Requesting an Artificer build

[undercover69]

Then you really really want Cannith challenges, or at least a hoarde (40+) of free Universal Challenge Tokens. Time is Money is the premiere way to grind Epic Tokens. Like one every 10 minutes (2 runs at 5 mins apiece), with little challenge once you know what you're doing.

Thanks man. In the next few days I'll either buy more points or subscribe (if they fix the subscription page in myaccount!) so I'll get the cannith pack. Good to hear they improved the favor grinding!

I dont think it works that way. You can only trade a feat for another feat that you would have qualified for at the same level. PC requires BAB 4, so you cant take it at L1.

So if you take Augment Summons at L1, you can only trade it for another feat you qualify for at L1. Also, since you dont take WF till AFTER Augment Summons, it wouldnt count as a prerequisite for PC in your L1 slot anyway...

Plus, PC is not a great feat anyway, especially when it has another lackluster feat as a prereq. Again, you're probably better off with Dodge/Mobility for the dodge chance, or heck, Combat Casting/Mobile Spellcasting might even be a better pair so you can drop Tac Dets and Pris Strikes and Reconstructs while kiting, without having to jump...

If you're really set on PC, though, just take WF at 1 and Augment Summon at some level after 6, when your BAB is 4. That will let you swap it out at 20.

think you are missing a pretty impressive feat - allows crits on undead and constructs IIRC:

Precision

Cooldown: 30 seconds
Usage: Active, Toggled Stance
Prerequisite: Dexterity 13+, base attack bonus of +1 or higher
Description
While using Precision mode, you gain +5% to hit and reduce the target's fortification against your attacks by 25%.

Note:

The feat description is currently not showing the 25% fortification bypass. [1]
Since Update 14, using Precision no longer halves your damage.
This stance is exclusive with Combat Expertise and Power Attack--you can only have one of the three active at one time.

Now you guys convinced me. So no need for WF: ranged, and trade for either dodge, precision, or both!

[droid327]

think you are missing a pretty impressive feat - allows crits on undead and constructs IIRC:

Precision

Cooldown: 30 seconds
Usage: Active, Toggled Stance
Prerequisite: Dexterity 13+, base attack bonus of +1 or higher
Description
While using Precision mode, you gain +5% to hit and reduce the target's fortification against your attacks by 25%.

Note:

The feat description is currently not showing the 25% fortification bypass. [1]
Since Update 14, using Precision no longer halves your damage.
This stance is exclusive with Combat Expertise and Power Attack--you can only have one of the three active at one time.

Is it compatible with Archers Focus? I guess I just assumed not, but PA is compatible, so if its in that stance group...

5% to hit is negligible and -25% fort works out to only an extra .25*2*.20=10% damage vs 25-100% fort mobs with IC:R, so archers focus is better unless you can use both...but both together is def worth the feat

[UurlockYgmeov]

Is it compatible with Archers Focus? I guess I just assumed not, but PA is compatible, so if its in that stance group...

5% to hit is negligible and -25% fort works out to only an extra .25*2*.20=10% damage vs 25-100% fort mobs with IC:R, so archers focus is better unless you can use both...but both together is def worth the feat

Yes - both work together.

Should see puncturing proc with both and improved crit. manslayer from the ring as well.

oh - and moving does end AF - not anymore. so move and shoot and keep getting better and better damage (until capped at 30%)

[undercover69]

Just checked, and I DO have the cannith challenge pack. But I have yet to gain a single favor point!

[undercover69]

Then you really really want Cannith challenges, or at least a hoarde (40+) of free Universal Challenge Tokens. Time is Money is the premiere way to grind Epic Tokens. Like one every 10 minutes (2 runs at 5 mins apiece), with little challenge once you know what you're doing.

Just noticed this, thanks a lot!

[UurlockYgmeov]

Just checked, and I DO have the cannith challenge pack. But I have yet to gain a single favor point!

