Artificer feats

[MrRoyanashi]

Just want a little feedback on my planned feat progression. I'm not sure if I'm missing anything anywhere in here.

1 Point Blank Shot
3 Toughness
4 Augment Summoning
6 Spell Focus: Evocation
8 Precise Shot
9 Empower Spell
12 Quicken Spell
12 Extend Spell
15 Improved Precise Shot
16 Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
18 Maximize Spell

The levels taken aren't really important, I was just writing them down as they occurred to me. Am I missing 'essentials' anywhere? Should I drop Augment Summoning for something?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Kakow]

Your mileage may vary of course, and DDO's great about many different variations working, but I'll tell you that after summoning my dog, a summon (dense earth elemental from GS x3 earth repeater), a hireling, then buffing all of us with what I view as basic buffs (quest-specific resist energy, stoneskin, weapon imbue, toughen construct, resistance bonus, construct reinforcement, mass prot/elems, ablative armor, thunder armor) and my specific own buffs (insightful dmg and quest-specific weapon imbue)....after all of that, my pool of over 1300 sp is about half gone.

My army and I generally can wipe the floor with anything at any difficulty with these buffs, and if I'm not soloing, I can put these same buffs on a party or raid (which of course reduces my sp pool to very little).

I wouldn't trade that at all for +1 or +2 more evocation DC on my 3 offensive spells from that school (BB, TacDet, PrismStrike). I know empowered/maximized evocation spells do very nice damage, but at a significant cost/tradeoff in what I view to be most artificers' main attack method: maximizing pet, summon, and repeater damage.

We're not FvS, we just don't have the spell pool to do all our buffs and lay down BBs like they're going out of style. Even assuming you want to try to imitate one, you'll be out of sp so fast that you won't have anything for self-repair or pet repair (via repair spells or the curative admixtures), and you can forget buffing.

Most arties are ranged and as such Quicken Spell is almost worthless, as you'll just about never be interrupted. Extend applies to a whopping grand total of 2 spells last time I counted (resist energy and protection from elements) which while leveling might (MIGHT) be useful, but at 1 minute per level that feat becomes obsolete pretty quickly. Add to that the fact you can get both of those in wand form (and with artie bonuses make them several levels higher than what the wand actually is...CL:20 with capstone), and you've got another wasted feat slot.

I'd highly recommend keeping the ranged feats (if you're going ranged obviously, which you appear to be) and keeping Augment Summon (otherwise what's the point in summoning any pet or summon...and this works on hirelings too, not just your dog).

You haven't listed Rapid Shot. Arties, if I'm not mistaken, get Rapid Reload for free, but RS works with crossbows as well, not just normal bows. You don't neeeeeeed to take RS, but then you don't neeeeeed +5 weapons in Shroud either. It's just nicer to have it than not have it.

Again, all this is my opinion as a level 20 ranged artie. I find that my blue bar has put out much more damage overall by ensuring that myself, my pet/summon/hire, and my party is as buffed as I can get them. My BBs will NEVER be as good as what the FvS is putting out (quantity of casts alone lets them win even if we do similar damage), so I don't bother trying.

Sacrificing all the spell-enhancing feats isn't a total loss...you can take another toughness or two (d6 HD class that draws aggro hurts, as does a trap disabler without evasion) to help with survivability. You can also put Action Points into the appropriate school should you find yourself in love with the few offensive spells we get. Please note that rune arm shots ARE enhanced by AP spent, but not feats, so taking empower/maximize etc., won't help your rune arm damage.

[honkuimushi]

If you plan on ranging, I think you will really miss Improved Critical: Ranged and maybe Rapid Shot as well. I'm not sure that the Spell Focus: Evocation feats are really worth it since you don't have Implosion and most things will take half damage from your Blade Barriers even if they save. It would depend on your stats and playstyle.

[twoton]

I would drop empower for improved crit ranged. Its up to you if you want rapid shot or higher dcs depending on your play style.

Being a lvl 20 arti myself, I find I keep my buffing low rather Im soloing or in a group. Scrolls and wands are your friend for sure when it comes to buffing and healing. I usually use my sp for either cc or stright dmg.

