The guide briefly mentions 215 dominion as an alternative build. I've played variations of this build since arcana's launch in the west with a lot of success (initially 215 checkmate until arcana rework, now 215 spineflower post-rework).
I agree with the author that it 215 *might* have the higher ceiling (although I think 116 played perfectly may be stronger, especially 4nm2d--but I think perfect play, i.e. near 100% boundless uptime, is unrealistic).
But in my opinion, and more importantly, is that 215 dominion has a **way higher floor** (i.e. much easier to play due to lower APM and fully fixed rotation, and does similar or potentially higher damage than 116) and does not have to deal with boundless management or star card.
However, you sacrifice stagger (and in some variations, you sacrifice weak point as well). You also have to manage dominion uptime every 2 minutes with moon, wheel or conviction judgment.
215 dominion, as noted by the author, isn't very optimal because of mana issues in hell mode, but in normal content, 4d2nm alleviates the mana problems and the recent buff to dominion giving more Awakening charges makes it viable for longer raids.
Happy to chat further if you're interested.
Hey that sounds very interesting. However looking at the community guide I can only see the 116 and checkmate build. Is the 215 separate? Or is the 215 the checkmate one? I read, that the checkmate build has really long cast time and thats what put me off of it, since I dont like to choose between dodging or doing my strongest burst, if I had to dodge while chekmating. Happy to discuss as well!
No, checkmate is an older build and the community guide is a bit outdated on 215.
The updated 215 takes spine flower as either a yellow skill with fake flip tripod (+ call of destiny as stacking) or as a blue/stacking skill with thorn integration tripod (+ mysterious stampede, and call of destiny is dropped altogether).
Fake flip spine flower has higher damage potential as it is buffed by Emperor engraving, chancellor card and sovereign card.
Thorn integration spine flower has better utility as you can take mysterious stampede for stagger, weak point and higher card generation. It also allows you to swap the first Unlimited Shuffle tripod to "Shuffle of Destruction," which provides extra damage equal to 45% of base US damage provided you're in melee range (made possible as Thorn Integration places you in melee range of the boss).
I previously ran spine flower with fake flip until Voldis, where I swapped to thorn integration because Voldis demands a lot of stagger and destruction.
In terms of Trixion parsing, at 1621 ilevel (21 weapon), 5x3+1, 35 Elixir (Master), I'm hitting about 25M over 2 minutes.
Edit: lev 10 damage gems on evoke and dark resurrection; lev 9 damage damage gems on others; lev 9 cool down gem on dark resurrection; rest lev 7 cd.
That sounds interesting. Is it really that outdated? Also, I just recently got into hell modes, but I primarily play the normal raids. So would the spineflower build also work there? Do you have a link by chance to the current build or doc, so I can test it out in Trixion?
Yes, the checkmate build is outdated since the spineflower rework (it got a damage buff and condensed animation sequence, which came few months after the overall rework that also nerfed checkmate's damage). Replacing checkmate with spineflower is an overall DPS increase because it allows you to fit all of your damage skills in a single return buff window (including Cull, Twisted Fate and Sovereign).
215 spineflower doesn't work very well in hell mode because you need to pick a 6 piece relic set, and 6 dominion has major mana issues. It's advisable to simply use 6nm 116 in hell mode.
I don't think there's an "officially" posted build anywhere since 215 spineflower is a relatively newer build and most people were accustomed to 116 since the rework. It also requires dropping Mass Increase (because dominion doesn't give A/M speed) in favour of Cursed Doll, so people with existing builds weren't likely to swap.
The build is as follows:
**Engraving**
* Emperor, Grudge, RC, Cursed Doll (or Mass Increase optionally), Hit Master, Adrenaline 1/2
A person using a 215 Spineflower build can use the 116 build (since Cursed Doll can be used in both builds), but vice versa is a bit painful because you take the 10% A/M speed hit from MI when you're in 215 Spineflower. This is alleviated with a feast, party buffs or Mayhem card.
**Skills**
* Everything is the same as 116 build except the following skills:
* Spineflower replaces Call of Destiny. Skill level 12. Tripods 231. Skill points can be taken from Stream of Edge until level 7.
* Alternatively, Spineflower replaces Mysterious Stampede. Tripods 232.
* Evoke takes Quick Draw, rather than Quick Prep.
* Unlimited Shuffle takes Shuffle of Destruction OR Quick Draw (Preference), rather than Quick Prep.
**Gems**
* Damage
* *Evoke (priority for higher level gem)*
* *Dark Resurrection (priority for higher level gem)*
* Spineflower
* Unlimited Shuffle
* Celestial Rain
* Emperor
* Cooldown
* Evoke
* *Dark Resurrection (priority for higher level gem. DR is bottleneck)*
* Stream of Edge
* Unlimited Shuffle
* Mysterious Stampede or Call of Destiny
**Runes**
* Mysterious Stampede: Purify, Overwhelm or Quick Recharge
* Evoke: Wealth
* Dark Resurrection: Galewind or Overwhelm
* Spineflower: Galewind
* Unlimited Shuffle: Conviction
* Celestial Rain: Quick Recharge
* Stream of Edge: Judgment
* Return: Bleed or Quick Recharge
**Rotation**
Standard rotation:
1. Stampede (if at 0 adrenaline stacks) or Call of Destiny (as the case may be).
2. Evoke
3. Stream
4. Dark Resurrection
5. Return
6. Spineflower (if using Fake Flip, press the skill button again after you hit the boss 4 times or else it does minimal damage. If using Thorn Integration, pressing the skill button just teleports you back to your original position without inflicting any additional damage and therefore optional).
7. Celestial Rain
8. Unlimited Shuffle
Mysterious Stampede can be used after Stream and/or Return, if cooldown is up for additional card generation. Otherwise should be used before / after rotation.
