This is my Artificer build. At the time of this writing, I was running this build on my IQ at level 18 with Nightmare and Trials: Even Ground, Walk Softly and Grizzly End. This is post Patch 10/Trespasser and does require the Trespasser DLC to be loaded.
The build is broken down into stages:
Pre-specialization: An effective archer build that uses some of the mechanics of an Artificer, before Artificer is even available. Good for Haven through attaining Skyhold.
First respec for Specialization: After the specialization is obtained, a respec is highly recommended to pick up Artificer passives right away.
Full build: The is a fully operational Artificer build with the minimum number of ability points.
Enhanced build: What to do with extra points beyond the full build (TBD).
Rationale for each build is given in post #2. This post just has the raw point spends and actives, for the sake of brevity. The Pre-Specialization point spend is in level-up order.
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Recommended Race: Qunari or Dwarf
PRE-SPECIALIZATION Points required: 9-11
Spoiler
Archery 1. First Blood 2. Explosive Shot 3. Pincushion Sabotage 4. Caltrops 5. Looked Like It Hurt Archery 6. Death from Above 7. Leaping Shot 8. Shot from the Shadows (upgrade to Leaping Shot) Sabotage 9. Hook and Tackle
If you haven't specialized to Artificer yet, the next two points should be: 10. Tread Lightly (upgrade to Caltrops) 11. It Beats Walking (upgrade to Hook and Tackle)
FIRST RESPEC FOR SPECIALIZATION Points required: 11-14
Spoiler
Artificer 1. Spike Trap 2. Opportunity Knocks 3. Set Them Up Archery 4. Death From Above 5. Leaping Shot 6. Shot from the Shadows (upgrade to Leaping Shot) 7. First Blood Sabotage 8. Caltrops 9. Looked Like It Hurt 10. Hook and Tackle 11. It Beats Walking (upgrade to Hook and Tackle)
Actives 1/ Spike Trap 2/ Leaping Shot 3/ Caltrops 4/ Hook and Tackle 5/ Mark of the Rift
Next 3 points should go into Archery and Artificer, for more actives: 12. Elemental Mines 13. Long Shot 14. Explosive Shot
FULL BUILD Points required: 22
Spoiler
Artificer 1. Spike Trap 2. Pyrotechnics (upgrade to Spike Trap) 3. Set Them Up 4. Elemental Mines 5. And Take Them Down 6. Opportunity Knocks 7. Hail of Arrows Archery 8. Death from Above 9. Leaping Shot 10. Shot from the Shadows (upgrade to Leaping Shot) 11. Long Shot 12. Eagle Eye (upgrade to Long Shot) 13. First Blood 14. Explosive Arrow 15. Chain Reaction/Shockwave (upgrade to Explosive Arrow) Sabotage 16. Caltrops 17. Looked Like It Hurt 18. Hook and Tackle 19. It Beats Walking (upgrade to Hook and Tackle) 20. Cheap Shot 21. Throwing Blades 22. Precision Targeting (upgrade to Throwing Blades)
Actives 1/ Spike Trap 2/ Elemental Mines 3/ Hail of Arrows 4/ Leaping Shot 5/ Long Shot 6/ Explosive Shot 7/ Hook and Tackle 8/ Throwing Blades
The basic tactic for this build is to use Hook and Tackle to get in close, drop something deadly, then get away as quickly as possible before you take too much damage. Repeat until all enemies are dead.
Q: Why Dwarf or Qunari?
A: The basic tactic brings your character in close to point-blank range. You'll be exposed to melee damage and possibly magic damage from fire mines and such. Dwarf gets 25% magic defense, Qunari gets 10% physical resistance.
Q: Can you explain the Pre-Specialization Build Active Abilities?
A: First act on entering combat is Hook and Tackle a ranged attacking enemy. The Hook and Tackle interrupts an attack sequence, buying your party a couple of seconds of time. Drop Caltrops to cause some more damage, then Leaping Shot to get away. Since Leaping Shot puts you into Stealth, thanks to the Shot in to Shadows upgrade, you can now maneuver around the battlefield in safety, looking for your next victim.
Q: Can you explain the Pre-Specialization Build passives?
A: Since you are almost always the first to attack when entering combat, First Blood helps increase damage. Pincushion is a must if you are mostly doing auto-attacks, since it gives a stacking damage bonus. In the very early days of your build, before you have It Beats Walking, you will need to do some auto-attacks in between while you wait for Hook and Tackle to be available again. Looked Like It Hurt is one of the best passives of the game -- rogues should prioritize critical hits, which means this passive regens stamina faster. Death from Above synergizes with Leaping Shot, since you are usually above your targets, and you need it anyway to get to Leaping Shot in the skill tree.
Q: Why the Tread Lightly upgrade to Caltrops?
A: The bleeding effect is damage over time and it stacks! Every time a enemy steps on another caltrop, they stack another DoT. It's glorious for such a low-level build.
Q: Can you explain the Artificer spend in the First Respec For Specialization Build?