Just noticed this, thanks a lot!

then you want:
ring of the stalker (manslayer at 12, ethereal at 16)
ring of the master artifice (repair lore, repair spell power, auto repair, repair clickie, and repair guard)
cloak of flames (helps AC but really helps turret and tacdet if you use it (Fire power and lore)
Bracers of Wind (lv 4 - 20% blur; electric spell power and lore - some nice perks at higher levels) I have most of my toons with at least the lv4 - just for the perma-blur.
I like the boots - but prefer to be able to move faster.

and btw - they renamed the epic dungeon tokens/epic raid tokens/fragments to tokens of the twelve and greater token of the twelve.

[droid327]

cloak of flames (helps AC but really helps turret and tacdet if you use it (Fire power and lore)

Actually it ONLY helps Flame Turret. Tac Det (and Pris Strike) use the highest Spell Power and Lore of any of the elements that apply to boost ALL the damage components of the spell (see the DDO wiki entry on Prismatic Ray for a more complete description, they work the same way).

Tac Det is Fire+Force, so assuming you have your Force line maxed out anyway and some Force spellpower/lore items equipped (and you will if you're using Lucid Dreams or another Force Shot runearm, or if you use BB), the extra Fire isnt going to give you anything on your Tac Dets that Force spellpower/lore isnt already.

Considering how quick your FTs die off in endgame content (like one AOE shot from any trash mob), I dont think its worth it to slot your cloak just for that - not when you could get, say, a Mabar cloak (if you have one) or the Ghost-Waking cloak from GH for 10% incorp (which stacks with Blur from Bracers of Wind).

I like the boots - but prefer to be able to move faster.

L20 boots T3 get a yellow augment slot - slot striding Or heck, you can slot striding in ANYthing with a yellow slot now. CC is one of Arti's big weaknesses, so anything that makes mobs helpless and lets you unload your clip and your runearm at them in safety (or ignore them and focus on other mobs for a few rounds) is a priority.

2.5% (50% proc rate * 5% guaranteed failed save) chance to disable a mob for 25s on all melee attacks (Stone Prison Guard), assuming an enemy attack rate of about 2 seconds (so, take them out for 12 rounds of combat), is effectively a --30%-- reduction in melee damage against mobs who arent immune to petrification. Even more if a mob hits faster than 1 per 2 sec.

and btw - they renamed the epic dungeon tokens/epic raid tokens/fragments to tokens of the twelve and greater token of the twelve.

Yeah I know, I dont care, Epic Tokens is still a better name for them, and shorter, so I'm not going to waste keypresses

[UurlockYgmeov]

Didn't know about the tact-det - but until say lv12 the cloak is very good for the turret, and like you say - the turret is not worth it after that. It is still fun to kill bats and scorps with in coal. Draws aggro and that can be helpful. - but not worth a slot after lv12.

Yeah - I've seen the boots proc like crazy in PvP - and the new slot system does allow for many more enchantments to be crammed in.

[Khatzhas]

I'm fairly sure the Flame Turret didn't used to improve with spellpower: it was treated as a summons.
When did this change?

[UurlockYgmeov]

I'm fairly sure the Flame Turret didn't used to improve with spellpower: it was treated as a summons.
When did this change?

I have always noticed (perceived) a difference between wearing the cloak with fire lore/power and not wearing it.

I could be wrong.

[undercover69]

Any more ideas on gear at various levels?
The last couple days I've been able to grab:

http://ddowiki.com/page/Chimera%27s_Breath
http://ddowiki.com/page/Khyber%27s_Fury
http://ddowiki.com/page/The_Pea_Shooter (ran n/h/e and got it on elite)

And my latest addition:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Wind_Howler_Bracers (same here)


Still have to grind the challenges... dont like it... any tips on soloing those? If I run at a much lower challenge level will I still get ingredients?

then you want:
ring of the stalker (manslayer at 12, ethereal at 16)
ring of the master artifice (repair lore, repair spell power, auto repair, repair clickie, and repair guard)
cloak of flames (helps AC but really helps turret and tacdet if you use it (Fire power and lore)
Bracers of Wind (lv 4 - 20% blur; electric spell power and lore - some nice perks at higher levels) I have most of my toons with at least the lv4 - just for the perma-blur.
I like the boots - but prefer to be able to move faster.

and btw - they renamed the epic dungeon tokens/epic raid tokens/fragments to tokens of the twelve and greater token of the twelve.

