TRing to build a very high dps artie, using artificer splashes thematically

[Singular]

I love arties. For many of us, they're the most fun class. Super versatile, demanding, high damage output class - if you build them right, with good equipment.

I have three Ranger TR's behind me. In Fury, using Needle, I pump out a lot of dps - combined with Boulder Toss.

But it's not enough! So I've decided to TR through Rogue, Monk, Wizard and Sorcerer (and maybe...barb). I love the high end content, and the low, but really, really enjoy being pure artie, meaning that I don't know how long I can do the TR train.

Yet, to that end, I've planned all my TR lives thematically around Artie. In each case, I'm either going to multiclass artie, splash it, or take (the really ugly) Helf w/past life artificer. No, these won't be optimal end game builds. Yes, they will absolutely dominate in low-mid level content - and potentially drag through 15-20.

You're invited to offer suggestions within these parameters - or even just comments as you see fit. I am worried about maintaining high damage output in higher levels.

1. I won't play toasters. I can't stand how ugly war forged are; they destroy my escapism (but not when other people play them; then they are part of the environment).
2. Every TR I do will, in some way, involve heavy repeating crossbows (though they may drop out a bit with higher levels) and rune arms if possible (meaning lvl 2 artie splashed in).

Ok, so I started my first one yesterday. Initially I thought "this will be my barb life. That will make every subsequent life's low-level journey that much easier." But I one-shot everything in low level content right up to level 7. Level 9 stuff takes 2 or 3 shots. So...why bother with barb? However, b/c of that initial choice, this is how I leveled my character:

1-2 artie
3 barb
4-7 artie
8 rogue (this is where I'm at presently and ow it's going to be my rogue life :) though I love how fast barbs run!)
9 will be rogue, for evasion
10 artie one more time (+1 to crossbow damage, one more lvl 3 spell)
11-18 rogue
19, rogue again, if I take it. I find in current content, it's not so bad to take 19. It excludes you from some lfms, but allows you to fill other ones.

I picked up Battle Engineer and will also grab Mechanic from rogue. Current feats are: point blank range, rapid shot, rapid reload, toughness, augment summon. My spells are going to suck soon, but I've taken insightful damage and elemental damage. Any suggestions on feats after level 8? I can't see metamagic being all that useful, except for perhaps extend, since my artie level won't be going higher than 7 (but that also means I have the mana to burn on recasting buffs).

Or would it be better to go to 9 as an artie? That would provide Armor of Speed - a buff that slightly speeds up rate of fire. Then I'd do 10 rogue, but that would miss out on one extra sneak attack die (and, realistically, I'd only go to 8 or maybe 9 before hopping to 20 and TRing).

All for now, thanks for reading :) I'll update as I move through this life and look forward to your comments.

[PestWulf]

I love arties. For many of us, they're the most fun class. Super versatile, demanding, high damage output class - if you build them right, with good equipment.

I have three Ranger TR's behind me. In Fury, using Needle, I pump out a lot of dps - combined with Boulder Toss.

But it's not enough! So I've decided to TR through Rogue, Monk, Wizard and Sorcerer (and maybe...barb). I love the high end content, and the low, but really, really enjoy being pure artie, meaning that I don't know how long I can do the TR train.

Yet, to that end, I've planned all my TR lives thematically around Artie. In each case, I'm either going to multiclass artie, splash it, or take (the really ugly) Helf w/past life artificer. No, these won't be optimal end game builds. Yes, they will absolutely dominate in low-mid level content - and potentially drag through 15-20.

You're invited to offer suggestions within these parameters - or even just comments as you see fit. I am worried about maintaining high damage output in higher levels.

1. I won't play toasters. I can't stand how ugly war forged are; they destroy my escapism (but not when other people play them; then they are part of the environment).
2. Every TR I do will, in some way, involve heavy repeating crossbows (though they may drop out a bit with higher levels) and rune arms if possible (meaning lvl 2 artie splashed in).

Ok, so I started my first one yesterday. Initially I thought "this will be my barb life. That will make every subsequent life's low-level journey that much easier." But I one-shot everything in low level content right up to level 7. Level 9 stuff takes 2 or 3 shots. So...why bother with barb? However, b/c of that initial choice, this is how I leveled my character:

1-2 artie
3 barb
4-7 artie
8 rogue (this is where I'm at presently and ow it's going to be my rogue life :) though I love how fast barbs run!)
9 will be rogue, for evasion
10 artie one more time (+1 to crossbow damage, one more lvl 3 spell)
11-18 rogue
19, rogue again, if I take it. I find in current content, it's not so bad to take 19. It excludes you from some lfms, but allows you to fill other ones.

I picked up Battle Engineer and will also grab Mechanic from rogue. Current feats are: point blank range, rapid shot, rapid reload, toughness, augment summon. My spells are going to suck soon, but I've taken insightful damage and elemental damage. Any suggestions on feats after level 8? I can't see metamagic being all that useful, except for perhaps extend, since my artie level won't be going higher than 7 (but that also means I have the mana to burn on recasting buffs).

