Artificer analysis and build

[Xyfiel]

My analysis of current Artificer infomation and how I am using it to make my first Artificer:

Casting Spec:
I do not like a full caster version at this time. You will have around 60% of the spell points of a fvs/sorc and will also have to spend a lot to keep a raid buffed. Your blade barrier will always be 5 dc lower then a fvs(aura/heighten) and tactical detonation is a nice cc/aoe mini polar ray type spell but has targetting issues and hard to get a great dc on. Outside of those 2 spells you have limited nuking/cc options.

Artificers also have an enhancement problem. Consider the following that a caster spec would want:
Full force = 19 aps
Racial Toughness = 3+ aps
Repair +50% = 7 aps
Intell III = 12 aps
Wand mastery IV = 10 aps
Energy II = 3 aps
Capstone = 2 aps
Rune arm = 16 aps
That is 72 aps, leaving 8 for racial, PrE, boosts, skills, and ranged. Sadly, you can't make an Artificer and be good with rune arms, ranged, spell casting, and item casting all at once. I also am not sold that we will be running around with 40+ dc PK wands, even if it works that way with 3 Wizard past lives, that will get nerfed and I have no intention of wasting my time leveling to be nerfed later. Unless you really believe they would let a class run around in epics using wands to instakill a mob every 6 seconds.

I never see Artificers being great spellcasters but they will be good when a PrE comes out. BB speaks for itself. Rune Arms are basically our SLA's. DC's and spell points hinder them to much though, which leads to my next topic, evasion.


Evasion:
With the change to the capstone, going pure has a lot less benefit. Since I don't think wizard past lives and wand heightening will stack with it for crazy overpowered wand use, it isn't much better then the bonuses you get from leveling. We know that most traps don't need evasion, but there is no denying that it at the minimum it is useful for traps in general. I am not going to try to sell you on evasion, vets already know if they like it or not. It is the main benefit you can gain if not going pure.

Splashing:
Since we already get trap/umd as skills, rogue splash isn't needed. Monk splash on the other hand gives us evasion, more hps, and an extra feat(lose Arty 20 but gain 2). I will use it for an extra toughness or lightning reflexes. This is assuming that you agree with me that a pure spellcaster isn't the best option for you at this time. The biggest issue I find with splashing is the level 6 infusions. Losing 2 levels also means going from 4 to 2 infusions. I went over each level 6 infusion until I was certain I could live with only 2 of them. Lets go over the 7 options:

Globe of invulnerability = just as easily scrolled
Repair critical mass = Warforged are not played as much as before, get repair mod mass anyway
Deconstruct = useless against trash, bosses probably immune, instead of wasting mana trying to get it to land, better to use it to keep melee buffed or aoe pot healing. Probably will be given to wiz/sorc, and they will be much better at casting it. Wouldn't mem this on a pure Artificer until proven otherwise.
Reconstruct = with construct essence, this is a given.
Deadly weapons = solo or shortman not needed, in raids this is a given.
Blade Barrier = solo or shortman this is a given, in raid, not really needed.
Tactical Detonation = my 4th spell on a caster spec, still not a great choice though

So in conclusion, I can live with 2 infusions. Reconstruct with blade barrier/deadly weapons swapped depending on group. This also means that I only need Artificer 16 to accomplish this, and can splash 2 more levels. The obvious synergy is with fighter. Haste boosts, toughness, more hit points, 2 feats, str I. I like 16/2/2 over 20. It still gets decent item use, traps, healing, blade barriers, reconstruct, buffing, evasion, and more hit points. It gains much more ranged damaged but loses Rune Arm damage, which feels more active to me and thus more enjoyable.



Build:
I love Artificers, their flexibility is amazing and they really suit my playstyle. I plan to make 3 of my 9 characters into final life Artificers. This will be my first one based on my current characters and their situations, and the current info released. I believe it to be a decent balance of everything Artificers bring to a group, yet not going full out into any one aspect.