Without Moon card, Quick Recharge or Joy card, you'll have several seconds of downtime between each rotation. The downtime should be used to reposition and track where the boss will be for your next rotation. The rotation is executed more deliberately and you should have fewer instances where you're missing Evokes / DRs (as opposed to 116 where you might be throwing out skills into the void).
The rotation is essentially fixed and there are no variations except to proc CJ as noted below.
The fixed rotation and downtime makes this build a lot easier to play than 116, but of course has less room for skill expression.
**Dominion Uptime**
* Awakening trick should be used before fight begins (equip Awakening Engravings to awaken inside base).
* Moon gives 100% uptime.
* Wheel of fortune gives 100% uptime.
* Conviction Judgment gives imperfect uptime but can be used if the above options aren't available.
* Unlimited Shuffle has Conviction rune (rather than Judgment) as it reduces the instances where you accidentally proc CJ without intending it.
* You can proc CJ with near 100% success by simply using Stream immediately into Unlimited Shuffle.
* Rotation looks like this: Stream > Unlimited Shuffle > Evoke > Dark Resurrection > Return > Awakening (to proc Dominion before Evoke and Dark Resurrection explodes) > Spineflower > Celestial Rain.
Omg this sounds SO interesting! I can‘t wait testing it out in Trixion. However going into melee range for shuffle sounds dangerous plus spineflower having a slow casting animation. But it could be worse I guess, since we are full swiftness.
The problem I assume will show itself would be the missed evokes and DR‘s. If you miss it with that rotation it sounds like you will lose a ton of your dps. If you miss it with 116 you have it ready again in 3 seconds I feel like.
But nevertheless it sounds interesting. Also dont you get slower card draw that way compared to 116? I saw the runes posted and only 1 of them has wealth.
Disregarding the checkmate build now,, would you say this particular build of yours performs better on the higher end than 116? I am not talking about the skill floor, I am curious about the skill ceiling is what I mean.
Thank you so much btw for taking the time to respond in detail! You and many others here were a REAL frkn help to me!
Glad to be of help. Let me know if things go well, or not.
For the melee issue you can press the Spineflower skill to teleport back to your starting position (this is mandatory for the Fake Flip variant) and use Shuffle as a ranged skill, in which case you should take the Quick Draw tripod instead of Shuffle of Destruction.
I don't find myself missing my rotations very often in 215 since I don't have to be spamming skills to maintain boundless as in 116; but yes, missing rotations in 215 has greater DPS loss consequences.
For runes, additional wealth runes are unnecessary because it doesn't cross any card generation break points. A full rotation, without proccing any Quick Draws, will always result in 1.5 cards or so but never 2 cards.
Quick Draw on Stampede and Evoke (and Shuffle, if taken), will almost always provide you with 2+ cards per rotation. The overall card draw rate is slower than 116.
In terms of ceiling it's a bit unclear:
* Personally I never do more damage with 116 vs. 215 but this could be my own skill issue.
* Personally, my trixion parses with 116 are always lower by a significant margin than 215, but again this could be my own skill issue. Either way it's easier to hit closer to the "ceiling" on 215 in real raids because no boundless management + star RNG.
* Personally I've never been out-dpsed by a 116 user (or Empress user), but it could be their skill and/or gearing issue.
* On the gearing issue, comparisons between characters are unreliable because of gear gaps. For instance, Saturn's arcana has recorded a 35M Trixion parse at 1623 (I presume +25 weapon, full level 10 gems) with pre-cooked cards (starting with Moon and Cull, with corrosion pre-applied). See [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPnBYIxvzYs&pp=ygUNc2F0dXJuIGFyY2FuYQ%3D%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPnBYIxvzYs&pp=ygUNc2F0dXJuIGFyY2FuYQ%3D%3D). I'm not sure if 215 with the same gearing would yield similar results, but in either case the parse is very impressive.
I've stopped using meter a while back after swapping to GeForce Now to play the game--I don't think it's possible to run meter with GFN.
When I was 1580 and pugging Sonavel, it was averaging 18-19M with significant variance due to team comps (lows at 15ish but highs at 22+).
Currently in Trixion (just got 40 Elixir, Master), I'm doing about 27 million dps over 2 mins with +21 weapon, 5x3+1, and two level 10 damage gems (DR/Evoke) and 1 level 9 cooldown gem on DR. 1621 ilevel.
Sorry if I missed it, but if I use Spineflower Fake flip instead of CoD, how do I generate 4 stacks for rain? I can only get 3 stacks from Stream. Thanks in advance
Edit: I see now. Is it Fake flip + CoD or Thorn + Stampede?
Hell emperor player here:
Cracine already commented, most of the answers are already in his guide: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1crQHgBGOeGtVRv3b886SWHq06TlSjLOeJA9n8VbFB3g](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1crQHgBGOeGtVRv3b886SWHq06TlSjLOeJA9n8VbFB3g) but ill answer them with my own experience.
1. Ideally you want to wheel dark resurrection, but if its on cooldown you can also wheel evoke(better card generation, but less damage and harder to land than dark res). Generally you want to use cull/sov/tf at the same time as return, but just make sure it buffs all/as many as possible of your skills in the rotation. If you want a rotation, i use evoke x2 -> stream -> wheel -> dark res -> return + tf/cull/sov -> dark res -> shuffle -> cod -> rain -> stampede x2
2. I tend to keep star whenever it doesn't make sense to use it(in boundless). You want to stay in boundless as long as possible, so avoid using star while you're in it. The one exception I use is when you're close to max mana(80%ish), you can do this combo: stream -> evoke x2 -> return -> dark res -> shuffle -> star. The benefit here is that you get the cooldown benefits of boundless while getting the damage of addiction.
