Eldritch Archer

[SimonUK]

I'm fairly new to the game - only been playing a couple of weeks and mostly tinkering with different classes so far. I'm looking at trying an archer as it simply looks more fun for me. If you're able to give me some thoughts and advice please do as I'm admittedly a total nub at this sort of thing. These are my goals:

Character must be solo-friendly, able to spot/search, disarm and open (ie rogue skills)
Character must be able to self heal (Wand or otherwise) but shouldn't be a pain for group play ie heal not repair.
Character should be flexible ie arcane spells for more options
Character should be fairly survivable - heavy armor would be nice
Character should have decent range damage without being a mana sink (like some casters seem to be)


My first thoughts: The Harper tree presents many synergy options for arcane and weapon damage, plus options to cut failure due to heavy armor. This might make my character more fun and flexible. I could then stack INT heavily and have dividends both for my mana pool, casting and combat. The draft below puts my base int on a permanent 33+ whatever I have on gear etc. If the +damage options are as good as they look, repeating crossbow (heavy) looks like a good start.

Classes: 1 Artificer, 1 Cleric, 18 Wizard, in that order.
Key feats: Rapid reload (from Artificer), Heavy Armor, Point Blank, Rapid Shot, <wiz>, +INT, Dodge, +INT, Mobility, <wiz>, Shot on the Run, +INT, <wiz>, Insightful reflexes, +INT.

Thoughts on final action points IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER (1 left):
DROW – 18
Spell Res 1 (1), Int + 1 (2), Spell Res 1 (1), Int + 1 (2),
Keen sense 3 (3)
Nothing Hidden 3 (6)
Arcane Fluidity 3(3) (-15% arcane failure armor from 35 to 20)

Battle Engineer – 3
Battle Engineer 1(1), Weapon Training Xbows 1 (2)

Harper - 33
Agnt Good 1(1), Int+1(2), Agnt Good 1(1), Int +1 (2), Harper Ench 1 (2), Toughness 3(3), Strat Combat 1 (2), Vers Adept 3 (3), Int + 1 (2), Strat Comb 1 (2), Vers adept 3 (3), Int+1 (2), Vers Adept 3(3), Austerity 1 (2), Vers Adept 3 (3)

SpellSword - 25
Eldritch Strike 1(1), Spellsword 1(1) (-5% failure), Toughness 3(3), Battlemage1(1), Light Armor Prof 1(2) (-5% failure), Imp Shield 3(3), Spellsword 1(1), Spellsword 1(1) (-5 % failure), Int+1 (2), Crit Acc 3 (3), Ele Res 3(3), Int+1 (2), Med armor (2) (-5% failure)


The reason for the few points in the drow racial was to avoid having to stack spot too - the permanent search should save me time and skill points allowing me to focus just on search.

Thanks in advance.

[SimonUK]

Just to clarify, suggestions don't have to be using the same classes - I'm pretty open to ideas. I do like synergy though, so if you can find ways to stack a single resource, use it for combat skills and a casting mana pool at the same time, the more so the better

[unbongwah]

Character must be solo-friendly, able to spot/search, disarm and open (ie rogue skills)
Character must be able to self heal (Wand or otherwise) but shouldn't be a pain for group play ie heal not repair.
Character should be flexible ie arcane spells for more options
Character should be fairly survivable - heavy armor would be nice
Character should have decent range damage without being a mana sink (like some casters seem to be)

Honestly, a pure Warforged artificer can basically do everything you want, presuming you have both unlocked. Have a look at a couple of threads:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...used-artificer
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...re-arti-for-EE

[SimonUK]

Honestly, a pure Warforged artificer can basically do everything you want, presuming you have both unlocked. Have a look at a couple of threads:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...used-artificer
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...re-arti-for-EE

Thanks. I'm not clear what advantages that build has over the original though. I guess the group healing thing I could work around with Healers Friend (Warforged without it get a lot of group hate). How does the range dps compare for example, and is this offset much by the lack of spell versitility etc? Having access to all wizard spells, level 1 Arti and level 1 cleric has some appeal, not to mention wands of any level. I assume your build used heavy armor? (Didnt check that).

[unbongwah]

With that many wiz lvls, you'd be better off with a pure caster build, not some sort of weird ranged hybrid. While wizards have a much greater variety of spells, there's not a lot in the wiz trees or spellbook which boosts your ranged DPS; whereas arties are built around that. Arties also get a few nice DPS spells and some useful buffs; and a WF arty can self-repair with Repair & Reconstruct spells just fine - no need to rely on anybody else, so the heal amp penalty doesn't matter. And if you still want to go heavy into Harper, you can, because it's an universal PrE.

Now, if you don't have access to WF, it gets trickier; you didn't list what account options you have unlocked. But if you're stuck playing fleshie races, you miss out on WF survivability.

[flute136]

i would try a 12wiz6ranger2artificer or rogue. Full int to dmg/attack with bow through harper agent, plus a decent range of wizzie spells. i would not recommend going necromancer for self heals, prolly warforged or bf. i dont think people will hate you just because your a robot, most healers have enough spell power to fill you up anyhow, plus if your self healing, they dont have to heal you anyways.