Arcanist (5): “Applies Arcane Debuff on all Crits. Each enemy with Arcane Debuff increases Total DMG by 20%.”
I have a hard time understanding the Arcanist - Arcanist & Ascendent Combo. Here’s how I think it works, so please correct me if I’m wrong:
A1. If I have Arcanist and my attack crits (Sureshot for instance!!), Arcane Debuff is applied. This can happen with any element attack.
A2. Arcane Debuff activates once the enemy takes Arcane DMG.
A3. Any following attack of any element gets the DMG increase.
A4. Arcane Debuff can be applied by Main AND Hireling seperately and they stack.
Now what I think why people use Ascendent:
B1. Due to Prismatic, the Arcane Effect can be applied to activate Arcane Debuff.
B2. When Arcane Effect is applied, all other resists are reduced by 62.5% (5). Once I guess?
Now that brings me to my other questions:
C1. Ignore Resist bypasses Resists, that means the Resist Reduction from Ascendent wouldn’t have any effect with it?
C2. How does the enemy resistance system work? Do they have max. 100% Resistance? If I reduce said Resistance by, say, 130% Resist do they have 0% or -30% Resist? -30% would then mean nominal DMG * 1.3, correct?
C3. Does enemy immune mean they have 100% Resist or are they really immune?
One last question:
D1. Mythic Effective chooses the enemy’s weakness (which has nothing to do with enemy resist?) and always deals 1.25*applied DMG? Which basically means a 25% increase in dealt DMG?
Thank you so much, I know it’s a lot of questions I really don’t get Arcanist and the whole resistance thingy.
Arcanist applies arcane debuff on all crits but of course that doesn’t work well unless you have the ascendant set. Ascendant is a Debuff (Dot-Debuff over time) which is why it works with Ascendant but not Elements set.
Arcane debuff does indeed come from critical attacks (if Ascendant is equipped) and the debuff is placed. Yes any element attack can be used and place debuff (which is why I use ice attacks with Arcanist+Ascendant). Arcane attacks you can use though because those Celestial Orbit Orbs are very powerful but completely optional.
Arcane debuff activates with any element you use as long as you Crit and are equipped Ascendant+Arcanist.
Yes Arcanist can be used by Main and Hirling separately and they do seem to stack. That’s why numbers like 65M power or 100M power are even possible in the first place. Super awesome when I found out as I could deal damage I never could do in solo play with Arcanist+Ascendant.
B1 and B2: The arcane effect from Ascendant I think comes from the Prismatic or the Arcanist Set combined but I’m not too sure. The effect is more noticeable though if using Arcanist with ascendant or wrath with just ascendant. Also, the all other resists being reduced by 62.5% effect is very strong and that’s why people use 90% weaken crystal affix with it. It is optional however to use ignore resist if you feel like it , although enough weaken can be just like ignore resist but has the 25% effective damage to the element (Ice beat fire best for eg).
C1: That should be about right. Ignore resist ignores resist calculations so it wouldn’t work with it. Ignore resist basically makes your attacks treat enemy as 0 resist therefore full potential damage as I said resist calculations ignored.
C2: Not exactly sure but I do know that if you go to 200% weaken cap or close to it, it would be basically Equivalent to ignore resist or probably stronger. I think it might be the case if you have Ascendant (5) and 90% weaken. I do know enemies have resist modifiers so maybe weaken reduces resist modifiers because I do know ignore resist reduces resist modifiers (Players don’t have it which is why it doesn’t work in PvP but Weaken does in PvP).
C3: Enemy immune means immune to Elemental Crits. This means immune to Paralyze, Toxic, Freeze, Immolate . However, if you have high % frostbiting and frozen set affix, it seems like the immune enemies will die anyways despite not being frozen due to such high damage from the previous frozen explosions combined (I know from experience as I even defeated mythic enemies which often are immune to frozen and enemies that say they are immune to the element. Raw DPS ftw .
D1: Yes. This means any enemy that is not normally weak to the element will always become weak to any elements. Ice enemies are not normally weak to ice, poison or shock but then they are. Maybe it doesn’t work all that well on immune enemies though.
Thank you @CuzegSpiked, that cleared some stuff up.
So what I understand now that Ascendent is the only thing that gives Arcane DoT, which is why it is mandatory for Arcanist to work. So I guess my questions now are:
I could use Ascendent on my main and Arcanist on my hireling, correct? Since the debuff gets “over time” if the enemy already has Arcane DoT applied?
The enemies have 75% resistance with “Greatly resists x” I guess? still can’t get my head around the resistance system for enemies, can they get negative resistances with Weaken > xx%? That would imply that higher damage values can be accomplished than with Ignore Resist.
What does Effective work exactly? What is its increase in damage? Is the damage calculated (with resistances etc.) and if the attack has an element the enemy is weak to, it adds 25% damage?
I have the question about like ascendent / elemental / and the wizard talent astral I think. Don’t they all do the same thing so do they stack and 2 cast could send 3 extra in diff elements out. Also you could add like mirror cast or specialist and really get those out there?
Well Ascendent does the same as Prismatic, it gives the chance to cast the attack with another element. But Ascendent does more, it also reduces all other resistances when a monster gets hit by an Arcane attack (Arcane Debuff over Time, which is mandatory for the Arcanist set debuff to be applied over time as well).
Elements works like MirrorCast, it gives you a chance to MirrorCast your spell, but with a random element (your first attack will be of the “normal” element of the weapon). So it doesn’t change your attack’s element, but casts it again with a chance (and it then might be of a different element).
Specialist recasts your special skill with a 1s delay, but only if you use your special skill.
So if you have MirrorCast, all your spells are copied with a chance. If you have Ascendent/Prismatic, the copy will most likely be a different element (but your first attack as well). Same goes for Specialist, only that it gives a chance to recast your special skill if you use it, and not all your skills.
MirrorCast and Elements should be two different mechanisms I think, so they should occur independently.
Well Ascendent and Prismatic do kind of the same (Ascendent doing more), but MirrorCast, Specialist and Elements all add up on that (more attacks).
So they do “stack”, they all co-exist adding additional attacks.
Oh man I was half given up on trying that theory thought no way but I think your right that 1 cast can get you like 4+ casts witch the way arena is reduced you still get all those casts witch is kinda insane considering how fast you can get your attack speed without selling your children for crystals
I’m wondering if Weaken affix also applies arcane debuff. I have Arcanist set affix in my build but i don’t have Ascendant for it. Arcanist set says “Weaken also applies arcane debuff”, so maybe Weaken affix can be a substitute to Ascendant to activate Arcanist’s ED multiplier?
in the 3.0 Patch, Arcanist went from using Crit Chance to using Weaken to work. also, Arcanist needs the Ascendant Set to work. the extra damage Arcanist gives lasts 0 seconds. Ascendant debuff lasts 5 seconds, giving Arcanist 5 seconds to do the extra damage. the Dictionary in the Codex still lists Crit Chance for Arcanist to work, but the description on the Set affix on the items correctly uses Weaken in the description.
Arcanist Set is basically a damage booster for the Ascendant Set. like the Plagued Set, the bigger the crowd of monsters, the more damage that can be dealt.
I really don’t get Arcanist and the whole resistance thingy.
. Arcane debuff included.
Thanks for clearing this up guys 