Albrecht's Aether Ray Needs a Buff

[WolfOverclocked]

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.

Yeah, that’s what I mean. The mix of the cooldown/wind-up between getting, say, stunned. I think I just described wrong due to not paying attention to my own words.

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!

Spellbinder AAR is pretty awesome so far. It doesn’t need a set to be effective and there’s a lot of variety in the support skills you can choose from while using it, since the Spellbinder’s defense is so good.

I think the issue is AAR not dealing enough damage for what it is.

Time to throw my hat into the ring here as well.

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’d rather have AAR deal obscene single target damage than be an AoE.

And I’ll point this out here, I don’t care about AAR not piercing all that much because to me that’s never been an issue. Would I like it to pierce? Yeah, but most of the problems I’m having are when 1v1 fights happen against bosses and other monsters where the beam just doesn’t deal enough damage, especially when you have to run away or reposition a lot.

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

As I mentioned above, I like the idea of AAR being the single target, high damage ability it is. Piercing would be fine, but I don’t think it’s necessary given how many Arcanist abilities can do AoE damage, and the various combos can also bring that to the table (Siphon Souls, Canister Bomb, Sigil, even Shaman stuff, etc.).

I think the damage should be way higher, I think I may re-write the original post with this as the focus. AAR should be the gross single-target laser it was always meant to be. I think increasing the damage scaling with rank may ultimately be the solution to the problem.

[Chthon]

I think the damage should be way higher, I think I may re-write the original post with this as the focus. AAR should be the gross single-target laser it was always meant to be. I think increasing the damage scaling with rank may ultimately, be the solution to the problem.

Exactly this

Let’s not forget they did it to Cadence, I don’t see why AAR shouldn’t receive the same treatment (unless devastation is somehow coming into the balancing equation?)

[miyamotomusashi]

”AAR is dead to me”

DikkieDikk oct 2017

[Sykar]

Imho a big problem is that Crate seems to hate CC. I do not know why they think it is a good idea to hand out unbreakable permanent immunities but it is grating on my nerves. Using CC to keep enemies away should be a valid alternative to be able to facetank almost everything. If you want CC immunities give enemies breakers and short lasting immunities. This affects classes which rely heavily on CC quite severely like Sorcerer for example. On top of that these mobs often have great run speed, high HP, hit like trucks and/or even have charge abilities on low CD. This is just utterly absurd.
This shit is just silly in some parts especially the expansion.