Artificer gear advice

[Quetzacoala]

I have a few questions pertaining to how to gear my drow artificer.

1. What type of green steel heavy repeater should I make? I was planning on making Lit II due to the fact that artificer weapon buffs can cover all metallic qualities, but was then informed that a rune arm in the Master Artificer gives all weapons equipped the lightning strike ability of a Lit II. I have not ran this raid yet though, and as a newb I must ask-is this raid newb friendly, and does the rune arm drop fairly often? If yes to both, what type of green steel should I go for?

2. What armor should I go for? I do not want any armor which requires a lot of grinding, more of a casual player when it comes to grinding.

3. For my additional green steel accessory, what type of item should I make it? If I make a second one, what type of item should that one be?

4. I am currently using a Wind Howler Bracer for my wrist slot-any better wrist items out there?

5. My cloak is the level 16 Cloak of Night from Mabar-again, are there any better items?

6. Need decent boots, any suggestions?

Thank you in advance :D

[djsonar919]

1. You are correct. Toven's hammer does add lightning strike ability to any crossbow that you have. However, I would still consider creating a LitII because a LitII can be used at level 12 while Toven's is 19. This makes a great TR weapon. Also, a bow of Ash will turn plenty of heads and make casters speak your praises in epic quests. Nothing sounds sweeter to casters than hearing the sounds of multiple negative levels going off.

2. Armor is kind of an iffy thing since armor class is kind of useless on an Artificer. I use multiple DT robes with different guards on them and switching them out accordingly. At level 20, I sometimes use an epic cavalry plate.

3. Con Op item for greensteel. For a second, Triple Negative if you are a fleshy.

4. The howler bracers are a great item to have. However, Bracer's of the Demon's consort are great, and the Glacier Bracers from VOD are good too. The Bracer's of Wind from the new Cannith Challenges will improve the blast from Toven's

5. Yes there are better cloaks. look at the cloak of flames from Cannith.

6. Still looking myself. The Cannith boots of Propulsion are what I'm using now.

[Deathdefy]

1. Toven's Hammer's Lightning Strikes stack with Lit II Lightning Strikes making it a front-runner;
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=348327
I haven't tried Dust, but certainly trust Djsonar that it's good. I levelled to 20 with just an Ooze II; the puddings are beasts with Augment Summoning. Triple Pos is a great cheaper choice you'll eventually want anyway.

2. Yeah, I was using DT docents mostly till 20. If you don't have DT lying around that's no big deal though. Just remember that you do get ASF on arcane scrolls, even if not for arti spells, so robes are ideal if you plan on using arcane scrolls often.

At 20, I'm using eBlademark's Docent. Superior False Life, Lifeshield and DR 5/Epic is wholly unexciting but solid. There aren't amazing choices outside of the +7 int stuff from Chrono that falls into the non-trivial to acquire category.

3. What Djsonar said. If you're not worried about the immunities, whichever of HP or SP you didn't make your conc-opp. +Cha skills is added win for a separate SP item if you went HP for Conc-opp.

4. Having tried out (albeit only tier I for just major lightning lore) of the new challenge bracers I'm back to Wind Howler's full time. Lightning Lore is nice, and noticeable, but despite having the Arti lightning enhancements including the criticals rubbish I'm sold on Windhowlers' superiority. It's frustrating really, and I hope Marksmanship and Shrieking Bolt end up as other slot options someday.

5. Myeh. Cloak of Flames looks nice. Wretched Twilight would actually be my first preference. I'm currently using the true rubbish that is the Stealth Strike +6CHA cloak from House C; can't remember the name.

6. I'm also using Cannith Propulsion Boots for the most part. Changing to +6 Exc Cha skill GS SP boots in 5 Shrouds time!

[Maxallu]

This is what us on my arty and he kicks ass. Not the most hard to grind gear but it works for me:
Head: Minos
Neck: Shintao cord
Trinket: T3 Epic spyglass
Cloak: tracers napkin
Belt: con 6 gfl belt
Ring: kyoshos
Ring: T3 epic ring of buccaneer
Gloves: unsuppressed gloves of titans grip
Beavers: wind howler
Boots: boots of the innocent
Docent: blue dragonscale docent
Rune arm: lucid Dreams
weapon: LIT II heavy repeater

[Quetzacoala]

Thank you very much for your replies! They have been of great help to me, and I will certainly do my best in obtaining these items. However, I still have a question.

Is the Master Artificer raid fairly easy for a newb to join and do well in and how often does the rune arm drop?

[BlackSteel]

I have my artificer almost set up the way I want, but currently missing a few misc. epic ingredients so I'll list what I'm currently using, and then if it differs, what I plan on using in ()

Epic Denieth Chain
FB belt (epic dragon belt)
cannith boots
VoD for archmagi / swap to windhowler or epic DQ bracers
HP Con Op cloak (wretched twilight)
Minos (HP Con Op helm)
Epic Spectrals / epic claw gloves
Tharnes / epic Raven sight
Shintao (Torq)
Shintao Ring
FB ring / epic Stalker ring
Litany (Epic Gem of many F)