Or would it be better to go to 9 as an artie? That would provide Armor of Speed - a buff that slightly speeds up rate of fire. Then I'd do 10 rogue, but that would miss out on one extra sneak attack die (and, realistically, I'd only go to 8 or maybe 9 before hopping to 20 and TRing).

All for now, thanks for reading :) I'll update as I move through this life and look forward to your comments.

Your post is over a week old, but thought I'd reply about extend to warn you. For your Arty buffs, Extend is largely wasted. All the weapon buffs and such are not extendable.

I did the same thing thinking extend would be great for a low level arti splash so that my weapon enchants would be more useful. Turned out to not work on any of it :(


You already have your ranger levels but if you didn't I'd highly recommend Deep Wood Sniper with the arti. The extended PBS range is highly undervalued and and the snipe shot itself is simply more amazing than it seems. Not only is it great for it's massive damage potential, but it's a 100% bluff and if timed correctly can cause pesky spell casters to turn around and shoot their one shot into dead space before you kill them. It is also great for when you have to run away from a boss (when soloing) and need some distance. Snipe shot, they stop and turn around for a few seconds allowing you to get back to a safe distance. (I found this invaluable when fighting the Marilith that shows up in one of the dragon hoard challenges)

If you can afford to be a bit of a glass cannon, I find the cannith challenge reward Frozen Tunic adds a wonderful splash of offensive awesomeness to the repeater. It has an adequate proc rate that is boosted by the tripple shot of the repeater. I will often have streaks of freezing mobs in a row and with Improved Precise Shot it's great for turning even a damage oriented repeater into a quasi crowd controller. At least I've never had a melee complain when they suddenly start doing 50% more damage on helpless mobs. :)

EDIT: Oh, I also wanted to add that if you're like me and jacking up your INT (I currently have a +14) Insightful Reflexes is a MUST HAVE feat to power Evasion.

[Singular]

Wow, fantastic, thank you!

I never knew about the frozen tunic. I will make that for my monk lives.

I ended up not doing the barb life - did barb 1, artie 9, rogue 10 this time to get the rogue life. I was doing so much damage that I barely took damage until level 12 (b/c of the ranger past lives, I assume, and good weapons). So, no need for extra hp.

But I'm getting close to TRing again and, when I do monk, that will be a sure fire way to compete at high levels - so thank you, great advice. Otherwise, I have no idea what my monk levels will do for me.

[PestWulf]

Wow, fantastic, thank you!

I never knew about the frozen tunic. I will make that for my monk lives.

I ended up not doing the barb life - did barb 1, artie 9, rogue 10 this time to get the rogue life. I was doing so much damage that I barely took damage until level 12 (b/c of the ranger past lives, I assume, and good weapons). So, no need for extra hp.

But I'm getting close to TRing again and, when I do monk, that will be a sure fire way to compete at high levels - so thank you, great advice. Otherwise, I have no idea what my monk levels will do for me.

I'm actually at almost 19 now and getting ready to go into a Monk TR for the next one (Monk/Druid Staff fighter with stave of the Seer + Shillelagh) Yum!

So I can't say it assertively yet, but the monk past life is supposed to be +1 Damage. There is no qualifier that I can find which says it's only melee damage, unlike the ranger past life specificity. So hopefully it can be applied to ranged as well :)

EDIT: Oh..also, if you didn't know about the Frozen Tunic, you may want to look into the Ring of the Stalker as well, especially the level 12 and 16 versions. The level 12 version adds Manslayer to all your shots and the level 16 version adds Ghost Touch basically. Even though the 16 version makes it sound like it's only melee, it works on ranged attacks as well.

[Charononus]

If you do a barb life where you don't have evasion naturally, going 2 monk may be better than 2 rogue as you will get 2 feats that you can use along with evasion is the only thing i have to add.

[AlteredState]

If you do a barb life where you don't have evasion naturally, going 2 monk may be better than 2 rogue as you will get 2 feats that you can use along with evasion is the only thing i have to add.

Isn't there a alignment incompatibility there?

[Charononus]

Isn't there a alignment incompatibility there?

doh yeah well for anything else. My main thing was on my arti's now I'm using monk for the evasion and while I lose the sa die the two feats can go a long way.

Barb is out, ranger wouldn't need it, guess the main past lives that could use this would be pally to combat the construct essence hamp reduction and the caster ones that were mentioned.

If you go crazy on it, lives i would consider are

pally
ranger
monk
sorc
maybe fighter for extra to hit but that isn't too needed anymore with the combat changes in u14.

[Singular]

Excellent advice here all.

Yeah, monk adds +1 damage to all forms of melee and ranged. So, it's worth getting if you have the time. I'll eventually get three past lives on it.

Right now I'm working on my 3 Sorc lives - started first one, up to lvl 11 now :)

They are fast levelers! I like how they dominate. Doing the Wiz life after these will suck in terms of casting speed.