Artificers

[Lasty]

Hey all,

I recently got interested in artificers after playing a string of DsWanderers (as a palate cleanser), and having one become very successful after finding an early Nemelex shrine and also a rod of destruction in the Lair. I can see that Nemelex is very powerful, but he's also irritating. So, I have two questions:

1: Are artificers viable w/o Nemelex? If so, what increase their odds of viability (beyond lucky equipment finds)?
2: What races do you all enjoy playing with artificers?

[crate]

Artificer is fine without nemelex, just like other classes of nemelex are fine. The idea is you use the wands you start out with to find a decent alternative way to kill things (maybe you find an early spellbook, maybe you find a quarterstaff, maybe you get a branded trident or whip, maybe you use that unbranded trident, maybe you find a trog altar) and then develop that method.

Note that artificer of nemelex is a bit tricky if you are not a strong species because nemelex does very nearly nothing at all for you for some time, so if you have average finds you will probably feel weak during the lull between your starting wands running out and nemelex becoming useful. If you want to avoid this, gods who are good at 1* piety include trog (the strongest), fedhas (the strongest if you don't want to be locked out of spellcasting), elyvilon (takes xp investment, but is very strong in lair with ~10 invo), and yredelemnul.

[cursednobleman]

A troll artificer of Nemelex is probably the best way to learn to use nemelex. You start with claws which you'll use as a primary weapon. When something scary appears that you can't claw, you'll draw cards to blast them. It's nice and simple to learn from that, and a good Troll build to boot.

[Lasty]

I appreciate the tip about trolls of Nemelex, but the issue isn't that I can't figure out Nemelex, it's that I don't really enjoy playing him that much.

Let me change the discussion slightly: aside from rods of destruction, what other non-wand evocable items are worth investing time/skill into making work? The elemental conjuring items seem hard, because you can't necessarily train up the relevant magic school, and disc of storms seems way too chaotic too use most of the time.

[palin]

Let me change the discussion slightly: aside from rods of destruction, what other non-wand evocable items are worth investing time/skill into making work? The elemental conjuring items seem hard, because you can't necessarily train up the relevant magic school, and disc of storms seems way too chaotic too use most of the time.

The rod of demonology is the obvious choice (it has Abjuration on top of demon summoning). I think it or the rod of summoning should be upgraded to Mass Abjuration.

[pratamawirya]

Rod of summoning's summon swarm is quite good.

[ontoclasm]

In trunk, the disc of storms is now usable with rElec, which makes it much, much better. Aside from that, basically every rod that doesn't start with S- and end with -triking is pretty awesome. TSO halo + rod of Inacc + Evo skill = lasering bone dragons in half like it's going out of style.

[XuaXua]

LIGHTNING ROD in trunk.

And some enhancer staves combined with the appropriate spell skill and staves skill.

[Petro]

Kobold artificers are crazy fun since they turn out different every game depending on what they find. Octopodes are fun if hard, and can generate an endless stream of labyrinths and bazaars with decks of dungeons in order to feed their ring addiction. Merfolk + disc of storms = instant water level. Xom has a raging hard on for the tome of destruction, and can be kept happy almost indefinitely if you can survive it's whims. Deep dwarf artificers are weird, and I have yet to keep one alive, but quite powerful.