Master Maker Tree

[Abilbo]

Just trying to provide feedback here on this new tree. For informational purposes, all i play is an Artificer. All my lives were played as 9/11 arti/whatever i needed to get a class life, all racial past lives were played as an arti, their isnt any other class that fits my play style. I am a repeater user, that when given the opportunity plays a WF Arti as IMHO they make the best ones, as im not really trying to debate which race/build is the best, just providing context as to my play style, to show why i did or did not like some of the new proposed changes.

Before I get into the enhancement line, I wanted to ask about the new feats that Artificers are supposed to be have access to and are they WAI? Empower Healing feat gives +75 Spell power when casting heal spells. This doesn't work on the repair spells, or the SLA repairs. It does work on the SLA curative admixture but to be honest, im not going to take a feat to use that only works on the curative admixture. Will Empower Healing be changed to work on the Repair SLA line?

Combat Expertise. When active this increases the amount of AC you get while decreasing your attack. It adds time to the increase of your spells, but does not effect SLA repairs, allowing an artificer who is not a spell caster to increase his defense. When the proposed changes came out there was a mention that Artificers could use this feat, while not suffering the penalty, currently that is not the case, will the new tree have changes made to allow Artificers to use Combat Expertise without suffering the penalty to spell timers? The reason i ask, is because in the ED Legendary Dreadnought their is a tier 2 ED that you can twist in to grab an additional +20 AC while combat expertise is active. A ED I would twist in except it causes all of my spells to suffer a longer cool down which i wont accept, therefore making the Feat as it currently is, not worth taking.

Getting to the enhancements

Cores -- I like the core abilities. passive HP and Repair is handy. I like the immunity to Magic Missles ( yes i know there are all kinds of way around this, but I always seem to get hit with a magic missle attack about 2 seconds after my buff runs out. Permanent immunity is handy, and I look forward to it being in play. Core 3 is ok, nothing great, but nothing bad either. Having the abilty to toss potions on a player who is incapacitated just to be able to get them back in the fight is handy, not game changing but again, its an ability I would use. Core 4 is huge, +30 repair Amplification which seemed to stack with all other Repair Amp that I had on me was very nice. Standing in a R3 Epic VON 1, I was able to reconstruct myself for about 420 average, non critical. The last 2 cores are simple damage reduction cores that are nice to have when you get bum rushed by a group of champions all hitting you with DOT's.

tier 1 - This level is good, at low levels it allows me to self heal without using a lot of SP and to gain PRR, HP and repair spell power. Any points i put into the Admixture CLW will be removed once I can use either the higher ones, or the core 3. The only reason to spend points into the Admixture is to be able to help incapacitated players out.

Tier 2 - I don't much care for the Melee only attack, but as I dont need to spend points into this to get to the higher tree, It doesn't bother me much. Not every enhancement in every tree is designed to suit every player, so I just live with it.
Converter, this I love. Being able to run dungeons with someone who is not a self healing character, and to be able to help them out is huge. The 3 minute cool down needs to be lowered. Casting this on a player just to have them die 30 seconds later, and then not being able to recast it on them for another 2 minutes and 30 seconds seems unreasonable.
Armor Mastery is good. More AC is never a bad thing.
Stronger admixture isn't something I would use.
The action boost defense or saves is again something I wouldn't put points into, but as I can get to tier 3 without them, i just ignore them, it falls under the "not my play style".
Tier 3 - Conjure component isnt something I would use, potions are cheap and enhancement points are to valuable.
repair Moderate SLA, again, very handy at lower levels to heal and save SP, but will remove the points from it once Im higher in the tree.
Reinforced Armor is like a bacon sandwich with awesome sauce added on, dont change this.
Warding Construct I wouldn't ever use.
The ability score is good.
Tier 4 - Kinetic charge, not my play style, but doesn't hurt me either.
Reconstruct SLA, more bacon added to my earlier sandwich, making this just perfect, cheap SP good heal, don't change this.
Embedded Component. This i like. Raising MRR is very hard to do as a pure artificer. I can live without the evasion as I typically take adamantine body as I favor PRR over evasion. I would like to see the proposed combat expertise added back to this enhancement.
Bolstering Construct inst something I would use. The benefit vs the enhancement cost just inst worth it to me.
The ability score is good.
Tier 5 - Curative Admixture isn't something I would spend points on. I already have the Core 3 SLA and that's enough to get incapacitated people up and moving, and if I need to, I can scroll heal people much better, or use Converter from the Tier 2 line.
InstaFix isn't something I would use. Greater Harper's pin solves most of that and drinking a restoration potion or casting the scroll works just as well.
Paragon Body is good, but not great. Artificers don't suffer arcane spell failure from the artificer spells they cast even while wearing HA or AP. The +4 fortitude saves are nice and the +20% racial HP is nice, but as it comes from a tier 5 it's a costly decision.
Regeneration Construct isn't something I would run at this time. On a R3 Epic quest, I was getting about 20 health once every 4 seconds. Not enough to keep me alive, while in combat, and when I am out of combat Reconstruct SLA is simply much more efficient. If your not running reaper, this is a handy self regeneration, but I would rather have the extra DPS from battle engineer.
Master Maker isn't any good at all. Your repair wounds spells have no maximum caster level. Taking this enhancement i stepped into a R3 Von 1 and tried to use Repair Critical with Maximize on myself and was only able to heal for about 150 average. Significantly lower than the Reconstruct SLA, its not worth the points for what you get out of it.

