Harper enhancements on a pure wf artificer

[pSINNa]

G'day, Coit here,

I haven't built an Arti since before the Harper enhancement tree was available, and am wondering whether it seems crazy to throw 12 points at the Harper tree to get Int based hit and damage rather than using Insightful Weapons and Strikes for the same purpose.

What do you all reckon.......


Coit out.

[Discpsycho]

Harper? Absolutely. Invest 12 points? Maybe

Regardless of whether you're running a melee or ranged artificer, you're going to benefit quite a bit from Know the Angles. I'm running a melee arti life at the moment and with only 48 Int at 18 I notice a huge difference in outcome on CC abilities. If you're using a repeater the main draw is the bonus damage, but certainly by mid-late heroics it's better than anything you can get elsewhere in the Arti trees.

I went with 8 points in the tree for Int-to-hit and KTA, since you can't have both Insightful Strikes and Insightful Weapons active at the same time. While casting Insightful Weapons was a pain in early levels because of the short duration, by level 12 or so it wasn't a huge burden

[C-Dog]

It's a Quality of Life thing. If you can live w/ casting and re-casting that spell (and remembering to do it!), then it saves you the AP. If not, then the AP save you a spell slot.

Harper? Absolutely. Invest 12 points? Maybe
...
I went with 8 points in the tree for Int-to-hit and KTA, since you can't have both Insightful Strikes and Insightful Weapons active at the same time.

Important point.


Another option, and a popular one, is to go w/ the 12 points asap, then back out to 8 once you have that spell.

[pSINNa]

Thanks for the confirmation .

I spent a few years building some fun characters and posting them before we had 'fill in the box' enhancement trees, and I'm still learning the in's, out's, and combo's for the current system, synergies with class's, feats, races and enhancements.

Lots of great melee crowd control available now, one of my favourite in game play styles (helpless victims, they make me giggle).

I tend to check out other's builds just for interesting aspects, rather than cookie cutter copying of an optimum for this months flavour, it's more fun to invent than duplicate....
Looking forward to getting it all sorted and putting together some builds, that may not be totally maxed (who cares really......) but heaps of fun to level and play.

Have a good one all,

Coit out

[unbongwah]

I haven't built an Arti since before the Harper enhancement tree was available, and am wondering whether it seems crazy to throw 12 points at the Harper tree to get Int based hit and damage rather than using Insightful Weapons and Strikes for the same purpose.

It's not crazy, but there's no particular need to do so, unless you really want the level 3 spell slot for something else, since Insightful Damage can't be disspelled, IIRC. So usually you take tier-1 Strategic Combat for INT to-hit and tier-2 Know the Angles for +0.5x INT mod bonus to damage, while casting Insightful Damage for INT to damage.

You might wonder what difference saving a few APs in Harper could make, but it could be the difference between, say, 41 Battle Engineer / 31 Renegade Mastermaker / 8 Harper and 41 BE / 27 RMM / 12 Harper, trading Radiant Forcefield SLA and Embed Component (+6 CON, +15 MRR) to save a few SPs and a spell slot by not taking Insightful Weapons.

[pSINNa]

Solid advice mate, and a good guide to what and where points wise for something that might be **** useful on the solo reaper runs I've just started to play around with (finding the reaper difficulty very interesting, much better than doing multiple boring repeats on life levelling).

[C-Dog]

... solo reaper runs I've just started to play around with ...

You'll get diff advice re how to spend your Reaper XP on those trees. Most recommend the "defensive/Hit Point" tree first. I agree, with one twist - first get the offensive boost (either Melee/Ranged doublestrike or Spellpower boost), all 3 ranks for 4 points. Then, for 5 & 6, take the first Defensive core + the first rank of that boost (Saving Throws) - that will get you one extra offensive boost.

For 7 & 8, you can do the same w/ the other offensive boost (just 1 rank) for a second extra boost, or start on and fill the defensive tree for a massive HP boost.

This gives you a nice offensive punch when you need it, something to have for the long march along the HP trail.

[droid327]

It's not crazy, but there's no particular need to do so, unless you really want the level 3 spell slot for something else, since Insightful Damage can't be disspelled, IIRC. So usually you take tier-1 Strategic Combat for INT to-hit and tier-2 Know the Angles for +0.5x INT mod bonus to damage, while casting Insightful Damage for INT to damage.

You might wonder what difference saving a few APs in Harper could make, but it could be the difference between, say, 41 Battle Engineer / 31 Renegade Mastermaker / 8 Harper and 41 BE / 27 RMM / 12 Harper, trading Radiant Forcefield SLA and Embed Component (+6 CON, +15 MRR) to save a few SPs and a spell slot by not taking Insightful Weapons.

Yeah my general rule of thumb is "what will you spend those 4 points on?" If its something worthwhile, if it lets you hit a higher tier in a tree, then go for it. If you're just gonna dump them into ranks of PRR or something, then I'd just leave them in Harper.

Casting ID is not a huge deal, but it is still A deal...and odds are you'll run into situations where the buff wears off before the quest is over, especially if you're multiclassed and your duration is only 12 or 8 mins. Having permanent INT-to-dmg is more than just a minor convenience...it can make you immune to a very nasty debuff called "didnt realize my buff wore off until halfway into a boss fight when I finally noticed my damage seemed low", which can really penalize your DPS in longer quests

[Xgya]

I forgot to use that spell too often. Hence, I put 12 points forever more whenever I build a pure Arti.