Thanks!

[droid327]

Any more ideas on gear at various levels?
The last couple days I've been able to grab:

http://ddowiki.com/page/Chimera%27s_Breath
http://ddowiki.com/page/Khyber%27s_Fury
http://ddowiki.com/page/The_Pea_Shooter (ran n/h/e and got it on elite)

And my latest addition:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Wind_Howler_Bracers (same here)


Still have to grind the challenges... dont like it... any tips on soloing those? If I run at a much lower challenge level will I still get ingredients?

Thanks!

I think I mentioned it before, Strinati's and Hand of the Tombs are good to have. And both are not BoA, so you can just buy them on the AH, even if you dont have the appropriate quest packs.

Challenge grinding isnt bad. Getting additional stars doesnt improve your final score, just your XP reward - if you're after maximizing your barter currency, you want to 1) get as many dragonshards as possible, 2) kill bosses, and 3) kill trash mobs. After completing your primary objective, of course. You do get mats for running below-level, but they're reduced of course, and usually its not even worth it since mobs are all Normal difficulty and there's no scaling - you can usually get away with running 1 or 2 levels ABOVE you, for the little extra bonus.

For Rushmore quests, this is my usual run:
1-clear the upstairs in the Servants Quarters to get a bunch of crests
2-Proceed east through the Wine Cellar and Banner Hall to the Observatory - you can shop for crests here if you're missing one
3-Take out Temptia (except in Moving Targets, obv.)
4-Return to the Banner Hall, go down the secret door and take out Mother of the Nest (boss points).
5-If time remains, go take out Ugg in the War Room.

Usually that'll be the end of your time and it'll net you 200-300, so you should only have to hit it a few times to get enough mats for an item.

For Kobold Island, just run around in a cirlce, activating and upgrading the four Small Collectors, killing kobolds and desecrating idols as you go for Parts. Put one Magefire Cannon at Small Collector 2 and 4, a few paces in front of the lever, one at Collector 4, right behind it opposite from the lever, and two at Small Collector 3, blocking each entry path up on either side. You shouldnt have to worry about upgrading the Cannons, L1 should keep them guarded long enough. Upgrade the collectors to L2 as fast as possible.

When the Lantern Archon comes, check your map to see how close it is. If its not too far, go nuke it as hard as you can. Its a Lawful Good Outsider, so make sure you're not using Holy or Pure Good weapons on it, use an elemental weapon - you dont want it to disappear before it dies, and its got a lot of life and doesnt hang around long.

After you have all your collectors upgraded, if you have enough time (~3:00+), you can go activate one of the Large Extractors and just ignore the Smalls. Once you activate a Large, a lot of monsters will start attacking it, so just park there and nuke them as they come until time runs out; all the kills, and the dragonshards should up your final score pretty nicely. If you dont have enough time to bother with a Large, just go kill the bosses at each Large Extractor for some boss points and loot chests.

For the Kobold Union ones, its pretty straightforward...you always get 15 crystals in your initial haul, so buy 5 workers (unless you cant) and at least one Teleporter, two if the mission supports teleport spots, and pick up all the loose torches (there's two behind you in Magma Chambers). Find purple crystals, lead Kobolds there, put a teleporter at the end of the line so they dont have to run back, kill anything that comes close. Usually when you hit your quota, a boss will spawn near the Foreman, so when you're close, head back and be ready for that. Once you reach your quota, just keep collecting more purple crystals. Depending how many purple ones spawn close by, you can get a lot of barter mats in the allotted time.

