arcanist

PvE DPS GUIDE

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Arcanist relies on timing, positioning and aim rather than a perfect sequence of casts. This makes it very accessible and rewarding to play. Its toolkit is dominated by Fatecarver, which pumps out enormous amounts of damage but requires the player to build up Crux beforehand, track their target and channel the ability for its entire duration, which can be tricky if you need to block regularly. Arcanist also has exceptionally strong burst damage and brings some unique and valuable buffs to group content.

KEY PASSIVES

12% Critical Damage & Healing is the largest flat amount provided by any comparable passive. It is also easy to keep up and rewards us for constantly building and spending Crux.

This adds up to a lot of extra damage, especially to the Burning, Poisoned and Hemorrhaging status effects. So always incorporate these 3 into your rotation if you can.

5% extra Weapon & Spell Damage from Harnessed Quintessence is very valuable, and Hideous Clarity makes permanent uptime possible, so these passives make a powerful combo.

Equivalent to other ultigen passives, this lines up well with Fatecarver, and we are particularly dependent on it since the beam keeps us from Light Attacking much of the time.

Magicka

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

Boss Setups


Null Arca + Runecarver + Maelstrom Inferno + Ur-Mage

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Mask Divines Magicka
Shoulders Null Arca Arm Cops Divines Magicka
Chest Null Arca Jack Divines Magicka
Hands Null Arca Bracers Divines Magicka
Waist Runecarver's Blaze Sash Divines Magicka
Legs Null Arca Guards Divines Magicka
Feet Null Arca Boots Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Runecarver's Blaze Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Runecarver's Blaze Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Runecarver's Blaze Dagger Charged Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand Runecarver's Blaze Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand Maelstrom Inferno Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

Ansuul + Azureblight + Maelstrom Inferno + Ur-Mage

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Ansuul's Arm Cops Divines Magicka
Chest Azureblight Jack Divines Magicka
Hands Azureblight Bracers Divines Magicka
Waist Azureblight Belt Divines Magicka
Legs Azureblight Guards Divines Magicka
Feet Azureblight Boots Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ansuul's Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ansuul's Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Ansuul's Dagger Nirnhoned Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand Ansuul's Dagger Precise Poison
Back Bar Main Hand Maelstrom Inferno Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

Deadly Strike + Order's Wrath + Ur-Mage

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Order's Wrath Epaulets Divines Magicka
Chest Deadly Jack Divines Magicka
Hands Deadly Bracers Divines Magicka
Waist Deadly Belt Divines Magicka
Legs Deadly Guards Divines Magicka
Feet Deadly Boots Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of the Order's Wrath Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of the Order's Wrath Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Dagger of the Order's Wrath Charged Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand Dagger of the Order's Wrath Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand Inferno Staff of the Order's Wrath Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

Null Arca + Sentinel + Maelstrom Inferno + Ur-Mage

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Highland Sentinel Arm Cops Divines Magicka
Chest Null Arca Jack Divines Magicka
Hands Null Arca Bracers Divines Magicka
Waist Null Arca Belt Divines Magicka
Legs Null Arca Guards Divines Magicka
Feet Null Arca Boots Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Highland Sentinel Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Highland Sentinel Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Highland Sentinel Dagger Charged Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand Highland Sentinel Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand Maelstrom Inferno Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Ansuul is a good default since it has no conditions beyond the interrupt bonus. Null Arca offers more focused proc damage.

  • Runecarver works great with Banner slotted, but Azureblight will outperform against 3+ stacked enemies.

  • Deadly has lower damage potential against single targets, but has no conditions and is a simpler, all-round consistent set.

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 1-2 x Light is recommended, but adjust the Medium-to-Light ratio depending on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • You can make the rotation easier by swapping the Maelstrom Inferno for Blackrose Daggers on the back bar (replace Blockade with Cloak). Damage is not too far behind, so long as you stay in melee range.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Thaumaturge - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance and all necessary penetration and crit buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered regularly, drop Exploiter and slot Master-at-Arms to boost your direct damage instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Firsthold Fruit & Cheese Plate
or
Thrice-Baked Gorapple Pie
or
Tomato Garlic Chutney

Increase Max Magicka by 6048 for 35 minutes.