A: The Artificer passive, Opportunity Knocks, is another best-in-game passive, if you are running with a full party. If anyone in the party gets a critical, your cooldowns are reduced. For the basic tactic, Spike Trap takes the place of Caltrops. It does more damage and throws the target into the air, which is a great way to take a ranged attacker out of the battle for several seconds. The Set Them Up passive increases damage for Spike Trap and is needed in any case for Elemental Mines.
Q: Why not take the upgrade to Spike Trap instead of Set Them Up?
A: Two reasons: 1) Set Them Up gets you one point closer to Elemental Mines in the skill tree, and 2) its a damage buff for all trap attacks, which should include Caltrops (needs testing to confirm).
Q: For the Full Build, how does the basic tactic change?
A: By this time, you should have crafted for critical chance to at least 50%, and also crafted your party to buff critical chance as much as you can. That means that your stamina and cooldowns should be less of a constraint. You should be able to Hook and Tackle and drop an upgraded Spike Trap on at least two enemies before you have to switch tactics or do some auto-attack to regain stamina. You can also mix in a few Elemental Mines into the sequence. For example, H&T in to a target, drop Spike Trap, throw Elemental Mines, Leaping Shot away, or, H&T to a new target. Since Spike Trap has the Pyrotechnic upgrade, it's not unusual to catch two or even three enemies at the same time. It's a wonderful thing to behold.
A: You can also start looking for chokepoints and mobs of mooks to give the Elemental Mine or Spike Trap treatment. You get up to 4 active Spike Traps, so don't be stingy.
Q: Why don't you upgrade Elemental Mines?
A: Each upgrade has problems. First, One-Shot. For one thing, you might roll unlucky and get an element that the enemy resists. For another, if your enemy zigs rather than zags and never steps on it, it's a complete waste. While the base level Elemental Mine damage isn't so great, the status effects are, since they set up for party abilities or combos. For example, the more Chilled enemies their are, the more Winter's Ruin your mage can target. Plus, every explosion can crit, which helps with Looked Like It Hurt. Second, Throw Everything. Why flat-line your stamina for a few extra mines? With sufficient cooldown reduction, you'll be able to throw a second set of mines anyway (though I think that detonates the first set, not sure).
Q: Why Throwing Blades instead of Fallback Plan?
A: That I don't have a good answer for -- it's mostly an active ability slot trade-off. Upgraded Fallback Plan is very effective: reset your health and your cooldowns! Personally, I prefer to have Throwing Blades as an active. It's just more fun to have an offensive ability than a defensive ability. That said, for certain situations, like boss battles, Descent second half, or JoH vs Avaar mobs, Fallback Plan might be the wiser choice. Upgraded Fallback Plan and Tricks of the Trade should be the first 3 points in the Enhanced Build.
Q: Why Hail of Arrows instead of Mark of the Rift?
A: Because Hail of Arrows is awesome? Particularly if you can spam several Leaping Shots against a big boss. Ultimately, it's personal choice. If you are doing more demon fighting than usual, swap in Mark of the Rift.
Q: You list both upgrades for Explosive Arrows. Why?
A: Since it is a toggle, you can switch to whichever one you might need. Shockwave is great for situations where enemies will be close to the edge of a cliff, like in the Western Approach or Descent. You can blast them to a fatal fall with one shot. Otherwise, Chain Reaction is good as a damage buff.
Q: Got any videos of this build?
UPDATED A: Yes! This is Level 18/19 in the Emerald Graves running through all the demi-bosses of the Freemen of the Dales quest lines. Nightmare with Even Ground and Walk Softly.
Nice work. I feel like artificer should come with a warning -
ACHTUNG - Will make all boss fights stupidly one-sided.
Out of curiosity, do you get much use out of longshot? I personally eschewed it simply because with friendly fire on, I had to make sure I got to the enemies ahead of my team to drop da bombs otherwise Cassandra/Blackwall would "play the Roman fool" and go straight to the fade, do not pass go, do not collect 200 silver. Yes, I'm too lazy to pause and use the tac cam
Out of curiosity, do you get much use out of longshot?
Yes, for combo detonation. I have Viv set up for Winter and there are Frozen enemies all over the place. Many opportunities to Shatter for massive damage. Plus, two Leaping Shots in a row set up the 900% bonus damage for Eagle Eye.
Yes, for combo detonation. I have Viv set up for Winter and there are Frozen enemies all over the place. Many opportunities to Shatter for massive damage. Plus, two Leaping Shots in a row set up the 900% bonus damage for Eagle Eye.
Ah, fair enough. We'll have to agree to disagree on not upgrading elemental mines to throw everything, but the great thing is that there's no one "correct"* way to play.
Brilliant video btw, that hook and tackle to the platform was inspired!
*unless we're talking about teabagging Solas or Vivienne, in which case the only way to play is to bag them mercilessly.
A lynroy, PapaCharlie9 e PawsPause piace questo elemento
thanks for the build and build rationale(the rationale part is awesome btw), for a newer new player like me this helps immensely. love how well put together it is also
Never knew that set them up applied to caltrops! Caltrops is the reason we all exist. Anyways good thinking on not taking the elemental mines upgrade. Assassin is my primary class, and I did play with tempest for a bit. Artificer got me back into the game after almost 2 years release and crazy how fun the class is. Looking forward to see end build video.