I never do Colossal Crystals, btw...I find it a colossal PITA. Its too easy to spend 15 mins and then fail the main objective. I just do Moving Targets and convert the barter mats to Jade Scorpions; its faster and much more certain of not failing.

[undercover69]

I think I mentioned it before, Strinati's and Hand of the Tombs are good to have. And both are not BoA, so you can just buy them on the AH, even if you dont have the appropriate quest packs.

Challenge grinding isnt bad. Getting additional stars doesnt improve your final score, just your XP reward - if you're after maximizing your barter currency, you want to 1) get as many dragonshards as possible, 2) kill bosses, and 3) kill trash mobs. After completing your primary objective, of course. You do get mats for running below-level, but they're reduced of course, and usually its not even worth it since mobs are all Normal difficulty and there's no scaling - you can usually get away with running 1 or 2 levels ABOVE you, for the little extra bonus.

For Rushmore quests, this is my usual run:
1-clear the upstairs in the Servants Quarters to get a bunch of crests
2-Proceed east through the Wine Cellar and Banner Hall to the Observatory - you can shop for crests here if you're missing one
3-Take out Temptia (except in Moving Targets, obv.)
4-Return to the Banner Hall, go down the secret door and take out Mother of the Nest (boss points).
5-If time remains, go take out Ugg in the War Room.

Usually that'll be the end of your time and it'll net you 200-300, so you should only have to hit it a few times to get enough mats for an item.

For Kobold Island, just run around in a cirlce, activating and upgrading the four Small Collectors, killing kobolds and desecrating idols as you go for Parts. Put one Magefire Cannon at Small Collector 2 and 4, a few paces in front of the lever, one at Collector 4, right behind it opposite from the lever, and two at Small Collector 3, blocking each entry path up on either side. You shouldnt have to worry about upgrading the Cannons, L1 should keep them guarded long enough. Upgrade the collectors to L2 as fast as possible.

When the Lantern Archon comes, check your map to see how close it is. If its not too far, go nuke it as hard as you can. Its a Lawful Good Outsider, so make sure you're not using Holy or Pure Good weapons on it, use an elemental weapon - you dont want it to disappear before it dies, and its got a lot of life and doesnt hang around long.

After you have all your collectors upgraded, if you have enough time (~3:00+), you can go activate one of the Large Extractors and just ignore the Smalls. Once you activate a Large, a lot of monsters will start attacking it, so just park there and nuke them as they come until time runs out; all the kills, and the dragonshards should up your final score pretty nicely. If you dont have enough time to bother with a Large, just go kill the bosses at each Large Extractor for some boss points and loot chests.

For the Kobold Union ones, its pretty straightforward...you always get 15 crystals in your initial haul, so buy 5 workers (unless you cant) and at least one Teleporter, two if the mission supports teleport spots, and pick up all the loose torches (there's two behind you in Magma Chambers). Find purple crystals, lead Kobolds there, put a teleporter at the end of the line so they dont have to run back, kill anything that comes close. Usually when you hit your quota, a boss will spawn near the Foreman, so when you're close, head back and be ready for that. Once you reach your quota, just keep collecting more purple crystals. Depending how many purple ones spawn close by, you can get a lot of barter mats in the allotted time.

I never do Colossal Crystals, btw...I find it a colossal PITA. Its too easy to spend 15 mins and then fail the main objective. I just do Moving Targets and convert the barter mats to Jade Scorpions; its faster and much more certain of not failing.

Thank you very Much!

I just got the http://ddowiki.com/page/Blademark%27s_Docent, so off to zawabi's now. Will try the challenges later.

Any other gear I should be aware of?

[undercover69]

So I leveled to 20 (actually 19 with xp to 20).
I made a mistake levelling up and forgot to put 1 in dex, so I ended up w/o IPS...
It was a blast levelling, but now he feels kinda gimpy. Any suggestions? Which xbow, other gear?
I also can't seem to raise crafting well, it's around 50's.

Help? Thx!

