It's been a month now that I'm playing an animist and I'm having a blast (haha).
I know a lot of players consider blasting suboptimal, but it's still a viable playstyle, and animist made it even more viable.
DISCLAIMER: This is just whiteroom talk. Of course, no turn will ever be optimal.
Let's see what you get as an animist
- Earth's bile, first and foremost, best DPS for one action in the game (and not only that but it's AOE, and you get persistent damage on a failure)
- Fireball, widely considered to be one of the kings of AOE damage.
This alone makes it really powerful:
At level 5, that's 6d6 + 4d4 (+ persistent) damage. That's an average of 31 + 2 persistent.
The contenders for best blasters so far were Fire (or metal) elemental sorcerer, and psychic.
- A fire elemental sorcerer can output 6d6+3 AOE damage, deal +3 damage on one target, then use his last action for elemental toss (3d8 against AC, which is iffy) or 1-action Force barrage (2d4+2 autohit). That's 24 average AOE damage, +10 average damage on a target with FB or +16,5 on one target if elemental toss hits.
--> Much worse on AOE, a little bit better on one of the targets with FB, significantly better on one target if elemental toss hits.
An oscillating wave psychic with psyche unleashed (so on second round, with its own set of problems) can use fireball and psy burst, and could even have a 2-motes wheel active thanks to a first round spell.
That makes a very respectable 3d4+2 psy burst followed by a 6d6+6+3 fireball. So 30 AOE damage, and 9,5 more damage on a single target.
--> Almost comparable AOE, and more damage on a single target.
So, it looks like so far, animist comes ahead on AOE damage, even comparing the best turn a psychic could have.
But wait, if we agree to give a prep turn to the psychic, then we should give one to the animist. Enters channeler's stance.
Turn 1 Animist: Channeler's stance + Fireball = 6d6+3 damage, average 24 AOE
Turn 2 Animist: Fireball + Earth's bile = 6d6+3+4d4+3 damage, average 37 AOE
Turn 1 Psychic: Fireball + whatever ? + entropic wheel, average 21 AOE
Turn 2 Psychic: As we saw, 30 AOE + 9,5 on a single target.
Turn 1 Fire Sorcerer: Fireball + FB = average 24 AOE + 10 on one target
Turn 2 Fire sorcerer: Fireball + FB = average 24 AOE + 10 on one target
So on turn 2, the animist looks even sexier now. And:
1) The stance will be active the whole fight, so next turns will benefit as well
2) Earth's bile can be activated over and over, while Fire Sorc or Psychic have to spend resources to use that third action.
CONCLUSION
- In easy fights where it's all decided in one or two turns, don't enter channel stance: you'll outDPS everybody anyway.
- In hard fights that might last longer, enter channel stance: you'll outDPS AND outlast everybody anyway.
But that's not all. What if you lose initiative and the opponents are already in your midst ? Fire sorcerer is screwed, Psychic is screwed. But not you, because you're a divine caster, remember ? Starting at level 7, you get Divine Wrath, which after remaster is probably one of the best blasting spells ever (big friendly AOE with sickened). And you can usually still get one or two targets per round in your Earth's bile. So yeah, you can still blast like the blaster you are instead of switching to striking/debuffing.
"Wait, Blue_Frog, what if you have to move ? Then you still need to sustain Earth's bile and you lose this edge against other casters !"
True, true.
Let's assume you have to move turn 1. You can move and fireball, doing as much as a psychic and only 3 less than a sorcerer.
Now the harder part. What if you have to move turn 2 or 3, when Earth's bile is already cast ? A regular caster can go move + spell, you have to go move + sustain + 3rd action, so you might lose some damage.
- If it's later in the fight, your opponents are usually in melee, so most casters cannot blast but YOU can. See how special you are ?
- If you really need to cast a spell, you can drop Earth's Bile and cast it again later for one focus point. Because here's the funny thing: even without the sustain, most caster would KILL to get Earth's Bile, a one-action AOE with respectable damage.
- If you're level 10 or more, just quicken your spell. Because you're awesome, and you can do it multiple times per day.
TLDR: Animists are kings of AOE damage, so far ahead in every situation that it's not even funny.
The ONLY thing that will cut us short is fire resistance/immunity. It's pretty widespread, so it WILL come up. But in such a case, you still deal ok damage with earth's bile, and hopefully you attuned another apparition like Lurker that gives you other options.