best repeater for leveling?

[tylerdurden77]

I'd like to know what the community at large thinks is the preferred type of repeater for leveling an artificer. I'm not too worried about the early levels (1-6) as the quests are fairly short and the mobs usually go down in one 3-shot volley from a repeater. I'm looking for what people generally use for levels 7-15. I cap it at level 16 because once I can get those Web of Chaos repeaters in my hands I think they are pretty solid until level 20 epic weapons come into play.

Here are some of the questions I have come up with:

Pure DPS or effects? For the middle levels is it better to mow down mobs with a heavy repeater like a Flaming of Lacerating? Or should I craft myself a Wounding of Puncturing and just cast elemental weapons on it?

What gear do you wear to augment your repeater? Of course you will be wearing your rune arm of choice which usually adds some sort of elemental damage, but I'm looking for non-rune arm gear that adds damage or effects to your repeater. Things like the Charged Gauntlets (shocking blow), regular Claw set (+2 damage), Sora Katra set (+2 hit and damage), Wind Howler bracers (shrieking bolt), etc

Greensteel or Paralyzing? By the time you get to Necro 3 or Von flagging (level 11-ish) casters start to shine and have enough GS items and SP dominate a quest. At this point I have found that I am more effective playing a support role in groups. Doing things like buffing melees, taking down casters or archers in the back ranks, etc. So would it be better to use a Lit2 GS repeater to help take trash out quicker? Or should I be paralyzing, cursing, or shattermantle-ing things and let the melees and casters do their thing?

Let me know what you guys think. I'm pretty sure at the end of the day it all comes down to preferred playstyle and experience, but I'm interested to know what others have found from their experience.

Werd.

[voodoogroves]

If you have greensteel as an option (not available to first life toons, etc.) then a GS DPS bow (Lit2 is common) is pretty freaking brutal. A CC option like is great (freezing ice, earthgrab).

If you don't, I'd craft/carry
- One general DPS ... Holy/Good works ... You might be able to get some decent lootgen combos too - Holy / Lacerating, Pandemonium / Lacerating, etc. They are rare, but the extra points of DPS are always nice.
- Wounding / Puncturing or other stat-damager to put folks in auto-crit.
- Paralyzing ... I went back and forth with this and the stat damager. I ended up using the stat damager more.
- Ghost Touch / Greater Incorporeal Bane (crafted)

[Seventoe]

I've run through five lives as a repeater user: 2 arti and 3 int-based ranger/arti/barb, and this is what I've found.

If a lit2 bow is an option, that will be your strongest choice most of the time. If your shooting a mob it's probably too late for a caster to instakill it anyway. It's definitely too early to cede dominance to the casters.

Paralyzing is fun, but for me at least it was mostly a toy, because the lit2 damage was so strong that it was almost always the best choice. Depending on the party, it can be nice after level 15, when you finally have the attack bonus to take Improved precise shot.

I have a triple-positive bow, which saw a lot of use too. Another one that came in handy was the banisher. A banishing repeater is killer in the vale quests, and against elementals. I also used a smiter from time to time; before you find one its good to have a crafted construct-bane repeater before you hit the VON chain.

It's a lot more grind, but a T1 Earth Alchemical repeater is ML16 and its SO MUCH FUN.

TLDR:
1. LIT2 for
2. 3xPOS
3. Banisher
4. Smiter/construct bane.
5. Paralyzer

Happy Plinking!

[9Crows]

disruptor
banisher
smiter
LitII
RadII

[cdr]

LVL2: Lacerating
LVL6: Acid Burst of Pure Good w/festival icy burst
LVL10: Paralyzing, Smiting, Banishing w/festival icy burst
LVL12: LitII GS
LVL16: Doublecross, Silver Slinger

Bonus minimal runearms (I threw the rest away):
LVL1: Flicker
LVL3: Strinati's Hand Cannon
LVL5: Coronach, Devourer's Hunger
LVL7: Hand of the Tombs
LVL11: Tor arm (I happen to have Chill of Winter)
LVL15: Glorious Obscenity
LVL17: Toven's Hammer, Animus

I made myself a ML11 improved cursespewing of slowburst but rarely ended up using it. After LitII, rarely used paralyzing but used banishing/smiting a ton situationally. Doublecross is a great dps+CC package.