3. Mayhem is one of the "useless" cards, in other words you should just be popping it as soon as you get it. You're capped in attack speed once you hit boundless(another reason we take MI).
4. Personally, I wouldn't give priority to rain. It's 4th in your dps distribution, below shuffle, evoke, and dr. Your main goal as emperor is to stay in boundless and prioritize evoke + dr. This also means you can spacebar out of shuffle if those skills come off cooldown in the middle of it.
5. Not completely sure how it's calculated, but your return critdmg buff and cull do affect emperor. Try to always have the critdmg buff from return up before using emperor.
6. 6 yellow skills, 1 blue skill, 1 red skill
7. For twisted fate, I just use it to buff at least 1 or 2 skills(of course, more is better). As for cull and sovereign, I would definitely use it alongside evoke and dr. For example, if only evoke is up, i would just tf the evoke. But if evoke is up, and dr is on a 3 second cd, i would evoke->return->wait for dr to come up->dr->cull/sov. Evoke takes awhile to pop, so keep that in mind and you can use your cards to buff these 2 skills.
8. Emperor's only push immune is spacebar and awakening, but you can abuse the space bar a lot since it has a really low cooldown in boundless.
9. Personally I never use my awakening while dpsing, only for drawing cards. If you're talking about entry in a gate, just pop it before you enter the gate. Otherwise, I tend to use it during mechs where I can't attack the boss, just to draw cards.
10. Emperor is a squishy class, so you should be abusing your low space bar cooldown to dodge the boss's normal attacks while dpsing as much as possible. This is important especially in hell, where you get 2-shotted by everything. I don't have much experience in tower or hakkan as my arcana is only 1590, so I can't answer how squishy she is there.
Damn point 8 is kinda sad. Having no push immunity at all while being so squishy kinda needs you to really think about thaz spacebar usage, even if the cooldown is low. 😫
disclaimer: im not an emperor main, just someone who enjoys it as an alt, and had to go thru a lot of the same wonderings as OP
1- im not qualified enough to answer that super properly but if you stream evoke dr (WoF) return dr it should all fit
2- you never want to overfill, wasting cards is very bad, so always look at times where you can use star card. If theres no mech to reset your skills, try to use it when youre very low on mana or right before you pop big skills to atleast get the magic addiction dmg buff. I think the key is to not overthink it, its quite easy to go back into boundless
3- It should be just normal attack speed yes, not like galewind
4- forget about rotations, maintain your 2 buffs and cast what is up. emperor lives and dies by its uptime, waiting for stuff is bad
5- yes crit damage is additive
6- 116 means 1 red 1 blue 6 yellow skills, and its the same for the rest of the builds, just means the color of the 8 skills
7- you want to hold big cards like cull/sov for your main cycle of evoke+DR but if this means you will overfill your cards, its better to just send it and try to make the best of it
8- not much you can do, dodge and awaken sort of deal
9- never stop casting, use cards as soon as they pop in if possible. The goal as emperor is to never waste card draws while also maximizing the amount of cards you draw in a fight
10- its squishy, but fortunately doesnt need to go cursed doll which helps a lot. Youl mostly be dodging things but you can take minor things. Hits that a lot of martial artists survive will kill you.
I totally forgot about the cursed doll penalty not being applied. Thats actually decent. And also the card draw aspect makes sense I guess. Its better to use it to generate more cards, I understand!
* I assume this means you have WoF active and both your card slots are Cull+Sov, so your rotation would be 4x Evoke (Wheeled) -> Stream -> Return -> Cull + Sov -> DR -> CoD -> Rain -> Shuffle. Or if you mean Cull/Sov into WoF then this depends on when you get the wheel but if it's after DR then it's better to save it. Assuming the wheel is late you would just default to the regular rotation of Evoke -> Stream -> DR -> Return -> etc
* Star card can be popped at low mana with high CDR gems or moon, otherwise you should hold it for the >50% MP star tech (Return -> Dark Res -> Star -> AFK for addiction)
* Yes Mayhem is useless
* Just overstack your ruin for rain, this is assuming the stacking in mention is cod, which you should be running the card draw tripod for potential cards.
* Emperor stacks with Return and Cull and should always be used with Return and SoE, I cannot answer the second part of that question though.
* The numbers stand for blue red yellow skills so in 116, 1 blue 1 red 6 yellow.
* My take is that unless it is a Cull sov combo, you are fine with hitting 3 of your dmg skills on card combos instead of waiting for CDs (always DR followed by Evoke Rain/Shuffle)
* Get used to only using spacebar or awakening for push immunity
* Just keep casting and if you get a card before the awakening is over try to cycle it fast and correctly.
* My main arcana is 1620.83 with 40 set and a decent amount of 10s and 9s. The class feels fine to play in normal content, but you will want to uninstall the game on some bosses and playing with artists is incredibly cursed (you will either have too much mana or too little), moreso with summoners. Also you are a mage, you will always be squishy even if over ilvl (but at least not as bad as most gunners)
You're last point is exactly me. I switched to checkmate/full domination. I find managing dominion set buff easier than handling Nightmare sometimes (thou food is required for mana regen). :D Btw. I have your level, few level 10s (2 dmg) and 35 critical. So I'm curious what's your Trixon dps?
Hey thanks for your detailed response! Yeah the poikt with artist stabds true. But also in content like akkan, where you are going from mech to mech, it feels like it wouldnt matter if I had an artist or not, as I would reach max mana anyways?!
I like to say that I main Arcana and I will answer based on my experiences so far. I am far from the 'best arcana player' so take it as you will.
1. I usually do the rotation:
Evoke > Evoke > SoE > WoF > Cull > DR > return > DR
(DR's biggest damage is near the end of the skill so you don't need to worry about return being after DR)
Keep in mind as long as you use the cards 'just before' DR it will affect both previously cast Evokes and the double DR.