Half Elf
16 Artificer/ 2 Monk /2 Fighter
Rogue Dilettante
36 point build(2*Ranger for me)

9 Strength: a good str is needed for carrying repeaters, stacks of potions for healing, scrolls, and everything else
+2 tome
+2 guild
+2 rage
+6 item encrusted ring
+3 profane abishai set
+1 exceptional encrusted ring
+1 enhancement fighter str I
26
+2 yugoloth potion optional(-4 will save)

17 Dexterity: needed for improved precise shot with +2 tome, lower if higher tome available
+2 tome
+2 guild
+6 item Arcane Archer ring
+3 exceptional Arcane Archer set crafted +2 dex
+1 profane litany of the dead
+2 yugoloth potion
+1 enhancement rogue dex I
34

14 Constitution: d6 class with no toughness enhancements, 14 is minimum
+2 tome
+2 guild
+2 rage
+7 item epic envenomed cloak
+1 profane litany of the dead
+3 exceptional +2 encrusted ring +1 boots of corrosion
+2 yugoloth potion
+1 enhancement human adaptability
34

18 Intelligence: main stat for skills, spell points, blade barrier dc, insightful damage
+2 tome
+2 guild
+5 levels
+7 item Epic diabolists robe
+3 exceptional +2 tovens hammer +1 Epic diabolists robe
+1 profane litany of the dead
+1 enhancement intelligence I
+1 enhancement human adaptability
40
+2 yugoloth potion optional(-50% fort)
+2 +4 tome
+2 intelligence III(aps are too tight)

8 Wisdom: dump

8 Charisma: bit extra umd/haggle
2 tome
2 guild
4 eagles
16

Feats:
Base: improved critical ranged, precise shot, improved precise shot, point blank shot, rapid shot, quicken, mental toughness(optional augment summoning)
Monk: toughness, lightning reflexes
Fighter: quickdraw, weapon focus ranged
Artificer: construct essence, maximize, empower, empower healing

Skills:
disable device, open lock, search, spot, umd max
rest in hide, move silently, balance, haggle
With so many skill points and good dex, 40+ hide/ms/balance is possible
umd: 23ranks+3cha+4gh+2good luck+1skill mastery+2scrolls+6greensteel=41

Hit points:
20 base
10 draconic vitality
30 greater false life(belt)
45 shroud hp helm
96 artificer
20 fighter
16 monk
10 fighter toughness I
20 racial toughness II
22 toughness
20 item toughness
240 con
10 battle engineer
20 yugoloth potion
579

Spell points:
600 base
80 magical training
375 intelligence
200 archmagi(skiver before buffing or archmage belt)
150 shroud
105 mental toughness
1510 + bauble, archivists, talisman, ssr = 2k+

To hit:
20 bab(divine power)
4 greater heroism
1 haste
1 weapon focus
1 point blank shot
5 weapon
12 dexterity
2 arcane archer necklace
2 battle engineer
2 crossbow attack
2 howling bracers
1 litany of the dead
5 sneak attack
2 flanking
6 flanking yugoloth potion
-2 yugoloth potion
64

Damage:
2d8 base greensteel heavy repeater lightning II(waiting on alchemical crafted info, have a lit II and earthgrab already)
2d8 point blank shot
15 intelligence(insightful damage)
4 past life ranger
5 weapon enhancement
2 battle engineer enhancement
2 crossbow damage
1 howling bracers
2 good hope(epic mask of comedy 9 minutes 3/day)
2 berserker set
1 litany of the dead
2d6 holy
1d6 shocking
shocking blast
shocking blow epic charged gauntlets
shrieking bolt howling bracers
12 lightning strike
4-16 electrical IV tovens hammer
3d6 sneak rogue dilettante
8 sneak tharnes
100+ per hit before crits
17x20 x2 +10% speed from AA set, fusilade, Helf damage boost, fighter haste boost

Saves:
5 resistance epic envenomed cloak
1 alchemical
4 gh
2 good luck
3 monk
3/0/0 fighter
5/5/10 arty
12/12/3 stats
0/1/1 rage and haste
0/2/0 lightning reflexes
35 fort/35 reflex/29 will
2 water stance
1 way of the clever monkey
38 reflex for traps

