4th ed artificer... like it or hate it?

[Camelot]

I love the mechanics, which give it a very unique feel compared to the other leaders. Healing Infusion as a healing mechanic is very different from any other healing mechanic out there.

It would be nice to see them gain a larger power selection, though. There are more than a few levels which have encounter powers that are actually worse than Magic Weapon, or so similar to it that their value is questionable.

I agree with this 100%, and it's worth repeating. The artificer is awesome because it feels so different from your standard leader. As an artificer, you lead through your allies' magic items. You have so much versatility you won't know what to do with it (I'm exaggerating, you will know what to do with it; you'll have the right thing for every situation). Your allies will love you, because you can evenly spread out the healing surges of the party, instead of having the fighter run out while the wizard is still full. And the flavor is so unique! I love artificers.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Because I suggested the Swordmage not being in Arcane Power 2? It would only be fair. You don't think they would actually increase the page count to accomodate both do you?

It has been a while, but wasn't the Eberron book (with the Artificer) released after Arcane Power (1)? I think the reason to omit Artificer material wasn't space, but that the class wasn't out yet.
Space might be a consideration, but I think it will more likely to them cutting material on other ends then omitting an entire class for support.

 

[ourchair]

It has been a while, but wasn't the Eberron book (with the Artificer) released after Arcane Power (1)? I think the reason to omit Artificer material wasn't space, but that the class wasn't out yet.
Space might be a consideration, but I think it will more likely to them cutting material on other ends then omitting an entire class for support.

I have a feeling that by late next year, several old-classes will be revived using the new design guidelines.

Not in the sense that older classes and class builds will be "Essentialized" so much as they'll be a tad bit outdated and require some tweaking. It's that or they'll be renamed despite keeping the core concept, like say a "Magewright" that is really just a new artificer.

 

[RLBURNSIDE]

Killswitch

check out the hybrid warlord artificer "killswitch" on the wizards forums. It's such an incredibly fun and powerful build to round out a party. We used the daily punishing eye to great effect. It must have done a couple hundred HP of damage ON TOP of allowing us all to hit in darknened rooms against nasty invisible creatures. Without that daily, we'd have been goners.

Magic Weapon is great, melee or ranged. Pump out your Int to 18 pre-racials since you will have great AC and reflex as well. Eladrin is a great choice for race, with the +2 to cha option now. The other at-will in that build, Direct the Strike, is perfect to giving that rogue with CA the chance to insta-gib something on your turn, and with the right crossbow caster feat and versatile expertise in light blades and crossbows you can have +17 to hit at level 9, melee or ranged, with pretty much all your attacks. The rapier I chose was a quicksilver rapier for the +2 to init, because having a +12 init at level 9 is uber for a leader. Double healing is also very good. I'd say the character had tougher defenses and better pretty much everything than our whole party.

Too bad the guy playing it sort of dropped out. That was one fun character to play. Reorient the Axis + Magic Weapon + Punishing Eye. All these things are great. Tons of immediate action powers for out of turn attacks / buffs / debuffs. It's a great all-round class, especially tweaked and combined with the warlord in that way.

Punishing Eye FTW!!!

 

[SkidAce]

I absolutely love artificers. They are perfect reflavored as a Runemaster class.

- temp enchant allies armor and weapons with sigils and runes...
- throw up burning runes in mid air to scorch/freeze etc your enemies...
- use runes to make magical items etc...
- use sivas truenamer paragon path for more runic or "everything has a truename / symbol" flavor.
- makes Runemasters an arcane/divine mix (blasters and healers) that shows the TRU POWAH of DA RUNES! (/grin I like runes)

Perfect...kept me from having to create a customized/homebrew class. And some runemasters multi with wizard for extra blasting, some multi with bard for more "words". Even made a hybrid (think it was a cleric) (not completed).

Runemasters (artificers) FTW!

(p.s. you can choose one of the other builds and not reflavor and still have the artificer class in your campaign as the creator / tinker / mechanical gadget guy...win/win)

 

[Prestidigitalis]

Because I suggested the Swordmage not being in Arcane Power 2? It would only be fair. You don't think they would actually increase the page count to accomodate both do you?

It would only be fair, but it would leave me stuck in the situation I have now, which is struggling to find Encounter and Daily powers that are truly more useful than Sword Burst for my Shielding Swordmage.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I think artificers are okay, but they don't resonate strongly with me. They don't really feel like they are making things, and I don't care for their healing mechanic.

 

[Taldaas]

I took a slightly different tack on my artificer and built him to be customized to be damage / heals. Static surge through the lightning armor daily combined with the punishing eye is amazing. I was hitting for 200 damage / round at level 15 (about 40/ creature against the 5 creatures around the tank).

It's pretty amazing when you are able to pump out more damage than any striker in your group and still toss heals as free actions.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

With a little reskinning, the artificer makes for a great necromancer as well. Most of the summons can be reflavored as undead creatures, and the healing infusions drain one person's soul to lend vitality to another.