Elemental damage arrows

[Elindel22]

Hi. As an arcane archer, you have the option
of getting all four different types of elemental
damage arrows : frost, fire, acid and lightning.
Why bother getting all 4 as I see all the guides
suggesting to do when only one can be active ?
And if you re only going to use one, which
is the best ? Thanks

[unbongwah]

Why bother getting all 4 as I see all the guides
suggesting to do when only one can be active ?

It's a holdover from the old AA enhancements, before they added the Elemental Damage line. Like your appendix, it serves no useful purpose.

And if you re only going to use one, which
is the best ?

Depends on content. Acid is a good all-rounder because acid resistance is the least common among mobs, with lightning a close second. You can just reset enhancements to switch your primary imbue, though, so it's no big deal to reconfigure based on whatever content you're running. Or switch to Force Arrows.

[Hjarki]

It's a holdover from the old AA enhancements, before they added the Elemental Damage line. Like your appendix, it serves no useful purpose.

Depends on content. Acid is a good all-rounder because acid resistance is the least common among mobs, with lightning a close second. You can just reset enhancements to switch your primary imbue, though, so it's no big deal to reconfigure based on whatever content you're running. Or switch to Force Arrows.

I think this is a backwards way of thinking about it. If you're concerned about resistances, you've already got Force arrows. I'd argue that you should instead be thinking about vulnerabilities - which likely tilts the argument towards Cold.

However, even Cold is a bit of a resistance/vulnerability compromise. For FvS-based AA, I think there's a strong argument for Fire given Scourge/Fires of Purity/Empyrean Magic and the wide array of Fire vulnerable enemies. Certainly, there will be quite a few enemies immune to your Fire arrows... but that's why you have Force.

[unbongwah]

I'd argue that you should instead be thinking about vulnerabilities - which likely tilts the argument towards Cold.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Monster_DR_and_weaknesses

Cold vulnerability is fairly common; so is cold resistance / immunity. As I said, you redo your Enhancements periodically to use the imbue which is best for whatever content you're currently running. Or you're lazy and stick with the imbue with the fewest resistances so you don't have to rearrange your Spellpower gear.

For FvS-based AA, I think there's a strong argument for Fire given Scourge/Fires of Purity/Empyrean Magic and the wide array of Fire vulnerable enemies.

This is the ranger forum so I don't know why you're bringing up FvS AA. However, AFAIK Scourge / Empyrean Magic only proc on spells; fire-imbued arrows aren't enough. So you'd have to add some sort of caster rotation in order to stack those bonuses.

[Hjarki]

Cold vulnerability is fairly common; so is cold resistance / immunity. As I said, you redo your Enhancements periodically to use the imbue which is best for whatever content you're currently running. Or you're lazy and stick with the imbue with the fewest resistances so you don't have to rearrange your Spellpower gear.

What I'm really suggesting is that your thought process should start with the upside of additional damage rather than the downside of resistance - because Force Arrows already covers the downside.

This is the ranger forum so I don't know why you're bringing up FvS AA. However, AFAIK Scourge / Empyrean Magic only proc on spells; fire-imbued arrows aren't enough. So you'd have to add some sort of caster rotation in order to stack those bonuses.

I just mentioned it for completeness - when your build design starts with the notion of playing an Arcane Archer, you'd probably start with the Ranger forums - even if the build you end up with wasn't a particularly Ranger-intensive build. In any case, Scourge/Empyrean Magic can be piled on by an archon.

[Torkzed]

What I'm really suggesting is that your thought process should start with the upside of additional damage rather than the downside of resistance - because Force Arrows already covers the downside.

Sounds plausible, but I believe you are overthinking it. The majority of mobs you will fight are neither resistant nor vulnerable. Force arrows are good, but they do not match the damage of fully optimized elemental arrows when neither resistance or vulnerability is a factor.

So in my opinion, the best strategy across the entire spectrum of foes is to optimize an elemental arrow for the least number of resistant mobs and switch to force when you do encounter resistant monsters.

It seems to me that acid or electric are the best two choices, but it does depend on which quests you run most over the course of a life (or at end game if staying there). In fact, we would have to know exactly which monsters we would encounter (and the relative frequency of these encounters) to quantitatively settle the optimal strategy.

[Fedora1]

So in my opinion, the best strategy across the entire spectrum of foes is to optimize an elemental arrow for the least number of resistant mobs and switch to force when you do encounter resistant monsters.

It seems to me that acid or electric are the best two choices,

This is exactly how I do my AA builds. Acid seems best, but elec is very close. Force as needed.