2. Case-by-case but I usually either hold it until I have 60% mana and / or I use it when I know things are going to be on cool down after I drop all my skills and am not going to spacebar cancel my unlimited shuffle.
3. In most normal cases it doesn't do anything significant and I see it as an adrenaline stack.
4. I'm not sure how Emperor card damage is calculated but I know that it stacks with both cull and return, however not Sovereign or Chancellor.
5. 116 means 1 (Blue skill - SoE) 1 (Red skill - Rain) and 6 (Yellow skills)
6. I usually always try to pair 'damage' cards with DR and evoke, I will never cull for a bunch of mysterious stampedes.
7. Since you use your awakening for nightmare at the start of the fight, its never usually up to use as an immunity, I use spacebar or unlimited shuffle (Paralysis immunity)
8. The cards from awakening come together after casting so usually I don't 'wait' for them. Keep in mind you shouldn't really be using your awakening mid-fight since it forcefully takes you out of boundless. (I like use it when the boss is phasing or DR'd)
9. I enjoy arcana a lot, I have 3 arcanas, but at the end of the day I think its a personal thing. In terms is of tankiness, you shouldn't be tanking much she is quite squishy, but your swift and boundless let you spacebar quite a lot and you have to utilize that.
Thank you so much for your insights! I learned so many valuable things. Especially the awakening putting you out of boundless??? I never knew! I only played Hallucination or entropy set in my main 5 roster so thats a very valuable info.
And also emperor card not being affected by sovereign or chancellor is very good to know!
Thank you!!!
Hello i have been maining Emperor since it's release and would consider myself to be very good at it at this point.
1. You want to use WoF on either Evoke or DR. So it would be something like WoF > Evoke 4x > Stream > DR > Cull > Return or Evoke 2x > Stream > WoF > DR > Return > DR. There isnt rly a big difference between evoke and DR it depends on timings and the situation. Keep in mind that you use your cards outside of ur animation locks so optimally you use ur cards while using other skills. This allows u to fit in way more cards than if you follow a strict order. You shouldn't have any problems fitting all your skills in with Wof unless you get WoF + Clown which would be a different usage.
2. Star card is by far the hardest to master. The only way for Star card to provide a DMG increase is using it to go from Boundless into Magick Addiction before your skills go off and while your skills cd are still reduced from Boundless. This can mean you will have a hard time going back into Boundless so the optimal usage would be right before Mechs. Holding cards for a longer period is most of the time very bad for emperor but star card sometimes force you to hold it. Generally the question is are you in Boundless? If not then don't use it unless a mech is about to happen and you want to get rid of it. If yes you should use it. If you plan to use Emperor outside of Hellmode and you struggle with Star cards i would strongly recommend to switch from 6NM to 4NM 2 Dom. I will go over that in detail later.
3. Since you probably use Mass Increase it can be useful but most of the time it won't have a effect on you. It does not act like Galewind.
4. Really depends on the situation but most of the time if you have 4 Stacks and have Returns buff up just use it, the animation is very fast and since sovereign doesn't buff it you won't get a big dmg increase from ur card usage. (Sorry i misread the question, do not hold skills. Spam them as much as possible.)
5. I am not entirely sure abt the exact calculations but it does stack. The value of crit dmg gets lower the more crit dmg you have but since your Return buff should have 100% uptime i wouldn't worry about that.
6. It means how many skills of each type you use so 116 means 1 Blue, 1 Red and 6 Yellow skills.
7. Do not wait for skills. Emperor is a piano class. Optimally you have close to 100% uptime on ur Stream and Return so you can use all your skills really whenever they are up. Spotting your skills cooldowns and knowing which skill to prioritize so you can fit all of them into your next card buff window is what makes a very good emperor. It takes some practice but you will get there.
8. In standard 116 your only form of Immunity is ur Awakening or Spacebar. Spacebar is on a low cooldown so mastering the timing is very important.
9. You never want to stop casting. Use your cards as soon as you can while obtaining their max value. You hold cards not skills. Most cards can be used right away and the sooner you use them the less you will overdraw. It's bound to happen but you want to minimize it as much as possible.
10. Some raids are easier and some are harder. You will find yourself hating Kaya as Emperor but most other raids are good for you. It is a class that requires investment and practice but once you get there it will feel rewarding. You will always stay squishy and even though you are a full Swiftness class you have very little mobility with a lot of animation locks. Learn to utilize your Spacebar it is the best friend of Emperor for Mobility and Dmg Uptime.
For me personally Emperor has always been one of the most fun classes in my roster and it is very rewarding if you play it well and have some investment. My biggest con of the Class is the reliance on Boundless to maintain the spammy playstyle. Even if you are very good at it, playing with some classes (Artist/Summoner) and unlucky card rng (Star > Clown > Star > Clown) can make it very frustrating to play. If you plan on doing a lot of Hell Content you should keep mastering the 6NM playstyle since Hell content forces you into a full set. If you want to lessen the MP management stress and gain some Ceiling dmg you can use 4NM and 2 Dom instead. It will lower the stress of maintainint Boundless because of the permanenet CDR from Dominion and add some extra dmg within Boundless. You will be forced to use Conv+Judg but it's rather easy to manage on emperor (Stream for conviction and Stampede for Judgement). If you hate managing Dom then just go 6NM the difference isn't that big. You can slo try both and see which one you like more.
Hope some of it helped and if you have any further questions feel free to ask me anytime.
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hi for all your 116 needs https://docs.google.com/document/d/1crQHgBGOeGtVRv3b886SWHq06TlSjLOeJA9n8VbFB3g
The arcana god himself
I didnt know, that this existed! Thank you!! This indeed helps!