Out side of that everything looks good to me. A well placed tac det or bb with your repeater and ruin arm you wont have to use alot of sp.

[Lifespawn]

i'd drop the evocation feats and pick up imp crit and either construct essence if your not a wf or rapid shot 2 dc isn't going to kill you bb with a current 40 int things don't save all that often and plan on making an enervate repeater it makes things so much better all around.

[twoton]

i'd drop the evocation feats and pick up imp crit and either construct essence if your not a wf or rapid shot 2 dc isn't going to kill you bb with a current 40 int things don't save all that often and plan on making an enervate repeater it makes things so much better all around.

2 dc doesnt matter? so thats why you have casters TRing all the time to get a couple of dcs because they dont matter?

I still agree arti spells are only half your dps. No I didnt take the spell focus feats on my guy. When I do epics though I wish I had. but my int is not in the 40's either so it would not help me much. without the spell focus feats my dc's with ship buffs are 29 for my bb and tac det. So if your built your arti for high dc's I think you would end up in the mid 30's is about as high as you can get unless you already have the past lives for it.

[MrRoyanashi]

Okay, so generally I'm hearing to lose the Spell Focus feats for more repeater damage. I thought I'd heard Imp. Crit.: Ranged not working though, and as far as I know Rapid Shot doesn't significantly speed up crossbow firing (since the majority of the animation is reloading). I do have Rapid Shot currently in any case.

So with that in mind, something like...

1 Point Blank Shot
3 Toughness
4 Augment Summoning
6 Rapid Shot
8 Precise Shot
9 Empower Spell
12 Toughness
12 Improved Critical: Ranged
15 Improved Precise Shot
16 Mental Toughness or Toughness (Not sure which. I like having tons of spell points; I feel like I'm most useful when I can buff party members and keep myself/my pet alive so they can focus on more important things. But at the same time, being dead means I don't do any damage at all.)
18 Maximize Spell

Feat selection for this class is goofy. I'm not sure if I'm a caster or a ranger, but disregarding one half in favor of the other seems the entirely wrong idea as well. Even if my BB DCs suffer with this feat list, with Max/Empower I can still drop one or two (or just Tactical Detonation things for crowd control) and be ~okay~ I guess. Artificers get such fun spells and it's a shame to not be able to hurl them around willy-nilly. I may take Quicken in place of Empower, because while I am mostly ranged, there's been a few times where I've lost a life-saving heal due to an errant troll having words with my braincase.

[wax_on_wax_off]

Okay, so generally I'm hearing to lose the Spell Focus feats for more repeater damage. I thought I'd heard Imp. Crit.: Ranged not working though, and as far as I know Rapid Shot doesn't significantly speed up crossbow firing (since the majority of the animation is reloading). I do have Rapid Shot currently in any case.

So with that in mind, something like...

1 Point Blank Shot
3 Toughness
4 Augment Summoning
6 Rapid Shot
8 Precise Shot
9 Empower Spell
12 Toughness
12 Improved Critical: Ranged
15 Improved Precise Shot
16 Mental Toughness or Toughness (Not sure which. I like having tons of spell points; I feel like I'm most useful when I can buff party members and keep myself/my pet alive so they can focus on more important things. But at the same time, being dead means I don't do any damage at all.)
18 Maximize Spell

Feat selection for this class is goofy. I'm not sure if I'm a caster or a ranger, but disregarding one half in favor of the other seems the entirely wrong idea as well. Even if my BB DCs suffer with this feat list, with Max/Empower I can still drop one or two (or just Tactical Detonation things for crowd control) and be ~okay~ I guess. Artificers get such fun spells and it's a shame to not be able to hurl them around willy-nilly. I may take Quicken in place of Empower, because while I am mostly ranged, there's been a few times where I've lost a life-saving heal due to an errant troll having words with my braincase.

This looks better.
Some points:
1. I'd definitely want maximise and empower by level 15 to have the option for blade barrier.
2. If you are warforged then I'd take Quicken Spell for Reconstruct.
3. If you are not warforged then I'd consider taking Construct Essence and Quicken Spell (but probably wouldn't).
4. I'd stick with 1 toughness. You shouldn't need more. Other feat options: Quickdraw, WF:Ranged, MT/IMT, (G)SF:Evocation (non-max/emp'd there is still some good CC here), Dragonmarks.

