What spells to take as an Artifacer Melee?

[RudedawCDN]

I am trying to copy The Juggernaut "Prime of the Warforged" Build because I do prefer a melee type character who can wade in, survive and "dish out some damage".

The guide doesn't really cover which spells to take.

1) Can anyone with some experience give me some advise as to which spells are worth taking or not when I plan on being surrounded by packs of mobs?

I only get 3 to start....

Ablative Armour
Enchant Armour
Enchant Weapons
Resistance
Shield of Faith

They all sound good! I assume I get to choose more later...

2) Are Flame Turret and Blade Barrier viable for a melee Artificer?

3) He takes Mithral Body at lvl 9 - Could I sub out Flame Turret or Blade Barrier instead?

Thank you.

I am a new player; I am going VIP and purchasing the 32 point package to help me get started
on the Thelonias server (I live on the West Coast) if anyone wants to look me up

Thanks!

Ingame: RudedawgCDN

[RudedawCDN]

I've done so more reading and I have a better grasp on the differences between spells and feats.

So please ignore question number 3.

On DDOWiki it says Artificers at lvl 16 get 3 level 4 spells and then plus 2

4) Is the plus 2 - 2 spells from another class or 2 spells from a lower spell level in Artificer?

5) A lvl 16 Artificer gets 2 lvl 5 spells; Tensors Transformation is a given - what would you suggest for a group friendly Artificer for the 2nd spell?

Thanks all!

[Postumus]

I am currently playing a melee variant of the Juggernaut build that was recently so popular.

The spells I find most useful (other than the repair ones obviously) are:


LEVEL 1:

Ablative Armor. Good for you, your friend, and your pet.

Conjure Bolts. Even melees have to range at times. One way to avoid keeping this slotted is to go to a tavern, create a few thousand bolts, then swap it for another spell.

Master's Touch.

Static Shock. Stun the group and beat them down individually. Sometimes the pet gets overzealous and can undermine the effectiveness of this spell.

I don't take resistance since I usually find a +2 saves item fairly soon, and I hold off on resist energy until at least 7th level.


Level 2:

Elemental Weapons & Lucky Cape. Good for you, your friends, and your dog.

Bull's Strength if I don't have a +4 str item. Also good for friends and dog.

Owl's Wisdom if I don't have a +4 wis item and I'm doing much trapping.

Elemental Prod. It actually does fairly nice damage eventually.

Lightening Sphere. The casting time isn't great, but it can be effective.


Level 3:

FLAME TURRET. Best Arti spell until Blade Barrier IMO.

Blast Rod if your play style is more cast and swing.

Curative Admixture. Great if in parties. Basically a mass CSW for 12 SPs.

Stone Skin. I tend to get this spell last as stone skin wands are available in the Tower of the Twelve and are just as effective at lower levels.


Level 4:


Lightning Motes. Goes well with your other spells and Elemental Weapons.

Protection from Elements if you don't carry wands.

Armor of Speed. Although you can carry Haste scrolls/clickies or get a melee alacrity item and be almost as effective.

Thundering Armor for you and your pet if you get hit a lot.


Level 5:


Tenser's.

Radiant Forcefield. Very nice damage reduction for you or whomever is taking aggro.

Prismatic Strike. Great for cast and swing play style. It's basically a high powered static shock that I find very effective to stun casters, mind flayers, beholders, etc.


Level 6:

BLADE BARRIER

Deadly Weapons.

Tactical Detonation. This spell is very nice if you have a lot of Force spell power and decent DCs. It will knock enemies down and give you time to cleave/greater cleave them into tiny pieces.


I left out the material/aligned spells since those are situational and you will end up swapping those in and out depending on your gear and the quest.

[Postumus]

On DDOWiki it says Artificers at lvl 16 get 3 level 4 spells and then plus 2

4) Is the plus 2 - 2 spells from another class or 2 spells from a lower spell level in Artificer?

The "+2" is always for the single target repair and destruct spells available at that level.

[RudedawCDN]

I am currently playing a melee variant of the Juggernaut build that was recently so popular.

The spells I find most useful (other than the repair ones obviously) are:


LEVEL 1:

Ablative Armor. Good for you, your friend, and your pet.

