Fresh 20 artificer advice needed

[grausherra]

I'm a newish player, and about to hit lvl 20 as an artificer. I have no real gear to speak of, no raid gear at all. I had a few questions:

1.) Of the Epic destinies which will be open for me to chose from, which would be the best for me to start with? I was planning to max 1, then start working towards Shiradi afterwords, as it seems to be the archer-focused one.

2.) What is the best way to gear up as a fresh 20 nowadays? It seems silly to go back to running outdated raids when the cap is lvl 25, but is it necessary anyways? Will loot from the higher level MotU quests beat out gear from the older raids? Should I go back and make a green-steel item or 2 or will the new loot just surpass it fairly quickly.

3.) I tend to play heavy on the crossbow but light on spellcasting; I really only cast BB, reconstruction, and prismatic strike, and fairly infrequently. Should I be picking up runearm use enhancements and force enhancements to augment those and transitioning to a more dedicated caster, since the ED's I have available appear heavily focused towards casting?

I'm not planning on TRing anytime soon, and before I do I'll go back and raid for gear for my next life if I desire to, but for now I'm planning on leveling and staying at cap; 2 extra build points don't seem too valuable for an artificer, and I greatly enjoy the toon.

Thank you in advance for the advice!
Barrinalo Tolaria of Kyber (formerly Kyrie-Elison of Fernia)

[Soulfurnace]

Just as a rule, the old raids (honest!) do have some nice things to offer.. Such as eSoS! Wait, that's not relevant? Bah!
If you're going to Shiradi ASAP, obvious answer is fatesinger. Failing that, I'd say draconic. (waits for everyone to shout magister)
Speaking from the experience of gearing my latest toon, I found MoTU to be a great place to start.. though he wasn't an artificer. Taking a quick look, I see nothing "perfect" for ya. :3 Some nice items here and there though, just nothing that you can get with, say, druid commendations.

In regards to GS on the other hand.. Yes. 45 hp, conc opp.. why not? :3
And esp for when you DO tr, having crafted that hp/conc opp and a GS wep makes leveling such fun.

[grausherra]

If you're going to Shiradi ASAP, obvious answer is fatesinger.

Should I go Shiradi asap? It was my plan since it seems fairly powerful for an archer, but would I has as much luck with Draconic or, say, Shadowdancer?

[Soulfurnace]

Should I go Shiradi asap? It was my plan since it seems fairly powerful for an archer, but would I has as much luck with Draconic or, say, Shadowdancer?

Eh.. I'm going to admit this now, I'm not a large fan of pew pew.. I gave Shiradi and Shadowdancer a go on my last arti life.. Who was a juggernaut, so.. I wasn't heavily invested in c'bows.
Either way, I found Shiradi to be good fun.. I wasn't int based (ah well), so a lot of Shadowdancer fell flat, but double rainbow and nerve venom are fun, to say the least. Heck, they were fun enough that my next (and current) life is a Shiradi sorc... which is taking forever to level D:

[Missing_Minds]

1) Depends on how focused on shooting you are and how much you want in the way of twists. Fatesinger actually does work well with shooting things, honestly, and gets you into the martial circle faster. Magister is one to avoid unless you have a need of twist points or you have a Spell Focus taken.

2) best way to gear up is to play the game. Yes, I know how it sounds, but honestly, figure out what gear you want and work towards that. Random loot for the most part will server you just fine as you go, but some specifics will be helpful. Such as Rune arms and specialized repeaters (being smiting, banishing, shroud lit II, etc.)

3) really hard to say, esp with the changes coming. As you are aware of how things interact currently, choose that which makes sense for your playstyle that you actively play, not in how you could play.

[Singular]

I'm a newish player, and about to hit lvl 20 as an artificer. I have no real gear to speak of, no raid gear at all. I had a few questions:

1.) Of the Epic destinies which will be open for me to chose from, which would be the best for me to start with? I was planning to max 1, then start working towards Shiradi afterwords, as it seems to be the archer-focused one.