Gear:
necklace/ring1: Arcane Archer set +2 dex
belt/ring2: berserker set +2con
rune arm: tovens hammer with +2 int and transform kinetic
helm: greensteel concordant opp hp helm
trinket: litany of the dead
bracers: wind howling
goggles: tharnes
cloak: epic envenomed with toughness
robe: epic diabolists with +1 intelligence and heavy fort
boots: epic corrosion with good luck and +1 con
gloves: greensteel sp/cha skills swapped to epic charged gauntlets with spell focus evocation, depends on if needing umd to heal/reconstruct a raid tank
Misc: epic mask of comedy
no seeker, but even seeker 10 is only 4 damage with a repeater, could fit a crystal cove seeker 6 helm in, but will lose something else. Seeker 6 is only 1.2 damage on a 50% fort mob, so not dire to this build

Enhancements:
Left this for last because it is the hardest part...
2 fighter str I
2 rogue dex I
6 helf con I/int I
2 arty int I
1 way of the clever monkey
1 fighter toughness I
1 fighter haste boost I
6 rogue dilettante III
10 helf versatility
3 racial toughness II
4 battle engineer
3 arty damage boost II
3 xbow attack
4 xbow damage
6 wand mastery III
7 repair VII
19 force all
I had to cut back some things I wanted, racial toughness III, full arty damage boost to get extra boost, wand mastery IV, and rune arm upgrades among others. Subject to change upon leveling. If heavy raiding, drop some force enhancements for wand mastery IV.

Gameplay:
When soloing/shortman, bladebarrier and repeater kite, with quickened reconstructs. In raids, buff the party, then range or tank scroll healing or party potion healing. With quickened/maximized/empowered/empowered healing cure serious potion throwing mixed with cure mass scrolls, you will be able to heal a shroud round solo, or help in vod/tod/epics as needed. I believe this build has the right mix of skills, healing, buffing, dps, and casting for any group.

Edit: build has 6 resist all due to 2 past lives and way of the monkey.

[Cyr]

I believe you can eek out some more damage by using a different GS then a lightning strike as the rune arm has lightning strike weapons on it already.

Very interesting numbers and that rune arm really is a beast.

[wiglin]

When you are fighting mobs not immune to fire, then using tovens hammer with an epic hellfire will be the way to go.

2-24 Weapon
2-24 Point Blank Shot
15 Stat
12 Weapon w/ point blank shot
4 Ranger Past Life
1 Wind Howler
2 X-Bow Damage Enhancements
1-6 Elemental Weapons
2-16 Shock (Toven's Hammer)
11-26 Sneak Attack
12 Average Incineration Damage
12 Average Lighting Strike Damage (Toven's Hammer)
50ish Wind Howler Vorpal Hit
--------------------------------------------
76-154 Per Bolt before criticals (LS and Incineration Averaged)

[Hajutze]

I assume for us newbies out there, the next best thing would be drow ? (we lose only the rogue diletantte enchancements and 1 base STR)

[Xyfiel]

I assume for us newbies out there, the next best thing would be drow ? (we lose only the rogue diletantte enchancements and 1 base STR)

A new player could just drop intelligence to 17 and con to 13. Drow is a good option, but changes the build due to losing rogue dilettante and helf versatility damage boost.

Edit: wasn't even thinking of not having access, too busy watching football. Anyway, as sly_1 said, Human would be closest to this build.

[EustaceTrevelyan]

I assume for us newbies out there, the next best thing would be drow ? (we lose only the rogue diletantte enchancements and 1 base STR)

yeah, good call. Can't do a first (or even second!) life arti with 18 int AND enough dex for Imp Prec shot w/+2 tome w/o drow. For some reason, hadn't thought of that, buying the whole drow sucks thing. But yeah, turns out you can get those stats the same as the 36 pt build, cept for str being 8 and cha of course being 10.

You don't have the extra feat, so that'll have to wait till next life.

A new player could just drop intelligence to 17 and con to 13. Drow is a good option, but changes the build due to losing rogue dilettante and helf versatility damage boost.

Edit: wasn't even thinking of not having access, too busy watching football. Anyway, as sly_1 said, Human would be closest to this build.

Or /this, cept i'd drop str to 8, int to 17, so 8/17/14/17/8/8. And keep the helf stuff. tho you'll be really really fugly. Might have to pick one of the female options with the hairstyle that covers one eye. Then you just look lifelike instead of short bus. This assumes 32 point builds of course. I wouldn't do it with 28, tbh.

