Artificers - Advanced Playing
From Ancient Anguish Mud Wiki - AAwiki
Original Source: Artificer Guide by Smithers & Sirpsycho
Contents
Choosing a race
Max ficer stats are:
St Dx In Co Wi
Elf: 12 19 19 11 14
Half-Elf: 13 17 18 11 16
Orc: 15 18 15 14 13
Dwarf: 16 16 14 14 15
Human: 15 17 17 13 14
Elf
19 dex and 19 int is pretty amazing.. but 12 strength and 11 con? ouch! You couldn't wield any big clubs, and you couldn't take much damage before running.
Half-Elf
All the problems of elves, with less perks. Don't choose this.
Orc
Orcs make pretty amazing 'ficers, their high dex is very fun. Strength 15 means they'd need a strength potion to wield krakadoom, but they can wield their own warhammers well enough, which is really all you need. Very strong race to choose!
Dwarf
My favorite race for 'ficers, you have enough strength to wield kraky, you still have a reasonable dex, you can take a pounding and like orc, 15 concentration isn't much of a handicap once you get past level 24 or so. The benefits over orcs aren't reflected in the stats however - nothing in-game really hates dwarfs, and dwarfs get many bonuses. They can see in the dark, they mine better than other races, they can wield destructor well (with a strength potion) and well-balanced battlehammers.
Human
A jack of all trades race, about at strong as orcs but with less race hatred. One less con and dex than an orc, but 2 more concentration. I prefer the orc's stats, but I prefer the human's ability to not get their asses handed to them just for walking into Nepeth.
Choosing a specialty
You can of course go 'neutral', and still do well - at least, do reasonably well. You are guaranteed to do better under a specialty however, but what one to pick?
Smithcraft
90% of people choose smithcraft. Having no concentration cost for weapons and armour means you can sell it to make money, very good for low levels. Constructs are super powerful, and being able to repair them makes for very easy and profitable soloing and tanking.
Spellcraft
Spellcraft is a much harder choice, though arguably as powerful. You can't make money at the beginning selling weapons and armours, which makes for a much harder start. Your main power is wands that can heal you and harm others. For not much sp you can recharge a healing wand which will heal hundreds of hp, but the wands increase tolerance to magic, which means it will eventually get worse and worse until you get a cleric to 'purge' you. Once staves get in, spellcrafting will get a bigger kick to power, and that might even the numbers out somewhat.
Choosing weapon skills
There really isn't much of a choice here. Club. Clubclubclub.
'Ficers raise club VERY fast. They are the joint second fastest club raising class in the game. Clubs are big, powerful, damage dealing weapons. There are a LOT of top end unique clubs, and you can make your own warhammers that do so much damage, you really should raise club.
'Ficers are also very good with marksmanship. To raise marksmanship, either get your mitts on the crossbow, or throw/shoot different things at monsters. Your 'ficer damage potions are powerful one-shot throwing weapons, but they aren't the best things to be raising the skill with - try a boomerang from the newbie park. These things rarely break, and the first time you hit a monster with one it gives them a black eye, which lowers their dexterity by 1. Throwing a boomerang once at everything you come across will not only raise your marksmanship skill and throwing abilities, it will also make foes that much easier to kill.
All classes in the game are good with knives. Knives have very limited damage when compared to clubs (I might go so far as to say clubs are twice as powerful), and not many serious players use knives other than 'because it's there'. You may want to raise knife, it goes fast, they are lightweight.. they just suck.
A few posts on the board also suggest that 'ficers are reasonable with curved blades. This isn't a very damaging skill, and the high end range isn't too special, so I wouldn't recommend this. Still, always nice to have an alternative. Some crazy elf 'ficers are raising curved blade and trading the skill with Carcera to two handed sword, so they can play with elvenheart. You'd have to be either very dedicated or very stupid to try it, and I wouldn't suggest it, but if you chose elf you don't have many other options for high end weaponry.
Traits
Traits are very personal and allow you to tailor your character to your own style of play, so I won't give you much advice here. However, a couple of good ideas:
- Since you'll pretty much only be using clubs, getting a rank of weapon expert for it would be helpful. You might also want to skill focus it up, but it will eventually reach 100.
- If you plan on using wands of extra healing or scrolls of mental recharge, a clean spirit will help keep the costs down.
- A pure soul never hurt anyone.
Leveling as a ficer
This seems as good a place as any to put something about 'ficers that I don't believe I've mentioned elsewhere in the guide - ability caps. The size your abilities can reach is severely limited by the level of your 'ficer. I don't want to put in the exact formula, but it should become obvious as you level your 'ficer. Your specialist abilities get an extra +10 to the top of the cap. Your non-specialist abilities can only reach 95, your specialist abilities can reach 100.
What does this mean for a lowbie 'ficer? It means you cannot sit around doing your own thing until you can make incredible items, then blast through level 1 to level 19. In fact, if you don't specialise in smithcraft, you can't raise your craftsman ability past its starting point for a couple of levels!
With that said, on to the leveling advice:
Low levels (1-5)
You can run CX, you can kill the beast of balan, you can get some starter club skill.. but you may as well try out the non-combat levelling.
Mining - this is a nice way to raise low levels, especially for dwarves!
You will need:
A lightsource
A mining pick that you can wield (you can buy a mining pick from mining
shop and sell it for the same price if you want to check that you can
wield it - or there is 'a wooden pick' from dwarf children (can't kill
at low levels) or 'a small, worthless pick' from elf slaves (can't reach
at low levels).
Probably a map, because the mining areas are far apart.
Some sort of healing - at low levels you can use free healing, you can
buy medicinals from the mining shop, grab a bedroll or silk rug, or a
pipe, or cigars, or.. well, there's lots of healing sources around!
Follow the mining guide on this page (or if it's not here yet, will be!)
for mining for fun and profit. It gives you very decent exp at low
levels, and if you're a cheapskate on the heals it'll even give you
cash.