Of the three available, Fate Singer is the best destiny for a ranged artie. It offers an extra action boost, giving you 6 Endless Fullisades (EF), increased ranged damage, increased spell effects and damage to spells (plus some minor increases in to hit, etc).

Much later, you'll want to come back for Magister (for +3 DC to evocation) and Draconic (for Energy Sheath as lightning absoprtion for FOT), for their value as twists.

2.) What is the best way to gear up as a fresh 20 nowadays? It seems silly to go back to running outdated raids when the cap is lvl 25, but is it necessary anyways? Will loot from the higher level MotU quests beat out gear from the older raids? Should I go back and make a green-steel item or 2 or will the new loot just surpass it fairly quickly.

The only two GS xbows worth thinking about are: triple pos (cheap, good damage output, can be used on the Lord of Blades w/an adamantium buff) and a Lit II (decent damage output, but fading after level 19).

For serious damage output, you'll want to think about running Master Artificer (for the weapon blanks) and Lord of Blades for the materials to upgrade the alchemical weapons. They produce greater damage output than GS and have a slightly higher dice modifer - 2 as opposed to 1.5.

But that takes a lot of time. If you don't want to spend that time farming those quests, pick up the Slayer's Hand Xbow in the Underdark series. I've pulled it twice on my artie (and ended up selling it b/c alchemical and Needle do waaaaaaay more damage). It's a pretty good xbow and has some CC in the form of poison.

You could also do the Evenstar Challenges. They have some decent Xbows for not so much time - maybe an hour per bow. The dice modifer is good - 2 times - and the effects can be good. The negative is that the xbows are randomly generated. So you may waste time before getting the right one.

When I hit 20, I had the two GS xbows above, plus the Silver Slinger and DoubleCross (both ok, but not great in dps output). I did the Evenstar Challenges and produced a useful fire xbow and frost xbow - two good ones to have for specialized damage. I never used the Silver Slinger or DoubleCross after one time, so I vendored them. Same with the Slayer Hand Crossbow - they simply do not add up to Alchemical weapons and all pale before Needle's damage output (see below).

3.) I tend to play heavy on the crossbow but light on spellcasting; I really only cast BB, reconstruction, and prismatic strike, and fairly infrequently. Should I be picking up runearm use enhancements and force enhancements to augment those and transitioning to a more dedicated caster, since the ED's I have available appear heavily focused towards casting?

In EN and EH, if you have the Magister's Evocation Specialist twisted in (and the Draconic one, if possible), your tactical detonation will start putting out some good CC, your BBs will hit harder and your prismatic strike will stop spell casters long enough for you to kill them. Additionally, your rune arm damage output will be higher as less mobs save - less mobs will be taking half damage, and you'll be able to count on putting out 1200-1800 damage (more when you get spellpower gear; and only if you have the damage line of the rune arm you are using maxed out).

If you play heavy on xbow damage, you want Fury of the Wild. No other ED matches it for damage output. You further want - no, need - Needle. Getting Needle is a long process. You have to flag for CitW and then run it till you get it. I got Needle on my 13th try (and 14th and 15th...but I obviously put them up for roll).

With Needle, I can count on putting out 1500+ damage when I used Adrenaline Overload and often see crits of 2500+ twice in a volley of three - on EN or EH, Fury+Needle clears mobs without issue.

Fury also has Boulder Toss. I was a full force specked artie - 7/6/6 - and my BT crits for 9300 damage (I count on it doing 1500-4500). Meaning that, with Needle, BT and my rune arm, my dps was over 700 and could reach up to 20000 in 6 seconds in burst damage. So, in EN and EH, I've only met a handful of people who beat me in kill count - in EE, arties lose out to Shiradi sorcs and well built barbs (who are using Fury) and possibly the rarest of rare monks

I'm not planning on TRing anytime soon, and before I do I'll go back and raid for gear for my next life if I desire to, but for now I'm planning on leveling and staying at cap; 2 extra build points don't seem too valuable for an artificer, and I greatly enjoy the toon.