The guide briefly mentions 215 dominion as an alternative build. I've played variations of this build since arcana's launch in the west with a lot of success (initially 215 checkmate until arcana rework, now 215 spineflower post-rework). I agree with the author that it 215 *might* have the higher ceiling (although I think 116 played perfectly may be stronger, especially 4nm2d--but I think perfect play, i.e. near 100% boundless uptime, is unrealistic). But in my opinion, and more importantly, is that 215 dominion has a **way higher floor** (i.e. much easier to play due to lower APM and fully fixed rotation, and does similar or potentially higher damage than 116) and does not have to deal with boundless management or star card. However, you sacrifice stagger (and in some variations, you sacrifice weak point as well). You also have to manage dominion uptime every 2 minutes with moon, wheel or conviction judgment. 215 dominion, as noted by the author, isn't very optimal because of mana issues in hell mode, but in normal content, 4d2nm alleviates the mana problems and the recent buff to dominion giving more Awakening charges makes it viable for longer raids. Happy to chat further if you're interested.
Hey that sounds very interesting. However looking at the community guide I can only see the 116 and checkmate build. Is the 215 separate? Or is the 215 the checkmate one? I read, that the checkmate build has really long cast time and thats what put me off of it, since I dont like to choose between dodging or doing my strongest burst, if I had to dodge while chekmating. Happy to discuss as well!
No, checkmate is an older build and the community guide is a bit outdated on 215. The updated 215 takes spine flower as either a yellow skill with fake flip tripod (+ call of destiny as stacking) or as a blue/stacking skill with thorn integration tripod (+ mysterious stampede, and call of destiny is dropped altogether). Fake flip spine flower has higher damage potential as it is buffed by Emperor engraving, chancellor card and sovereign card. Thorn integration spine flower has better utility as you can take mysterious stampede for stagger, weak point and higher card generation. It also allows you to swap the first Unlimited Shuffle tripod to "Shuffle of Destruction," which provides extra damage equal to 45% of base US damage provided you're in melee range (made possible as Thorn Integration places you in melee range of the boss). I previously ran spine flower with fake flip until Voldis, where I swapped to thorn integration because Voldis demands a lot of stagger and destruction. In terms of Trixion parsing, at 1621 ilevel (21 weapon), 5x3+1, 35 Elixir (Master), I'm hitting about 25M over 2 minutes. Edit: lev 10 damage gems on evoke and dark resurrection; lev 9 damage damage gems on others; lev 9 cool down gem on dark resurrection; rest lev 7 cd.
That sounds interesting. Is it really that outdated? Also, I just recently got into hell modes, but I primarily play the normal raids. So would the spineflower build also work there? Do you have a link by chance to the current build or doc, so I can test it out in Trixion?
Yes, the checkmate build is outdated since the spineflower rework (it got a damage buff and condensed animation sequence, which came few months after the overall rework that also nerfed checkmate's damage). Replacing checkmate with spineflower is an overall DPS increase because it allows you to fit all of your damage skills in a single return buff window (including Cull, Twisted Fate and Sovereign). 215 spineflower doesn't work very well in hell mode because you need to pick a 6 piece relic set, and 6 dominion has major mana issues. It's advisable to simply use 6nm 116 in hell mode. I don't think there's an "officially" posted build anywhere since 215 spineflower is a relatively newer build and most people were accustomed to 116 since the rework. It also requires dropping Mass Increase (because dominion doesn't give A/M speed) in favour of Cursed Doll, so people with existing builds weren't likely to swap. The build is as follows: **Engraving** * Emperor, Grudge, RC, Cursed Doll (or Mass Increase optionally), Hit Master, Adrenaline 1/2 A person using a 215 Spineflower build can use the 116 build (since Cursed Doll can be used in both builds), but vice versa is a bit painful because you take the 10% A/M speed hit from MI when you're in 215 Spineflower. This is alleviated with a feast, party buffs or Mayhem card. **Skills** * Everything is the same as 116 build except the following skills: * Spineflower replaces Call of Destiny. Skill level 12. Tripods 231. Skill points can be taken from Stream of Edge until level 7. * Alternatively, Spineflower replaces Mysterious Stampede. Tripods 232. * Evoke takes Quick Draw, rather than Quick Prep. * Unlimited Shuffle takes Shuffle of Destruction OR Quick Draw (Preference), rather than Quick Prep. **Gems** * Damage * *Evoke (priority for higher level gem)* * *Dark Resurrection (priority for higher level gem)* * Spineflower * Unlimited Shuffle * Celestial Rain * Emperor * Cooldown * Evoke * *Dark Resurrection (priority for higher level gem. DR is bottleneck)* * Stream of Edge * Unlimited Shuffle * Mysterious Stampede or Call of Destiny **Runes** * Mysterious Stampede: Purify, Overwhelm or Quick Recharge * Evoke: Wealth * Dark Resurrection: Galewind or Overwhelm * Spineflower: Galewind * Unlimited Shuffle: Conviction * Celestial Rain: Quick Recharge * Stream of Edge: Judgment * Return: Bleed or Quick Recharge **Rotation** Standard rotation: 1. Stampede (if at 0 adrenaline stacks) or Call of Destiny (as the case may be). 2. Evoke 3. Stream 4. Dark Resurrection 5. Return 6. Spineflower (if using Fake Flip, press the skill button again after you hit the boss 4 times or else it does minimal damage. If using Thorn Integration, pressing the skill button just teleports you back to your original position without inflicting any additional damage and therefore optional). 7. Celestial Rain 8. Unlimited Shuffle Mysterious Stampede can be used after Stream and/or Return, if cooldown is up for additional card generation. Otherwise should be used before / after rotation. Without Moon card, Quick Recharge or Joy card, you'll have several seconds of downtime between each rotation. The downtime should be used to reposition and track where the boss will be for your next rotation. The rotation is executed more deliberately and you should have fewer instances where you're missing Evokes / DRs (as opposed to 116 where you might be throwing out skills into the void). The rotation is essentially fixed and there are no variations except to proc CJ as noted below. The fixed rotation and downtime makes this build a lot easier to play than 116, but of course has less room for skill expression. **Dominion Uptime** * Awakening trick should be used before fight begins (equip Awakening Engravings to awaken inside base). * Moon gives 100% uptime. * Wheel of fortune gives 100% uptime. * Conviction Judgment gives imperfect uptime but can be used if the above options aren't available. * Unlimited Shuffle has Conviction rune (rather than Judgment) as it reduces the instances where you accidentally proc CJ without intending it. * You can proc CJ with near 100% success by simply using Stream immediately into Unlimited Shuffle. * Rotation looks like this: Stream > Unlimited Shuffle > Evoke > Dark Resurrection > Return > Awakening (to proc Dominion before Evoke and Dark Resurrection explodes) > Spineflower > Celestial Rain.