Gathering steel and practice forging items is a good way of getting exp and cash! Coal is abundant in the swamp, iron is available up north, together they form an exp making machine! Gather lots, sleep up in newbie manor, forge an item then sell it (if you're a spellcrafter, see tips page for places to sell your concentration costing items). You get exp for smelting and forging, make a bit of early money, and raise your craftsman ability in one go!
You can gather resources or research in libraries but the exp and cash for these activities isn't great at all - the real meat is in crafting.
Update: I've been informed there is an ability cap on mining, something like 5 + 5 * level. Also, try Tinuviel's Miner Guide for some excellent advice and help with your tunnelling troubles.
Low levels 2 (5-12)
Here the routes start to split a bit depending on your specialty.
Mining - mining is still very good at this level - at best mining, you can make 30k exp an hour, VERY decent rates!
Spellcrafters - You now have access to inks, chalks, scrolls, and runes! Hot damn! Every level you can, max your rune lore - this will make your character much stronger at later levels. You may want to try combat, raising some club skills with a mound of white chalk for blade wards. This will put you in a much better place when you hit level 12. (damage scrolls by the way, are pretty much useless in this stage, but if you keep maxing your ability they will become very useful soon!)
Smithers - Every level, max your craftsman! This gives you only okay exp, but GREAT cash. Try out some rarer alloys - you don't need fighting ability to get them, after all! Trying out combat is also recommended to get some starter club skill, but not entirely necessary.
Mid levels (12-16)
Mining - This is still a highly solid way of making experience, especially for dwarves!
Smithers - Welcome to painsville - the 12-16 gap is hardest for you guys. At this stage you still don't have anything decent combat-wise. At best you have scrolls, or the ability to make a suit of armour that is probably too heavy to wear. If you can tag a party, your club will shoot up, which can be helpful. You can keep making weapons and armour, but the exp will be slooow. Mining is another good one. Making a suit of armour, using some of that money you've been making on heals, and taking out medium monsters IS doable at this level. Whatever method you take, be prepared for a long haul.
Spellcrafters - This isn't QUITE as painful as for smithers! You now have access to rings, amulets, and wands! A wand of (extra) healing will mean you can solo pretty darn well, and a damage wand of some kind will do some damage (admittedly not much until you level up the ability). To level up staves & wands, go to southeast isle with a damage wand, wave it a bunch of times and recharge between each time - it will soon be high enough to kick some asses. As your staves and wands ability gets higher, so does your ability to kick arbitrary amounts of ass. The EASIEST way of levelling up here is to make damage scrolls and tag/bash for some parties. It can be expensive, but the damage you can do and the exp you can make will be much better than what you could do solo.
Neutrals - This is the most painful path, as you can't do anything particularly well. Either make your choice, mine, or level up very slowly with damage scrolls!
High levels (16-20)
This is where the specialisations really come into play. As a neutral, you'll probably want to have chosen one at this point. You could wait until 18 and see constructs before making up your mind, but it'll be a slooow couple of levels to it.
Mining - You can do better than mining now! You've probably got the ability pretty damn high by now anyway.
Smithers - WHEEEE. Constructs! To begin with, make a scorpion or a beetle, get it hacked up a bit, don't be disheartened! Repair it a LOT, it will take a long time to raise artifice but it will be worth it!
Finally, when you hit max, make new constructs. Get yourself a forged warhammer. You should be pretty highly skilled with a hammer. Get your constructs - they will be tanking. You don't need armour, just damage scrolls, pipes, meds, and heals. You don't even have to do that much loot management with 2 constructs, they have awesome carrying capacity. Have them hack up big kills, have one rescue the main tanker when needed, repair when they get to hurt. You don't even have to take a single hit this way if you don't want to, and you'll still pull awesome exp.
Spellcrafters - Much the same as mid levels. By now you should have max staves and wands for your level which makes asskicking that much easier. Hopefully you'll also have a decent club skill at this point. At level 18, try out a wand of extra healing plus damage scrolls. You won't be able to make damage wands worth a damn at this ability, but scrolls do more than enough damage to outclaim nearly everyone, and can be maintained on just pipe and meds. Good for bashing!
20+
Well, you're the don now. Keep increasing your concentration - as it goes up, you can try more exotic things, like a spellcrafter with 2 constructs, or a smither with damage scrolls and runes. Work on your difficult abilities, get everything to max, try out different parties, work out a nice way of playing them that you're comfortable with.
The alternate route
One route to levelling up that I highly recommend is to level up in a different class - say, cleric or fighter - and switch to artificer at a high level. This way you get all the cool abilities right away, and don't have to sit through the very slow and boring mid-levels. You'll also have a decent club skill. The ONLY bad thing about this is that you will have to work up every. single. ability. from scratch. But if you also got a decent bank balance while levelling up, this part is over pretty quickly (much quicker than mid levels)!
So, you've reached a high level and want to kick ass?
I'm splitting this into two sections - smithcrafting and spellcrafting.
Smithcrafters
Here is how I play smithcrafters. It may differ to your preferred methods. I will try to explain why I do things the way I do them as I write this!
STARTUP: I have two aliases for starting up:
scorps = do study mechanical leg, study metal claw, study metal stinger,
study forged scorpion
scrolls = do study scroll of fire bolt, study scroll of arrow summoning, study
scroll of ice bolt
I first buy smokes and medicinals, to keep the sps coming throughout this phase. I run around each easy library, doing both of those. You don't need to 'research' in a library to learn things, and you don't lose sp for failed attempts. I try tantallon, haunted manor, oterim, nepeth, and academy first. That is often enough to teach me all of those things. If not, I'll look in more difficult places. If I find caeculus, I'll teach him everything I know so far and try to buy bits I don't know from him. Estimated time for this stage: 5 minutes.