So my overall impression from this tree? I would give this a solid B. I split my enhancement points up to using 41 in the battle engineer, 3 in the harper tree, to get Strategic Combat, I added 4 points to the WF Racial tree to combine with the 12 I got from PL and Racial Enhancement tome, and then the last 32 points went into the MasterMaker tree. I was able to gain the passive benefits that I wanted out of the tree up to tier 4, while not having to spend points into the things I didnt want to take, like the lower level Repair SLA's or the admixtures.

So how did this affect my character overall? I was level 14 when I transferred to Lamania, and did not have anything with me that was higher than level 14, and those two items were my repeater and runearm. Taking my character to level 20 and standing in the Draconic ED mostly for the added INT and Energy Burst, I checked my character to see how his stats changed.

Level 14 Level 20
AC 72 AC 121
PRR 99 PRR 161
MRR 59 MRR 89
HP 537 HP 879
MP 1334 MP 2313
repair 239 Repair 306

I have to say that I am pleased with how the enhancements worked out. The SLA Repairs and Admixtures are not my play style, but that doesn't mean they are not somebody else's. If you had to play an artificer for 3 lives to get the benefits, you could easily play in the MM tree, stay back using a repeater, and help heal those that are out in front taking the brunt of the damage. The best thing about the SLA's was that you could work around them, and still get access to the higher level tiers without having to waste points into abilities that you wont ever use.

Would I make changes to this tree? Sure. Change SLA Repair's to be affected by Empower Healing feat. It was added to the feats artificers can take, but it only seems to affect the SLA admixtures, and lets be honest, most groups don't slow down long enough for you to try and heal a group of people with an SLA that has an 8 second cooldown. Put the Combat Expertise change into the tree, so that Arificers could use the feat without suffering the penalty. Get rid of warding construct and bolstering construct. Clearly the over all opinion about these is that they are not worth the points. Change them so something that adds AC/PRR/MRR either passive or clickies, for example, Tier 3 Defender, gain +1 PRR and MRR for each Artificer level while wearing a runearm X3, and then Tier 4, Master Defender, Gain +1 AC for each Artificer level while wearing a runearm, X3, prerequisite Defender.

I look forward to this tree going live in the next update. All I play is my artificer and at this point, I have to admit, that the tree as is currently helps my build out.

[Abilbo]

Change them so something that adds AC/PRR/MRR either passive or clickies, for example, Tier 3 Defender, gain +1 PRR and MRR for each Artificer level while wearing a runearm X3, and then Tier 4, Master Defender, Gain +1 AC for each Artificer level while wearing a runearm, X3, prerequisite Defender.

So looking at that again, i can see that the way I orginally wrote is over powered. It could be changed to something like, Defender, Target Player,( allows you to cast this on someone else) gains +1 AC per character level. Cost 2AP Tier 4 Master Defender, Target Player gains +1 PRR and MRR per character level. Cost 2AP You could even put a cap in it, that they gain +1 per level max level 12 or something, like the current protection of elements get. This allows you to buff other players, or your self. The difficult thing would be the duration it lasts vs the cool down. It would need to be balanced, so that you could buff one player with this, not a party, but you want to be able to apply this back onto a player when they die.

