Questions about Arcane Blade and Arcane Combat

[Shaidyn]

Hi, folks,

I just started my first Arcane Blade, and it seems like a really easy class to build poorly. I want to make sure that I'm understanding the talents correctly.

With Arcane Combat, it says it grants a chance "per melee attack" to cast my spells. Here are some questions:

- If I use dual strike, and hit with both main hand and offhand, do I get two 'proc' chances?
- If I use Death Dance, does each enemy hit get a chance to have the spell cast?
- If I use shield pummel, do I get any proc chances at all? Do I get two? Do shields count as "melee attacks".

Also, random questions:
- What determines which spells I can cast with arcane blade?
- Last question, does the spell that gets cast take away from my mana?

Thanks!

[Tryble]

Good rule of thumb: If your weapon touches the enemy, it'll have a chance to proc AC.

Dual strike has two chances.
Death Dance has a chance per enemy.
Shield pummel has a chance per bash.
Keep in mind the chance to proc is based on what fighting style you're using; see the talent description.

Some of your other questions are also answered in the Arcane Combat's talent description. If I remember correctly, it can cast Lightning, Fire, Pulverizing Augur, and Earthen Missles.
Casting the spell through a melee attack will drain mana just as if you manually cast it.

[Shaidyn]

Thanks for the quick reply. I didn't know if maybe you could unlock more spells later, or if learning more trees (maybe through escort quests) opened up options.

[Tryble]

Worth noting that Earthen Missles is part of the initially-locked Stone tree, so you kinda sorta unlock a new option in that manner.

[Effigy]

Just for the record, the spells that can be triggered don't change during gameplay. The talent definitions for spells can have a field set to allow them to be used with Arcane Combat, and then the game loads the list of allowed talents when you use the sustain. Which ones are allowed can be easily changed with addons though.

[Chronosplit]

Thanks for the quick reply. I didn't know if maybe you could unlock more spells later, or if learning more trees (maybe through escort quests) opened up options.

The only unlockable one is Earthen Missiles in the Stone tree (if you haven't gotten the tree yet). It's usually known as the best one an AB can use.

Just for the record, the spells that can be triggered don't change during gameplay. The talent definitions for spells can have a field set to allow them to be used with Arcane Combat, and then the game loads the list of allowed talents when you use the sustain. Which ones are allowed can be easily changed with addons though.

Adventerous Arcane Combat in particular pretty much just opens up every Bolt and Beam in the game for it. The main use of this is as the name implies Adventurers though, as it opens up only a few more possibilities for a normal AB.

[ster]

Earthen Missiles is only good if you aren't using staves since they aren't procs

[tangar]

Earthen Missiles is only good if you aren't using staves since they aren't procs

What do you mean? If I attack with staff in melee - it wouldn't proc spell?

[Micbran]

They will, but the stone procs won't count as "procs" in the sense that the staff accuracy damage bonus does (the little +2.5% proc damage per point of accuracy greater than your targets defense). Their damage won't be increased.

[visage]

Earthen Missiles is only good if you aren't using staves since they aren't procs

What do you mean? If I attack with staff in melee - it wouldn't proc spell?

Let me try to turn that comment into something actually informative...

ster is distinguishing her between the Arcane Combat effect of triggering a spell and things like "do 17 light damage with every melee attack". The former, in ToME parlance, is not technically a 'proc'.

This is relevant because staves give a +% damage bonus to procs for every point that your accuracy is greater than the target's defense. So one way to get lots of damage output is to run staves, do lots of proc damage, and then boost accuracy way up.

...but given how ridiculously powerful Arcane Combat is with Earthen Missiles, that's not very exciting for an Arcane Blade. Note that they still do bonus plenty from other things a staff can give you, including but not limited to: +% physical damage, physical damage resistance penetration, mana on crit, spellpower.

[Effigy]

For technical reasons, only beam spells get the proc damage bonus from staff/shield accuracy mod. Since Earthen Missiles is a projectile and not a beam, it doesn't get the bonus. On the other hand, Lightning does get the bonus.

Now that short staves only get half the accuracy bonus, this probably isn't that big of a deal unless you're playing a 2h staff build, which is not common for Arcane Blade.

[ster]

For technical reasons, only beam spells get the proc damage bonus from staff/shield accuracy mod. Since Earthen Missiles is a projectile and not a beam, it doesn't get the bonus. On the other hand, Lightning does get the bonus.

Now that short staves only get half the accuracy bonus, this probably isn't that big of a deal unless you're playing a 2h staff build, which is not common for Arcane Blade.

Pulverising Auger still does significantly more damage even with short staff acc mod.