Convince me to make a mechanic

[RandomKeypress]

nthing the House D favour as essential to the build, although crafting looks like a useful angle and the flame arrow spell can conjure bolts as well as arrows. Doing the Shroud (for example) can easily use 300-400 silver bolts and 200 sturdy bolts (or 800 normal ones).

The real benefit of the house D vendor is access to metallic bolts - you won't find a silver / cold iron / whatever repeater except the alchemical ones, so if you want to break DR you either need a metalline weapon (which looses a prefix that could have been used for damage) or the House D bolts.

The Quiver of Alacrity from the Abbot is lovely - 3 x 1500 slots makes things easier, and you can get 4 x 1500 shot quivers from the DDO store.

[danielhrobbins]

I see to have a strange urge to play ranged classes, recently. I made my first arcane archer a few days ago and he's definitely fun to play; kill counts don't matter, but man it's funny to have a higher score than TR barbarians, monks, and sorcerers.

I used to have a rogue mechanic, long before the artificers came out and ruined all the fun. I deleted him and now I've got couple empty character slots and nothing to do except play on a few new characters until my monk gets another 4 shrouds so he can TR again.

So, somebody convince me why I should make another rogue mechanic in this modern world of constant *pap pap pap* that fills the dungeon halls. I don't own the artificer class, and their entire existence irks me, for some reason I can't quite scratch. I might eventually purchase them or earn through favor, but for the time being, they're off limits.

Right then. Mechanic. Why? Still viable or too overshadowed and hobbled by artificers?

If you want to make a mechanic .... stop.

[EbbOnFire]

There's no substitute for House D favor. As a mechanic, you'll find yourself swinging by the vendor there relatively often to stock up on silver bolts for Shroud and sturdy bolts for everything else. You can carry around the other specialized types as well, but those two will get you pretty far with a GS weapon.

Until you score the favor, though, it helps to invest in a wand or two of the Flamearrow spell. One charge gives you 50 flaming bolts, so it can be a huge savings to your inventory space if you have the UMD to use it. And as a UMD-heavy toon, your inventory space is at a premium. Compounded by the desire to carry around eight or nine specialty heavy repeaters. (Smiting, Disruption, Paralyzing, GS-RadII, GS-Lit, maybe the new Silver Slinger...)

But to get back to your initial question: The reason you play a Mechanic is because it's a lot of fun to use Improved Precise Shot with a RadII repeater and tear through everything between you and the horizon, turning bad guys into clouds of different colored numbers.

I haven't played a repeater assassin, though. That sounds like it could be fun too.

[DaSawks]

IMHO Mechanic = weaksause. My Bard/Rogue FTR 16/2/2 can hit OL and DD to 66. Never played a Arti but I could see how any Arti is better that a Mechanic based on the other posts on this thread alone.

[psteen1]

No one really mentioned multiclassing here. I'm curious if it works at all. If you went arti 2/rogue 18, arti gives you conjure bolts (having enough bolts mentioned as a problem above several times), and the weapon proficiencies. If you dipped further and went arti 6, you would have an awesome PRE as battle engineer, one level 3 spell slot (insightful damage perhaps?), and 2-3 good crossbow based enhancements. For max dps with a crossbow, this seems to me to be the best way to go, though you sacrifice higher level spells, a dog, rune-arms and other stuff that would boost your DPS in the long run. You also give up rogue capstones and advanced PRE's of course.

[Cyr]

Right then. Mechanic. Why? Still viable or too overshadowed and hobbled by artificers?

Mechanics were never very good. With artificers they are just plain not even worth considering.

The enhancement pass may change this. Only time will tell.

[psteen1]

No one really mentioned multiclassing here. I'm curious if it works at all. If you went arti 2/rogue 18, arti gives you conjure bolts (having enough bolts mentioned as a problem above several times), and the weapon proficiencies. If you dipped further and went arti 6, you would have an awesome PRE as battle engineer, one level 3 spell slot (insightful damage perhaps?), and 2-3 good crossbow based enhancements. For max dps with a crossbow, this seems to me to be the best way to go, though you sacrifice higher level spells, a dog, rune-arms and other stuff that would boost your DPS in the long run. You also give up rogue capstones and advanced PRE's of course.

meh. I looked at this a bit more. It seems to me that the only way to make a decent rogue is to go pure. The capstone is just too good. However, a rogue 12 assassin/arti 6 battle engineer/fighter 2 still is appealing to me as a ranged toon... might be fun... but certainly not an optimized build.

[decease]

1)That's almost like saying "mobs have fort so why make an assassin just make a fighter/barb." Very high fort is the bane of rogue's but there are far fewer mobs with that much fort than without and there are ways to reduce/bypass fort. Plus, every good rogue knows to use the proper tool for the proper job. Undead = undead bane/disruption, construct = construct bane/smiting, elemental = elemental bane/banishing.

yes, but everyone can use bane weapon. artificer can use bane crossbow/repeater too. the point is losing your sa, not how to deal more damage.

