Artificer questions--What impacts what?

[Mark_G]

Good Evening All. Happy Holidays!

Been playing DDO for a long time (close to launch), and I finally purchased the Artificer class. Read the forums, rolled up a WF Arti, and currently have him close to level 9. I've got a couple of questions as to what enhancements impact what..which I am hoping you can provide the answers. Thanks in advance!

1. Do fire enhancements affect Flame Turret? Since Flame Turret is a summon, my guess is no.

2. Do enhancements affect rune arms?

3. I understand, upon getting high enough level to cast Blade Barrier, I should max out the force enhancement line. Any reason to do that beforehand (unless my rune arm deals force damage AND enhancement affect rune arms)?

4. Finally, feat choices. My WF Arti started with a 17 dex. Feats so far have been Toughness, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, and Quicken. Future feats include Improved Critical (Ranged), Improved Precise Shot (after I eat a +2 Dex Tome), Spell Focus: Evocation, Greater Spell Focus: Evocation, and Maximize. Anything missing?

Again, thanks for your help!

[9Crows]

enhancements and spell power items apply to rune arm damage

[nibel]

1. No. Your guess is right. Flame Turret is buffed by Augment Summon.

2. Yes, as do spell power equipment, usually fit on the runearm, hat or armor, since you want a damage-dealing crossbow.

3. No. You benefit a lot more earlier from Electric enhancement line.

4. Augment Summon. At least until level 10 or so, the augmented dog is awesome. After that, is a matter of opinion, but augment summon keep him alive for more time wheny ou use him to hold a plate or pull a lever (he still pull the lever even while being damaged, instead of us). Augment Summon also help in the case you ever run Hounds of Xoriat.

[Lonnbeimnech]

3. I understand, upon getting high enough level to cast Blade Barrier, I should max out the force enhancement line. Any reason to do that beforehand (unless my rune arm deals force damage AND enhancement affect rune arms)?

One thing about this, you get blade barrier at level 15 along with tactical detonation deadly weapons and reconstruct. but you only have the one level 6 spell slot. If you switch to force focus then, the only force rune arms you will have to use would be 'titan's fist' from titan raid (good luck getting that), recoyle from threnal (eww coyle) and thought spike which is ml1 and puny.

At level 17 you can use lucid dreams (which is really nice) from mindsunder, assuming you canith craft master craftmanship on it (lowers the ml by 2).

What I'm getting at is, I would wait to force spec til I had a rune arm to go with it.

[Mark_G]

Thank you, everyone, for the responses. You were very, very helpful!

[Draxis]

If you're not opposed to spending the TP (I think it's like 425, but I'm away from my computer atm) you can pop for a Greater Force Rune Arm which is, I believe, ML 13. It's charge lvl 4, but has no enchantments. However, it is +5 craftable, so you can pop an Impulse prefix on there or just change it to ML 11.

There's also a plain ol' Force Run Arm in the store. I think it's charge lvl 3, but I forget the ML off the top of my head.

Still, I'd hold off and spring for the Greater one.

[CThruTheEgo]

4. Finally, feat choices. My WF Arti started with a 17 dex. Feats so far have been Toughness, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, and Quicken. Future feats include Improved Critical (Ranged), Improved Precise Shot (after I eat a +2 Dex Tome), Spell Focus: Evocation, Greater Spell Focus: Evocation, and Maximize. Anything missing?

I recommend empower and insightful reflexes. Empowered/maximized blade barriers with 7/6/6 in the force line do some ridiculous damage. And if you're going fully int based then insightful reflexes can add up to 10 to your reflex save which is pretty significant. Precision is also a possibility but that has more synergy with half elf. Check out the link in my sig for other build aspects if you're interested.

[nivarch]

I recommend empower and insightful reflexes. Empowered/maximized blade barriers with 7/6/6 in the force line do some ridiculous damage. And if you're going fully int based then insightful reflexes can add up to 10 to your reflex save which is pretty significant. Precision is also a possibility but that has more synergy with half elf. Check out the link in my sig for other build aspects if you're interested.

I agree with empower.
Precision is very very nice for any arti, 5% to hit is always good, especially on a class that will never reach very high to hits (because they use their secondary stat as a to hit). Also repeaters have a good crit profile, so it's always nice to have some fortification bypass.
Insightful reflex is... okay. Artificers usually have a good dex score (need 19 or 21 base for IPS or combat archery), int will be higher, but usually not much higher to be worth the feat slot imo.

[CThruTheEgo]

I agree with empower.
Precision is very very nice for any arti, 5% to hit is always good, especially on a class that will never reach very high to hits (because they use their secondary stat as a to hit). Also repeaters have a good crit profile, so it's always nice to have some fortification bypass.
Insightful reflex is... okay. Artificers usually have a good dex score (need 19 or 21 base for IPS or combat archery), int will be higher, but usually not much higher to be worth the feat slot imo.

If you're only talking about EH content, then I would agree that insightful reflexes is just ok. But if you're talking about EE content, then insightful reflexes makes a noticeable difference. I end up with 32 dex and 52 int fully buffed, which means 10 extra reflex from insightful reflexes, that's pretty significant for EE. I rarely notice problems with hitting anything so I'd much rather have insightful reflexes over precision personally.

[Todkaninchen]

1. No. Your guess is right. Flame Turret is buffed by Augment Summon.

2. Yes, as do spell power equipment, usually fit on the runearm, hat or armor, since you want a damage-dealing crossbow.

2 things:

1) You can also drop a number of buffs on the flame turret, if you're silly with your SP. Stoneskin, for example...

2) You can also deconstruct Shards of Power from Shroud and they are a craftable trinket. I made an extra--min level 20 because I don't have the Cannith favor to do masterful crafting--a Greater Evocation Focus and Good Luck +2 trinket I roll with when I don't need a high Search skill right then. I did that--and got the Heighten feat--to land Prismatic Strike on things because I prefer beating things up that are sitting on the ground.

But, I'm weird. I also made my dog a White Dragonscale Docent....

[Postumus]

2 things:

1) You can also drop a number of buffs on the flame turret, if you're silly with your SP. Stoneskin, for example...

.

You can also repair it.

OP I like to go lightning spec at first, then go extremely heavy in force to get those 1000 hp BBs, 1000+ hp rune arm shots from Lucid Dreams (which also has arcane lore on it), and a nice boost to tactical detonation and prismatic.