Arcanist is weird

[Post]

They didn't think current SMN through. Everything about it other than the 86 actions are vestiges of what it used to be and either don't fit (Carbuncle) or extremely tenuously fit (Energy Drain and its spenders, including Ruin 4).

They gave it so little thought that they still had Aetherpact tied to Carbuncle when he disappears immediately in their rotation and is gone for 15 sec of Bahamut + 4 sec of whatever you choose next (if not more because you're not 90 and your Egi has to hoof it over to your target) and that it actually got weaker when it went from 79 to 80 and you were forced to use the inferior Firebird until they fixed these when pointed out (you could literally tell both issues just by reading tooltips before the expansion and rework released).

Even now, it loses functionally going from Aethercharge/Dreadwyrm Trance to Summon Bahamut; you could do the other two actions without a target, so you could use them preemptively if there's not anything to attack in range currently, but even that minor complexity gets filed down in case someone might cut themselves on it.

That's not to say that ACN's leveling experience being weird is unique to EW, though. It was weird as hell in ShB too, when Bio 1 did 200 potency over 30 seconds and Miasma did 220, both next to Ruin 1's 180 potency. The difference is that it still had reasons to use DoTs outside of their damage alone (Fester), and as it leveled it got new ways you could apply your DoTs (Bane, Tri disaster, DWT resetting Tri Disaster), so it's core actions actually interacted with its kit instead of just being stapled on like they are now. ACN/SMN leveling got good after 56 in ShB (as opposed to 86 in EW), but it hasn't really made sense since StB.

Today, giving it analogues to its 86 actions early might make it even more dull, though, because then you would get nothing but flashy effects all the way to 90. The job just really doesn't have much going on. It's like they implemented half its rework and said 'that's good enough. We'll do the rest later; don't want to have to make up new stuff for the expansion in a couple years.'

[Silverquick]

They didn't think current SMN through. Everything about it other than the 86 actions are vestiges of what it used to be and either don't fit (Carbuncle) or extremely tenuously fit (Energy Drain and its spenders, including Ruin 4).

(snip)

Today, giving it analogues to its 86 actions early might make it even more dull, though, because then you would get nothing but flashy effects all the way to 90. The job just really doesn't have much going on. It's like they implemented half its rework and said 'that's good enough. We'll do the rest later; don't want to have to make up new stuff for the expansion in a couple years.'

I actually think the Aetherpact kinda fits with the way they changed Arcanist.

Originally it was even wierder prior to Stormblood, back then it was actually more of an EQ Necromancer combined with Summoner (the Carbunkle/Egis). There you had 5 DoTs, 2 Bios and 3 Miasmas that all stacked, you had Bane which spread them out in an AoE, then you would use Garuda's "contagion" ability to extend the timers by 10 seconds.

It was always Ruin-based. Because your Ruin increased in potency by the number of DoTs stacked on the target. It took a while to spin it up, but once all the DoTs were stacked and you were spamming Ruin it was actually really good DPS.

They were removing that throughout Stormblood and SHB. What you saw in Stormblood and SHB were just the last vestiges of that. And only a small portion.
In Endwalker they totally removed that function other than very small names like Fester and Painflare. Aetherpact was not originally attached to the Dreadwyrm Trance. That was a Stormblood addition.

We knew they were slowly removing the Necromancer part of the Arcanist over time. We just didn't see the full results until now.

Problem being... those Necromancer abilities and Pet abilities were a LARGE portion of Gameplay for the Class as a whole.

It is OK to link Aetherpact to the Carbuncle summons... the problem is making up for all that extra gameplay that used to be a part of the class. You went from a full rotation of 5 DoTs + Pet Actions + Ruin Spam to just... Ruin Spam with only an occasional Aetherpact every 30 seconds or so for 3 former Pet Enkindles. That is why it is so plain and boring and just... one button spam.

It was ok to do the Aetherpact thing... BUT... they still need to make it more than just Ruin Spam on the Aetherpact Summons.

Hence why I suggested Carbuncle/Egi powers for the Deathflare/Enkindle buttons during the Carby Summons so its not just Ruin Spam, Ruin Spam, Ruin Spam. That's why I said the criticisms are actually right at early levels now.