[sly_1]

I really don't see why, with the insanely high umd and scroll bonuses arti's get, you would need reconstruct as one of your precious lvl 6 spell slots. Bards gets fine perfectly fine with scrolls, don't see why an arty with bigger umd bonuses would need to blow sp on self healing... If people are expecting arties to recon on raids they will be sadly let down when the sp pool dries up, personally any arti I roll up will be 100% scroll based for healing.

on a side note, wand mastery, just might wanna clarify that as wand and scroll mastery, lest some noob grabs heightening and throws away 10 ap's on the line.

As for drow, personally I'd say the next best option would be human. Bonus feat, more skills, healing amp, lotta goodness in there if you don't own helf.

[Xyfiel]

I really don't see why, with the insanely high umd and scroll bonuses arti's get, you would need reconstruct as one of your precious lvl 6 spell slots. Bards gets fine perfectly fine with scrolls, don't see why an arty with bigger umd bonuses would need to blow sp on self healing... If people are expecting arties to recon on raids they will be sadly let down when the sp pool dries up, personally any arti I roll up will be 100% scroll based for healing.

on a side note, wand mastery, just might wanna clarify that as wand and scroll mastery, lest some noob grabs heightening and throws away 10 ap's on the line.

As for drow, personally I'd say the next best option would be human. Bonus feat, more skills, healing amp, lotta goodness in there if you don't own helf.

Bards don't blade barrier kite either. Blade barrier kiting benefits from quickened spell healing, especially if you plan to run backwards(slower) to range kite at the same time. Trying to do that with just scrolls is a good way to die in harder quests.

[Hajutze]

As for drow, personally I'd say the next best option would be human. Bonus feat, more skills, healing amp, lotta goodness in there if you don't own helf.

- Bonus feat - This build gets stardart feats at 1,3,6,9,12,15,18 (7 in total), artificer feats at lvs arti 4,8,12,16 (you'll miss the 20th due to double-splashing), 2 from fighter and 2 from monk ... that's 16 feats in total ... It's not starved feat-wise.
- More skills - 1 skill point in INT based specialist class ... really ? You get 10 skill points from the start. At lv 8 if you use a book you'll get 12 ... 1 more isn't that fancy.

- I can't diss off the healing amp, it's useful

[thegreatneil]

Empower healing is not an available feat to artificers.

[Aashrym]

Empower healing is not an available feat to artificers.

I thought they needed to use a bonus feat to purchase it. Is that not working?

Edit: Did a quick jump in and Fred won't let me swap a one of the free feats for it. D'oh.

[TreknaQudane]

I thought they needed to use a bonus feat to purchase it. Is that not working?

Edit: Did a quick jump in and Fred won't let me swap a one of the free feats for it. D'oh.

You have to have ...

Cleric 1, Bard 1, Favored Soul 1, Ranger 4, or Paladin 4 to take Empower Healing Spell

[Aashrym]

You have to have ...

Cleric 1, Bard 1, Favored Soul 1, Ranger 4, or Paladin 4 to take Empower Healing Spell

I knew I didn't take it but thought it was available for some reason. It clearly wasn't when I jumped in to check. I wonder if that might change.

[Xyfiel]

I researched the emp healing issue before hand, with finally going by the wiki page for the feat specifically stating artificers could take it as a bonus feat.

Leaving it in the original post until it goes live and we get a definite answer. If not, move quicken to Artificer feats, take augment summoning or improved mental toughness as a regular feat. No other feats come to mind as being more useful then those. Will be an option if battle engineer II requires one I don't have or if I need another one for construct essence II.

[Jaid314]

i dunno about anyone else, but no way am i putting 7 points into repair spells. 1 point, no more.

why, you ask?

well, my recon with 1 point will repair:

150 * 1.95 * 0.5 = 146 HP

your recon with 7 points will repair:

150 * 2.25 * 0.5 = 168 (169 if it rounds up).

23 more points. i'm having a really hard time feeling that 6 AP is worth healing an additional 23 points.

on a side note, drow can get:

dex 17 = 8 points vs 13 for human/helf (ie saves 5 points)
int 18 = 10 points vs 16 for human/helf (ie saves 6 points).
con 14 = 10 points vs 6 for human/helf (ie costs 4 points).

even if we bump that int up to 19 base (to match human/helf potential exactly), that's saving 4 points over helf/human, and allowing further investment elsewhere (cha or str would be likely good choices). and as an added bonus, a bit more UMD/haggle/etc. heck, int 20 (either getting a higher DC/damage or saving 6 AP from not needing int 3) even still leaves you 1 point ahead plus that charisma bonus.

i don't know where you get this crazy idea that drow don't make excellent artificers, because they look pretty danged solid to me.