Thank you in advance for the advice!
Barrinalo Tolaria of Kyber (formerly Kyrie-Elison of Fernia)

If you do TR, and you love arties, get those 3 ranger past lives! They improve your dps significantly. Yet to produce a lot of dps output as an artie, you don't really need to TR. You just need to build your gear accordingly. I recommend the Dream Visor, some seeker +10 gear, some exceptional seeker + 5 gear, The Epic Ring of the Stalker, Flawless Black Dragon armor (or the Blue if you want to easily increase spell power - but the Black can be combined w/the Halcion Boots to almost be as much), the Planar Conflux of Prowess - all of these will increase your xbow damage output and no other ED but Fury will magnify that so very powerfully.

Otherwise, Legendary Dreadnought does about 2/3rds the dps output, making the aggro more manageable, and Shiradi has nice CC and so can contribute well to a party. I wasn't impressed with Shadowdancer and only liked it for the dimension door. Fatesinger is surprisingly good, to be honest - some of the songs grant ranged damage procs. Magister is good for soloing as you get an additional pet, bonuses to pets and hirelings and, with Precise Casting: Evocation twisted in from Draconic, you'll have good CC through artie spells.

Lots of variety in arties!

[Livmo]

Your play style will determine what equipment and EDs are right for you.

I have a L25 arty on its 1st life as a 28pt build. By far my favorite toon to play.

My personal favorite ED is Draconic. My tactical detonation and blade barrier are out of control in dealing damage when I have that ED active. I have the Flawless Blue Dragonscale Armor to boost spell potency and such.

Right now I'm on Fatepsinner and when I close out that ED I will move to Shadowdancer. Once I max the EDs I will use a combo of Draconic, Shiradi, and Shadowdancer with the twists of fate. Possible Magister as well.

Once I max Shadowdancer I may redo my Enhancements and take out the trap stuff and increase my casting abilities.

I change my Enhancements and re-work my EDs from time to time as needed based on what I'm running and how I feel like playing.

So far I haven't the need for any green steel. In my opinion green steel if overrated. I have much better items. However, I may do a pair of goggles.

Here is the crossbow I'm using. I got it from the Caught in the Web raid:

http://ddowiki.com/page/Needle,_Quill-slinger

[Dmnqwk]

When working towards Shiradi, you do indeed wish to begin in Fatesinger as the quickest way to get there. Develop other destinies later and focus on the task of getting to Shiradi.

As for the runearm, I've found I get to use it far more at 20 than I did below that level, and since it fails to lower your crossbow dps at all (in other words it's free dps on top) maximise the runearm line for free 1k runearm shots.

[droid327]

If you want a destiny that maxes your crossbow damage, you want FotW. Much of the same logic that goes with FotW monkchers also applies to FotW arties, as every Adrenaline usage will apply to all three shots in a volley, from what I've read.

[Panzermeyer]

I know this is likely way late to the game of what you have selected. I have a capped (28th level) human first life Arty. My favor toon to play. High damage output, very survivable.

1.) Of the Epic destinies which will be open for me to chose from, which would be the best for me to start with? I was planning to max 1, then start working towards Shiradi afterwords, as it seems to be the archer-focused one.

I started with fatesinger, but was planning on being in Shadowdancer for DD, Evasion, Incorporeal form and such. I was very underwhelmed at the rate in which I could get shadow charges. I got to Shiradi thinking I would go that route as well, actually did not find it worked as well as it works on my Sorc. I actually usually run in Draconic. It helps heaps with damage output, some crowd control, with the rune arm etc.

2.) What is the best way to gear up as a fresh 20 nowadays? It seems silly to go back to running outdated raids when the cap is lvl 25, but is it necessary anyways? Will loot from the higher level MotU quests beat out gear from the older raids? Should I go back and make a green-steel item or 2 or will the new loot just surpass it fairly quickly.

Half my gear ended up being House C Challenged ground gear. I still use it all (Epic teir 3 of course) The Calomel Repeater, Ring of the Master Artifice, Bracers of Wind, Rock Boots, Ring of the Stalker, and Spare Hand. Lots of slots to plug in a bunch of stuff.