An alternate startup suggested to me by sirpsycho is quite a bit quicker, it just requires you hit more keys. He makes use of the idea that a capital Q is a different button than a lower case q in AA's mind. By aliasing Q, W, E, R, T, A, S, D, F to studying the different bits:
E = study metal stinger Q = study forged scorpion R = study amulet of smithcraft T = study scroll of fire bolt W = study metal claw
For example, you can then study in libraries very fast by holding down shift and hitting all the keys, much quicker than the dotimes!
Then I zoom to the ficer library, learn metal body and all the oils, and make a list of all the parts I would need for a single construct - it looks like this:
OILS
Enchanter's oil: a sprig of comfrey, an orc tusk and a lump of sand.
Alchemist's oil: a sprig of catnip, a wolf claw and a lump of sand.
Sorcerer's oil: a lump of limestone, a cudweed stem and a bear liver.
> recite parts
You peruse your workbook.
PARTS
Metal body: a gill of enchanter's oil, a lump of limestone and a chunk of tin
ore.
Metal head: a gill of enchanter's oil, a lump of limestone and a chunk of tin
ore.
Mechanical leg: a gill of sorcerer's oil, a lump of coal and a chunk of tin
ore.
Mechanical arm: a gill of alchemist's oil, a lump of coal and a chunk of tin
ore.
Metal claw: a gill of alchemist's oil, an uncut bloodstone and a chunk of
gold ore.
Metal stinger: a gill of sorcerer's oil, a lump of amber and a chunk of
silver ore.
1 comfrey *2
7 cudweed *2
2 catnip *2
7 bear *1
2 wolf *2
1 orc *2
3 sand *2
8 limestone *2
7 tin *2
6 coal *2
2 bloodstone *2
2 gold *2
1 amber *2
1 silver *2
I put *2 or *1 by them to indicate how many scorpions I could make with the bits I've currently collected. Estimated time for this stage: 1 minute.
Next, I collect every mineral and plant on the list twice. Estimated time: Varies pretty wildly.
Then I'll go back to drakh, buy 6 'mail's from the drakhiya armourer, buy a hammer from the store, scrap them all, and forge a steel warhammer. This is much faster than collecting iron and coal, and I have enough money to throw 6k on a warhammer every time - smithers make money very quickly! I'll also buy 50 papyrus/parchment and 50 black ink depending on what damage scroll I learnt, and pen a few.
With my new armoury, I'll kill all the critters I need for 1 scorpion. Time to do this varies again.
I'll collect certain books mentioned in the tips page, brew the oils, fabricate the parts, and make scorpion number one!
I'll then, with the scorpion helping me, kill the rest of the creatures. I do it this way rather than killing all the creatures first because a single scorpion can increase your killing and carrying capacity immensely - the ability to take out 1-3k creatures to dissect opens up a lot more creatures to dissect.
I'll then make second scorp.
Overal time: Between 30 minutes and 1 hour. In that time I have a big warhammer, a bunch of scrolls, 2 scorpions, and between 15-30k of debt. Time to kick ass!
EQ: Good equipment varies depending on what you want to do! I'll play just as
well naked as I will with my favorite bits of armour usually. But a couple of
things are important:
A fine set of tools
An overflowing stock of papyrus and ink!
A very lightweight lightsource. THE best is holy gem from the new anakim area,
but there are others. You can't read in the dark, so this is important!
I tend not to carry a knife for dissecting, but if I am it's a scalping knife.
Multi use!
I don't use a container, others do. Some part of me REFUSES to learn how to use
a pack well. Your scorpions can carry just about everything, so there really is
no need!
ALIASES: Here are Smithers' aliases relating to ficers! WITH NOTES
1 = rescue my construct //note my construct!
2 = rescue my construct 2
4 = unlatch hinge // this unlatches EVERYTHING IN THE ROOM,
// mine and others!
5 = repair my construct // '5', '5 2'
[ = get all // 'cd', 'give all to my construct', spam
] = sell all // these two, 'cd', 'get all'
` = give scroll to ubik // give low level ficers your scrolls
// so they can raise faster! they're
// out of party range, but scrolls do
// consistent damage without missing,
// so they'll still level quite fast!
a = wave warhammer at opponent //if you're using kraky
alch = brew alchemist's oil
as = pen scroll of arrow summoning
b = command protect
bb = command my construct 2 protect
bbr = command my construct 2 protect my construct
br = command protect my construct 2
c = collect
cd = command all drop loot
cg = command all get
cga = command all get all
ck = command all kill // note no opponent or enemy. 'kill xyz', 'ck'. That's it.
co = command all
conc = concentrate
di = dissect corpse
ench = brew enchanter's oil
er = exa my construct
err = exa my construct 2
fb = pen scroll of fire bolt
ib = pen scroll of ice bolt
id = identify
mm = assist my construct // 'm' is my assist partyguy alias
mr = pen scroll of mental recharge
scorps = do study mechanical leg, study metal claw, study metal stinger, study forged scorpion
scrolls = do study scroll of fire bolt, study scroll of arrow summoning, study scroll of ice bolt
sf = spellforge // never used this, always forget it's there
sorc = brew sorcerer's oil
x = read scroll
xx = wave wand
z = assay
I also have ench, alch and sorc nicked so I can 'study ench/alch/sorc' to learn them, and 'rev' nicked to my construct.
COMBAT: I do a number of things that I've not seen other 'ficers do. They might help!
- At the end of every fight, unlatch your constructs. Every fight. After moving around, even.
- Next, use your sp to repair your constructs. I repair to slightly hurt. Don't bother repairing to good shape, as constructs do have some (slow) natural healing and they will eventually get there!
- Finally, I put all remaining sps into damage scrolls. These are AMAZINGLY useful, I burn through stacks and stacks of paper every hour. Read these scrolls every single chance you get, keep reading them, every round. A low rune lore will soon become a high and extremely damaging rune lore. Don't treat constructs as your big weapon, treat THESE as your big weapons.