I only used Bold Trinket (shocking blow), Charged Gauntlets, Wind Howler bracers. Claw set or Sora Katra set are not worth the gear sacrifices, especially the latter.

[MRMechMan]

Debuffing mobs is good but the best debuff is death. Even at mid-levels, stuff generally goes down pretty quick, and taking them out even quicker is generally the better option.

In terms of DPS weapons, hard to beat greensteel when TRing. LitII is great...3x pos deserves a mention as well-it is NEARLY as much damage/bolt as a litII


same crits/base damage
litII= 7holy+2.1good blast+5.6good burst=14.7
3xpos=7 holy+1.8elec blast+4.6elec blast+~9lit proc=22.4

So ~8 less. Seems like a lot but with int to damage, crits, base weapon damage, and all other buffs it is probably like ~10-15% less dps. Tops. Also, keep in mind that more things take good damage (only good enemies do not) than elec damage...even 10 elec resist really kills of the shocking burst/blast damage contribution. Nothing reduces the good damage and very little is immune.

Also, the big difference in dps between the 2-the lightning strike-will not actually be 9 damage/bolt against low hp targets. If the 2nd bolt procs litII wrath and kills it...and the 3rd would have killed it anyway...doesn't really matter.

3x pos also does ~26 damageper bolt \ to undead because of greater disruption and also vorpals. And, it has a raise clicky . Due to skeles piercing DR, till you get silver slinger 3x pos is really handy. Undead are very prevelent when TRing.

I'd go 3x pos for the above reasons. Mildly less dps against most mobs but tears up undead and really nothing resists it.

[lazlow]

concerning some of you mentioning the bold trinket and charged gauntlets...do these effects applying using a ranged weapon? Thought these applied melee only.

[tylerdurden77]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I like MrMechMan's detailed analysis of the Lit2 versus Triple-Pos. Prolly gonna go with a Triple-Pos for my 1 GS to make for this guy. Losing a bit of damage from the Lightning Strike for the added utility of having a great undead beater with a res clickie seems like a good trade for levels 12-19. Plus it's a cheaper from the Shroud mats perspective.

Doublecross is a great dps+CC package.

Yes, I can't wait to upgrade my doublecross bow at level 20. I'm a big fan of enervation from playing my rogue. Can't wait to see it in action in the middle of an Endless Fussilade volley.

[MattiG]

Surprised to not see more mention of rad2 (INT/INT/holy). With helf rogue dilly. Quite nice.

Lootgen +1 banishing of righteousness is nice as well.

[CaptainSpacePony]

GS if you can (not so much for 1st life). Pick your flavor.

If no GS, then paralyzer was my main wpn on 1st life with Banisher, smiter, disruptor for the appropriate stuff.

[nibel]

Just a quick note, there is another inherent advantage on PosX3 over Lit2: It require only a single shard. So, you dont need 24 larges to craft it.

[Jaid314]

LVL2: Lacerating
LVL6: Acid Burst of Pure Good w/festival icy burst
LVL10: Paralyzing, Smiting, Banishing w/festival icy burst
LVL12: LitII GS
LVL16: Doublecross, Silver Slinger

Bonus minimal runearms (I threw the rest away):
LVL1: Flicker
LVL3: Strinati's Hand Cannon
LVL5: Coronach, Devourer's Hunger
LVL7: Hand of the Tombs
LVL11: Tor arm (I happen to have Chill of Winter)
LVL15: Glorious Obscenity
LVL17: Toven's Hammer, Animus

I made myself a ML11 improved cursespewing of slowburst but rarely ended up using it. After LitII, rarely used paralyzing but used banishing/smiting a ton situationally. Doublecross is a great dps+CC package.

I only used Bold Trinket (shocking blow), Charged Gauntlets, Wind Howler bracers. Claw set or Sora Katra set are not worth the gear sacrifices, especially the latter.

if you can stand to farm it, recoyle is actually quite nice at level 11. and while toven's hammer is better vs trash, lucid dreams or the new FR one are better vs most bosses (though it's not a landslide victory, i'll admit).

