A Different Way to Play

[RiceisNice]

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There's no "support" associated with arcanist or even using a topaz/titan in most circumstances. You're fighting with the tank for aggro, which can shift enemy positionals.
>The "Support" aspect is not exclusive to arcanist, and is done equally by any competent scholar or even summoner. I really have a hard time understanding what you mean by this, unless you're talkinga bout virus and eye for an eye (which again, are not exclusive to just arcanist)
>If you try to take up healing, chances are it's not very much since physic is quite literally the only healing spell you'd have as an arcanist. Unless the tank is severely overgeared, your heals would barely catch up with anything, though honestly there's a big problem if it comes to relying on arcanist heals in a typical party setup.

You mention you do all of this in WoD. At this point in the game, I usually see people who slack or straight up troll in WoD by crossing provoke, auto-attack afk, or w/e. The way i see it though? If you're playing as an arcanist, you're straight up lowering your overall damage output (which is what you're queuing as, a damage dealer) by foreging abilties like fester and overall lower pet potencies with a topaz, your heals won't ever break 800 to clutch anything.

In the end, it really does not have a place in end game content even if you do get the gear level. You'd only end up holding back your entire party because your dps has a very very low celling as an arcanist, and problems can arise with a topaz/titan egi fighting for aggro on adds or bahamut himself (on top of the lost damage/contagion). It'll also bother some players if you're the one that's slowing down the party in a farm or expert dungeon by anywhere from 3-10 minutes per clear.

For general play with friends? Go nuts. That's probably what the low level content was for anyway. It's so incredibly loose that a THM crossing physic can easily keep the entire party up, and dps can spam their 1 aibltiy and not slow the entire dungeon by 10+ minutes

[Gamer3427]

Words.

When I'm talking about support, I'm talking about helping out with cross classed skills like Stoneskin and protect, (for people who get revived), mid battle since the actual healers are focused on actually, you know, healing. And as for healing, I'm certainly not trying to work as a full healer during the fights. I mean that I use my heals to back up the healers if the party takes a large hit and they're low on MP, if the tank is taking damage nearly as fast as they can heal, or if they're coming back from a revive and need a few seconds to catch up. It works more as an emergency assisted heal to keep things a bit calmer and less stressful....

As for damage, yes, you are correct in that I do in fact do slightly less damage than I would as a full SMN using skills like fester. I do however have more access to a variety of skills that means I'm not restricted to pure DPS, in part due to having 10 cross class slots as well as having access to skills from more than simply two classes. As I said however, I can in fact reach strong DPS should I need to or choose to.....

As for my choice of Topaz, that's for two simple reasons. It doesn't die everytime a couple of AoEs get thrown my way, and it serves as an emergency back up should the tanks prove incompetent, suddenly DC, or get killed for some mysterious reason. If a tank is even halfway competent then they don't have to worry about Topaz stealing aggro. If they're not, then she serves as a buffer between me and everyone else while we're trying to fix the problem. Between stoneskin, Physic, and Sustain, I can keep her alive against most bosses for quite some time if necessary. (A recent run of ST where all the tanks decided the adds were more important than the boss comes to mind).....

Again though, I know most people see this as an "ineffective" way to play, but I make it work. If I didn't, I'd be getting kicked from every dungeon instead of getting commendations. In the end though, I'm just curious as to whether I truly am the only one who's found a way to make it work, or if there's other players out there people have heard of.....

EDIT: I'm by no means suggesting that players should necessarily choose to forgo a job crystal, just that it is in effect possible to do so, and do so effectively, even if it doesn't fit in with the traditional "Three Role System"......

[RiceisNice]

When I'm talking about support, I'm talking about helping out with cross classed skills like Stoneskin and protect, (for people who get revived),

A Scholar can do this and still be more effective at dps than an arcanist because of cleric stance.

And as for healing, I'm certainly not trying to work as a full healer during the fights. I mean that I use my heals to back up the healers if the party takes a large hit and they're low on MP, if the tank is taking damage nearly as fast as they can heal....

This is where "you have bigger issues" comes in. It should never get to the point that a healer needs help healing in single content. Either they can or they can't; you are are either babysitting them too much (and sacrificing your own performance to do so) Alot of healing in low level dungeons is mostly reactive (esp for healers who are toggling cleric stance) and people can typically get it back up anyway.

As for damage, yes, you are correct in that I do in fact do slightly less damage than I would as a full SMN using skills like fester. I do however have more access to a variety of skills that means I'm not restricted to pure DPS, in part due to having 10 cross class slots as well as having access to skills from more than simply two classes. As I said however, I can in fact reach strong DPS should I need to or choose to.....

The five extra cross skills get you nothing as far as dps though. You have blood for blood, which nowhere makes up the damage lost from soulstone, mercy stroke runs off physical stats, and I really can't think of any other cross skills you can actually use beyond the conjurer/archer/THM cross.

As for my choice of Topaz, that's for two simple reasons. It doesn't die everytime a couple of AoEs get thrown my way, and it serves as an emergency back up should the tanks prove incompetent, suddenly DC, or get killed for some mysterious reason. If a tank is even halfway competent then they don't have to worry about Topaz stealing aggro. If they're not, then she serves as a buffer between me and everyone else while we're trying to fix the problem. Between stoneskin, Physic, and Sustain, I can keep her alive against most bosses for quite some time if necessary. (A recent run of ST where all the tanks decided the adds were more important than the boss comes to mind).....

I can't word this any other way. Honestly, if your pet is dying, that's on your own fault for not managing their positions. Pets only really die from non-telegraphed cleaves, that is, standing in front of the boss more often than not. And this is only accountable for dungeons like ST...anywhere else like Coil and this is essentially a wipe for the party.

Again though, I know most people see this as an "ineffective" way to play, but I make it work. If I didn't, I'd be getting kicked from every dungeon instead of getting commendations. In the end though, I'm just curious as to whether I truly am the only one who's found a way to make it work, or if there's other players out there people have heard of.....

There is an assortment of players out there. You even mentioned it that you've gotten some hostile reactions when it came to ST or mid-high level dungeons. That's where the issues from playing as an ACN and using a topaz start appearing, and it just gets a lot more evident when you try to do coil.

And honestly, I could be the ncieest person to talk to but slow down teh dungeon because I'm causing wipes, people would commend me for being sociable. What I'm saying is, commends =/= playing well or being effective, esp when people just give commends like hotcakes to tanks and healers.

[Whiteroom]

Tbh, as healer I have plenty of time for ss and protect. If I don't, something is usually very wrong with the team. The only times I use ss mid battle as another class is when I am in OT on Shiva, as the heals always seem to need a little help in that moment after an Icebrand or Hailstorm, or during Bow stance. I only cast it on the MT and only because I'm not a dps, usually trying to give the tank a good hate lead after a provoke, so it's a good choice. The other time I really use it is when I'm tail tank on Levi and one heals is off the side. In both cases I would rather have a dps maxing their damage rather than being "creative".

I get it though, playing these ways can be fun and addd a new element. But lets not kid ourselves too much and think It's beneficial to the average DF group.