Food > Fruit
Jazbay Grapes, Cheese
Apples, Saltrice
Tomato, Garlic

Tri Restoration Potion
or
Essence of Health

Restore 8369 Health, 7582 Magicka, and 7582 Stamina immediately.

Grants Major Fortitude, Major Intellect, and Major Endurance which increase your Health Recovery, Magicka Recovery, and Stamina Recovery by 30% for 36.3 seconds.

These effects are scaled based on your level. (45 second cooldown)

Bugloss, Columbine, Mountain Flower

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Max-level Savoury recipes for Health + Magicka
Ghastly Eye Bowl for Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Crunchy Spider Skewer for Magicka + Stamina Recovery
Witchmother’s Potent Brew for Health + Magicka + Magicka Recovery

Essence of Spell Power for Major Sorcery + Prophecy + Intellect
Tri Restoration Potions for Major Fortitude + Intellect + Brutality

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Barbed Trap*, Exhausting Fatecarver, Cephaliarch’s Flail, Quick Cloak, Banner Bearer / Camouflaged Hunter, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Blockade of Fire, Fulminating Rune, Scalding Rune, Inspired Scholarship, Banner Bearer / Camouflaged Hunter, The Languid Eye

*Although we already have Minor Force from Ur-Mage, we still want Trap for the DOT and Hemorrhaging uptime.

ROTATION
128k DPS

Both morphs of Fatecarver remain very strong; Exhausting has better damage and should improve Stamina sustain, while Pragmatic offers better survivability and can help with Magicka sustain.

Inferno and Bow front bars also work, but Daggers offer better stats and access to Blade Cloak, which helps keep glyph uptimes nice and high. The basic combo is to build 2 Crux with Flail (we get the rest from Scholarship and Banner), then spend it with Fatecarver. Other than that, refresh Trap and Fulminating Rune every 20s, and drop the Eye whenever it is ready.

Precast Cloak, Scholarship, Scalding Rune and Trap. Then start the fight with Eye, Blockade, Fulminating Rune and Flail(s).

Try to use the beam’s long duration to think ahead and calculate your next few casts, as well as any incoming Off-Balance phases. The more dynamic you can make the rotation, the higher the damage potential. Always Light Attack, even with Ur-Mage equipped. To bar swap smoothly after Flail, wait for the tentacle arm to appear before swapping. Do not recast Trap or either of the Runes in the last 8-10s, and spam Flail and Fatecarver until the target is dead. Enjoy!

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Prior Thierric’s Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Prior Thierric’s Epaulets Divines Magicka
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Magicka
Hands Burning Spellweave Gloves Divines Magicka
Waist Burning Spellweave Sash Divines Magicka
Legs Burning Spellweave Breeches Divines Magicka
Feet Burning Spellweave Shoes Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan’s Torment Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan’s Torment Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Inferno Staff of Sul-Xan’s Torment Nirnhoned/Precise Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Thaumaturge - Wrathful Strikes

The best CPs depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently.

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Ring of Preservation / Pulsar, Exhausting Fatecarver, Cephaliarch’s Flail, Inner Light / Quick Cloak, Camouflaged Hunter, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Blockade of Fire, Anti-Cavalry Caltrops, Fulminating Rune, Proximity Detonation, Inspired Scholarship, The Languid Eye / Fiery Rage

CAVEATS

Fatecarver beats Pulsar in tight stacks. Slot the latter for looser stacks or if you are struggling to sustain Flail.

The Languid Eye is best against tight stacks or high-priority targets, but Fiery Rage covers a larger area.

Stamina

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

Single Target

Riptide + Nirn/Deadly + Maelstrom Inferno + Ur-Mage

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Mask Divines Stamina
Shoulders Pillar of Nirn Arm Cops Divines Stamina
Chest Coral Riptide Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Coral Riptide Bracers Divines Stamina
Waist Coral Riptide Belt Divines Stamina
Legs Coral Riptide Guards Divines Stamina
Feet Coral Riptide Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Pillar of Nirn Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Pillar of Nirn Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Pillar of Nirn Dagger Charged Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Pillar of Nirn Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • No Light pieces are technically necessary. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • Azureblight performs extremely well in fights where 2+ targets are closely stacked.