2)Concentration checks make it hard to scroll heal while getting hit so you do have to learn how to scroll heal. Jumping helps. Having healing amp and some wand and scroll mastery (level 1 is good, level 3 is oh so much better) makes your heal scrolls a lot more effective, one scroll will get you back in shape so only one concentration check instead of two or three.

if scroll can save you everytime then there be no need of healer.. am not sure how well you can do. but it is hard to avoid damage while scrolling

3)First, 15 meters is farther than you think. Second, if mobs are far away they generally won't get to you before they're dead, even without sa. Third, if you shoot a teleporting mob or shoot into a crowd before agro is established on someone else then don't complain when you get stomped. All rogues have to learn agro management, repeater mechs even more so.

tried it.. not far enough to make me felt comfortable.. if you find the distance fair enough, then perhaps its just my problem.

4)And that's a bad thing?

do you think any ranger would refuse animal companion?

5)Statement of fact but don't see how it's a downside.

can you buff as good as artificer? can you range dps with spell when needed? can you cc a tiny bit in certain situation?

6)Also factual, but I'd like to see an arti /dance in epic traps..

dance in epic traps usually means suicide. artificer can splash two level or monk/rogue to gain evasion. improve evasion help, but even half damage can kill most rogue in epic.

[Osma77]

I've got a maxed 20 mechanic and an 18 arty/monk (16/2). Once i reinced my rogue into mechanic and made my arti, guildies have to convince me to play anything else.

With mechanics, especially level 20 with the sa capstone, the damage is insane against any normal mobs. The 15 yard sneak attack requirement is a non-issue: point blank shot increases your damage when you are close, so attacking from close range without dying becomes second nature. And once it does become second nature, you almost never have any major problems, especilly when you remember to put all those extra skills (high int) into diplo and bluff. Honestly i almost never use diplo becuase i target one person at a time, bluff when the sa end, and before the bluff cooldown is over it is usually dead. The fact that a max level rogue with reasonable gear has nothing to fear from 90% of the damage spells/traps is also a great fact, since it means you can ignore unimportant things like ice storms/chain lightnings/blade barriers. Finally, while a mechanic rogue does not get efficent healing (needs to use wands/scrolls) that is why people let those pesky clerics into the party. With reasonable hp, and practice managing aggro (shoot from BEHIND the fighter, not in front of it), you should rarely take damage at all, let alone needing to be healed.

With arti, your outlook is a bit diffrent. The damage increase from being close is low, so it dosen't really matter where you stand as long as your not getting hit. If you go evasion, then you have no problem standing in the doorway of the room, plinking the caster from long range, and hiding behind the door from the archers. Since you are standing at a longer range then normal, you have much more time to avoid incoming arrows or spells, and if you have evasion you can just ignore the spells while wearing spearblock to help with the arrows. Even without spearblock, you have the ability to toss yourself a few repairs (even if you are a fleshy) which gives the overworked cleric one less person to deal with (which is good, since you are rarely going to be standing near the cleric.) Add in the extra damage from insightful damage, rune arm inbues, and elemental/deadly weapons, and you are dealing quite a reasonable amount of damage. Oh ya, and there is that funny little thing called Endless Fusillade; toss that one up, hit a boss and run away because you WILL have aggro if it is still standing.
None of that considers spells which... well most of them suck, but the high level ones can be incredibly useful, from the obvious ones like flame turret and blade barrier, to the more obscure prismatic strike which is nice for occasionally stunning/tripping enemies.

What you have to remember in either case is that repeater ranged combat is incredibly diffrent to melee combat. Your job as the archer is to a) kill the cleric/caster, b) kill the archers, and c) kill anyone still standing when the first two are done. In wide open areas, you should be hitting enemies from extreem long range, softening them up for the party if not killing them outright. In narrow hallways, your IPS should be hitting multiple enemies. Your job to act like a nuking spellcaster who's Sp is based off of his ammo count. While casters can spike damage much more quickly (fod, banshee, ect), Mechanic/arti's can dish out consistant damage at much greater ranges then even most ray spells.

One fun thing to consider with Mechanic, since that is the one i have played more, is low-mobility bosses. For example, in the shroud, Arry is all sorts of fun to play with. Grab your highest damage repeater, stand JUST close enough to get sneak attacks, and blast away until the blades come in. If he turns to look at you, move to the side to avoid the MS. If you are taking damage and too far out for the mass heals, then stand right BEHIND the biggest tank, so the tank takes the hits while you are still dealing SA. When the blades come in, run through the gap, meet up with the clerics, and continue to dish out normal damage from long range (making it even harder to hit you with MS.)

[ltlFox]

meh. I looked at this a bit more. It seems to me that the only way to make a decent rogue is to go pure. The capstone is just too good. However, a rogue 12 assassin/arti 6 battle engineer/fighter 2 still is appealing to me as a ranged toon... might be fun... but certainly not an optimized build.

curently , can't combine assassin pre & batle eng - both require similar ench from diff classes
also you would want arty 7 for insighfull dmg
12 assassin - kinda not fun - just abit SA , but going 18assassin you stil get SA vorpal & can reach midle 40 DC on assassinate - as well as bounch of SA dices
& i'd go for extra 1fvs for saves & other things.. or not if to remember aligment restriction
- compare to pure mechanic - trade is 5d6 SA(lvl19&cap) & int to dmg vs 3d6 Sa + vorpal SA & rune arm effect +/- other things like free arty feats

[EssenceofEvil]

If mines in ddo were as effective and be used the same exact way as traps in nwn..... I'd totally make a mechanic.

In non I used to fill the first initial room in a zone full of traps and possible the first corridor... This would be my fall back area. If **** hit the fan. I always had my room of death to fall back on...I can't do that with mines. They suck.