR atm. So buffing its base damage should be good imo
