So I am having my doubts about AAR still being the strongest single target ability of the Arcanist, since it’s long–ranged and designed for AOE apparently.
Is there a another skill (in terms of available builds that use that skill as main damage source) that has more single-target capability than the AAR ones? I’ve never really tried Callidor’s Tempest, for example, and can’t really estimate if it might be better or worse in terms of single-target dmg.
Thank you :3
seems like now the best single-target skill from Arcanist is TSS.
Do you know what the frequency is when you have 200% cast speed? (Without CD reducing augmentation through items)
Casting Speed doesn’t directly influence the frequency you cast cooldown spells with.
I agree with @afanasenkov26 in that TSS always has been and always will be much stronger for single targets than AAR.
I mean, the frequency is so slow, it can’t be on avg more effective vs single target than AAR.
Ah right meh, rip single target arcanist
Maybe play Reaping Arc Spellbinder
| Skill (link to YT) | Item (link to GrimTools) | Damage types | Item type | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reaping Arc | Uroboruuk’s Reaping | Weapon, Vitality, Aether, Vitality Decay | mythical relic | 90 |
Hasn’t been nerfed that much, right? Also the weapon was nerfed.
Don’t see why that’s a rip. Arcanist’s single target is still high even on cooldown skills and it shows in some of it’s combos like Sorcerer, Spellbinder, Druid or Spellbreaker.
There are plenty of ways to get TSS to out perform AAR. Frequency is the least of ones concerns if done properly. Gear & devotions will easily close the gap for you.
Okay then I will have a closer look at it 
Interesting, but not main dmg source from Arcanist
Here is some math.
Good AAR build has 170k-200k sheet DPS from the ray in average. Since a part of the damage is DoT, real dealt DPS in spam mode will be around 150k-170k (without crits).
TSS:
TSS in a good build has around 1.3-1.9 seconds cooldown. Taking into account Eternity relic, average CD will be around 1.3 seconds or so.
Each projectile deals around 50k-60k damage in average, but around 40% of this damage is DoT, which in spam mode will be re-applied before its full duration and won’t deal full sheet damage. Roughly we can estimate average damage of one projectile in spam mode as around 40k-45k.
Average medium-lucky cast of TSS deals 3 projectile strikes to one target (with assumption that build has 4-5 projectiles and/or reduced target area). It results in 120k-130k damage per cast or around 100k DPS in spam mode.
TSS in average has better crit multiplier than AAR. Also, in real game you usually don’t need to spam TSS to one target (since one cast with subsequent DoT kills the enemy). And when you need (against bosses), enemy models are generally bigger and allow 4 projectile shots for average cast.
/—
The last point makes the real in-game performance against single target approximately the same as AAR. So, I can’t agree with comments that TSS is better, but it worth using it with no doubts.
That is not math, that is a series of estimated numbers and assumptions with no evidence.
It would make more sense to look at actual top-tier builds for AAR and TSS and as the thread is about single target to compare their dummy kill times and performance in SR boss rooms or in campaign against single Bosses like Nemeses/Celestials to remove the factors caused by mutators.
Real builds have more than 1 active skill, devotion procs and many other things. So, we can compare builds overall performance, but not skill overall performance (or at least this comparison will be an ideal sphere in vacuum). And I have never ever seen that top tier builds overall performance in crucible or SR would show a clear advantage of TSS over AAR or vice versa. If you have doubts regarding the estimations, then which exactly? DPS of AAR I checked against several good builds with different damage types, the same for TSS damage per projectile. TSS can do better single-target damage only in case of lucky 4-5 projectiles hit with some crit on top. Under procs and resistance reductions it might deal huge damage, but the AAR can do this as well.
Sure, you can’t just compare a skill’s isolated performance as is the case with just AAR and TSS here but I don’t see a practical reason in doing so as no endgame build will solely just use these skills. I would argue that the rest of the build is just as important and in the case of stats like RR application or crit damage should not be ignored as every build will have them.
But how many of these “lucky” moments does TSS have over the course of a fight? It’s not just enough to examine their performance in bursts or without hard evidence. What I suggested again if you want to compare both skills to each other is finding other builder’s videos or testing them yourself and showcasing fights for both in prolonged singular encounters to get the best idea of average damage output over time.
SR Boss rooms, Nemeses and Celestials are also important to show sturdiness as it’s easy to make pure glass cannons but in a realistic setting, you cannot deal damage while you are dead. So it’s a matter of seeing how much offense can be squeezed out while maintaining good enough defense.
I played with both TSS and AAR, it was a cold lightning druid tss and a fire sorc aar. I think that the continuous damage is also nice from AAR specially since you can just mow the whole field down now. TSS with 1.2 sec cooldown is like having constantly an airstrike ready with 4 frost missiles that with get up tp 250 -300 k each of the 4 hits or so, but not often reaching the full damage potential.
Are you assuming the TSS build will just be standing there while TSS’s cd comes back? Most TSS builds have a spam skill to use in the meantime (chain lightning, for example). Furthermore, AAR is a channeling skill, so it needs to be standing in place to reach maximum DPS output, which is a problem in hard content. In real fights, you will constantly have to interrupt AAR to cast utility skills, kite, or due to incoming damage from mobs. Thus, as Evil_Baka pointed out, I also think that comparing dummy or boss kill timers would be a lot more useful than your estimated numbers. If you are going to estimate, at least include the damage of the filler skill in between TSS’s cds.
I did not compare TSS-based and AAR-based builds and never declared this. Topic starter asked about DPS of certain skill and I attempted to answer. In terms of builds comparison I already answered to Evil_Baka that there are no evidences that AAR-based ones outperform TSS-based in crucible or vice versa.
Yes, TSS builds have a filer skill, but AAR builds also have hard hitters like doom bolt, devastation or reap spirit. And when you cast the filer, you can’t kite, similar to AAR builds situation. Also, a skill with cd in real world can’t be in average casted immediately after cooldown refresh, so the practical in-game cd will be longer. Thus, I don’t really get the idea of your arguments and don’t see a matter for dispute. I just demonstrated with real in-game numbers that TSS can’t outperform or even reach AAR in single-target sheet DPS if we are talking about spam-mode, but also said that with real in-game scenarios its DoT part allows to achieve similar overall results, which is proved by similar crucible times and achieved SR of corresponding builds. I also don’t argue with fact that within a short period of 1-2 casts TSS can do better damage because of lucky multiprojectile hit and better crit multiplier.
Ok, guys. But what about Callidor’s Tempest? It’s range is low and it is spammable. Any experience with that?