Doing something and doing something well are 2 different things
For Linux it depends on the user
Arch takes time to learn, and if you feel frustrated by Manjaro, with the recent changes to arch install, I don’t think you will have a good time even with just installing Arch. It has been made even more fiddly to install. Just because.
My suggestion, get comfortable with easier distributions for now,(Pop_OS or Mint comes to mind) learn linux there. Then move on to Arch if you really want to. Another alternative is to install Endeavor OS or maybe even ArcoLinux.
Yes you can.
But no you should not.
There is realy no reason you can’t tool your arch installation towards linux gaming. Just keep in mind arch requires a lot more hands on work with maintaining it, and also you will have to do a lot of the configuring yourself since there is no installer for pure arch.
Personally I use Manjaro, you get the best from the way arch linux is built up and the massive repositories, in a package that 6 months in hasn’t broken a single time and is working realy well.
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Gaming on Linux works fine, as well or as badly as doing anything on linux, For Games Native To Linux
If you want to play windows games, and don’t want to worry abount conflicts and stuff, Dual boot.
Do office work/browsing/irc/farcebook/email and stuff with the linux install, and boot into the windows install to play the games.
I don’t mind the occasional break or bug, so play some non-native games on linux, and have a VM for the few Windows games that are really troublesome.
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The answer your question directly:
I’ve found that Arch (and Arch-based distros that support the AUR) are some of the best at support for gaming.
The Arch Wiki is fantastic, and has tons of helpful info on the subject. Many distros have absolutely none on gaming, or rely on untested community suggestions.
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How dare you not try to turn him on to my distro and answer his question instead.
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Just on gaming on linux, depending on the Windows games you play, some of them (older titles, mostly) actually work better via Wine/proton these days than they do via Windows itself.
Sure that’s rare, but to say that Linux sucks at gaming these days isn’t quite as true as it used to be. It sucks at running modern AAA stuff, and anything multiplayer is a crapshoot. BUT… older software sometimes runs better than on windows 
Please don’t
Great idea
“Support” in linux terms is a bit much said. Both work on Arch. Steam official only support debian stable afaik.
If you feel like arch is calling you, by all means, go with it. It’s not that hard. Just follow the beginners guide and it will all work out fine. The Arch wiki is great. Look up the questions that come up and feel free to ask.
If all you want is more “choice” in what tools you want to use, i’d highly recommend going with the debian netinstall and choosing the basic option. It also gets you to a “blank” system without Desktop Environment and most of the software preinstalled, but is plain faster than arch. Plus most software and games get evaluated against Ubuntu/Debian in some form. Arch is more or less expected to do the evaluation themselves.
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I’d second that.
Whilst rolling your own distro is a neat learning experience… and great if you’re genuinely curious, these days it is akin to building fire using sticks. Or re-inventing the wheel.
Sure, you can do it, and its a cool demonstration for how friction can be used to start fire, but outside of that largely pointless. Eventually after hacking away to add software every time you run into something that doesn’t work because it needs a dependency you don’t have - you end up with something close to a mainstream distro. Except you’ve got one single source of support - yourself
There’s more useful stuff to spend your time learning - stuff like docker, kubernetes, etc. That’s what will get you employed these days. Spend time solving new problems, not wheel re-invention 
Yes you can. Yes you should. The Arch wiki makes it so easy to solve any of the problems and pitfalls associated with Linux gaming. Also the Arch wiki has the best VFIO setup guide if you want to go that route. Arch Linux is the best desktop / gaming / workstation distro period.
If I weren’t using Arch I would have given up on trying to get Elite Dangerous to work in proton. If I had been using some other distro I would have had a nightmare of a time finding all the right pieces to the puzzle and putting it together. I’ve been using this distro for well over a year now and I run updates every day several times a day. I’ve never had any kind of major breakage and I use a ton of different tools + games. It’s wonderfully stable. I’m fairly certain that the people on these forums whose main criticism is the stability/rolling release aspect have either A. Not used it or B. Used it a long time ago when it was less polished. I could go on for days about this.
You can use any distro for gaming it doesn’t really matter anymore with flatpak and snap installs of steam.
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I do.
Steam / Lutris works fine.
I’ve run Blizz stuff in the past (not recently so can’t speak to that).
I have found maintenance etc to be fine, but I’m rather familiar with Linux and pretty comfortable with Pacman now.
Running rolling release can mean some problems, so be prepared for that.
Sure you can, ive used Arch for my main rig for 1 year (gaming and work), works as good as any distro, after all the stuff you need is installed, and some tweaks are done.
I`m a Linux newbie tho, so dont take anything i say as facts
surprised you had problem with nvidia driver on Manjaro
for a desktop pc usually only need to select ‘non-free’ driver option from boot menu of Live ISO and driver gets loaded before installing
if you had posted any details about this on Manjaro forum they could have helped
but best of luck with Arch
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Actually this what i did wrong, i did just roll the free drivers. Consediring dualboot with manjaro or solus, both are great and rolling releases.
Manjaro with XFCE is fine & never breaks - occasionally (like once a year or so) you have to rebuild perl modules for AUR packages but I put instructions for this on Stack Exchange.
See my notes for new Linux users linked here .
For gaming I have 2 monitors / usb switch & a vfio setup in Manjaro. It’s a lot less hassle than fiddling with proton settings for every game. You will save yourself a lot of headaches getting a cheap AMD GPU & passing through your Nvidia card to a Windows 10 VM. Passthrough a USB 3 controller to the VM & buy a cheap USB 3 hub for extra ports & a cheap 2nd sound card for the Linux host (cmi 8738) passing through the motherboard sound to the vm for less latency. I have other info sprinkled around on a few posts.
Also dual boot Windows & keep a bootable USB stick handy. Read & follow the recommendations of the Arch Linux Wiki & you will be fine.
Have fun learning Linux ;o)
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Chris from his channel Chris Titus Tech has used Arch a good bit of his one year dealing with linux distros and is often uploading youtube content involving linux and gaming. He might have the answer you’re seeking. I forgot which distro he’s rocking currently or most often in the recent months if it’s just one.
This is only solution how im gonna use linux as a host OS, tired manjaro but new games came out, they fished me to wipe the linux dualboot and continue with bloated legacy of Bill G… My friend has an vfio setup and i would say, thats the only way i could switch but i need to invest some money on it (monitor arm (for 3 displays) and have a 2x 1080p 60hz screens, i own one 144hz purely for gaming). Manjaro was awesome but the gamesupport drove me a way bit. Honestly im more interested upgrading my gpu than my already good setup gear.
I’m currently playing natively in Steam / Manjaro:
- Alien Isolation
- Hitman
- Dying Light
- Dirt Rally
- Shadow of Mordor
- Doom
& am quite impressed with the performance (using an Rx 560 4GB)
I’m now tempted to look at using proton to run games without a vm.