Drakmoon
Active member
The U80 preview focuses on changing how items contribute to Spell DCs, but I believe the more pressing issue for arcane nukers is damage output, not DC. Here's why:
Reason 1: Severe damage falloff in higher-difficulty content
In high-Reaper quests, spellcaster damage scales down dramatically, making it nearly impossible for arcane nukers to contribute meaningfully to DPS.
Reason 2: Arcane output is tightly bottlenecked by multiple hard caps
Spell damage is strictly limited by the 1-second global cooldown, individual spell cooldowns, spell point (SP) economy, and the limited pool of viable spells within each school. These constraints compound each other and create a hard ceiling on caster DPS.
Reason 3: DC for crowd control is already sufficient — even on fresh characters
Even a relatively new character can stack enough Will-targeting CC spells to control enemies in R10 content. What's lacking is not CC DC — it's the DC needed for instant-kill / nuke spells to actually land and eliminate enemies efficiently.
Reason 4: Only two arcane nuker archetypes have relevant DPS in high-Reaper and raid content
After extensive testing across all arcane nuker builds, only Arcane Trickster and Air/Ice Savant Sorcerers demonstrate viable DPS in high-Reaper and raid environments. All other arcane nuker builds are simply too weak to be relevant.
Reason 5: Dragonlord builds have largely replaced the DC spellcaster role
Dragonlord builds can now perform all the functions that DC-focused casters used to fulfill — and do it more efficiently — rendering the traditional DC caster role largely redundant.
Reason 6: The cost-to-performance ratio for arcane casters is unsustainable
I currently play an alignment- and fire-based Sorcerer, and I am a full completionist (all class, racial, and epic past lives completed). Yet to be even marginally relevant in R10 and raids, I still need to stack DCs across five spell schools — Evocation, Enchantment, Necromancy, Illusion, and Conjuration — plus spell power and spell crit for four damage types: Fire, Acid, Force, and Alignment. Even after all this investment, the character is mediocre at best, essentially optional in a group. Is this really the expected performance for a fully invested arcane caster? The trade-off between cost and actual power seems fundamentally broken.
My ask to the dev team: Rather than further adjusting item contributions to Spell DC, please consider targeted buffs to arcane damage output — whether through higher base spell damage, better damage scaling at high Reaper tiers, or reduced bottlenecks on nuker builds. Arcane spellcasters should feel impactful, not optional.
Reason 1: Severe damage falloff in higher-difficulty content
In high-Reaper quests, spellcaster damage scales down dramatically, making it nearly impossible for arcane nukers to contribute meaningfully to DPS.
Reason 2: Arcane output is tightly bottlenecked by multiple hard caps
Spell damage is strictly limited by the 1-second global cooldown, individual spell cooldowns, spell point (SP) economy, and the limited pool of viable spells within each school. These constraints compound each other and create a hard ceiling on caster DPS.
Reason 3: DC for crowd control is already sufficient — even on fresh characters
Even a relatively new character can stack enough Will-targeting CC spells to control enemies in R10 content. What's lacking is not CC DC — it's the DC needed for instant-kill / nuke spells to actually land and eliminate enemies efficiently.
Reason 4: Only two arcane nuker archetypes have relevant DPS in high-Reaper and raid content
After extensive testing across all arcane nuker builds, only Arcane Trickster and Air/Ice Savant Sorcerers demonstrate viable DPS in high-Reaper and raid environments. All other arcane nuker builds are simply too weak to be relevant.
Reason 5: Dragonlord builds have largely replaced the DC spellcaster role
Dragonlord builds can now perform all the functions that DC-focused casters used to fulfill — and do it more efficiently — rendering the traditional DC caster role largely redundant.
Reason 6: The cost-to-performance ratio for arcane casters is unsustainable
I currently play an alignment- and fire-based Sorcerer, and I am a full completionist (all class, racial, and epic past lives completed). Yet to be even marginally relevant in R10 and raids, I still need to stack DCs across five spell schools — Evocation, Enchantment, Necromancy, Illusion, and Conjuration — plus spell power and spell crit for four damage types: Fire, Acid, Force, and Alignment. Even after all this investment, the character is mediocre at best, essentially optional in a group. Is this really the expected performance for a fully invested arcane caster? The trade-off between cost and actual power seems fundamentally broken.
My ask to the dev team: Rather than further adjusting item contributions to Spell DC, please consider targeted buffs to arcane damage output — whether through higher base spell damage, better damage scaling at high Reaper tiers, or reduced bottlenecks on nuker builds. Arcane spellcasters should feel impactful, not optional.
Dev's please read this. Its accurate.
