@bog: to add to what my m8 @Boromonokli is saying, i suppose an easier way to think about it is to flip the question around…can you name one other 1-or-2 noder skill capable of carrying a build to the same extent as AAR?
the closest one I can think of is my doom bolter, but as lee said, it uses sigil of consumption, double skate mechanic, 4x skill modifiers, 3x items for conversion, and every single offensive vitality devotion there is
i wouldn’t say “every.” There certainly are exceptions
I cant name even 4-noder skills fitting that criteria…
Though Doom Bolt and Storm Totem are still decent skills.
2% crit dmg per skillpoint? it’s not worth it, lol (unless going DoT build).
Phantasmal blades, drain essence, are some which comes to mind
Firestrike, savagery…but even these skills need WPS to perform
So it’s evident to me that 1-or-2 noder skills shouldn’t perform to the same level as these skills.
Look at the inherent crit value of disintegration.
Couple that with 25% crit from elemental balance, deadly aim, and arcane empowerment, etc.
a bunch of that is from inquisitor only (21-28% )… Warlocks don’t get deadly aim, and don’t get either RR or even full conversion to chaos.
Imo, just replace flat aether to aar from clairvoyant set with flat vitality and tone down the crit on disintegration. This should be enough.
no it wouldn’t be. Lightning AAR is extremely powerful
got a good comparison between Lit AAR Druid and Lit AAR Mage Hunter? From the mastery kit, the passive RR, the free 21% crit damage boni, and the seal look much better on paper than the wind devils that need to be recast time to time, eating into the DPS.
If the problem is Lit AAR MH, then look at the MH options first before potentially throwing druids under the proverbial train.
I really don’t want AAR except for maybe some mods for aether/lightning AAR.
Another option would be to have diminishing damage to enemies behind the Initial target, like 10% less dmg per pierced enemy (1st target takes 100% dmg, 2nd 90%, 3rd 80% and so on). This might be a little harder to code, but it would add nice flavour to the skill and be a middle ground between today’s piercing AAR and old non piercing AAR. A matching visual that gets thinner and thinner would be even more work, but also even more awesome! 
I dont understan you. The more crit dmg you have, the less benefit you get from another +2%. It’s the natural outcome of linear scaling.
It’s the same as say “all 1-2 noder skills must be secondary only”. It’s a flawed logic. According to it, developers should either add an extra node to ALL 2-noder “primary” skill, or laber those skills as “noob traps”.
Well, all 1-noder skills are secondary, to be honest (even Storn Totem and Doom Bolt - they all have CDs, after all).
And MH-s dont max overload, arcane empowerement and elemental balance… Skillpoints are limited and there are better options to put them into.
As for warlock… well, why would you want to use chaos damage for class combination without chaos RR? Why dont get Sorcerer instead?
because occultist doesnt have support for aether, fire, or lightning to any reasonable extent, and single-rr vitality damage is a sad vitality damage.
The main thing chaos occultist has going for it is flat chaos, which is useless if you have no or low %WD. Warlock as a chaos caster makes little to no sense.
Just because other options are bad, doesn’t mean chaos option is good. Occultist has arguably more support for elemental AAR than chaos due to RR. Also clairvoyant gives CoF aether RR. Black Flame should maybe provide some chaos RR… Ohwait it does, for Inquisitor.
great design, right?
which is still behind MH and binder. If you do a general nerf, without giving warlocks compensation, you’ll just punish warlocks for no good reason.
On the same tier as AAR? Only pre nerf retal DE did that.
But if we’re talking about the strongest standalone skills right now, standalone meaning just that skill and other general passives not including wps then after AAR and PB, I guess it’s the demo trio of mortar, canister and bwc, all three nodes since you invest in ulzuin’s chosen in canister. Stuff like the vindicator trio (box+devil+totem) need to be together to be effective, same with CT+devastation. Autoattack skills need WPS too, even dw cadence needs it.
there’s definitely something with AAR being on the same tier as all those skills with only two nodes of investment. But i get the feeling that if the base skill is nerfed it’s gonna turn out to be real bad for all AAR builds unless clair is somehow untouched.
Dude. You’re challenging just about everyone who made any contribution to arcanist meta. Now that crit is better than ever since there’s more oa, no total dmg redux, more racial and generally more dmg to be multiplied.
Get outta here! 
No way m8! 
Warlock is just a bad AAR class overall currently. Either give Warlock AAR sets more occultist boni reguardless of nerfing or not nerfing AAR or might aswell give up on Warlock as an AAR class. Only reason to use Black Flame for Occultist is if you wanna play a Sigil build.
I don’t understand it either. I’m just telling you what testing has revealed.
Stacking OA and crit past the point of diminishing return somehow synergizes very well together.
Again, this isn’t true. Why can’t a build revolve around several skills?
The allagast vindicator uses stormbox as its primary attack, but there’s no way in hell its going to achieve the same results without totems and wind devils.
Light’s defender quick-jack builds likewise revolve around storm shards + storm totems if going elementalist, or SBoE if going purifier.
Your classic trozan TSS build uses TSS as a main attack, but again couples it with sigil or with wind devils.
The list goes on.
The fact that AAR is capable of outperforming most builds as a standalone two-noder just shows you the discrepancy in firepower.
yeah, this. It also kind of dumbs down all the beauty of making top-tier builds in GD. Like other broken skills did in their time.
Also, let’s not forget PRM, another great Arcanist skill that Zantai nerfed for some reason recently. It requires a quadrupple metric ton of skill points, a 4 item set, Spellgaze helmet, Panetti Wand and Mark of the Shadow Queen to be as efficient as possible (and don’t forget quite a bit of min-maxing you have to put into something like PRM Mage Hunter). But then there is AAR that does everything PRM does but better and for fraction of a price.
Not all skills should be equally powerful, in ideal world all skills should have something unique to them in terms of gameplay and making your builds around them. But when one skill is such an outlier, it kind of makes all other skills seem meh in comparison.
Same with warborn EoR back in 1.1.1.2
Aside from warborn set, everything else was just used as a stat stick to drive up the oupieness of the skill.
Exactly. EoR feels like it’s in a good place right now. Yes, it’s still very strong and you can build your whole build around it, but it’s no longer immortal lawn mower it used to be. You have to care about defenses, proper stat balancing, getting enough sustain, playing more carefully, etc. etc. and you get anywhere from 6 to 7 minute on pure EoR builds, mostly above 6:30, which seems more than fair for 1 skill builds.