- You don't have any use for sp in combat, everything is done out of combat. So always make sure your sp is low before entering a fight, so that when you use food heals, by the end of the fight you're near full sps for more stuff.
- In fact, you can probably turn this into a chart:
High hp, low sp - Tank!
Low hp, high sp - constructs tank!
Med hp, low sp - Tank, use heals!
Med hp, high sp - Constructs tank, use as much sp as you can after fight so you
can use heals next fight!
Etc.! Your aim is to never have a surplus of anything, while keeping your scrolls flowing and your scorpions healthy. It's a delicate cycle.
- Make use of monk meditation! This heals a massive chunk of sp, which is very useful every few areas to get a complete 'fuel up' on scorps and scrolls.
- Scrolls wise: Read damage scrolls at every available opportunity. Some rooms have a 'read' thing built into the room which overrides scrolls, which means you'll have to drop the scrolls and pick them up again to read properly (or 'read scroll 1' or similar). Fire can damage your scrolls, so if you're the kind of anally retentive person that drops everything before dodging you can put the scrolls in a container when you're not reading them, when fighting monsters with fire spells. But really, it's not that big a deal. Never carry more than 4-5 scrolls at a time, scrolls are weightless when just ink and papyrus but weigh 1 when made, and nothing needs that many scrolls really. Don't spend so much sp on scrolls that you can't do an emergency repair if you're a smither. (I know I just reiterated a lot of what I said above, but this was from my old version of the playing guide and it was still relevant, so bite me).
Couple more points from the old playing page:
- Magic damage. Fire hurts frost giants more, cold heals frost giants in rune so be wary of that. Arrow summoning and blade storm go on physical ac. So in pk they're great, if the person isn't wearing armour they will take full damage. I have no idea what the acid wands go on, but they're good against undead. Cold things work well against serpentines, and charky and chaos warrior also fall fast.
- Constructs. Okay, constructs are strange. Though the enemy won't change target while fighting, there is a chance that the enemy will attack your constructs the moment you command kill, and indeed get a first hit straight away. As you can imagine this isn't desirable when you can't heal the bastards, but I can't find a way around it. Just have a rescue alias to stop any other hits and hope your mechanomagical wonder can hold up.
Don't let constructs die. When choosing weapons, remember constructs aren't as strong ordextrous as undead. Also go two handed if possible, they can't wear a shield and the extra damage will come in handy. Suggested: Forged mithril warhammers.
(New addendum to this - spellforge those warhammers with increases to skill! This will really help your centaurs out in the hitting department)
Unhinge after every fight, repair if necessary. Constructs are great with loot, command all get all is something that you'd wish you could do with real bashers instead of standing around waiting for the idle assister to pick up the damn chainmail. When you hit the shop, command all drop loot, get all, sell all, get all, sell all, get all, etc.
If you have two constructs, you will probably need aliases for you to rescue either one, either one to rescue you, and both to rescue the other. That's the only thing that can get really confusing with constructs, especially if you have two of the same type. You have no way to heal constructs in combat, so again. Don't let constructs die. Be smart with how you split the damage between them, and always repair the most damaged first, and you'll be fine.
Oh, and remember the 'my construct' alias - it will save your life.
Spellcrafters
I have less experience with spellcrafters than I do with smithcrafters, but I've been playing one hard recently, working out their strengths and weaknesses. I haven't got them down to a nice easy soloing pattern like smithcrafters, but they can still hold their own:
Name : h Total XP : 1060654 Time : 5 Hours 1 Mins
Name Lvl HP SP Line XP Share XP
Leader Burns 22 92 42 ON 100% 1060654
Gold gained: 113146 coins.
As you can see, exp and cash comparible to smithcrafters. What about bashing?
Well, bashing they're probably BETTER than smithers:
4 1005145 1h 31m 09/04/07 Chun Shosuro Anarchy Burns
With 80kish profit, and while taking 90% of the claims (and that was from a party
before I even had a construct!). Finally, what about making exp super fast? Well,
it's hard work but it's probably easier for spellcrafters than it is for smithers:
*** Top Artificer Experience Earning Sessions ***
# Name Exp/Hr Session Date
1 Burns 864125 1h 0m Sep 21 2007
Gold gained: 40ishk
Boki announces: Most speediest raiding solo Scythers are:
# Exp/hr Time Date Raiders
1 766657 1h 31m 11/20/06 Piggificer
2 509052 1h 33m 09/23/07 Burns
3 491852 1h 37m 09/23/07 Burns
Yep, spellficers have it going on, but you DO have to work for it. Not only is the setup time worse than for smithcrafters, but to use wands takes a LOT of commands per round. They are the kind of class that benefits from a lot of time to play them. With all that said, here's my advice:
STARTUP: Each boot you'll need to research the things you'll need. These are:
A scroll of fire bolt/ice bolt/arrow summoning - You sometimes start with one of these.
Enchanter's oil/Alchemist's oil/Sorcerer's oil - From the main 'ficer library.
Scroll/elixir of wisdom - if you're a dwarf.
Scroll/elixir of intelligence - if you're not.
Scroll of mental recharge - Plus the appropriate ink, which is easy to find once you
know what it is.
Dragon/demon/giant/undead wards - Plus the appropriate chalks.
Forged scorpion + parts - When you're big enough for a construct, go for bel scorpiath.
Wand of extra healing - Optional, but if you have one, you'll find uses for it!
Wand of fire storm/ice storm/blade storm/vitriol - all the big rare damage wands.
Amulet of the enchanter - VERY IMPORTANT if you plan on making a rare wand.
As you can see it's a lot more research than a smithcrafter. Other people may also want stuff made for them, so if you've got a lot of friends, be prepared for a lot more work :) Brace yourself - it gets worse from here.