[Singular]

So I leveled to 20 (actually 19 with xp to 20).
I made a mistake levelling up and forgot to put 1 in dex, so I ended up w/o IPS...
It was a blast levelling, but now he feels kinda gimpy. Any suggestions? Which xbow, other gear?
I also can't seem to raise crafting well, it's around 50's.

Help? Thx!

Hey, at level 20,

GS lit II, GS +++ (cheap to make)

Alchemical Acid-acid-acid (good CC), water-water-water, fire-acid-fire (highest damage) are good.

Doublecross, silvers linger (if you can't/don't want to make +++) are good. Plus your regular banishing, smiting and disrupting (though with the +++, you'd have a disrupting).

You probably could use a lore/kinetic lore item, like Blue dragon scale/restored blue dragon scale if you're going to 25. If you're using Lucid Dreams, change to Archaic Device - it does roughly 60% more damage. Toven's ceases to be viable in EH stuff - and almost useless in Evenstar stuff, whereas the force rune arms are great there.

If you don't care so much about spell power, I recommend the Purple Dragon Knight's outfit. Yes, it's heavy armor and you'd have to take a feat, but your hp will go up dramatically and you get +3 to hit and damage, which is +6 dps on a ranged artie. In any case, you want the gloves, as they provide 30% heal amp.

From House C, the Tinkerer's set is really good for an artie. Somewhere in the 20's I swapped it out for GH stuff - my toon is here, you can search the gear:

http://ddocrafting.info/myddo/thelanis/quicklie/

[undercover69]

Thank you!
Trying to farm for the silver slinger now. Hope to get it soon.
Any ideas of what would be good crafting for the Lucid Dreams? It seems I can put a +5 there. Or any other rune arm really.
Now the arty is looking good again with LD

[Singular]

Thank you!
Trying to farm for the silver slinger now. Hope to get it soon.
Any ideas of what would be good crafting for the Lucid Dreams? It seems I can put a +5 there. Or any other rune arm really.
Now the arty is looking good again with LD

To answer an earlier question - the fastest way to gain levels in crafting is to make all kinds of shards and then deconstruct those, make more, deconstruct those, repeat, etc. Make stuff that pushes your limit or gives you like 80% chance, make them until you run out of gains in percentages, then deconstruct the shards all at once.

RE: what to craft onto LD - if you're going to TR, I'd go with Masterful Craftsman to lower the level by 2. If it's your second LD, you could add something to boost Kinetic damage or add something to make up for whatever your build is missing.

Once you get to level 20, though, change that LD for an Archaic Device!

[undercover69]

To answer an earlier question - the fastest way to gain levels in crafting is to make all kinds of shards and then deconstruct those, make more, deconstruct those, repeat, etc. Make stuff that pushes your limit or gives you like 80% chance, make them until you run out of gains in percentages, then deconstruct the shards all at once.

That's what I'm doing. Still lvls 60s-50s

RE: what to craft onto LD - if you're going to TR, I'd go with Masterful Craftsman to lower the level by 2. If it's your second LD, you could add something to boost Kinetic damage or add something to make up for whatever your build is missing.

Once you get to level 20, though, change that LD for an Archaic Device!

Great idea! Didn't know about the Masterful Craftsmanship!
http://cannith.cubicleninja.com/ could have that.

Any ideas for a decent docent (pun! )? I'm still using the Blademark's Docent.
Thank you!

[Singular]

That's what I'm doing. Still lvls 60s-50s

Great idea! Didn't know about the Masterful Craftsmanship!
http://cannith.cubicleninja.com/ could have that.

Any ideas for a decent docent (pun! )? I'm still using the Blademark's Docent.
Thank you!

Ah...I don't really know how to raise your crafting level other than that - but you beat me! I only went up to 38-40, 'cause I can't stand clicking buttons like that

Uhm, I don't play warforged, but would recommend this:

http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Beholder_Plate_Docent

http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Livewood_Core_(Level_15)

or

http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Blue_Dragonscale_Docent

With the Beholder Plate, you can add effects onto it, like +10 reflex save and so on - plus, it sometimes tosses attackers away from you. I personally like to wear armor of fear at levels below 14 since melee attackers will run from you after one or two hits - and you can shoot them as they go.

