Arcane raises your Discovery, holy defense and Vitality against Death Blight, and it boosts weapons with Arcane scaling. It also speeds up how quickly your weapons build up Blood Loss, Poison, Madness and Sleep.
What Arcane does
Arcane is the odd one out among the attributes. It has damage scaling like the others, but its standout effect is on status buildup: weapons that cause bleed or poison inflict it faster as your Arcane grows. Each point also adds 1 Discovery on top of the base 100, so enemies drop items a little more often. You raise it the usual way: spend Runes at a Site of Grace once Melina has given you the ability to level up.
Soft caps
Holy defense from Arcane has soft caps at 20, 35 and 60. Vitality, your resistance to Death Blight, follows this curve:
| Arcane range | Vitality per point |
|---|---|
| 1–15 | +1 |
| 16–40 | +0.6 |
| 41–60 | +0.5 |
| 61–99 | +0.25 |
Which builds want Arcane
Bleed and status builds are the classic Arcane users, along with anyone wielding Arcane weapons such as Rivers of Blood, Reduvia or Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear. Farmers hunting rare drops also like the Discovery boost.
Starting classes with the most Arcane
| Starting class | Arcane |
|---|---|
| Bandit | 14 |
| Hero | 11 |
| Prophet | 10 |
| Wretch | 10 |
The Vagabond starts lowest with 7.
Gear that raises Arcane
- Silver Tear Mask: +8 Arcane, 5% less physical damage dealt.
- Outer God Heirloom: talisman, +5 Arcane.
- Mask of Confidence, Thiollier’s Mask and Witch’s Glintstone Crown: +3 each (the crown also gives +3 Intelligence, with less Stamina).
- Albinauric Mask (+2, weaker Crimson flasks), Imp Head (Elder) (+2), Thiollier’s Garb (+2).
- Marais Mask, Circlet of Light and High Priest Hat: +1 each.
- Marika’s Scarseal / Marika’s Soreseal: +3 / +5 to Mind, Intelligence, Faith and Arcane.
- Lamenter’s Mask: +8 Arcane until death, but no armor can be worn.
- Godrick’s Great Rune and the Grafted Blade Greatsword skill: +5 to all attributes.