Blackguard Arcmage needs another nerf

Yeah i usually summon them as a Spectre then the game turns into Super Easy Mode, guess why.

I really agree with this. It's not just the damage of Arc, it's that it regularly gets cast from off-screen, has no travel time and can't be avoided through movement and positioning like most other spells. All this together makes it too easy for an arcmage to zap you multiple times before you can possibly get to them.

Where do people get all these 1 shot complaints? I have NEVER been completely 1 shotted. I've been charged by dried lake map boss with 0 armor and lived. You people must be doing something wrong.

Hi

So yesterday after writing my post on this thread I met up with a group of 5 arcbitch champions and have to write that they fucked me up before I even saw them, 5 arcs at once. I suggest that the amount of arcbitches that are spawned in a group be toned down. Otherwise despite being one shotted by 5 arcs I still don't think there dam needs be nerfed since it was shock x 5 arcs that really fucked me over, its the amount of them that spawn in a group that could be looked at.

cheers

I find it comforting that the only reasoning not to nerf these is because I should be in map gear already when I'm leveling through act 3. As I said, I've had a lot of difficulty with these mobs on almost every build I've tried, and I do not have a dual totem character as some of you have mistakenly guessed. I just find totems useful with many builds. All the people I've partied there with have also had trouble.

I guess I could max lightning resistance in Cruel Act 3, then again in Merciless Act 3, but entirely skipping the level is a much simpler workaround.

"

Finkenstein wrote:

Hi

So yesterday after writing my post on this thread I met up with a group of 5 arcbitch champions and have to write that they fucked me up before I even saw them, 5 arcs at once. I suggest that the amount of arcbitches that are spawned in a group be toned down. Otherwise despite being one shotted by 5 arcs I still don't think there dam needs be nerfed since it was shock x 5 arcs that really fucked me over, its the amount of them that spawn in a group that could be looked at.

cheers

i would ask you for your stats but i know exactly what sort of response i will get

oh and 5 isnt a lot for a group lol

lightning resistances
topaz flasks
flasks that remove shock

aka

adapt

Hi

mvm199

"

oh and 5 isnt a lot for a group lol

5 arc champs blasting you off screen at once, cannot stress how much the at once was, is more then enough of a ''group'' even with 65% lit resist in merci, didn't even get a chance to hide behind something, no chance to drink flask, nada. The only group in the game that doesn't need line of sight and has a no need to target spell does not need a big group to fuck you up. So I figure lower the amount that can spawn in a group, problem solved. Easier to type adapt then it is to adapt when you are vaporized in a 5 instant arc shot unless at that point you stop lvling in the barracks.

cheers

"

johnKeys wrote:

I think Blackguard Mages - just like Whipping Miscreations - are a case of support mobs done wrong.

I love the concept of support mobs making fights harder/trickier, but a support mob should not be dangerous on it's own. they should be dangerous only due to the synergy with other mobs.

Mages are there to put shock stacks on you, and Lightning Thorns on ally tank mobs (Blackguards). Whipping Miscreations are there to put a Vulnerability Curse on you, making you prime target for tank mobs and primarily titty-gunners.
both should never be allowed to crit-one-shot you on their own, or go into an off-screen Arc-frenzy. both should be squishy enough (compared to tank mobs in same area) to be prioritised and taken out quickly by the player.
both, are currently neither.
and just like everything else in the game, melee characters suffer from this the most.

I do rather agree with the idea of making the support characters more supporty.

Something simple like making mages not cast 'arc' as such, but monster 'arc', with a massively increased shock duration but massively decreased damage.

So while the shock stacks work just the same, the damage does not. You take maybe 25% of the damage, but you get shocked about 150% as often.

That is scary. They aren't dealing damage to you, so you don't 'fear' them as such, but at the same time, leaving them there makes them super super dangerous because of shock stacks + thorns.

It does need line of sight. (From the caster to the target.)

These enemies are hard, and that's good. They're designed to be the mob you have to target first; just like necromancers, grapplers, voidbearers, tentacle miscreations and alchemists (as someone else already pointed out in the thread), depending on your build and gear. If you don't have a way to deal with the most dangerous enemies first, then you will find most of these situations challenging unless you are over-geared.

Your specific example is not a reason to nerf them. One pack of 5 magic Archmages doesn't happen very often. There are lots of awesome crazy-RNG situations that can occur that make for a super-hard game, that is part of the fun of PoE. Try fighting two undead rhoa rares where one has the faster attacks/movespeed aura, for eg.

I do agree that archmages are one of the hardest enemies to deal with if you're not geared to deal with them, though. You can outrun most rhoas unless they have move-speed, you can dodge or out-distance tentacle miscreations, you have enough reaction time for voidbeaers to switch gear or pop a flask, you can avoid enemies on the ground if there's a detonate dead totem, etc...
But if your build/gear setup make you weak to archmages, you're screwed.

Necromancers are another enemy like this - unless you can destroy corpses, or somehow fight the necro first, and your dps isn't enough to just mow down each enemy as it respawns, you can end up in a situation where you can't actually progress.

A good example to think about is Brutus. When you first fight him (eg: in a race), he is hard if you aren't geared for him. Ever tried fighting him at level 9 with just a bow and whatever gear happened to drop for you up to that point? He's exceptionally hard, especially in turbo! However, it is possible to beat him by kiting, using potions and walls correctly, and portalling if you need to. It's also easy to beat him if you have better gear, or something like decoy totem or skeletons to distract him, or a good single-target dps skill like cleave, or traps, or viper-strike, or lots of life-on-gear and life-gain on hit, etc etc... but the point is, it's possible to beat him if even if you aren't set up for it, just by being better at playing.

However, it's not possible to beat arcmages like this. Whatever you do, they will always hit you, and if they out-dps your healing ability, then there's nothing you can do about them. Imagine if brutus had Arc instead of his normal skills, for eg. Most builds would find him much easier, especially with some lightning resistance! But some would find him literally impossible.

Basically, they are very hard to deal with through good play-style if you are not set up to fight them. The only way to deal with them is to have the right gear or build. You should be able to see why this is frustrating for some people.

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tl;dr? Archmages are not too powerful, and do not need a nerf.
However, they could benefit from being less of simply just a gear-check, and more of a skill+gear check.