If you got rid of Master Maker as it currently stands, you could put all 3 "Defender, Master Defender, Master Makerr" into the above, +1AC, then +1 PRR then +1MRr, the tier 4 & 5 requiring the Prerequisite of the one before.

[Kza]

Strange... Seems like we will get exactly same enhancement spread. So much for diverse builds ;-)

Looking forward to live!

[Abilbo]

Just trying to provide feedback here on this new tree. For informational purposes, all i play is an Artificer. All my lives were played as 9/11 arti/whatever i needed to get a class life, all racial past lives were played as an arti, their isnt any other class that fits my play style. I am a repeater user, that when given the opportunity plays a WF Arti as IMHO they make the best ones, as im not really trying to debate which race/build is the best, just providing context as to my play style, to show why i did or did not like some of the new proposed changes.

Before I get into the enhancement line, I wanted to ask about the new feats that Artificers are supposed to be have access to and are they WAI? Empower Healing feat gives +75 Spell power when casting heal spells. This doesn't work on the repair spells, or the SLA repairs. It does work on the SLA curative admixture but to be honest, im not going to take a feat to use that only works on the curative admixture. Will Empower Healing be changed to work on the Repair SLA line?

Empower Healing does not work on the SLA reconstruct, nor does it work on the Repair spells. As this hasn't changed i am guessing that its WAI and will state again, adding a feat that will only work on an enhancement that nobody seems to much like to begin with seems strange.

Combat Expertise. When active this increases the amount of AC you get while decreasing your attack. It adds time to the increase of your spells, but does not effect SLA repairs, allowing an artificer who is not a spell caster to increase his defense. When the proposed changes came out there was a mention that Artificers could use this feat, while not suffering the penalty, currently that is not the case, will the new tree have changes made to allow Artificers to use Combat Expertise without suffering the penalty to spell timers? The reason i ask, is because in the ED Legendary Dreadnought their is a tier 2 ED that you can twist in to grab an additional +20 AC while combat expertise is active. A ED I would twist in except it causes all of my spells to suffer a longer cool down which i wont accept, therefore making the Feat as it currently is, not worth taking.

No changes to this. I guess, if your not worried about casting your spells in a timely fashion, this might be worth taking.

Getting to the enhancements

Cores -- I like the core abilities. passive HP and Repair is handy. I like the immunity to Magic Missles ( yes i know there are all kinds of way around this, but I always seem to get hit with a magic missle attack about 2 seconds after my buff runs out. Permanent immunity is handy, and I look forward to it being in play. Core 3 is ok, nothing great, but nothing bad either. Having the abilty to toss potions on a player who is incapacitated just to be able to get them back in the fight is handy, not game changing but again, its an ability I would use. Core 4 is huge, +30 repair Amplification which seemed to stack with all other Repair Amp that I had on me was very nice. Standing in a R3 Epic VON 1, I was able to reconstruct myself for about 420 average, non critical. The last 2 cores are simple damage reduction cores that are nice to have when you get bum rushed by a group of champions all hitting you with DOT's.

The Cores seems to stay the same, are still well balanced, and add decently to the Enhancement tree.

tier 1 - This level is good, at low levels it allows me to self heal without using a lot of SP and to gain PRR, HP and repair spell power. Any points i put into the Admixture CLW will be removed once I can use either the higher ones, or the core 3. The only reason to spend points into the Admixture is to be able to help incapacitated players out.

Tier 1 is still decent, spending just enough AP to get the repair amp and PRR.

Tier 2 - I don't much care for the Melee only attack, but as I dont need to spend points into this to get to the higher tree, It doesn't bother me much. Not every enhancement in every tree is designed to suit every player, so I just live with it.
Converter, this I love. Being able to run dungeons with someone who is not a self healing character, and to be able to help them out is huge. The 3 minute cool down needs to be lowered. Casting this on a player just to have them die 30 seconds later, and then not being able to recast it on them for another 2 minutes and 30 seconds seems unreasonable.
Armor Mastery is good. More AC is never a bad thing.
Stronger admixture isn't something I would use.
The action boost defense or saves is again something I wouldn't put points into, but as I can get to tier 3 without them, i just ignore them, it falls under the "not my play style".

