Gear Review and Alternatives
For the most part there is almost no significant difference in terms of single target numbers between using Deadly Strikes or Pillar of Nirn although Deadly in some cases may win out very slightly ahead depending on the success of your rotation.
Due to how Bahsei's Mania scales as the "Magicka counterpart" to Coral (the "Stamina" counterpart) along with the fact that sustain can be difficult on a more Magicka oriented Arcanist, we are going with 64 points into Stamina and equipping all Medium Armor for every armor slot.
Simply put, in cases where you may still be learning the rotation or learning/performing mechanics during a fight that requires you to not channel the Exhausting Fatecarver beam, Pillar of Nirn will win out. Whereas in the most ideal fights for the uninterrupted usage of Exhausting Fatecarver, Deadly will win out (think trash fights, or boss fights where you don't have to roll dodge or block too much throughout the fight).
You can refer to the video guide for more elaboration on this topic however what's to be required essentially is the Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet mythic as the long channel time of your Exhausting Fatecarver essentially prohibits you from keeping up Relequen or Light Attacks consistently.
Note that you STILL NEED TO LIGHT ATTACK to proc your frontbar enchantments!
For trash you can go with the following:
| 1x Slimecraw |
| 1x Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet |
| 5x Azureblight (Body) |
| 5x Deadly Strikes (Jewelry, Frontbar) |
| 1x Maelstrom Inferno Staff |
If not Azureblight (if there's already another person in your group running it), you can run Sul-Xan (more space between each trash encounter) or Coral (back to back trash fights) instead.
Skills and Rotation
You can pre-buff 3 Crux before a fight is initiated so that you can use a fully buffed 3-Crux Exhausting Fatecarver very early into your rotation (which means bigger DPS at the start).
Since you are utilizing Coral Riptide for essentially every instance, you need to make sure you start at around 30-35% of your Max Stamina pool.
Stay about 4-5 meters away from your target as you start your opening rotation.
Opening Rotation on a target is as follows:
- Cast Inspired Scholarship
- Barswap and use Deadly Cloak
- Barswap and use Scalding Rune
- Approach target as you barswap and cast Barbed Trap
- Barswap and Light Attack weave into Blockade of Fire
- Barswap and apply Cephaliarch's Flail to the target
- Barswap and apply Fulminating Rune to the target
- Cast The Languid Eye Ultimate
- Barswap and cast Exhausting Fatecarver
After the initial Exhausting Fatecarver, you should be able to cast 2x Cephaliarch's Flails and cast a 2nd Exhausting Fatecarver as your backbar DoTs run out.
At this point in the rotation you just try to keep your Stamina as low and manageable as possible while you keep up your Damage Over Time effects as best as possible all the way through execute as well.
It is important to try to line up your Languid Eye with an Exhausting Fatecarver when possible.
If you want a much easier rotation, you can take out Scalding Rune and replace it with a Fighters Guild ability that you DON'T cast. This skill bar flexibility is actually really nice because in actual content you can slot utility or healing abilities without any major loss of damage unlike a few other classes in ESO.
Alternately, you can run (depending on fights or encounters) the following skill setups:
Note that Boss 1 is Exarchanic Yaseyla Hard Mode, Boss 2 is the Chimera Hard Mode and Boss 3 is Ansuul the Tormentor Hard Mode in Veteran Sanity's Edge.
Trash rotation is pretty straight forward, you just keep up your DoTs and abilities (ideally always have Deadly Cloak, timed Proximity Detonation and Inspired Scholarship up before you engage trash), apply Cephaliarch's Flail and cast Exhausting Fatecarver on trash when you get 3 Crux for huge damage numbers.
For dungeons, you could run Runeguard of Freedom on the backbar in place of an AOE skill like Scalding Rune or Caltrops for additional survivability.
Craft
Warfare
Fitness
Champion Points Review
The Medium Armor's Critical Damage passive on top of the Arcanist's Critical Damage passive plus Minor Force and presence of Elemental Catalyst in a Trial group will allow you to not slot Champion Point slottables such as Backstabber or Fighting Finesse.
Warfare slottables as a result are pretty straightforward as we're focusing on the damage of Exhausting Fatecarver. Since the skill is AOE-based, a Damage over Time effect and can be timed easily with the Languid Eye ultimate on Off Balanced targets, the Thaumaturge, Biting Aura and Exploiter slottables are perfect for the class. Furthermore since the beam is NOT a single-target skill, you don't need Deadly Aim and Wrathful Strikes will be much more useful than Deadly Aim or Master-at-Arms as the Beam isn't a single direct-damage hit based skill either.
Due to Exhausting Fatecarver's demand for Stamina cost as it channels combined with the fact that you are running Coral Riptide that also demands a low running Stamina pool, it's highly recommended you use the Expert Evasion and Slippery slottables in the Fitness tree when running content.
Rejuvenation can be nice for parsing on a dummy with bi-stat food (Fitness).
Introduction
The Arcanist being the newest class in The Elder Scrolls Online has brought uncertainty and doubt into how viable or how optimal the class may be for a variety of roles or scenarios including dealing damage in endgame content.
A lot of players think due to the low APM playstyle of the Arcanist and the fact almost half of its total damage comes from the Exhausting Fatecarver skill showcased on a raid dummy, it may not be so great however people may be severely underestimating the burst and sustained damage potential of the class for actual content.
In this guide, we'll be going over all of what you need to hit the max potential damage ceiling for the Arcanist class and how to utilize it in content that may prove challenging for many to use depending on their experience level.
It's recommended that for comfort and for damage optimization, you spec all 64 Attribute Points into Stamina. We'll explain why this is so in the gear section below.
Recommended race: Altmer (High Elf) or Dunmer (Dark Elf); for solo or 4-man content Khajiit will have an advantage.
Recommended food will be a bi-stat Health and Magicka food. For parsing or for fights where you don't need that extra health, you can use "parse foods" such as Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice!
Recommended Mundus will be The Thief (for group content like Trials).