I thought we could try start some weekly discussions of various items. So let's start with Ring of Arcana and see how it goes. What are some of your favorite ways of using it? Questions on how it behaves? Over- or underpowered? Remember that it also amplify curses which can be pretty interesting.
I was very happy with RoA when I first thought up the concept for it. I was mulling over adding a new ring but didn't have a great idea, and knew arcana was a winner the moment I thought of it. Enchants and glyphs have always been fun for players to use, so letting them access the power budget afforded to SoU allowed me to really heavily boost them.
The only time I won was with a heavily upgraded RoA and a grim enchanted whip, also upgraded. It was incredibly effective. I think I also had a jacked up ring of evasion.
It's really fun while playing Battlemage with a Projecting Mage's Staff imbued with a Wand of Disintegration. With a bit of arcana, you can hit enemies 4 tiles away. Expando staff.
Edit: I forgot to say you need to be a Battlemage for the Wand of Disintegration to give additional reach.
Yes of does, but you need to upgrade it enough to hit +100% enchantment effect because the range always rounds down. At each 100% you gain an additional unit of reach.
Arcana is my favourite ring after might. I am not fan of rings but arcana has changed my interest for good. Best thing about Arcana is that Evan has made it very easy to boost enchantments without increasing the costs as much as other rings require take SOUs. A +3 arcana is enough to satisfy the fun of playing around your favourite enchantment!
I typically don’t use it, but I love it with certain glyphs or enhancements, usually thorns, shock, grim, or blooming (with warden).
If I find the ring early before enchanting my end game equipment, I’ll typically either just equip it (if I have no other ring) for safekeeping in case it comes in handy, or transmute it. I generally won’t sell it unless I have other rings that fit my setup better.
I don't want to say it's OP, lest it get nerfed. My fav combo would be with Grim weapon and Lethal Momentum talent. On a non-farming (RoW) run, I usually just put every SoU on RoArcana if I ever got Grim weapon. After that, maybe I'll aim for Entanglement if the Grim was on melee to compensate not upgrading armor, or Swiftness if the Grim was on Spirit Bow to keep distance.
Question, would it affect the "pseudo-enchantment" of the Mage's Staff from an imbued wand?
For my money, Ring of Arcana is the best use of a maxed out Ring of Wealth. A +19 and a +11 ring boosts glyphs and enchantments by 17300%. This means glyph of Stone or Viscosity eliminates all physical damage, glyph of Thorns deals over a 1000 damage and glyph of Flow gives you movement speed of over 1000 per turn in water. At the same time, Grim weapons execute any non-boss at first hit, Vampyric fully heals at any hit, Projecting gives you 174 range (including around corners) and Shocking deals 2000+ damage in the area of effect (but not to the main target - go after the larvae).
Kinetic is also cool with 4000+ damage stored, but since it doesn't keep building, it only helps you with every other enemy.
I think the theoretical max is a +21 RoW (+4 from Imp, reforge twice + 15 SoU) which would give you +12 equipment. Combined with Rogue's Enhanced Rings talent, you should be able to get effectively a +37 ring (both rings upgrade each other when worn together) which would give you a 39000% boost.
Oh, it's very fun ring
One of my favorites runs with champion was blooming and grim handaxes with heavily upgraded arcana. Great ring with great potential