  • Deadly is slightly behind Nirn for single target damage, but is very reliable and often performs better in content.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Thaumaturge - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance and all necessary penetration and crit buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered regularly, drop Exploiter and slot Master-at-Arms to boost your direct damage instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Bravil's Best Beet Risotto
or
Hearty Garlic Corn Chowder
or
Tenmar Millet-Carrot Couscous

Increase Max Stamina by 6048 for 35 minutes.

Food > Vegetable
Beets, Saltrice
Corn, Garlic
Carrots, Millet

Essence of Weapon Power

Grants Major Brutality which increases your Weapon Damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds.

Grants Major Savagery which gives you 2629 Weapon Critical Rating for 47.6 seconds.

Restore 7582 Stamina immediately.
Grants you Major Endurance which increases your Stamina Recovery by 30% for 47.6 seconds (45s cooldown).

Blessed Thistle
Dragonthorn
Water Hyacinth / Wormwood

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Max-level Ragout recipes for Health + Stamina
Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice for Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Dubious Camoran Throne for Health + Stamina + Stamina Recovery

Tri Restoration Potion for Major Intellect + Endurance + Fortitude

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Barbed Trap*, Exhausting Fatecarver, Cephaliarch’s Flail, Quick Cloak, Camouflaged Hunter, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Blockade of Fire, Fulminating Rune, Camouflaged Hunter, Scalding Rune, Inspired Scholarship, The Languid Eye

*Although we already have Minor Force from Ur-Mage, we still want Trap for the DOT and Hemorrhaging uptime.

ROTATION
120-125k DPS

Stamina Arcanist remains tough to beat in both optimised and casual situations, especially for cleave damage. Riptide + Deadly is still a solid all-round setup, although you may need to adjust for Flail’s increased cost.

Whatever sets you use, the priority is to build up Crux and fire Fatecarver as often as possible, watching DOT timers and Off-Balance phases as best you can. Using Minor Heroism to line up your ultimates with Off-Balance can take you past 125k DPS, and thanks to Scribing we can potentially get this from supports instead of expensive potions.

Prebuff by draining your Stamina to about 30% (spamming Camo works), then open with Cloak, Scholarship, Scalding Rune, Trap, Eye, Blockade, Fulminating Rune and Flail(s).

Drop Eye when ready or as Off-Balance begins, and always keep Light Attacking for ultigen and to proc your glyphs, even with Ur-Mage equipped. When bar swapping after Flail, wait for the tentacle animation to start before trying to swap. Do not recast Trap or either of the runes in the last 10s, then spam Flail and Fatecarver until the target is dead. Enjoy!

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw’s Guise Divines Stamina
Shoulders Burning Spellweave Epaulets Divines Stamina
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Hands Bracers of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Waist Belt of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Feet Boots of of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Weapon Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon Damage
Front Bar Main Hand The Master’s Greatsword Nirnhoned Flame
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 1-3 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Slimecraw for a Stormfist, Kra’gh or Skoria 1-piece, depending on what you need.

  • If you’re still missing penetration, use a Sharpened Master’s Maul on the front bar, upgrade to the Perfected version, equip more Light Armor pieces or slot more Herald of the Tome abilities on your front bar.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Thaumaturge - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently. If trash pulls are lasting longer and/or you are using Fatecarver as your primary trash ability, drop Master-at-Arms for Thaumaturge.

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Barbed Trap*, Exhausting Fatecarver, Cephaliarch’s Flail, Ring of Preseveration, Camouflaged Hunter, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Blockade of Fire, Anti-Cavalry Caltrops, Fulminating Rune, Proximity Detonation, Inspired Scholarship, The Languid Eye / Fiery Rage

*Do not use Barbed Trap in trash. It is there solely for the Fighters Guild Slayer passive.

