Archivist PvP

Ielius

I believe in looking before I leap. I am looking to retire to a different Iron Realm and Archivist has caught my eye. Would anybody be able to speak on their viability, required investment, etc? I have plenty of roleplay ideas, really just wondering on the mechanical strength of the class.

Other questions I have..

Is EQ crown necessary for 1v1? I hear consensus that this is the case for upper tier viability.
Is Archivist even any good in 1v1?
How do you mitigate damage? The class looks like it has very little defensive options.
How important is INT as a stat for the class?

Kelliara

Ielius said:

Is EQ crown necessary for 1v1? I hear consensus that this is the case for upper tier viability.

EQ crown will be necessary if you want to be a top tier pvp combatant. But this is true for any EQ class.

Ielius said:

Is Archivist even any good in 1v1?

It's a new class (the newest) and its not very heavily used in PVP at the moment, so the nuisances are still being worked out. It has a few issues, but like all classes, these are constantly being ironed out through the classleads process.

Ielius said:

How do you mitigate damage? The class looks like it has very little defensive options.

The class is extremely strong defensively. Being able to wield a shield in combat, wear average strength armour, split damage between health and mana, passively cure afflictions, and HoT.

Ielius said:

How important is INT as a stat for the class?

INT determines your mana (used for abilities, and mitigating damage), as well as the damage caused by your main attack. It's a fairly important attribute.

Hope this helps.

Edited for formatting.

Ielius

@Kelliara - Excellent. Sounds like I just needed to do a little more looking inside. This really helps!

Any other input from others? Maybe advice?

Dzekk

My only experience with Archivist PvP was on the receiving end of it - prior to a few buffs to the class, to boot.

Of all of the classes, I'd say it definitely performs on a decent level 1v1 and its utility for group combat is pretty awesome.

However, it has the downfall of not only being the newest class in the game, but a complicated one on top of it. From my understanding, tracking mutagen-related things can be tough, and while most affliction-based classes possess the ability to hinder appropriately, Archivist lacks on that front but makes up for it with a ton of unique affliction combinations!

I've only encountered one individual who I'd say "cracked" it, as far as fleshing out its full 1v1 potential goes and it provided a really tense matchup.

They do suffer from defensive capabilities in 1v1 combat - while they can soak damage, their ability to shed afflictions is limited to lowering your base cooldowns (focus and such) with the ability recollect so its a bit tougher to outlast the strong affliction-based locking classes.

My advice is to master the patterns/lemniscate combo and make everyone rage because nobody knows how to fight against an Archivist yet.

Sivekui

You will need EQ crown if you wish to do combat, and likely torc too to add a physical affliction and slow down the person you are fighting.

In 1 v 1 it would all depend on who you fighting but, someone with a half decent curing then likely not, it's missing any sort of hinder for the person and if you fight a templar, carnifex, syssin or something able to hinder the class then Archivist lacks. I spent many of days testing the class and it only seems good against them who don't know how to cure against it otherwise its very annoying as your enemy can just walk out of your room.

But its excellent in group combat if your with other affliction classes because of how powerful unravel is, if you track other peoples afflictions.

@Ielius

Illikaal

@Trikal doesn't play anymore, but maybe if I try hard enough I can ritual summon him for you. He's probably the most capable Archivist.

Sivekui

Illidan said:

@Trikal doesn't play anymore, but maybe if I try hard enough I can ritual summon him for you. He's probably the most capable Archivist.

@Illidan he uses EQ crown and TORC for the paralysis/paresis for slowing people down and adding a physical affliction.

Trikal

Ritual summoning completed. I wouldn't consider Archivist capable in 1v1 without EQ crown as already stated. You can do it without torc but your windows of opportunity get very slightly tighter. The torc allows you to mind paralyze and then use 2 bioessence to instantly unravel, where you can use 1 bioessence to flare and then 1 more to instantly unravel. The window is tighter because the flare has to be applying something they don't already have. The way mutagens work it's really not a big issue though because they cycle through in the same order so the next thing to proc is most likely not on the enemy still. Especially if they're curing properly. It is a very unique class when it comes to PvP in Aetolia and I haven't played in a few months, and not since it got a few buffs so it might be better off. It definitely has a tough time against affliction bursting classes since it's defensive ability recollect reduces the times on tree/focus/renew but you have to use it more than once typically if you're in a bad spot which completely kills any momentum you had offensively. Depending on when enemies run you can actually still be building while they run around if you've got enough shapes lemniscated onto them.

It's really going to come down to are you a competent PvPer in Aetolia though because Archivist can definitely win fights, and if you're doing everything right and still losing well, Kiroc is pretty good about balancing that kind of stuff. It's ability to be lethal in a group setting is the best on the shadow side, although that got somewhat more limited with the changes a few months back, it should still be pretty good for unraveling folks in a group. Hidden afflictions in group combat are also highly useful especially if you've got a Syssin, Carnifex, or Vampire with you and work out a good way to do it.

Archivist is a pretty solid class all around, it's bashing is pretty reasonable, it's PvP is pretty reasonable, and if you like the idea of it for RP I'd recommend it, top end of PvP is always going to be helped by artifacts, but the only thing I'd say you can't really live without is the EQ Crown, but that's also true of any class that uses EQ as a primary offensive tool. If you have questions on what you need to do I'd be happy to help you out a bit, but not sure if I'll be logging in or not, so feel free to just PM me.

Hope this helps.

Ielius

Trikal said:

Hope this helps.

This has absolutely helped. My thanks, summoned being.

This gives me what I was looking for (basically anything aside from an outright and overwhelming flood of negative responses) and I'm pleased to find my assessment of buy-in was close.. the torc of telepathy throws me off. Does telepathy operate on a tertiary ability balance, here?

Sivekui

Only reason you really need the torc is because Archivist can not give paresis (to slow people down) unless its through STAR

Syntax: GEO IMPRESS STAR
When an enemy crosses below 75%, 50%, or 25% health, they will find that
their body will fall numb. This will afflict them with paresis.