3.) I tend to play heavy on the crossbow but light on spellcasting; I really only cast BB, reconstruction, and prismatic strike, and fairly infrequently. Should I be picking up runearm use enhancements and force enhancements to augment those and transitioning to a more dedicated caster, since the ED's I have available appear heavily focused towards casting?

I am the same way, though I use Tacitical Detonation like no ones business. If DC is good enough super excellent CC even on EE. I run with a 50-52ish DC and it works on EE. Though i had to work a bit to get my Int high enough. Generally run with 50-54. I maxed out the Battle Engineer Enhancement line supplementing it with the Arcano line.

[CaptEHCJ]

Singular - you said:
<<<<
If you play heavy on xbow damage, you want Fury of the Wild. No other ED matches it for damage output. You further want - no, need - Needle. Getting Needle is a long process. You have to flag for CitW and then run it till you get it. I got Needle on my 13th try (and 14th and 15th...but I obviously put them up for roll).

With Needle, I can count on putting out 1500+ damage when I used Adrenaline Overload and often see crits of 2500+ twice in a volley of three - on EN or EH, Fury+Needle clears mobs without issue.

Fury also has Boulder Toss. I was a full force specked artie - 7/6/6 - and my BT crits for 9300 damage (I count on it doing 1500-4500). Meaning that, with Needle, BT and my rune arm, my dps was over 700 and could reach up to 20000 in 6 seconds in burst damage
>>>>

I am a 26 artie holding 28 so that I can max my ED XP Farming. I have needle and am currently working on the FotW ED. Currently I see absolutely nothing like your level of damage. I hit 900-3200 with Boulder toss and only 900ish crits with adrenaline. Thus, I have questions but ultimately I have to ask - what am I missing? Is adrenaline overload the same thing as adrenaline? How do you get your damage levels so high? Should I be checking on spell power to indicate levels of damage? If so, what numbers should I be looking at? Currently I have force of 179, and a few others slightly better... What choices in the FotW ED did you chooose - maybe I am choosing the wrong stuff... Likely to guaranteed that I am missing lots of critical gear to make this happen, as you outlined later in your reply. Working on dragon armor and am putting down lots of the other stuff you mentioned... Thanks tons for your advice, and for any advice on how to be a better artie!

A fairly new artie, working on being a good artie(!). ;-)

[Singular]

Singular - you said:
<<<<
If you play heavy on xbow damage, you want Fury of the Wild. No other ED matches it for damage output. You further want - no, need - Needle. Getting Needle is a long process. You have to flag for CitW and then run it till you get it. I got Needle on my 13th try (and 14th and 15th...but I obviously put them up for roll).

With Needle, I can count on putting out 1500+ damage when I used Adrenaline Overload and often see crits of 2500+ twice in a volley of three - on EN or EH, Fury+Needle clears mobs without issue.

Fury also has Boulder Toss. I was a full force specked artie - 7/6/6 - and my BT crits for 9300 damage (I count on it doing 1500-4500). Meaning that, with Needle, BT and my rune arm, my dps was over 700 and could reach up to 20000 in 6 seconds in burst damage
>>>>

I am a 26 artie holding 28 so that I can max my ED XP Farming. I have needle and am currently working on the FotW ED. Currently I see absolutely nothing like your level of damage. I hit 900-3200 with Boulder toss and only 900ish crits with adrenaline. Thus, I have questions but ultimately I have to ask - what am I missing? Is adrenaline overload the same thing as adrenaline? How do you get your damage levels so high? Should I be checking on spell power to indicate levels of damage? If so, what numbers should I be looking at? Currently I have force of 179, and a few others slightly better... What choices in the FotW ED did you chooose - maybe I am choosing the wrong stuff... Likely to guaranteed that I am missing lots of critical gear to make this happen, as you outlined later in your reply. Working on dragon armor and am putting down lots of the other stuff you mentioned... Thanks tons for your advice, and for any advice on how to be a better artie!