The Addition of the 2nd Melee only enhancement didn't sit well with my Ranged build, but as tanking tree, it makes sense, and I didn't have an issue with it. Converter is still in place, and handy to have at lower levels. i would like to see the duration/timer issue changed in some way, so that in a rough fight, if the person you put the converter on dies 30 seconds into the fight, you can recast it on them. As it stands, you have to wait 3 minutes. I know the issue is that it is supposed to only work on 1 target, and lowering the recast timer makes it possible to cast on multiple targets. The Armory Mastery is still there, and Stronger Admixture is gone. All in all a good change to the tier.

Tier 3 - Conjure component isnt something I would use, potions are cheap and enhancement points are to valuable.
repair Moderate SLA, again, very handy at lower levels to heal and save SP, but will remove the points from it once Im higher in the tree.
Reinforced Armor is like a bacon sandwich with awesome sauce added on, dont change this.
Warding Construct I wouldn't ever use.
The ability score is good.

The removal of the Tier 3 Repair Moderate SLA wasn't something I looked forward to, but understanding that it works with the overall melee build of the tree. The Reinforced Armor is still very good, and the ability score is good. Warding construct was changed to shielding construct. As it currently stands, I wouldn't put points into this, as the duration is to short. A two minute buff would only really be worth it, in the event that you were going into a boss fight that was going to cast Magic Missile every other spell. As shield clickies lost 5 minutes, this seems silly to have a 2 minute duration, especially when the core ability makes the artificer immune now. Yes, this protects the entire party, but a 2 minute buff seems to be to short. Change shielding construct to work like an aura, that recasts itself, and anyone near the caster at the time of the recast, or even near him receives this buff, and then this is a nice enhancement.

Tier 4 - Kinetic charge, not my play style, but doesn't hurt me either.
Reconstruct SLA, more bacon added to my earlier sandwich, making this just perfect, cheap SP good heal, don't change this.
Embedded Component. This i like. Raising MRR is very hard to do as a pure artificer. I can live without the evasion as I typically take adamantine body as I favor PRR over evasion. I would like to see the proposed combat expertise added back to this enhancement.
Bolstering Construct inst something I would use. The benefit vs the enhancement cost just inst worth it to me.
The ability score is good.

Tier 4 is still good, the SLA Reconstruct is very nice. Bolstering Construct was changed to warding construct, which has potential, but currently could use a boost. Warding construct works like an aura, refreshing itself every 10 seconds, giving the boost to saves against magic, and saves against traps. Change that to simply providing the +3 to all saving throws would be better. Giving a +3 to saves against magic and traps is very hard to judge the value of, as I can't find anywhere on my character sheet what my current saves are, and if this actually improved them.

Tier 5 - Curative Admixture isn't something I would spend points on. I already have the Core 3 SLA and that's enough to get incapacitated people up and moving, and if I need to, I can scroll heal people much better, or use Converter from the Tier 2 line.
InstaFix isn't something I would use. Greater Harper's pin solves most of that and drinking a restoration potion or casting the scroll works just as well.
Paragon Body is good, but not great. Artificers don't suffer arcane spell failure from the artificer spells they cast even while wearing HA or AP. The +4 fortitude saves are nice and the +20% racial HP is nice, but as it comes from a tier 5 it's a costly decision.
Regeneration Construct isn't something I would run at this time. On a R3 Epic quest, I was getting about 20 health once every 4 seconds. Not enough to keep me alive, while in combat, and when I am out of combat Reconstruct SLA is simply much more efficient. If your not running reaper, this is a handy self regeneration, but I would rather have the extra DPS from battle engineer.
Master Maker isn't any good at all. Your repair wounds spells have no maximum caster level. Taking this enhancement i stepped into a R3 Von 1 and tried to use Repair Critical with Maximize on myself and was only able to heal for about 150 average. Significantly lower than the Reconstruct SLA, its not worth the points for what you get out of it.

Tier 5 curative admixture still isnt something i would spend AP on. InstaFix is gone, and replaced with Unbreakable Forcefields. I like this ability as it gives a player the option to have either the passive self benefit or the active one that can be cast on another player. Paragon Body stayed the same, and my previous statement is still true. Master Maker still isnt something I would spend points on. I tried regeneration Construct just to see how it would work out. Equipped in level 14 gear, as thats all I had on me in lamania, I went to level 20 and stepped into a R3 VON 1, mainly to see how healing would work. Turning on the Regeneration ability, which for a 30 min duration is pretty nice, I was getting about 26 points every 3 seconds, and on elite content I was getting about 80. My repair amp was 112 with the gear and enhancements that I had, so it worked ok on reaper but very nicely on elite.