[BlackSteel]

i don't know where you get this crazy idea that drow don't make excellent artificers, because they look pretty danged solid to me.

they have nice stats, but thats pretty much it. enhancement wise they're pretty lame, as they have very little synergy with the class. Now if they ever released the scorpion wraith PrE things might change

[Xyfiel]

Wondering how you went from this

Drow is a good option, but changes the build due to losing rogue dilettante and helf versatility damage boost.

To this

i don't know where you get this crazy idea that drow don't make excellent artificers, because they look pretty danged solid to me.

Are you provoking or just jumping to conclusions? For this build Drow is beat out by helf, human, warforged, and halfling. People were commenting on this build for newbies, not artificers in general. Drow, Warforged, and Helf aren't f2p, so I recommended going Human since it was the closest in concept.

Your point about repair enhancements is interesting. I did state that enhancements were subject to change on leveling the build. It seems to me your post was unnecessarily defensive as if you planned to go Drow and my build somehow offended that plan.



Back onto the build...
Going to adjust the enhancements after working out some basic dps calcs. Maxing out force crit lines gets around 10% extra bb damage. Adding 2 intelligence also adds around 3% extra bb damage due to mobs saving less. It also adds 1 repeater damage, 25 sps, and +1 to disable/search, allows for wand mastery 4, 20 more spell points, and +2 trap sense.

Change to:
Force Crit I and I = 10 aps
Repair I = 6 aps
gain 16 aps
intelligence III = 10 aps
wand mastery IV = 4 aps
extra trap sense = 1 ap
energy of creation I = 1 ap

or can take all rune arm enhancements(16 aps), I don't think it will beat out the +2 intelligence overall in effectiveness though.

[Letrii]

Wondering how you went from this



To this



Are you provoking or just jumping to conclusions? For this build Drow is beat out by helf, human, warforged, and halfling. People were commenting on this build for newbies, not artificers in general. Drow, Warforged, and Helf aren't f2p, so I recommended going Human since it was the closest in concept.

Your point about repair enhancements is interesting. I did state that enhancements were subject to change on leveling the build. It seems to me your post was unnecessarily defensive as if you planned to go Drow and my build somehow offended that plan.



Back onto the build...
Going to adjust the enhancements after working out some basic dps calcs. Maxing out force crit lines gets around 10% extra bb damage. Adding 2 intelligence also adds around 3% extra bb damage due to mobs saving less. It also adds 1 repeater damage, 25 sps, and +1 to disable/search, allows for wand mastery 4, 20 more spell points, and +2 trap sense.

Change to:
Force Crit I and I = 10 aps
Repair I = 6 aps
gain 16 aps
intelligence III = 10 aps
wand mastery IV = 4 aps
extra trap sense = 1 ap
energy of creation I = 1 ap

or can take all rune arm enhancements(16 aps), I don't think it will beat out the +2 intelligence overall in effectiveness though.

Drow is ftp, just have to get the favor for it.

[Jaid314]

with raid bosses getting more fortification, i expect rogue dilettante is going to go down in value a fair bit (but yes, scorpion wraith PrE would help a lot).

with the number of feats an artificer (*especially* a splashed artificer) gets, human bonus feat is not that great.

heal amp is ok, but again, not that impressive. simply put, you're already healing with scrolls for something like 225 HP. you really gonna sit there waiting to be almost dead to take advantage of greater healing amp?

warforged i'll grant you have a pretty major advantage (full benefit from reconstruct is a big deal).

but in a class which you yourself stated has 72 AP worth of desirable enhancements (*before* prestige enhancements, and you didn't even include the improved UMD enhancements in your valuable enhancements), why would you want a race where the primary benefits you're getting come from spending APs?

if it is so easy to put almost every last point of AP into really good stuff as an artificer already, then who needs racial APs?

artificers are feat-rich, AP-poor.

[Theolin]

As a side note 3x wiz past lives +6dc does stack with the Arty capstone .. tested it because I was curious ... still not really enough DC though