A fairly new artie, working on being a good artie(!). ;-)

Awesome! Sounds like you're doing well. My advice:

1. Fury gives you adrenaline and, later, adrenaline overload. When you get adrenaline overload *do not* remove adrenaline from your hot bar. Shade reported that they both work, and can actually affect each other. I don't know if this is still true, since I immediately removed my adrenaline in favor of the better adrenaline overload, but if I had known, I would have kept both for sure! That would be an increased number of uses - plus, he said they stacked. That would be ridiculous damage. Otherwise:

2. Get any item that boosts your damage output. These include:

a) competence bonuses to damage (normal items)
b) artifact bonuses to damage (like the planar prowess)
c) Seeker items - you want the highest seeker possible and the highest exceptional seeker available
d) Any feat/enchantment that boosts your damage output (ranger past life feat X 3, monk past life feat X 3, archer's focus from precise shot, improved critical, combat archery / combat boosts: damage output - the human one can go at the same time as Endless Fusillade)
e) various clickies that increase your damage (good hope from the mask of comedy, divine might [increases BAB], etc)
f) spells that increase damage out put (deadly weapons, insightful damage)
g) get your intelligence up as high as you can (level ups, items, insightful, exceptional)
h) flawless black dragon armor will also proc a 5% boost to damage output for 30 seconds - I am going to make this when I get up there next time, but haven't done so yet

The above are multiplied by critical hits. So

Needle: 3X (everything above added) X 3 Adrenaline (or X4 Adrenaline Overload).

There's nothing in Fury that I really took to boost damage - Sense Weakness might, but I can't be sure reading it's description. Legendary dreadnaught has Critical Damage (you'd have to twist it in, not sure if it's worth it) and a tier 5 one you cannot twist in.

My next life, I'm going artie - I haven't done artie under the new system past lvl 20. So I'll see how it compares.

Otherwise, add sneak attack damage if you can fit it in. It doesn't multiply, but I try to squeeze every last bit of damage in there that I can

[droid327]

My next life, I'm going artie - I haven't done artie under the new system past lvl 20. So I'll see how it compares.

Well since the OP has long since gotten what he can out of his Arti, I'll drop the 20 Arti assumption and tell you: a pure Arti is not optimal for a repeater-focused build. Pure Artis are spellcasters now, with a nice set of SLAs.

IMO, a Repeater Arti is now 14 Arti/6 Rgr. You give up a lot of spellcasting (including Recon, ouch, except by scroll), but Sniper Shot from DWS is the last piece of the puzzle to combine with Needle and Adrenaline to max your crazy burst damage ability. Needle is the weapon, Adrenaline is the modifier, and Sniper is the attack you apply it to, with +2W, +2 Crit Range (though meaningless with Overload, guaranteed crits anyway), and +2 Crit Mult. Even just in Heroic by itself, its a gamechanger every third volley.

Besides, precious little else works with Repeaters, applies to all targets (not just Constructs), has a short cooldown, and doesn't cost SP (like AA skills).

[G_Lich]

I have a many (but not too many) pastlived arti on Ghallanda - Lich, who was probably the last artificer to jump on the Juggernaut bandwagon and not because I thought it was better, but just because I wanted a different playstyle from staying pure arti for so long. Best-Class-Ever. AOE, CC, Ranged burst dps, UMD, Clickies, Traps, Oh My! They are truly a Jack of All Trades, Master of *Some.

I'll give a 20 tips for a new 20 arti, In the order I thought of them, not in any order of importance.

1. Don't forget to use Tactical Detonation, only quickened, and splurge on an evoc focus item, crowd control is a big plus of that spell, everyone carries extra damage to helpless nowadays so you're helping the party.

2. Highest Impulse and Kinetic lore are a must, bladebarrier stays relevant into the 20-28 range (don't let seemingly elite people tell you otherwise, end game is trash-mobs now, and lots of them, and the ability to hurt large masses while taking exactly 0 damage while kiting is still as relevant as it has ever been).

3. Don't blow too many points in Arcanotechnician, It's got some neato features but none really help mid-end game. IF the top level wasn't blast rod but was prismatic strike? this would be a bizarro comment.