[fco-karatekid]

if you can stand to farm it, recoyle is actually quite nice at level 11. and while toven's hammer is better vs trash, lucid dreams or the new FR one are better vs most bosses (though it's not a landslide victory, i'll admit).

I just farmed a Recoyle this weekend for my first Arti - it was a SERIOUD slog thru that content, but MAN was Recoyle worth it (caveat: I have several AP in Force Manipulation, as I am preparing for later Lucid Dreams use; so those AP may have skewed my opinion). Each one of those force thingies is hitting for between 40-80... shredding stuff right now.

[Bunker]

GS Rad II is king in my book. But if this is a TR project, no need to make a GS repeater just for 8 lvls. (12-20)

Pick the highest dmg, and stick with it. IMO paralyzing is not worth it ever as a repeater. There are better prefix/suffix on other random items, and Artis are all about DPS, so stick with what does the most.

I will comment on other items that you might want to have:

Frozen Tunic(for non-WF)
upgraded ring of lies(imp. deception @lvl 13 is GREAT!)
Stalker Ring(lvl 12 at minimum manslayer ftw)

And one other thing to mention. Cannith favor to lower your min lvl on your rune arms by 2 leves. Hand of Tombs @ lvl 7 and Lucid Dreams @ lvl 17 makes all the difference if you can muster up the favor from past lifes to prep for Arti.

Many other ideas I have, but the above off the top to start.

/cheers

-Bunk

[Brennie]

concerning some of you mentioning the bold trinket and charged gauntlets...do these effects applying using a ranged weapon? Thought these applied melee only.

Bold trinket has other attributes, and charged gauntlets are nice for the set bonus if nothing else, but the bonus proc from each of these does not apply to ranged combat.

- Wounding / Puncturing or other stat-damager to put folks in auto-crit.

Auto-Crit isn't a thing anymore. However, you still get the stun and a 150% to all damage on the target, so stat damagers still do stuff. Although, personally I don't really like them til higher level, as pure damage tends to rip things up too quickly for the stat damage to matter in middle levels.

[Bacab]

I/snip

TLDR:
1. LIT2 for
2. 3xPOS
3. Banisher
4. Smiter/construct bane.
5. Paralyzer

Happy Plinking!

100% agree with this. This is what I am using and I like it a lot

I have heard a lotta people like Triple Earth for Earth Grab or Triple Ice for freezing guard.

[voodoogroves]

Auto-Crit isn't a thing anymore. However, you still get the stun and a 150% to all damage on the target, so stat damagers still do stuff. Although, personally I don't really like them til higher level, as pure damage tends to rip things up too quickly for the stat damage to matter in middle levels.

You know what I mean ;-)

"Helpless"

I like them around 12+, once your rune arm damage also gets decent enough.

[aradelothion]

Outside of Greensteel, a crafted wounding of paralyzing is ml7 with the Cannith mark, and I swear by it through heroic levels all the way to Amrath against trash, particularly if you run with people who could maximize the benefits of having helpless/con-drained mobs (rogues, high crit melees, pale masters, etc). Mostly useless in Necro, but still pretty good everywhere else.

[thunir]

If you can Craft

1-6 Screamin Bleeding with Masterful Craftsmanship
6-12 Acid burst/Wounding
13 on first GS should Be lit 2 its the only one you will really use in endgame, SIlver bolts and a Deadly Weapons with beat the heck out of a Devil of any kind. Or if you Lazy just Silver.

PS dont discount Crippling, its great for ranged CC. But best as an Applied effect, IE.. Chain Shirt, or Glowing Arrowhead.

[nibel]

13 on first GS should Be lit 2 its the only one you will really use in endgame

Lit 2, while still awesome for leveling, is not an endgame weapon anymore. All demons are immune to lightning, and lots of things on demonweb are demons. IIRC, Vine Horrors are immune to lightning too (frequent enough at the U15 and U16 chain).