Buy smokes and meds, and like with smithcrafters, make some dotimeseses for studying different things and be prepared to hit up a lot more libraries. If I want to learn everything here, I usually have to hit up every noncombat library. For basic things however I tend to sweep north first - tant library, haunted manor, neville, hopkins, drais, balan, nepeth, fairy ring, burnham castle, academy, musicman, ebon manor and shieldhand. Then I sweep south - ruell, varys, eldar, nuns, monastery, rodentid, kafouins. On my way back north I'll hit sadris, but hopefully by this point I'll be done.
Sirpsycho's capital letter aliasing for studying the different formulas (see the smithcrafting guide) also works well here! You'll just need to alias up a lot more of the keyboard to fit in all the stuff, but it is considerably faster.
You only need one damage scroll, and you really only need one rare wand, but it's best to learn them all so later on you can mass produce them easier.
Next, unless you have a lot of spare conc, shout for a smither to make you a few wands. You'll need more than one, it's very rare to get a heavy burst wand right away. Quality doesn't matter, but very fine wands weigh less, and the cheapo lead or tin wands are easier to make very fine and mass produce, so it's win-win to use crappy materials.
Next comes mining! Mining is waaay more important for a spellcrafter than a smither. All the rare wands need a big gem in their making, and mining is the easiest way to get them. You might also get the materials to make a big warhammer. I mine until I can make half a dozen of the easiest wand.
Then, the scrolls come in. I buy a big club, or make one with stuff from mining, I pen a few damage scrolls, and I hit up the creatures needed for the rare wands, and the stuff needed for the oils and ammy of the enchanter.
Then I start making stuff. First comes the ammy of the enchanter, and this NEEDS to be +18 if you plan on making a decent wand. Fortunately ammy of the enchanter is uncommon, so at 100 staves & wands this won't be too hard. Then, start mass producing wands until you get a heavy burst wand. 123 staves and wands will make some really good wands, but the cost over scrolls means you'll want as high powered a wand as possible.
Some numbers, to put it in perspective:
The exp you get from a wand wave is the max damage the wand does. Having an ability under 100 will cut the damage down significantly, and it's demonstrated in the exp given. But at 100, here are some of the high-end values you get:
- wide beam - 40
- burst - 50
- heavy burst - 60
- dazzling maelstrom - 80
Now, you'll only see dazzling maelstroms coming out of an alignment wand on demons and saints. But you can get heavy bursts on the standard rare wands. It is in general best to go with those, as extra demonic/saintly kills are hard to come by. Playing the numbers game, an extra 20 damage a wave is significant, but if merely evil/good kills give a wide burst, and less aligned creatures giving worse, you're better off with heavy burst wands.
More numbers, scrolls vs wands:
A heavy burst wand will have 7-9 charges. It will do up to 60 damage a wave, and at 100 staves and wands it will usually only take one round to fire. You pay 15sp per charge. Scrolls will have 3-5 charges. They will do 30-40 damage per read. As spellcrafters can get more rune lore, you will do more damage with scrolls than smithcrafters can, but not by much. A spellfice with scrolls and 1 construct will do worse in all areas than a smither with scrolls and 2 constructs. So if you plan to play with scrolls, you should really be playing with smithers. The real beauty of scrolls is the cost. One scroll is 30sp, much cheaper than 3-5 wand waves. Scrolls don't fire as fast, and they cost per scroll, but between wide beam scrolls and wide beam wands, you'd be better off with scrolls.
Okay time estimate for this point: 1 hour, due to the absolute necessity to get a big wand and the large amount of researching. But wait, there's more! Next up, we have constructs. Ohbaby.
You should probably follow my smithcrafing guide for this point, but a few points to keep in mind:
- You've got a big wand and a heavy hammer, you can kill a lot more stuff for oils!
- You only need one construct due to concentration. BUT!
- You can't repair your construct, so make sure it's a good one! Getting bits for 2 constructs can be very beneficial, in that if you make a crappy one, when it dies (and it WILL die) you can remake quickly.
- For concentration, keep in mind greenleaf, the academy, int uniques, and int/wis scroll/potions for a quick boost. Nice thing about spellcrafters is they can play just fine with negative concentration :)
Okay estimated time for the big wand, big weapon and big construct: 1 hour 30 mins. Yikes! And we're STILL not done! Wards and mental recharge scrolls to go!
This can be easy or hard depending on the inks and chalks. I've had easy boots and hard boots here. it's almost always worth getting 10 mental recharges, 10 of the easiest wards, and whatever else you're willing to get. Estimated time: Between 5 and 15 minutes.
So, we're talking almost an hour more time than it takes to get a smither up! Yikes!
EQ: Slightly different to smithcrafters, if you want to play a spellcrafter you'll WANT a suit of armour. You've got no temporary tanks. You've still got a decent carrying capacity with a construct, so containers are still unecessary. You don't need tools, but bring your wands, inks, paper and chalks everywhere instead. Also one thing to consider is that with a two handed weapon, it takes 5 aliases to wave a wand. For a one-handed weapon it only takes 3 aliases to wave, so you may want to consider hjem or draqisfang as your primary weapon instead of a warhammer or kraky.
ALIASES: I'll try to do this quickly, like ripping off a band-aid. I like to do lots of different play styles when I'm playing. And this means a whole lot of class specific aliases and nicks. The aliases used here are far more complicated than for smithcrafting. Don't want to do all of this stuff? I suggest you scroll down to the MAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF section for some tips in minimalist play, and adjust aliases accordingly!
44 = unlatch hinge // my old one was '4', but it's in use for wands..