4. Draconic is where you want to get started, cap it out, it's a blast, Go either Electric/Fire to start (with Potency on a Lucid you're fine w/ either) but Once you obtain a corruption of nature runearm, your focus will be acid... acid? ACID! - This is the highest "shot" type runearm out there and it contributes to itself, Tor runearms might fill the gap until you get one but they all have dumb combos (acid resist on an acid weapon, when was the last time you fought something vulnerable to acid, that dealt acid, this is a rock paper scissors game, not a rock rock rock game) - Either way you're going to have a hard time leaving draconic

5. I highly recommend going at least a little caster, take 1 feat of evocation focus so you can open up Magister Evocation Specialist (extra twistable +3 DC's to your BB at tier 2)

6. Yes, Go Shiradi - Don't be tempted to key your way over there, you need the twist points (because you'll be twisting in Draconic Burst as your tier4 once you see how much room-clearing damage it does)

7. Ring of Master Artifice, Uber, if you don't have cannith challenges pack, get now, if you don't have ring, get now, slot in your preference.

8. Ring of the Stalker, Also Uber, See above. (IF anyone has a rebuttal to this, clam up, because it's wrong).

9. You haven't lived until you've crafted a radiance repeater (Fire-Positive-Fire+Positive) from Shroud - Blind is so very very good in DDO, it's like a free party displacement vs. whatever you hit, no save, permanent. I still use mine in EE content for when the party is taking too much damage from trash, improved precise shot and you'll see a bunch of strike through eyes in one fusillade.

10. Farm LOD Chain for Epic Silver Slinger, Epic version can be slotted with Coldiron, there's your DR breaker if you ever needed one, plus works great on Truthful one if no one brought a silverbow (Weaken Undead REALLY speeds things up for your DPS classes)

11. Slaver's hand crossbow is rediculously good control. Sleepy Poison + Wounding of Poison/puncturing? Yespls.

12. Things to get on your way to Shiradi: Tier 1 action boosts from Legendary Dreadnaught which adds to your total fusillades, and can be twisted when you need it

13. Things to get on your way to Shiradi: Energy Sheath Electric from Draconic, No evasion means you'll want absorb BADLY when farming Outbreak, wisps are crazy with the chain lightning

14. Things to get on your way to Shiradi: Unearthly Reactions from Magister - Phase-tumble through mobs, very very good in those painted yourself into a corner situations, +6 reflex clinches it.

15. Things to get on your way to Shiradi: Technician from Shadowdancer - Don't be that guy, the trapper that can't trap, the picker that can't pick, DC in sschindylryn can get high (The shortcut door in death undone is around 90DC, if you can hit it with a 70 great, but do you want your party to wait around for 20 rolls on what is supposed to be a "shortcut"?)

16. Lithe from Shadowdancer - +6 add'l reflex, AC, Max dex - all super good for a tier 2.

17. In Shiradi - Since you're rdps, skip wildshots and go for healing spring for party support, You want Prism, Pin, Fey Form, Rainbow, Double Rainbow, Track, Nerve Venom, and Audience/Tea w/ Queen - Nothing else matters (Drop Pin for Dex if you really need it, same goes for Fey form if you aren't hitting (not grazing) with xbow on a 2) Some argue for stay frosty, it no longer bugs to use prism along side, so skip it, your cc is your lightning sphere (6 second AOE mez on the cheap) and Tactical Detonation

18. Your level 6 spells are, Deadly, BB, Reconstruct, Tactical Detonation - Others are weak in comparison

19. Hotkey all spells, you don't have many, and you're making a lot of trash very angry very often, always be moving - This goes for draconic spells like burst also.

20. Clickies! and Scrolls Oh My: You probably know this but as a firstlifer, stock up on scrolls, sell all that junk out of your inventory, get a friend who knows item values, don't waste your money, Always have Raise Dead scrolls, GH Scrolls, Teleport Scrolls, Mass Invisibility Scrolls, Displacement Scrolls, Blur Scrolls. This will bog your client down a lot due to the UMD bug any time you switch a charisma item, so I don't like carrying more than 50 of each. Get a displacement clicky quarterstaff from shroud (only small/med ingreds needed) Qstaff because it lets you retain essence (and not spend a charge) 66% of the time or some similar number for a 20 arti, but also, there are some great clickies from Shavarath quests (Wild mage surge, so fun, please use responsibly)

I could go on, but Its playtime

ALSO: I just read singular's post, I don't know about Adrenaline since Fusillade doesn't do 3-4 arrow volleys like manyshot does, and doesn't last as long as a full fury, Shiradi definitely has better CC with nerve venom, and arguably better DPS considering all the extra spell effects on ranged attacks. Everything else in his list, 100% plus ultra.