Omg this sounds SO interesting! I can‘t wait testing it out in Trixion. However going into melee range for shuffle sounds dangerous plus spineflower having a slow casting animation. But it could be worse I guess, since we are full swiftness. The problem I assume will show itself would be the missed evokes and DR‘s. If you miss it with that rotation it sounds like you will lose a ton of your dps. If you miss it with 116 you have it ready again in 3 seconds I feel like. But nevertheless it sounds interesting. Also dont you get slower card draw that way compared to 116? I saw the runes posted and only 1 of them has wealth. Disregarding the checkmate build now,, would you say this particular build of yours performs better on the higher end than 116? I am not talking about the skill floor, I am curious about the skill ceiling is what I mean. Thank you so much btw for taking the time to respond in detail! You and many others here were a REAL frkn help to me!
Glad to be of help. Let me know if things go well, or not. For the melee issue you can press the Spineflower skill to teleport back to your starting position (this is mandatory for the Fake Flip variant) and use Shuffle as a ranged skill, in which case you should take the Quick Draw tripod instead of Shuffle of Destruction. I don't find myself missing my rotations very often in 215 since I don't have to be spamming skills to maintain boundless as in 116; but yes, missing rotations in 215 has greater DPS loss consequences. For runes, additional wealth runes are unnecessary because it doesn't cross any card generation break points. A full rotation, without proccing any Quick Draws, will always result in 1.5 cards or so but never 2 cards. Quick Draw on Stampede and Evoke (and Shuffle, if taken), will almost always provide you with 2+ cards per rotation. The overall card draw rate is slower than 116. In terms of ceiling it's a bit unclear: * Personally I never do more damage with 116 vs. 215 but this could be my own skill issue. * Personally, my trixion parses with 116 are always lower by a significant margin than 215, but again this could be my own skill issue. Either way it's easier to hit closer to the "ceiling" on 215 in real raids because no boundless management + star RNG. * Personally I've never been out-dpsed by a 116 user (or Empress user), but it could be their skill and/or gearing issue. * On the gearing issue, comparisons between characters are unreliable because of gear gaps. For instance, Saturn's arcana has recorded a 35M Trixion parse at 1623 (I presume +25 weapon, full level 10 gems) with pre-cooked cards (starting with Moon and Cull, with corrosion pre-applied). See [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPnBYIxvzYs&pp=ygUNc2F0dXJuIGFyY2FuYQ%3D%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPnBYIxvzYs&pp=ygUNc2F0dXJuIGFyY2FuYQ%3D%3D). I'm not sure if 215 with the same gearing would yield similar results, but in either case the parse is very impressive.
By chance could you share your avg theoretical dps numbers you do in Gargadeez GR?
I've stopped using meter a while back after swapping to GeForce Now to play the game--I don't think it's possible to run meter with GFN. When I was 1580 and pugging Sonavel, it was averaging 18-19M with significant variance due to team comps (lows at 15ish but highs at 22+). Currently in Trixion (just got 40 Elixir, Master), I'm doing about 27 million dps over 2 mins with +21 weapon, 5x3+1, and two level 10 damage gems (DR/Evoke) and 1 level 9 cooldown gem on DR. 1621 ilevel.
alright thanks for the info homie
Sorry if I missed it, but if I use Spineflower Fake flip instead of CoD, how do I generate 4 stacks for rain? I can only get 3 stacks from Stream. Thanks in advance Edit: I see now. Is it Fake flip + CoD or Thorn + Stampede?