Question about explosive shot/shockwave. Sometimes foot soldiers dont go flying back. Bug?
Never knew that set them up applied to caltrops! Caltrops is the reason we all exist.
Hasn't been tested yet, so you know what that means. Treat it as should apply if the description isn't lying.
Question about explosive shot/shockwave. Sometimes foot soldiers dont go flying back. Bug?
If you're sure that upgrade was active, could it be they have a resistance? Some enemies have resistance to knockback/knockdown, but they are usually demi-bosses, like Bruisers and Giants.
Otherwise, a bug or a math exception, like they add a little randomness to the angle, and if it comes out straight down or something impossible, it doesn't work.
Replaced the original video with a better one. I probably should do a video without all the mages mucking up combat, hard to see anything with all the spells going off.
Didn't see you use it in the video, but there's an interesting little...quirk...with hook and tackle (or at least there was when I last played an artificer. It could've been changed since). When you jump off the enemy's face after pulling yourself to them, there's actually a short window to activate abilities before you land, which lets you avoid the delay at the end of H&T. It's particularly good with leaping shot - once you get the routine down (assuming sufficient crit chance), when alternating between H&T and LS, you can pretty much avoid ever touching the ground, which ups your damage rate a fair bit, particularly if your taking down a single tough target that you can't get the full effect of the mines on and are therefore spamming LS.
Wow! another LeapingShotElementalMines build never seen it before...
Well... I'm yet to see a single half decent artificer build that does not include opportunity knocks, elemental mines and leap shot.
Plus upgraded throwing blades (aka beefed up non assassin version mark of death) combined with opportunity knocks or fire flask is far too over powered but often over looked by some players.
Didn't see you use it in the video, but there's an interesting little...quirk...with hook and tackle (or at least there was when I last played an artificer. It could've been changed since). When you jump off the enemy's face after pulling yourself to them, there's actually a short window to activate abilities before you land, which lets you avoid the delay at the end of H&T. It's particularly good with leaping shot - once you get the routine down (assuming sufficient crit chance), when alternating between H&T and LS, you can pretty much avoid ever touching the ground, which ups your damage rate a fair bit, particularly if your taking down a single tough target that you can't get the full effect of the mines on and are therefore spamming LS.
You don't see it because I didn't know you could do it. I'll have to give that a try.
Although, what I really want to do after H&T is drop a Spike Trap. So it might not matter.
You don't see it because I didn't know you could do it. I'll have to give that a try.
Although, what I really want to do after H&T is drop a Spike Trap. So it might not matter.
Just hit leaping shot before you reach the apex of the hook and tackle backward flip. I'd recommend doing this, and then dropping a spike trap if you so desire, if only to cut down on the hook and tackle delay. I found that before I had the mats to craft a high enough crit chance so that leaping shot was basically always immediately available again, that period of stealth is the perfect time to go drop a Spike Trap right where the enemy don't want it... Go for the groin
Nice vid, and a nice demo of elemental mines, so of course I approve
Video in post #1 has been updated. This new video shows all the features of the
Full build better than the previous video.
1. Then you recording avoid dark places and zones with leaves and branches h264 codec can't handle those type of objects well. After you upload it on youtube picture quality drops even lower and all I can see is blurry mess. Still your videos much better than what uploads StarFlorge and your fps doesn’t drops to 15 like his, so keep trying.
2. If you make a guide and I see you and your team dying and consumes healing bottles like crazy, it means your guide is not very good.
1. Then you recording avoid dark places and zones with leaves and branches h264 codec can't handle those type of objects well. After you upload it on youtube picture quality drops even lower and all I can see is blurry mess. Still your videos much better than what uploads StarFlorge and your fps doesn’t drops to 15 like his, so keep trying.
2. If you make a guide and I see you and your team dying and consumes healing bottles like crazy, it means your guide is not very good. https://www.youtube....h?v=Ir8N-fOreMU
Ah, so he should have posted a video showing how to watch the AI slowly kill a dragon? It's a nice demo, sure, but it doesn't really help improve anything if you don't give your recommendations or advice. There are already guides (pre-trespasser/1.10) out there for DD artificer, but it would be interesting to know if you agree or disagree with them, or have any improvements to make.
So, you have a DD setup for Varric, presumably in part to force the AI to stay in melee range for best use of elemental mines + one shot, and to benefit from crafting him some awesome gear, and the extra masterwork? And guard on hit + ?heal on hit. Couldn't figure out the third.
Also, bear in mind that PapaCharlie9 is at level18/19, you are at level 27 (I assume given that you gained no xp in your video), so he may not have all the end game gear or FT mats yet. Doesn't mean the video isn't relevant, because we spend most of the game at less than level 27.
Useful tip about the codec, thanks for the pointer.
I made an Artificer build topic last year, long before Trespasser came out and changed the ballgame. This is a great build topic on the subject using the Trespasser additions.
Torna su
10/10
I'll have to give that a try.