[Lifespawn]

2 dc doesnt matter? so thats why you have casters TRing all the time to get a couple of dcs because they dont matter?

I still agree arti spells are only half your dps. No I didnt take the spell focus feats on my guy. When I do epics though I wish I had. but my int is not in the 40's either so it would not help me much. without the spell focus feats my dc's with ship buffs are 29 for my bb and tac det. So if your built your arti for high dc's I think you would end up in the mid 30's is about as high as you can get unless you already have the past lives for it.

the 2 dc isn't that huge because you can't heighten it arties can do mpre damage than clr and fvs but they can't match dc's so why try?

Be smart use bb on the targets it can hit the high reflex ranged units will still get hit some and you finish them off with repeater/rune arm/melee

2 feats that could be used much better elsewhere

[MrRoyanashi]

This looks better.
Some points:
1. I'd definitely want maximise and empower by level 15 to have the option for blade barrier.
2. If you are warforged then I'd take Quicken Spell for Reconstruct.
3. If you are not warforged then I'd consider taking Construct Essence and Quicken Spell (but probably wouldn't).
4. I'd stick with 1 toughness. You shouldn't need more. Other feat options: Quickdraw, WF:Ranged, MT/IMT, (G)SF:Evocation (non-max/emp'd there is still some good CC here), Dragonmarks.

Well, they're all out of order there. I had the levels marked just so I could personally keep track of the number of feats, and as I was writing the list, to keep track of the bonus feats (and thus try to avoid taking feats on the bonus list at other levels). Small exception for Improved Precise Shot which I marked at the earliest possible level. And yes, I am WF. Auto-prepared Repair was too good to pass up the synergy for.

Actually, I think everything up to 9 is accurate (Currently 11; took Quick Draw instead of the marked Empower). But I think I may switch Quick Draw out for ... Something else. So maybe Empower at 9, Maximize and Imp. Crit at 12? Then Mental Toughness at 16 and Quicken at 18. Or rearranged Quicken and Improved Crit...something like that. Er.

9 Empower
12 Maximize
12 Improved Critical: Ranged
15 Improved Precise Shot
16 Mental Toughness
18 Quicken

or as above but Quicken at 12 and Imp. Crit at 18?

[Jaid314]

where's your level 20 feat? is this a splash build?

also, rapid shot adds close to 10% attack speed as i recall. it doesn't boost as much as rapid reload, but it is a definite significant boost, and you should take it.

[MrRoyanashi]

where's your level 20 feat? is this a splash build?

also, rapid shot adds close to 10% attack speed as i recall. it doesn't boost as much as rapid reload, but it is a definite significant boost, and you should take it.

I entirely missed the level 20 feat somehow! Wow. I feel like Lucy. Except instead of struggling to sort chocolates I've got feats all over the place and no idea what to do with them.

[wax_on_wax_off]

And yes, I am WF. Auto-prepared Repair was too good to pass up the synergy for.

Warforged Artificer is indeed crazy survivable. For evidence of this you just have to look at MrCow's thread where he did everything on elite all the way to level 20 and only died like 4 times.

However, if you expect to spend more time grouping and raiding then you could consider half-elf as another option as Artificers are a mobile, ranged pew-pew character with excellent self healing (even as a fleshy) and a bodyguard already.

What half-elf brings to the table:
+3d6 sneak attack
up to +10 on reflex saves vs traps (rogue dexterity I, versatility: saves, trap sense II)
+1 intelligence
versatility: damage which gives +25% damage/20 seconds/5-7+ times/day with can be used with Endless Fusillade

The saves vs traps thing is huge, I've seen so many Artificers going splat as they've slightly mistimed the trip to the trap box; for trap duties this is much more crucial than 20+ HP.

The DPS difference is obviously quite significant.

[MrRoyanashi]

Warforged ... consider half-elf as another option as Artificers are a mobile, ranged pew-pew character with excellent self healing (even as a fleshy) and a bodyguard already.

I unfortunately do not have half-elf unlocked! I'm still toying with the idea of 6 levels of rogue for Mechanic, but I doubt that would serve me quite as well.