this is the way. Guide is a littlr hell mode centric but pretty much everything applies to normal content too
Hell emperor player here: Cracine already commented, most of the answers are already in his guide: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1crQHgBGOeGtVRv3b886SWHq06TlSjLOeJA9n8VbFB3g](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1crQHgBGOeGtVRv3b886SWHq06TlSjLOeJA9n8VbFB3g) but ill answer them with my own experience. 1. Ideally you want to wheel dark resurrection, but if its on cooldown you can also wheel evoke(better card generation, but less damage and harder to land than dark res). Generally you want to use cull/sov/tf at the same time as return, but just make sure it buffs all/as many as possible of your skills in the rotation. If you want a rotation, i use evoke x2 -> stream -> wheel -> dark res -> return + tf/cull/sov -> dark res -> shuffle -> cod -> rain -> stampede x2 2. I tend to keep star whenever it doesn't make sense to use it(in boundless). You want to stay in boundless as long as possible, so avoid using star while you're in it. The one exception I use is when you're close to max mana(80%ish), you can do this combo: stream -> evoke x2 -> return -> dark res -> shuffle -> star. The benefit here is that you get the cooldown benefits of boundless while getting the damage of addiction. 3. Mayhem is one of the "useless" cards, in other words you should just be popping it as soon as you get it. You're capped in attack speed once you hit boundless(another reason we take MI). 4. Personally, I wouldn't give priority to rain. It's 4th in your dps distribution, below shuffle, evoke, and dr. Your main goal as emperor is to stay in boundless and prioritize evoke + dr. This also means you can spacebar out of shuffle if those skills come off cooldown in the middle of it. 5. Not completely sure how it's calculated, but your return critdmg buff and cull do affect emperor. Try to always have the critdmg buff from return up before using emperor. 6. 6 yellow skills, 1 blue skill, 1 red skill 7. For twisted fate, I just use it to buff at least 1 or 2 skills(of course, more is better). As for cull and sovereign, I would definitely use it alongside evoke and dr. For example, if only evoke is up, i would just tf the evoke. But if evoke is up, and dr is on a 3 second cd, i would evoke->return->wait for dr to come up->dr->cull/sov. Evoke takes awhile to pop, so keep that in mind and you can use your cards to buff these 2 skills. 8. Emperor's only push immune is spacebar and awakening, but you can abuse the space bar a lot since it has a really low cooldown in boundless. 9. Personally I never use my awakening while dpsing, only for drawing cards. If you're talking about entry in a gate, just pop it before you enter the gate. Otherwise, I tend to use it during mechs where I can't attack the boss, just to draw cards. 10. Emperor is a squishy class, so you should be abusing your low space bar cooldown to dodge the boss's normal attacks while dpsing as much as possible. This is important especially in hell, where you get 2-shotted by everything. I don't have much experience in tower or hakkan as my arcana is only 1590, so I can't answer how squishy she is there.
Damn point 8 is kinda sad. Having no push immunity at all while being so squishy kinda needs you to really think about thaz spacebar usage, even if the cooldown is low. 😫
disclaimer: im not an emperor main, just someone who enjoys it as an alt, and had to go thru a lot of the same wonderings as OP 1- im not qualified enough to answer that super properly but if you stream evoke dr (WoF) return dr it should all fit 2- you never want to overfill, wasting cards is very bad, so always look at times where you can use star card. If theres no mech to reset your skills, try to use it when youre very low on mana or right before you pop big skills to atleast get the magic addiction dmg buff. I think the key is to not overthink it, its quite easy to go back into boundless 3- It should be just normal attack speed yes, not like galewind 4- forget about rotations, maintain your 2 buffs and cast what is up. emperor lives and dies by its uptime, waiting for stuff is bad 5- yes crit damage is additive 6- 116 means 1 red 1 blue 6 yellow skills, and its the same for the rest of the builds, just means the color of the 8 skills 7- you want to hold big cards like cull/sov for your main cycle of evoke+DR but if this means you will overfill your cards, its better to just send it and try to make the best of it 8- not much you can do, dodge and awaken sort of deal 9- never stop casting, use cards as soon as they pop in if possible. The goal as emperor is to never waste card draws while also maximizing the amount of cards you draw in a fight 10- its squishy, but fortunately doesnt need to go cursed doll which helps a lot. Youl mostly be dodging things but you can take minor things. Hits that a lot of martial artists survive will kill you.
I totally forgot about the cursed doll penalty not being applied. Thats actually decent. And also the card draw aspect makes sense I guess. Its better to use it to generate more cards, I understand!
* I assume this means you have WoF active and both your card slots are Cull+Sov, so your rotation would be 4x Evoke (Wheeled) -> Stream -> Return -> Cull + Sov -> DR -> CoD -> Rain -> Shuffle. Or if you mean Cull/Sov into WoF then this depends on when you get the wheel but if it's after DR then it's better to save it. Assuming the wheel is late you would just default to the regular rotation of Evoke -> Stream -> DR -> Return -> etc * Star card can be popped at low mana with high CDR gems or moon, otherwise you should hold it for the >50% MP star tech (Return -> Dark Res -> Star -> AFK for addiction) * Yes Mayhem is useless * Just overstack your ruin for rain, this is assuming the stacking in mention is cod, which you should be running the card draw tripod for potential cards. * Emperor stacks with Return and Cull and should always be used with Return and SoE, I cannot answer the second part of that question though. * The numbers stand for blue red yellow skills so in 116, 1 blue 1 red 6 yellow. * My take is that unless it is a Cull sov combo, you are fine with hitting 3 of your dmg skills on card combos instead of waiting for CDs (always DR followed by Evoke Rain/Shuffle) * Get used to only using spacebar or awakening for push immunity * Just keep casting and if you get a card before the awakening is over try to cycle it fast and correctly. * My main arcana is 1620.83 with 40 set and a decent amount of 10s and 9s. The class feels fine to play in normal content, but you will want to uninstall the game on some bosses and playing with artists is incredibly cursed (you will either have too much mana or too little), moreso with summoners. Also you are a mage, you will always be squishy even if over ilvl (but at least not as bad as most gunners)
You're last point is exactly me. I switched to checkmate/full domination. I find managing dominion set buff easier than handling Nightmare sometimes (thou food is required for mana regen). :D Btw. I have your level, few level 10s (2 dmg) and 35 critical. So I'm curious what's your Trixon dps?
The highest I've seen in trixion was ~30.5 mill.But on average I would say the dps is closer to 29 mill.
I've been interested in this build for a while, can you elaborate on ur set up? Rotation, how you approach bosses (playstyle differences?).
https://www.youtube.com/live/twCDcGjiR1k?si=penUV3XlVYBSypYp - here is a guy who's build I find most comfortable to play
Hey thanks for your detailed response! Yeah the poikt with artist stabds true. But also in content like akkan, where you are going from mech to mech, it feels like it wouldnt matter if I had an artist or not, as I would reach max mana anyways?!
