Just as a heads up to anyone who might be considering it:
Arcanist damage is total ass right now. Like, worst in the game by a considerable margin level of ass. No clue if it gets much better when it becomes Summoner, but right now the class is just really unfinished and generally bad.
For reference, the DPS rotation on Arcanist revolves entirely around not having to cast Ruin. Ruin is the only nuke the class has, and it's potency rating is80(this is bad). The pet is supposed to make up for that (in theory), but comes no where close. The end result is that the optimal way of playing the class is to pickup two cross class dots (thunder/aero), and multi-dot every mob in a pull with the general priority list of: Miasma --> Bio --> Thunder --> Aero. And you have to go to that level of effort just to get your damage at barely tank level.
TL;DR: Quad dotting every add in the pull still results in over 50% less damage than a well played Pug/Archer/THM. You put in more effort than any other class, and end up with remarkably shitty results.