Friday night I TRed Samius into an arty. With the notion I would just gear up and play with the rune arms and what not, maybe get to level 2 to do so. Then Saturday we capped out Sinfully, Fopo’s alt on the completionest train with me, in Sins of Attrition. Meaning that he could TR also and he did. Full on xp time bitches! Except the wife is wanting to think about coming along now. So I spent some time Sunday rocking her through some xp.

But Fo and I did get about 4-5 hours of TR time with the holiday and whatnots. I know some of you haven’t bought artificer yet. And don’t want to read a ton about them so they keep holding out for a sale or hoping for the favor. And I am sorry but here are my thoughts from lvel 0-5 and odds are good that there will be a day or two of them a week. Sorry.

Okay, lets start off at level 1: No rune arms until level 2. 😦 But other then that level 1 is just a stepping stone. Dug out an BtA repeating xbow of Pure Good. Swore a lot about forgetting to buy returning bolts before TRing. Ran to the Cannith crafting machines to make some bolts didn’t see a level assigned to them and played Error, Error, Error making +3 Holy bolts (level more then 1), +1 Holy bolts (again lvl more then 1) +1 acid bolts (lvl 2). grrrrr! So I ran to the gen vendor and bought 300 normal bolts. Still ran out fairly soon and ended up finishing the quest with a normal club I happened to have found and not sold yet. Btw the dog is very cute at level 1. A quick docent of Invulnerability and an acid module and the dog is good for a few levels.

Level 2, rune arms check. Real weapon check (+1 icy burst of pure good longsword BtA with Masters’ Touch) Have to say the little burning hands rune arm is not bad at level 2. From level 2 to 3 was lots of fun. Really like Static Shock. It has a fair range and my Dcs are not bad, max INT a +2 hat and that past live as a Sorc at work.

Level 3, I fell in love with the Lightning Sphere spell. It brakes boxes (thru walls/locked doors btw), it stuns mobs, it is a nice aoe and it has a nice lobing effect. Fopo said it looks like slow pitch/bowling with a dragon’s eye. It is a very smooth spell. Hope it holds up well enough. Swapped to Flicker it was fine enough but in hindsight wished I had remembered the Candlelight.

Level 4 involved a weapon swap to a Icy burst Holy of Pure good Scimitar again thanks to Master’s touch. I also switched my feats some and took the first mark of making. Wanted a way to heal the dog some and this was the best way at the time. Soon I hope to just have room to take a repair spell proper but as I am still healing fine with just pots with out the construct essence feat so I thought I could shift it down some. Oh and Cove trinkets for more Hp or really just more damage…:)

Level 5 is a big one. Gear swap heaven, Full Abishai set is great here.
Profane Natural Armor Bonus +1,
Profane Strength +1,
Profane Constitution +1,
Evocation Caster Level Bonus +1,
Conjuration Caster Level Bonus +1

One of the few classes that can use the full thing over just a 3 piece. Also VoM and Mantle time. It is good to have True seeing available again. As well as my +2 goggles of battle and a better false life belt. Doing this TR thing a few times really helps with what gear goes where thing.

Rune arms: Where to start level 5 gives us Khyber’s Fury which I thought would be the best one available at the level and I have to say I was right so far. It is a beast. The Exploding Fire Shot is super powerful and fitting in fort via the rune arm makes fitting in the 5 piece Abishai set doable.

I also now have room to fit in elemental weapons for myself. I was scrolling it for Fopo and the puppy before but now that I can fit it in for myself it is so sweet. I am sure you all know but my string of numbers is base, icy, holy, pg, rune arm and elemental weapon. If crit add in Icy burst and if that crit is a 20 add the Shocking Blow damage. It is cool to see that much damage fling across the screen at such low levels. If I had some of those light pots and or a weapon with the force damage added that would be 10 rows of damage dice per hit. That is a ton of damage at level 5……

Have to say I am super pleased as to how the Arty is playing at low levels. It is by far one of the most challenging builds I have ever played. Rune arm, spell, spell, melee rune arm all at the same time. I have the felling that it might hold my interest for a long time, which is not want I want in a run to 20 and TR build… But if the wife wants to TR right away I wont have an issue TRing one of my off Casters into an arty to play catch up with her as if she needs any of my help.

Anyway work time.
❤