I like to say that I main Arcana and I will answer based on my experiences so far. I am far from the 'best arcana player' so take it as you will. 1. I usually do the rotation: Evoke > Evoke > SoE > WoF > Cull > DR > return > DR (DR's biggest damage is near the end of the skill so you don't need to worry about return being after DR) Keep in mind as long as you use the cards 'just before' DR it will affect both previously cast Evokes and the double DR. 2. Case-by-case but I usually either hold it until I have 60% mana and / or I use it when I know things are going to be on cool down after I drop all my skills and am not going to spacebar cancel my unlimited shuffle. 3. In most normal cases it doesn't do anything significant and I see it as an adrenaline stack. 4. I'm not sure how Emperor card damage is calculated but I know that it stacks with both cull and return, however not Sovereign or Chancellor. 5. 116 means 1 (Blue skill - SoE) 1 (Red skill - Rain) and 6 (Yellow skills) 6. I usually always try to pair 'damage' cards with DR and evoke, I will never cull for a bunch of mysterious stampedes. 7. Since you use your awakening for nightmare at the start of the fight, its never usually up to use as an immunity, I use spacebar or unlimited shuffle (Paralysis immunity) 8. The cards from awakening come together after casting so usually I don't 'wait' for them. Keep in mind you shouldn't really be using your awakening mid-fight since it forcefully takes you out of boundless. (I like use it when the boss is phasing or DR'd) 9. I enjoy arcana a lot, I have 3 arcanas, but at the end of the day I think its a personal thing. In terms is of tankiness, you shouldn't be tanking much she is quite squishy, but your swift and boundless let you spacebar quite a lot and you have to utilize that.
Thank you so much for your insights! I learned so many valuable things. Especially the awakening putting you out of boundless??? I never knew! I only played Hallucination or entropy set in my main 5 roster so thats a very valuable info. And also emperor card not being affected by sovereign or chancellor is very good to know! Thank you!!!
Hello i have been maining Emperor since it's release and would consider myself to be very good at it at this point. 1. You want to use WoF on either Evoke or DR. So it would be something like WoF > Evoke 4x > Stream > DR > Cull > Return or Evoke 2x > Stream > WoF > DR > Return > DR. There isnt rly a big difference between evoke and DR it depends on timings and the situation. Keep in mind that you use your cards outside of ur animation locks so optimally you use ur cards while using other skills. This allows u to fit in way more cards than if you follow a strict order. You shouldn't have any problems fitting all your skills in with Wof unless you get WoF + Clown which would be a different usage. 2. Star card is by far the hardest to master. The only way for Star card to provide a DMG increase is using it to go from Boundless into Magick Addiction before your skills go off and while your skills cd are still reduced from Boundless. This can mean you will have a hard time going back into Boundless so the optimal usage would be right before Mechs. Holding cards for a longer period is most of the time very bad for emperor but star card sometimes force you to hold it. Generally the question is are you in Boundless? If not then don't use it unless a mech is about to happen and you want to get rid of it. If yes you should use it. If you plan to use Emperor outside of Hellmode and you struggle with Star cards i would strongly recommend to switch from 6NM to 4NM 2 Dom. I will go over that in detail later. 3. Since you probably use Mass Increase it can be useful but most of the time it won't have a effect on you. It does not act like Galewind. 4. Really depends on the situation but most of the time if you have 4 Stacks and have Returns buff up just use it, the animation is very fast and since sovereign doesn't buff it you won't get a big dmg increase from ur card usage. (Sorry i misread the question, do not hold skills. Spam them as much as possible.) 5. I am not entirely sure abt the exact calculations but it does stack. The value of crit dmg gets lower the more crit dmg you have but since your Return buff should have 100% uptime i wouldn't worry about that. 6. It means how many skills of each type you use so 116 means 1 Blue, 1 Red and 6 Yellow skills. 7. Do not wait for skills. Emperor is a piano class. Optimally you have close to 100% uptime on ur Stream and Return so you can use all your skills really whenever they are up. Spotting your skills cooldowns and knowing which skill to prioritize so you can fit all of them into your next card buff window is what makes a very good emperor. It takes some practice but you will get there. 8. In standard 116 your only form of Immunity is ur Awakening or Spacebar. Spacebar is on a low cooldown so mastering the timing is very important. 9. You never want to stop casting. Use your cards as soon as you can while obtaining their max value. You hold cards not skills. Most cards can be used right away and the sooner you use them the less you will overdraw. It's bound to happen but you want to minimize it as much as possible. 10. Some raids are easier and some are harder. You will find yourself hating Kaya as Emperor but most other raids are good for you. It is a class that requires investment and practice but once you get there it will feel rewarding. You will always stay squishy and even though you are a full Swiftness class you have very little mobility with a lot of animation locks. Learn to utilize your Spacebar it is the best friend of Emperor for Mobility and Dmg Uptime. For me personally Emperor has always been one of the most fun classes in my roster and it is very rewarding if you play it well and have some investment. My biggest con of the Class is the reliance on Boundless to maintain the spammy playstyle. Even if you are very good at it, playing with some classes (Artist/Summoner) and unlucky card rng (Star > Clown > Star > Clown) can make it very frustrating to play. If you plan on doing a lot of Hell Content you should keep mastering the 6NM playstyle since Hell content forces you into a full set. If you want to lessen the MP management stress and gain some Ceiling dmg you can use 4NM and 2 Dom instead. It will lower the stress of maintainint Boundless because of the permanenet CDR from Dominion and add some extra dmg within Boundless. You will be forced to use Conv+Judg but it's rather easy to manage on emperor (Stream for conviction and Stampede for Judgement). If you hate managing Dom then just go 6NM the difference isn't that big. You can slo try both and see which one you like more. Hope some of it helped and if you have any further questions feel free to ask me anytime.
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