Arc

Tried it, but the problem imho (and form reading this thread i gather i`m not the only one thinking this), Arc suffers form

a) not hitting enough targets
b) basedamage is to "low" (1-xxx range), while not beeing able to "shotgun" and just hitting a limited number of targets once.

While using bloodmagic i didn`t care much about the cost of the spell (even with the 100% increase), but seeing as ur swarmed a lot of the times by masses of mobs you need to link chain to Arc, even then it doesn`t hit "much" and damage suffers. Yes you get shock-stacks pretty easy , but damage in PoE needs to be dealt fast.

I got it to work on maps, but it was suppar in all situations. Just by switching the Arc-Gem to AB, FP, FB, Spark, FR, DD, EK my killspeed (and as such my defense) increased dramaticaly.

Arc is the only Spell ingame which can only hit a very limited amount of targets, my guess is buffs should adress this issue atfirst.
Increase the chaining effect with gem-level, with a max of 5-6 chains at lvl 20.

Base-Damage of lighning spells is rather low/unreliable, probably cause of the way the shock-effect works. But Arc cannot shotgun, which is something that makes most other spells usefull (GMP, LMP), so i`d probably increase base-damage aswell.

I realy want Arc to work on a level others spells do, they buffed LW already, perhaps they might adress Arc soon.

This ability continues to suffer from the fact that it can only hit up to 3-5 targets and it's low damage effectiveness. Maybe it'll get buffed one day. Meanwhile I'll stick to lightning arrow.

The main problem, I see, with arc, is the wild fluctuation in damage. Its minimum damage is just too low. I agree lightning damage should be like this, but don't penalise support gems attached, that doesn't make sense to me as it defeats the purpose of other more reliable elements. It would be a far better choice if you could have the full benefit of added damage.

Forgot to add, with arcs already high mana cost, choosing added damage supports would require a mana heavy build. This would stop it being an obvious choice and make it a skill to build around.

Any of these improvements will solve the problem:

• Cast speed: 0.62 instead of 0.8
• Crit chance: 6% instead of 4%
• Increased damage (1.7 - 1.9 times)
• Chain 4 times instead of 2
• 3% chance to shock per 1% quality
• Reduce mana cost by half

Suggestion (regardless of the improvement method):
If there is no bouncing-partner calculate chance to shock as if all damage from all possible chains hits the target, but do not apply that damage.

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xanap wrote:

Give it some love, really!

Just make it so the 1st hit hits for 100% 2nd one for 50% and final one for 25%

100+50+25 - 175
50+50+50 - 150

So a small boost and the 1st target is hit harder. Than tone down the mana costs a bit (10 to 20% reduction). This would do a lot for this skill. Similar suggestions have been made, might be an issue with having varying damage efficiency across targets. Anyways with 100% dmg on 1st hit you can do solo targets better and it probably will help creating shock stacks (longer duration 1st target).

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Skinwah wrote:

Forgot to add, with arcs already high mana cost, choosing added damage supports would require a mana heavy build. This would stop it being an obvious choice and make it a skill to build around.

I tried some builds with Eldritch Battery and it worked well in terms of mana (2.5k mana and huge regen)

For example: this build
Based on cast speed, life pool and shield block for additional survivability (rarely stunned because of the large amount of HP). But damage output is very low.
In multiplayer games seems like I'm doing no damage in comparison with my mates. While they destroys pack of 10-15 monsters in 2-3 seconds (you know all that builds).

For now I'm trying to build 0.3 cast speed Arc build (with Haste, Blood Rage and 20% quality Culling Strike) but something tells me that it will be bad also.

Crit builds needs huge investment in crit passives (because of 4%) and leads to survivability issues.

Same for pure damage builds.

Stacking "shocked" fast (with good cast speed and elemental proliferation) seems like the only way.

I really like this spell but I cannot figure out how to make it work well (and fun).

That build is missing static blow and you are right up there, mistake while linking?

Sucks, doesn't look or feel like lightning at all, too slow, too weak.

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Ozgwald wrote:

That build is missing static blow and you are right up there, mistake while linking?

Just respeced it for shield block to try Tempest Shield with heavy support (Added Chaos, Added Lightning and Iron Will)