Conjure Bolts. Even melees have to range at times. One way to avoid keeping this slotted is to go to a tavern, create a few thousand bolts, then swap it for another spell.

Master's Touch.

Static Shock. Stun the group and beat them down individually. Sometimes the pet gets overzealous and can undermine the effectiveness of this spell.

I don't take resistance since I usually find a +2 saves item fairly soon, and I hold off on resist energy until at least 7th level.


Level 2:

Level 3:

Level 4:

Level 5:

Level 6:

BLADE BARRIER

Deadly Weapons.

Tactical Detonation. This spell is very nice if you have a lot of Force spell power and decent DCs. It will knock enemies down and give you time to cleave/greater cleave them into tiny pieces.

Awesome thanks for going through the levels for me and giving me some commentary on the why's...

1) Isn't Reconstruct a pretty well "must have spell"? And can I fit it in with only going to lvl 16 Artificer?

- I'm thinking of taking Deadly Weapons and Reconstruct (I believe I only get 2 lvl 6 spells with 16 lvls of Artificer).

2) Can someone please explain to me what Masters Touch does?

- does that essentially allow me to equip any weapon from any other class and does that save me from using the base feats?

3) What would you say would be a decent starting int for an Artificer who plans on going melee; but say is worried about mobs resisting spells like Tactical Detonation.

- you had mentioned nice to use/have if you have a lot of Force Spell power - I'm assuming that based off of the amount of int you have?

[Loriac]

Assuming you are running with a warforged juggernaut (they don't really work as other races tbh), I'd suggest the following spells:

L6: Reconstruct, Deadly weapons.
L5: Tensers, Silver weapons (switch this to planar weapons if good bypass required instead of silver). In theory, radiant forcefield is also nice at this level, but in practice I tend to leave silver slotted by default as I can't be bothered to swap around.
L4: Armor of speed, cold iron weapons, protection from elements. Again, you have a couple of other choices if you don't mind switching around - some people like thundering armor (I'm not a fan of this though), and lesser globe may have some (highly situational) uses.
L3: Stoneskin, insightful damage (if you're using repeaters at all), adamantine weapons, flame turret (not massively useful at high level, but theres not much else to take really). Positive energy infusion can be useful in quests that need a tank, but its dicey for a melee artificer as the 10% hp penalty hurts a lot. Personally, I slot curative admixture CSW instead of flame turret, but tbh I just use heal scrolls if I'm trying to get a party member back up.
L2: Toughen construct (underrated imo, its basically a WF's answer to barkskin), Byeshk weapons, Elemental weapons, Reinforce construct
L1: Ablative armor, Resist energy, Conjure bolts (if you use repeaters), Enchant weapons.

The bread and butter spells for a juggernaut are really reconstruct, deadly weapons, tensers. Armor of speed and the other weapons buffs are useful, and its good to have general flexibility (particularly if you have an endgame weapon, as the right arty buff means it'll break almost any dr in the game usually). Assuming you have UMD max'd (and you really should) most of the other buffs are nice but call be scrolled usually.


To answer specific points:

Masters touch - not needed by juggernauts, as the ranger or paladin level provides martial weapons proficiency anyway. It doesn't work with exotic weapons, so if you want to use bastard swords then you'd have to take the feat anyway.

A juggernaut will not be casting offensive (DC based) spells; if you need cc, you'll be using epic destiny melee abilities such as overwhelming force or lay waste, along with stunning blow. Your DC would be too low for effective tac det, as you're missing 6 Int from level ups, 4-8 Int from starting abilities, 1-3 Int from enhancements, and 2-6 Int from epic destinies typically. As such, you want enough Int to be able to cast reconstruct in the event that you're disjuncted (e.g. with a +4 tome, 10 starting + 2 enhancements + 4 tome is sufficient Int).

The juggernaut requires zero investment in force spellpower, but conversely a 7/1/1 spend in repair is extremely useful if not essential.

If you want to make a melee artificer that uses spells, runearms and weapons, then you're looking at something like a bastard sword wielding arty, but thats a whole different build to the juggernaut.