A = alias // use this one later for bigger aliases
[ = get all
] = sell all
` = do A 1 unwield weap, A 2 wield wand1 ilh, A 3 wave wand1,
A 4 unwield wand1, A 5 wield weap
a = recharge wand
alch = brew alchemist's oil
as = pen scroll of arrow summoning
b = command protect
bb = command my construct 2 protect
bbr = command my construct 2 protect my construct
br = command protect my construct 2
bv = say ---RESCUE BURNS--- // don't need this one as a smither
c = collect
cc = wield weap
cd = command all drop loot
cg = command all get
cga = command all get all
ck = command all kill
co = command all
conc = concentrate
dew = enscribe demon ward
di = dissect corpse
dw = enscribe dragon ward
ench = brew enchanter's oil
er = exa my construct
err = exa my construct 2 // don't really need this as a speller!
ewa = enter ward
extras = do study amulet of the enchanter, study scroll of mental recharge,
study scroll of wisdom
fb = pen scroll of fire bolt
gwa = enscribe giant ward
ib = pen scroll of ice bolt
id = identify
ks = keep all scroll
lw = leave ward
mm = assist my construct
q = do A 1 unwield weap, A 2 wield wand2 ilh, A 3 wave wand2,
A 4 unwield wand2, A 5 wield weap
q1 = do A 1 unwield weap, A 2 wield wand2 ilh, A 3 wave wand2 at pguy1,
A 4 unwield wand2, A 5 wield weap
q2 = do A 1 unwield weap, A 2 wield wand2 ilh, A 3 wave wand2 at pguy2,
A 4 unwield wand2, A 5 wield weap
q3 = do A 1 unwield weap, A 2 wield wand2 ilh, A 3 wave wand2 at pguy3,
A 4 unwield wand2, A 5 wield weap
q4 = do A 1 unwield weap, A 2 wield wand2 ilh, A 3 wave wand2 at pguy4,
A 4 unwield wand2, A 5 wield weap
rejuv = enscribe rejuvenation ward //for a test, I REALLY don't recommend
rr = rescue my construct
scorps = do study metal claw, study metal stinger, study forged scorpion
s1 = nick scroll1
sf = spellforge
sorc = brew sorcerer's oil
uh = unlatch hinge
uniwle = unwield // very important!
uw = enscribe undead ward
wand1 = nick wand1
wand2 = nick wand2
wands = do study wand of fire storm, study wand of ice storm, study wand of
blade storm, study wand of vitriol, study wand of extra healing
wards = do study giant ward, study undead ward, study dragon ward, study
demon ward
x = read scroll1
xx = throw boomerang at opponent
z = assay
zz = read scroll of mental recharge
zzz = pen scroll of mental recharge
NICKS - and the relevant 'ficer nicks alch = alchemist's oil ench = enchanter's oil enemy = linnhe ibh = in both hands ilh = in left hand irh = in right hand pguy1 = serin pguy2 = serin //He's a one man army! rev = my construct scroll1 = scroll of fire bolt sorc = sorcerer's oil wand1 = wand of ice storm wand2 = wand of extra healing weap = warhammer
So yeah, USAGE OF ALIASES: If I want to wave a damage wand, I hit ` followed by 1-5. If I'm using a one handed weapon I just hit 2-4. For a healing wand, I hit q first, but it's still 1-5. To wave a healing wand at a partymate, I hit q1-q4 first. I nick 'wand1' to my current damage wand, 'scroll1' to my current damage scroll, and 'wand2' can either be a healing wand or a damage wand. This allows for a very customisable setup that still gives me a little alias space on the rest of the keyboard :) The q and ` aliases change all aliases instantly, it doesn't take 5 rounds to change!
An alternate method to all the dotimesing is to use the capital letters on your keyboard to study individual things: Q W E R T etc. This is very fast and really takes the time out of the most tedious part of the process. I highly recommend using it if you have the alias space.
EXAMPLE COMBAT: This may make the aliases clearer, as well as the power of the wands and wards. This is ancient red dragon, naked, with no heals. Enjoy!
> kill dragon You bludgeoned Dragon's head heavily. > ck You missed. HP: 168 SP: 156 Dragon pounded your leg heartlessly. rr You command: Kill Forged centaur smashed Dragon's body with a bone crushing sound. > > You hammered Dragon's head brutally. Forged centaur crushed Dragon's leg cruelly. HP: 156 SP: 156 Dragon bludgeoned your leg heavily. The medicinal bandage covering your wounds dries up and falls away. 1 2 You stop wielding your warhammer. > 3 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 4 You wave a very fine tin wand of blade storm. > 5 You stop wielding your wand. > You wield your warhammer in both hands. > You bludgeoned Dragon's head heavily. Forged centaur missed Dragon. HP: 134 SP: 158 Dragon hammered your head brutally. A heavy burst of sharp needles spring from a very fine tin wand of blade storm and stab Dragon! dw You take some chalk and carefully enscribe a dragon protection ward on the floor around yourself. You feel protected. > 1 2 You bludgeoned Dragon's head heavily. Forged centaur smashed Dragon's head with a bone crushing sound. You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. HP: 131 SP: 133 Dragon clubbed your leg. You stop wielding your warhammer. > 3 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 4 You wave a very fine tin wand of blade storm. > 5 You stop wielding your wand. > You wield your warhammer in both hands. > You missed. Forged centaur crushed Dragon's wing cruelly. A forged centaur kicks Dragon! Dragon missed you. You missed. Forged centaur missed Dragon. A forged centaur kicks Dragon! You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. HP: 106 SP: 137 Dragon hammered your head brutally. A heavy burst of sharp needles spring from a very fine tin wand of blade storm and stab Dragon! With a big smile, you puff on your Royal Select cigar. q Changed alias 1 = unwield weap Changed alias 2 = wield wand2 ilh Changed alias 3 = wave wand2 Changed alias 4 = unwield wand2 Changed alias 5 = wield weap > 1 You stop wielding your warhammer. > 2 3 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 4 You wave a very fine tin wand of extra healing. > 5 You stop wielding your wand. > You missed. Forged centaur missed Dragon. You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. HP: 88 SP: 140 Dragon hammered your leg brutally. You feel better. HP: 138 SP: 140 You wield your warhammer in both hands. > ` Changed alias 1 = unwield weap Changed alias 2 = wield wand1 ilh Changed alias 3 = wave wand1 Changed alias 4 = unwield wand1 Changed alias 5 = wield weap > 1 You stop wielding your warhammer. > 2 3 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 4 You wave a very fine tin wand of blade storm. > 5 You stop wielding your wand. > You wield your warhammer in both hands. > You bludgeoned Dragon's head heavily. Forged centaur bashed Dragon's head. A forged centaur stares around avidly. You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. HP: 129 SP: 140 Dragon pounded your head heartlessly. A heavy burst of sharp needles spring from a very fine tin wand of blade storm and stab Dragon! 