So my overall impression from this tree? I would give this a solid B. I split my enhancement points up to using 41 in the battle engineer, 3 in the harper tree, to get Strategic Combat, I added 4 points to the WF Racial tree to combine with the 12 I got from PL and Racial Enhancement tome, and then the last 32 points went into the MasterMaker tree. I was able to gain the passive benefits that I wanted out of the tree up to tier 4, while not having to spend points into the things I didnt want to take, like the lower level Repair SLA's or the admixtures.

So how did this affect my character overall? I was level 14 when I transferred to Lamania, and did not have anything with me that was higher than level 14, and those two items were my repeater and runearm. Taking my character to level 20 and standing in the Draconic ED mostly for the added INT and Energy Burst, I checked my character to see how his stats changed.

Level 14 Level 20
AC 72 AC 121
PRR 99 PRR 161
MRR 59 MRR 89
HP 537 HP 879
MP 1334 MP 2313
repair 239 Repair 306

I have to say that I am pleased with how the enhancements worked out. The SLA Repairs and Admixtures are not my play style, but that doesn't mean they are not somebody else's. If you had to play an artificer for 3 lives to get the benefits, you could easily play in the MM tree, stay back using a repeater, and help heal those that are out in front taking the brunt of the damage. The best thing about the SLA's was that you could work around them, and still get access to the higher level tiers without having to waste points into abilities that you wont ever use.

Would I make changes to this tree? Sure. Change SLA Repair's to be affected by Empower Healing feat. It was added to the feats artificers can take, but it only seems to affect the SLA admixtures, and lets be honest, most groups don't slow down long enough for you to try and heal a group of people with an SLA that has an 8 second cooldown. Put the Combat Expertise change into the tree, so that Arificers could use the feat without suffering the penalty. Get rid of warding construct and bolstering construct. Clearly the over all opinion about these is that they are not worth the points. Change them so something that adds AC/PRR/MRR either passive or clickies, for example, Tier 3 Defender, gain +1 PRR and MRR for each Artificer level while wearing a runearm X3, and then Tier 4, Master Defender, Gain +1 AC for each Artificer level while wearing a runearm, X3, prerequisite Defender.

I look forward to this tree going live in the next update. All I play is my artificer and at this point, I have to admit, that the tree as is currently helps my build out.

So after going back to Lamania a 2nd time to test the Artificer, I think my original opinion has lessened some. What separates this tree from getting a better grade is really the Reaper Mode in game. Lets face it, if this update came out 3 years ago or so, this would be a very nice well balanced 3rd enhancement tree to the Artificer, increasing melee potential and adding more defense to a class that needed a boost. The problem here is that this isn't DDO from 3 years ago. With Reaper Mode, over 70% of the LFM's I see are all in reaper mode, even if its just R1. The ones that aren't in reaper are people running daily's to get through Epic Destinies, or people farming favor. Everyone is running reaper, because of the reaper enhancement trees which I hate.
The Tier 5 enhancement in any tree need to stand out as the reason to be in that tree. You can compare the Battle Engineer tree to the MM tree to see the difference. Critical Threat, Weapon Attachment, Passive Ranged and Melee Power, Movement speed. All very nice abilities, the 5th ability Thundershock working with either melee or ranged is handy if it suits your play style, not Great IMO but still good. The MM tree has a SLA Admixture that isnt worth taking as it has a 12 second cool down (seriously? 12 seconds? when was the last time you ran a pug group for any R1-2 quest where people stood still long enough for you to heal a group with an ability that has a 12 second cool down). The Unbreakable Forcefield and Paragon body are both nice, but the Aura and MM ability aren't worth taking. Trying to tank anything with an aura that is giving you 26 health every 3 seconds isn't going to keep you alive in combat. Its the kind of ability that you turn on while you go get your coffee refill and hope that your topped off when you get back. That means in this tree, I currently wouldn't take 3 of the 5 enhancements.

If you play an pure artificer, most people I know spend 41 or more points in the BE tree and then 20+ in the Harper tree. It adds decent mana, RP/MP/SP and the +4 intel is a decent boost. With the new MM tree, I will probably spend less in the Harper tree and more in the MM just so that I can heal party members with converter, and for the Reconstruct SLA, but I will still stick with the BE tree, as it is far superior to the new MM tree.