(That being said, I'm in fury on my juggernaut, different strokes for different builds)

[Panzermeyer]

I echo most of all what Volt said in here excellent advise.

1. Don't forget to use Tactical Detonation, only quickened, and splurge on an evoc focus item, crowd control is a big plus of that spell, everyone carries extra damage to helpless nowadays so you're helping the party.

TD is best for crowd control rather than damage. I run with quicken on all the time, and have Maximum always turned off for my TD.

Sage's necklace from one of the Wheloon quests. +4 evocation on heroic +5 on epic. It's an end reward and always drops so you can complete at any difficulty. Enough said.

2. Highest Impulse and Kinetic lore are a must, bladebarrier stays relevant into the 20-28 range (don't let seemingly elite people tell you otherwise, end game is trash-mobs now, and lots of them, and the ability to hurt large masses while taking exactly 0 damage while kiting is still as relevant as it has ever been).

I run with my Cannith Crafted Calomel Repeater most of the time and slotted a +114 impulse augment in there. In soloing BB is a must, in groups I generally don't use unless things turn south. I relay on TD. Most groups don't like chasing down mobs to kill, cause most mobs will aggro on you =)

4. Draconic is where you want to get started, cap it out, it's a blast, Go either Electric/Fire to start (with Potency on a Lucid you're fine w/ either) but Once you obtain a corruption of nature runearm, your focus will be acid... acid? ACID! - This is the highest "shot" type runearm out there and it contributes to itself, Tor runearms might fill the gap until you get one but they all have dumb combos (acid resist on an acid weapon, when was the last time you fought something vulnerable to acid, that dealt acid, this is a rock paper scissors game, not a rock rock rock game) - Either way you're going to have a hard time leaving draconic

While Draconic is my fav destiny to be in, start with Fatesinger. This will get you to Shiradi quicker and you get to Draconic super quick and easy. Though it is basically useless for you, in longer term planning it works better for you in getting to other destinies and opening up fate points.

5. I highly recommend going at least a little caster, take 1 feat of evocation focus so you can open up Magister Evocation Specialist (extra twistable +3 DC's to your BB at tier 2)

Absolute must. When off draconic, I need max TD DC I am twisting in evo from Draconic and MAgister +5 to DC's.

7. Ring of Master Artifice, Uber, if you don't have cannith challenges pack, get now, if you don't have ring, get now, slot in your preference.

8. Ring of the Stalker, Also Uber, See above. (IF anyone has a rebuttal to this, clam up, because it's wrong).

Yep yep, heck I am actually running with mostly cannith crafted gear on my Arti. Rock Boots, Spare Hand, Ring of Stalker, Bracers of Wind, Ring of the Artifice. Relatively cheap way to get great Arti gear. And what farming can you do were you are guaranteed to get your items in the end. =)

9. You haven't lived until you've crafted a radiance repeater (Fire-Positive-Fire+Positive) from Shroud - Blind is so very very good in DDO, it's like a free party displacement vs. whatever you hit, no save, permanent. I still use mine in EE content for when the party is taking too much damage from trash, improved precise shot and you'll see a bunch of strike through eyes in one fusillade.

I think I am going to have to try this.

11. Slaver's hand crossbow is rediculously good control. Sleepy Poison + Wounding of Poison/puncturing? Yespls.

I have one but honestly unless I am in explorers or lower epic stuff, I am very underwhelmed with this. It is an awesome idea for a crossbow expect you can only use it when creatures have epic ward against stat damage. ***?!?

