ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Started my first arcane blade recently. No problems, everything worked as expected, arcane combat to worked as expected.

Made some build decisions I didn't like and decided to start over with a new arcane blade. This time arcane combat only procs on maybe 1% of hits. I'm talking dozens of hits without the spell ever triggering when it's supposed to happen 40% of the time. I tried toggling the sustain off and back on. I tried quitting and restarting the game. I have no arcane disrupting equipment.

Thought maybe it was a one-off problem with that game so I started a third arcane blade. Same problem.

So is arcane combat bugged? Why did it work for me the first time and not the second or third?

If it matters I'm a skeleton in the blighted ruins, and I have arcane combat set to trigger lightning.

Spell wont fire if you dont have the mana for it. Could happen with an antimagic ennemy draining your mana.
But it should be ponctual , not all the time as you say it is.
Other cause might be just missing the target due to high defence. But ponctual too.
Or your lightning spell is on cooldown,
Si I dont know.

I had some good fun with multiple Arcane Blades (RIPs) recently and faced no such issue.

I'm talking dozens of hits without the spell ever triggering when it's supposed to happen 40% of the time.

I can only think of what is already said: low mana. It's very easy to get it drained without you noticing. Still facing this issue?