anyone bothered to build an arti for spell DCs?

[jakeelala]

no one here is mentioning the phenominal DPS (DC-less) of a 50 int, Insightful strikes Heavy repeater ON TOP of all the casting and rune arm damage. It's significant. With the new raid Xbow, 10 seeker, 5 exc seeker, and shadow-dancer, the damage is, not to be offensive, ********.

Or a loot gen Radiance repeater in Shadowdancer.

Or Shiradi. Or Fury now that adrenaline is fixed.

[Bacab]

Awesome thread...

I recently came back from a 6 month break (have not done new epics yet).

Anyway, my free time is reduced, so I only have time for one toon.

Well, he is currently 14CLR/1FTR/1BRB...may LR him into a Clonk.

Though I miss being a WF.

I was thinking about TRing him back into a WF and going either SOR or WIZ or maybe Arty.

I never have played arty, so I would probably roll one and level it up a little bit to see how I like it (first life is super fast anyway).

Anyway I have the following past lives...

Bard
WIZx2
SOR
Barb
CLR

Anyway I have tons of Docents that would help...and I really like Warforged...so I am inclined to to TR back into a WF something...will try to collect some Arty gear if I decide on doing that (greensteel stuff)...plus I need to get some gear slots figured out.

Anyway...

TLDR...

Human 18Cleric/2Monk
Warforged WIZ Archmage
Warforged Sorc
or
Warforged Arty (though I never made an arty will roll a first lifer to try it out)

Are arty's good in Epics?
Are they still nice for raids?

Help me pick!

Any

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Most Artificer offensive spells kinda suck IMO.
High DC really wouldn't change this much.


But.... the capstone changes things...

You could use a clickie, and if you have high enough DC, could be just as effective as a Wizard (or Sorc at least)

Now, my backpack just isn't beg enough to carry all of the useful stuff I would like.
And building an Arty just to get a high DC to use clickies seems kinda weird to me.

But you could do it if you wanted to.

The main drawback IMO is collecting useful clickies, and having space in your backpack (and spots on tools bars) to make effective use of them.

That and the fact that Arties do just fine without them.

[karpedieme]

Most Artificer offensive spells kinda suck IMO.
High DC really wouldn't change this much.

LOL WUT?????

Have you ever been in Master Artificer or Lord of the Blades Previously to the Expansion. In OLd one Diff Epic Bladesworn Artificers could mangle Half a Party with Tactical Detonation. Its a mass Improved Trip-like spell with mass Prismatic Spray damage. Now turn the spell over to the player and use it on mobs

Blade Barrier on top has artificer written all over this class for max damage when you build a proper DC.

Prismatic Strike is also a one target Tactical Detonation.

Build in Lightning Motes with A Triple Air Alchemical Repeater or a LIT II and you have purple electric damage.

These are 4 staple offensive spells for atificers....

Decontruct vs constructs is quite nasty too

A proper arty is a combination of range + offensive + self-buff yeah they dont have the same number of spells as a wizard but they bring plenty to the table already.

The problem with a lot of people playing artificer is they have / had too high expectations of the class in the first place.... They have Bard-like SP granted but have great balance between ranged and spellcasting.

They are viewd by some as Jacks of all Trades and Master of None.... I disagree....

The underlying subtlety to playing an ofensive artificer is making best of all its atrributes.

Ranged
Rune-arm when not constantly on the move
Offensive Spells

A lot of artificers i have seen strugggle and consequently whine about them sucking as offensive spellcasters are the ones who dont invest in INT at the expense of maxing DEX.

They are fun and can hold their own in many situations like any ture self-sufficient soloable class.

Laters

[CThruTheEgo]

Most Artificer offensive spells kinda suck IMO.
High DC really wouldn't change this much.

This statement makes me think you have not played an artificer to cap yet. The playstyle of an arti changes throughout the leveling process. Early and midgame dps is primarily from the repeater and I'll agree that spells in this level range are pretty meh. Late and endgame, however, dps is primarily from spells and rune arm. Arti's have the most powerful blade barriers in the game as well as two great cc spells, one that is AoE and targets a weak save for most mobs (tactical detonation) and another that is single target and hits all three saves (prismatic strike), which is fantastic against orange names. These spells do not suck and I don't know how you could think so.

But.... the capstone changes things...

The capstone doesn't change anything. The real benefit of going 20 arti is having more level 6 spell slots. The capstone is nice, don't get me wrong. But being able to permanently slot blade barrier, tactical detonation, deadly weapons, and (if your WF) reconstruct, is what changes the playstyle from being a repeater specialist to a versatile, multitasking, casting beast. This is the real game changer, not the capstone. And for this, DC's are very useful.

[Deathdefy]

You can hit 49 DC Phatasmal Killer and 47 DC Web wands with 3 Wiz PLs + Completionist using the capstone but they're not actually useful in EE. (EDIT: Obviously in an Int giving Destiny with a twist of Echoes:Magister, all 3 Wand DC Enhancements, and otherwise maxxing int). Fun in EH though!

It's been a while, but I remember Prismatic Strike's -25% melee damage working on at least Red Names - if not purples. I'm pretty sure it did work on Arraetrikos.