13. Things to get on your way to Shiradi: Energy Sheath Electric from Draconic, No evasion means you'll want absorb BADLY when farming Outbreak, wisps are crazy with the chain lightning

14. Things to get on your way to Shiradi: Unearthly Reactions from Magister - Phase-tumble through mobs, very very good in those painted yourself into a corner situations, +6 reflex clinches it.

16. Lithe from Shadowdancer - +6 add'l reflex, AC, Max dex - all super good for a tier 2.

Get insightful reflexes. A must feat. Evasion or not. My arti sits on higher reflex saves then my rogue did. Twist in this and something else and I can easily push 60+ on my reflexes saves. Great damage mitigation.

18. Your level 6 spells are, Deadly, BB, Reconstruct, Tactical Detonation - Others are weak in comparison

I don't run with anything else.

ALSO: I just read singular's post, I don't know about Adrenaline since Fusillade doesn't do 3-4 arrow volleys like manyshot does, and doesn't last as long as a full fury, Shiradi definitely has better CC with nerve venom, and arguably better DPS considering all the extra spell effects on ranged attacks. Everything else in his list, 100% plus ultra.

Ardenaline seems to only work with the first bolt in a fusillade. That being said, when I run Fury my Unbridled Fury is guaranteed to charge up, whereas on my melee I would often find it difficult to get it to charge up. Unbridled Fury + Fusillade = holy **** for damage.

[Peo]

I use a pure arty and love him to death.

In my experience Shardi is overrated. Double rainbow is too random to count on, the core abilities add less than +13 damage (+2 vision/sixth, 7% of 10d10 for 3.85, 7% of 2d100 for 7.07), through the tea and attacks are nice. Fury of the wild acts like a sniper's ED. When you want to brag that one shot to the head was awesome, but never speak of anything in between. Instead I settled on draconic incarnate for the acid synergy. You can obtain rather significant Spellpower, an easy +112 from an epic elite corruption of nature, +40 runearm charge, +24 or more implement, +15~20 Alchemical Clicky, +30 DI, 23 Spellcraft Ranks, +15 Competence to Spellcraft, plus probably another 30 from arcanotechnician, 40 Int, +50 DI and +25 psionic. This 350+ makes your vortex deal 28d6+300% or quite a bit more, which hits around 22 times (almost 9,000 damage) in 45 seconds which compliments anything you are doing while it ticks. Such as burst/breath/gowb's 2.5k+ damage per use. Flyby attack also deals a decent amount of damage on top of getting you out of a horde of monsters that simply got too close. And besides the sell point of DI, your SLAs from progressing arcnotechnician with left over AP typically deal 300+ a pop with chances of applying stacking vulnerability that your entire party will love. All the while your arm is charging and firing as needed dealing over 250 per hit (1.2k+ total) even against successful saves. You become a very burst style DPSer that might only use half their SP in between rests, it's pretty nice.

Gearwise, CitW's fully upgraded needle is of course the best, a triple earth alchemical plays a close second and while the raids for it are ran less it's easier to obtain and upgrade (shards are BtA). Caromel can be a nice choice, I think it still wipes stacks of biting cold but lucky casting that spell in between spammed chain missiles is too complex for your average DDO Player to handle so you won't have to worry about ticking to many people off. Out of house cannith I also suggest the rock boots and bracers of wind. You can augment them with blind & fear immunity on top of +2 insightful int/dex (or con). Obviously you'll want a quiver of poison, higher the level the better but having one is better than not so even if a heroic passes your way snag it. Gloves of the forgotten craft is a very nice arty item even if you own a needle, it gives you disable device +20, +8 dex, +4 attack, +14 prr (green slot) and if you can snag them at the epic elite level death block (yellow slot). If you were around for it, Cove's spyglass is a really easy method of getting a nice +20 search item but if not just keep an eye on the vendors in Eveningstar to complete the trap finding bonuses. From there your choice of gear can very greatly. I second the ring of the stalker and I'm a proud owner of a fully upgraded mabar cloak. But if you're warforged and have the packs, a quorforged docent of battle can be picked up in an hour and handles your HP boosts (vitality, superior false life) so that's worth a look as well.