1 You stop wielding your warhammer. > 2 3 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 4 You wave a very fine tin wand of blade storm. > 5 You stop wielding your wand. > You wield your warhammer in both hands. > You missed. Forged centaur smashed Dragon's body with a bone crushing sound. A forged centaur kicks Dragon! You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. Dragon missed you. A heavy burst of sharp needles spring from a very fine tin wand of blade storm and stab Dragon! 1 You stop wielding your warhammer. > 2 3 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 4 You wave a very fine tin wand of blade storm. > 5 You stop wielding your wand. > You wield your warhammer in both hands. > You bludgeoned Dragon's head heavily. Forged centaur bashed Dragon's body. With a *CHOMP*, the dragon bites at you! You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. HP: 127 SP: 140 You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. HP: 100 SP: 140 Dragon hammered your head brutally. q Changed alias 1 = unwield weap Changed alias 2 = wield wand2 ilh Changed alias 3 = wave wand2 Changed alias 4 = unwield wand2 Changed alias 5 = wield weap > You missed. Forged centaur crushed Dragon's head cruelly. A forged centaur kicks Dragon! You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. HP: 82 SP: 140 Dragon bludgeoned your arm heavily. A heavy burst of sharp needles spring from a very fine tin wand of blade storm and stab Dragon! 1 You stop wielding your warhammer. > 2 3 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 4 You wave a very fine tin wand of extra healing. > 5 You stop wielding your wand. > You wield your warhammer in both hands. > You bludgeoned Dragon's head heavily. Forged centaur smashed Dragon's wing with a bone crushing sound. You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. HP: 53 SP: 140 Dragon hammered your body brutally. The dragon laughs at your failed attempt to penetrate its armour. You feel better. HP: 103 SP: 140 ` Changed alias 1 = unwield weap Changed alias 2 = wield wand1 ilh Changed alias 3 = wave wand1 Changed alias 4 = unwield wand1 Changed alias 5 = wield weap > 1 2 You stop wielding your warhammer. > 3 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 4 You wave a very fine tin wand of blade storm. > You stop wielding your wand. > 5 You missed. Forged centaur missed Dragon. A forged centaur stares at you with soulless eyes. You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. HP: 84 SP: 140 Dragon bludgeoned your body heavily. A heavy burst of sharp needles spring from a very fine tin wand of blade storm and stab Dragon! You wield your warhammer in both hands. > q Changed alias 1 = unwield weap Changed alias 2 = wield wand2 ilh Changed alias 3 = wave wand2 Changed alias 4 = unwield wand2 Changed alias 5 = wield weap > 1 2 You stop wielding your warhammer. > 3 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 4 You wave a very fine tin wand of extra healing. > 5 You stop wielding your wand. > You wield your warhammer in both hands. > You bludgeoned Dragon's head heavily. Forged centaur missed Dragon. Dragon missed you. You feel better. HP: 133 SP: 140 ` Changed alias 1 = unwield weap Changed alias 2 = wield wand1 ilh Changed alias 3 = wave wand1 Changed alias 4 = unwield wand1 Changed alias 5 = wield weap > 1 You stop wielding your warhammer. > 2 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 3 You wave a very fine tin wand of blade storm. > 4 5 You stop wielding your wand. > You wield your warhammer in both hands. > You pounded Dragon's head heartlessly. Forged centaur missed Dragon. You are protected from the an ancient red dragon. HP: 112 SP: 140 Dragon hammered your arm brutally. A heavy burst of sharp needles spring from a very fine tin wand of blade storm and stab Dragon! 1 2 You stop wielding your warhammer. > 3 You wield your wand in your left hand. > 4 You wave a very fine tin wand of blade storm. > 5 You stop wielding your wand. > You wield your warhammer in both hands. > Dragon died. Your party just killed Dragon. As your final blow pierces the dragon, it is surrounded in mist. A voice in your head says 'I will return another day!' With a big smile, you puff on your Royal Select cigar. Sharp hooks momentarily spring from within a very fine tin wand of blade storm, then recede. a Magical energy flows from your hands into a very fine tin wand of blade storm. > a 2 Magical energy flows from your hands into a very fine tin wand of extra healing.
COMBAT: There's a big temptation with spellcrafters, because they can do so much, to try to do everything. DON'T. You'll spend the entire boot prepping. Just relax, keep it simple and don't wear yourself out. Some more tips!
- Like smithers, unlatch your constructs at every available opportunity!
- You can't repair your construct, but other people can! Constructs also heal a bit on their own naturally. If your construct is beat up you can shout for repairs, grab a friend, or do something else while your construct heals up - maybe play another character, or gather more wards. Oh and remember - always rescue constructs first round. ALWAYS. There are only two kills where it's worth having the construct take hits - zackwell and queen spider. Everything else isn't worth them being raped.
- See my scroll info in smithers section and replace the word 'scroll' with 'wand' - it's much the same. One thing you will notice is that wands eat up a LOT more sp. When you're soloing, food, drink, meditation and eastroad can keep up your sp. When you're bashing, scrolls of mental recharge are essential. About 10 scrolls of mental recharge per hour of bashing is enough for some HEAVY waving, you will claim every kill you wave on. Wave enough to get the claim, read enough to keep your sps up, build a nice rep for yourself and wave heavily on the high damage kills. Tanks will loooove you.