[droid327]

So I leveled to 20 (actually 19 with xp to 20).
I made a mistake levelling up and forgot to put 1 in dex, so I ended up w/o IPS...
It was a blast levelling, but now he feels kinda gimpy. Any suggestions? Which xbow, other gear?
I also can't seem to raise crafting well, it's around 50's.

Help? Thx!

I was never as big a fan of IPS for soloing as others that swear by it...as long as Archers Focus is working like it currently does, you're going to be doing a lot of damage. You usually dont want to have a whole chain of mobs aggro on you at once, anyway. Smart artis are good pullers

As far as gear at 20, the cheap "entry level" xbow is a L20 Cormyrian....2[w] die IIRC, plus 3 potentially useful mods.

The next step up would be a T3 Calomel repeater....two good Shroud procs, temporary HPs on vorpals, and you can stick in a Red augment for 1d10 extra elemental damage. A little more investment time than a Calomel, but not as much Alchemical or GS by a longshot.

You ultimately would be shooting for Needle or an Acid/Water/Air Alchemical (too many Fire immunes, and that gives you the best balance of DPS and CC), though. Needle's probably easier between the two, and it offers better base/crit damage by a longshot, but there's something to be said for all the useful mods you can stick on an Alchemical too. Acid Burst, Earthgrab, Greater Stone Prison, Crushing Wave, Corrosive Salt, Electric Storm gives you almost 27 extra elemental damage per shot and an almost 10% chance-on-hit for one of two good CC effects.

For Crafting, its just a matter of grinding out a LOOOT of gear to break down. Wait until you have like ~100 Greater Essences of a bunch of different types, buy a 5% Elixir from the Cannith challenge vendor, and spend 15 mins grinding everything out. Here's how I do my grinding:

1) Select the Essence type you want to grind with
2) Insert the Essence into the crafting station, and sort the list by XP.
3) Pick whatever gives you the best XP per Greater Essence spent. Ie, 6 Greaters for 50 XP is better than 12 Greaters for 75. Shoot for ones in the 65%-80% success chance range, that usually gives you the most XP without wasting too many Essences on failures.
4) If there's no worthwhile recipes on the Bound terminal for a given essence type, go over to the Unbound terminal, those recipes are all different and you can usually find good options on one if they're not on the other
5) When you get a buttload of Lesser essences, use them to craft Shards of Potential in whatever school you need to grind. Again, Shards of Potential on the Unbound terminal give you really good XP for a really low cost in Lesser Essences, once you can craft them.

Also, look up which Collectables are used in Cannith Crafting and make sure to keep those in your bag for grinding. Recipes with Collectable components usually give you good XP.

Any ideas of what would be good crafting for the Lucid Dreams? It seems I can put a +5 there. Or any other rune arm really.
Now the arty is looking good again with LD

I usually just put a Spell Power booster of the appropriate element in my runearms. Saves me from having to slot it somewhere else, and lets you swap between runearms without having to swap out a separate spell power item too.

Other useful options will become available at higher crafting levels....if you havent taken Mobility as a feat already, then Mobility gives you 2% Dodge that stacks with everything else. Much easier at crafting L20 than Dodge 2% at crafting L100 which doesnt stack with other Insight sources of Dodge (like Bracers of Wind) anyway.

You probably already have Attack Bonus from goggles, and Blindness Immunity from a yellow augment, , and False Life from something else too, but those could all be options for LD if you dont. Ranged Alacrity doesnt stack with Armor of Speed, if you were thinking about that...

For your docent - Giantcraft Docent from GH. Ideally you arent getting hit enough for the Guard procs to matter, but it gives you a 5% extra damage buff on most kills that stacks with Archers Focus.