CAVEATS

Carve + Master’s 2H is still fantastic for extra survivability, but Fatecarver has higher damage potential.

The Languid Eye is best against tight stacks or high-priority targets. Fiery Rage is better at covering a larger area.

Recent Changes

Update 44

  • Banner Bearer Grimoire introduced.

  • Azureblight Reaper set reworked. Base damage reduced, scaling damage per target massively increased.

  • Golden Pursuits and 2-sided Battlegrounds introduced.

  • Imperial City Keys and Vaults system replaced with Imperial Fragments and merchants.

Arcanist

  • Reduced the size of Impervious Runeward’s secondary shield by ~56%.

  • Reduced the healing granted by Runeguard of Freedom by 50%.

Update 43

  • Spattering Disjunction, Pyrebrand, Corpseburster, Umbral Edge, Beacon of Oblivion, Aetheric Lance & Aerie’s Cry sets added.

  • Curation added to dungeon-specific Undaunted Monster set shoulder coffers.

  • Undeath passive damage reduction lowered to 15% from 30%.

  • New arenas, bosses, Verses and Visions added to Infinite Archive.

  • Various Scribing tooltips tweaked, Affix Script compatibility increased.

  • Home Tours introduced.

Arcanist

  • Execute scaling removed from Cephaliarch's Flail.

  • Tentacular Dread bonus damage increased to 33% per Crux spent, up from 20%.

Gold Road (Update 42)

  • Scribing and Skill Styling systems introduced

  • Lucent Echoes and Highland Sentinel sets added.

  • Gradual Ravage Health potions fixed to not trigger item sets.

  • Various damage reduction effects fixed to be multiplicative rather than additive.

  • Mages Guild passive Everlasting Magic duration increased changed from 20% to 2s.

  • Delay added to Rush of Agony proc, range increased from 10m to 12m.

  • Various Werewolf abilities tweaked to increase its general effectives in PvE.

Arcanist

Scions of Ithelia (Update 41)

  • Status Effects system overhauled, bringing them closer together in power.

    • Burning damage reduced by 6%.

    • Chilled damage increased by 106%.

    • Concussed damage increased by 106%, plus 15% extra to recently Concussed enemies.

    • Diseased damage increased by 88%, AOE damage added.

    • Hemorrhaging damage reduced by 20%, stacking added, Mangle removed.

    • Overcharged damage increased by 106%, Magicka restore added.

    • Poisoned damage reduced by 30%, duration reduced, ramping execute added.

    • Sundered damage increased by 106%, bonus Weapon & Spell Damage added.

  • Charged trait reduced from 365% to 235% increased status effect chance.

  • Barbed Trap changed to apply Hemorrhaging only on the initial hit.

  • Guaranteed Sundered status effect added to Snipe.

  • Guaranteed Hemorrhaging status effect added to every tick of Lacerate.

  • Executioner changed from Physical to Bleed Damage.

  • Runecarver’s Blaze fixed to apply Burning more often; a significant damage increase.

  • Mantle of Siroria perfected bonus changed from Max Magicka to Weapon & Spell Damage.

  • Vitality and Defile changed to affect damage shield strength as well as healing.

  • Inner Rage cost reduced by 40%, damage reduced by 10%, multi-synergy added.

  • Inner Beast damage increased by 80%, Minor Vulnerability & Minor Maim added

  • Torc of the Last Ayleid King Mythic introduced.

  • Rewards system updated for XP, gold and Undaunted Keys

  • Buff/debuff tray updated to track taunt stacks.

  • Unified repair kits and stackable siege weaponry introduced

  • Role Play and Story playstyle options added to the Group Finder.

Arcanist

  • Fatecarver damage reduced by 7%.

  • Pragmatic Fatecarver shield strength reduced by 16% and capped at 50% Max Health.

  • Psychic Lesion bonus status effect chance reduced from 75% to 55%.

  • Fulminating Rune and Rune of Displacement radius increased to 6m and 10m respectively.