- Always keep smoking pipes and binding your wounds, even when bashing. You'll need it to keep sps high.
- If you need to run to recharge a wand, then run! There is very little point staying around taking unecessary hits. This won't happen often if you recharge a lot mind, things will drop FAST with a heavy burst wand, clubs and constructs.
- WARDS. Wards are super useful. Change your route to take into account the creatures you have wards for, and use them. They're very decent defence and combined with armour you'll be nice and comfortable against a lot of the big boys. A nice thing about them is even the tank can use them while you're bashing, and you can enscribe in combat and while waving a wand!
- You'll have probably noticed we're talking a LOT of aliases to wave a wand. It means you've gotta be attentive, alert and quick. You can cut out quite a lot of work just by switching to a one-handed weapon, or just wielding the wand and fighting with it. I would also suggest that tanking as a spellfice for a group of people requires waay too much work with this method. Stick with bashing or soloing and save your hands some grief.
- Wands of extra healing - An optional, but fun, extra. These wands heal up to 50 damage per wave, with a slow increase in tolerance. At 15 sp per wave this is a very decent ratio! The tolerance isn't too bad unless you rely on the wand for all your healing, which is also a bad idea since it fires a round or two after you wave it, enough time to be clobbered. In all it's a great thing to have to heal yourself up in non-dangerous situations. But as a spellfice you have two more things tying up your time - the damage wands and the scrolls of mental recharge. If you want to wave in a dangerous situation, chances are you'll already be doing one of the other two. In most situations it's better to be spending your precious 15sp on burning things instead of a healing wand. A more expensive but easier solution to healing as a spellcrafter? Carry a few extra healing potions! It's the same weight as a wand, and it does the job much better and without cockblocking your damage wand! Hurrah!
- Rejuv and healing wards - just.. just don't, okay? Put them down now. Rejuv wards in particular, you'll be lucky if you make 35sp in a minute with them, when they cost 37sp to MAKE. If you ever want to very slowly make 2sp less than you started with while staying in one place, these are the tools to use. Utterly pointless.
- Damage potions - at high levels, these fall into the 'why would you even consider these an option' category. You can't throw and wave in the same round, and it takes far more effort and weight to make and use these than it would to make a heavy burst wand, and they do less damage for more cost, and they can miss. Now, at midlevels they might even be powerful if you've been working your marksmanship. If you get one that requires easy reagents to make, by all means make a batch and take down something big and stacked.
- Services - Spellcrafters do awesome damage, this is a given. But DID YOU KNOW they can also make awesome rings and amulets? It's true! One thing you'll realise when playing is that you need friends to play spellcrafters to their best ability - and a great way to make friends is by offering your substantial services as an enchanter! The 'ficers that make your wands and repair your constructs - they ALWAYS need amulets of smithcraft and sometimes amulets of escape! The rangers that make you medicine and track down rare critters - how about a nice ring of (insert weapon skill)? A spellcrafter can make a lot of friends! The concentration cost is a bit steep, but remember that
- you can go under 0 concentration just fine and
- This reboot's ammy of smithcraft is next reboot's awesome repaired construct!
MAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF: Okay, you maaay have noticed the method above requires you to hit at least 5 aliases a round! If you're not a fast typer this simply isn't going to happen. It's hard work! You didn't join the class to work hard, you joined it to have fun! Here are some ideas to try to take the pressure off the class:
- Wielding a one handed weapon. There are a couple of big one handed clubs, specifically desty, draqisfang, and hjem. I wouldn't try desty unless you're a dwarf due to the constant need for strength potions (or the strongarm trait!). The big pro of this is you don't need to hit 5 aliases to wave a wand, just 3. The big con is that you'll do quite a bit less damage!
- Wielding your wand. 'Ficers aren't too great at raising staff, and trying to beat someone to death with your wand is just silly, but you will take 5 aliases down to just 1! One day the class will get staffs too (the ability is called STAVES and wands after all), and then you'll be glad you spent all that time thwacking people. The big cons: It's much less damage, it's much less cool, and it means the wands you make have to be GOOD, which is extra setup time.
- Don't make a construct. Let's face it, they're going to die anyway. I mainly use mine just as a giant metal handbag, to give me carrying capacity as well as damage. In a party, just waving wands and using mental recharge scrolls is enough to DOMINATE the claims, making you useful enough. And lots of tanks don't like having to rescue you after you rescue your damn construct. It's win-win, sorta!
- No setup? No problem. Try this out: Get/make a big warhammer. Buy a ton of damage scrolls. Buy smokes and meds and a sack. Bash hard!
The pros: You've just cut out a few hair tearing hours, you don't have to worry about constructs, you just need to hit your read scroll alias once every couple of rounds and you'll STILL get most claims. A spellcrafter with scrolls and NO constructs is better than a smithcrafter with scrolls and no constructs, making spellficer the speciality to choose for no setup playing. On a pipe and meds you'll keep up the scrollage just fine, possibly needing to meditate when (if) your tank does. Very easy to play, and it does very well!
The cons: It does probably about half as well as the wand/construct spellficer. Pros: It's about ten times as easy.
- Ten minute setup bashing. Pretty simple, you do the above lack of setup, but add to the mix whatever racial wards you can find and make easily. It takes a teensy bit more time, but you'll be saving your tank a lot of grief from big hitters.
- Twenty minute setup soloing. Do the ten minute bashing setup, get yourself a suit of armour and also collect some chalks for glyphs! I wouldn't suggest soloing with spellficers with scrolls normally, as you'll have far too much sp than you'll ever need, but glyphs give you something useful to spend the dead mental weight on. You can enscribe and activate every 14 seconds, but if you're like me you'll prefer the rapidfire option: Enscribe glyph, activate glyph, erase glyph, repeat. You can fire a ton of these in a round, as fast as your fingers and your sp will allow. Nothing like as efficient as wands, but if you get an easy glyph boot this is an amusing and simple way of playing.