I'm playing a pure Artificer 20 with the Inquisitive capstone.

I must say it's the most powerful ranged toon I've ever played.

5 Foot Step wrote on Apr 9^th, 2019 at 12:31pm:

The Diplomancer (from the Anniversary event last month).







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Technomage wrote on Apr 9^th, 2019 at 1:18pm:



Be prepared for disappointment.

There is no question, every Inquisitive needs to suck it up and farm Threnal for Ratcatcher.

14-20x4 at level 12 I mean come on. I'll probably be using it until level 29. I wont be talking about it much more though.

Cripey wrote on Apr 9^th, 2019 at 2:52pm:

Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't realized how easy it was to get Diplomacy +22 (and even Insightful Diplomacy) elsewhere. Using the Morninglord Heavy Crossbow now.







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Technomage wrote on Apr 8^th, 2019 at 5:34pm:


Is there something special arti 20 gets that a rogue/arti multiclass for example doesnt?
I mean the rogue repeater tree looks better to me (as a secondary tree to inquisitive) 

NotATurbineEmploye wrote on Apr 11^th, 2019 at 10:51am:


I think it depends on what you like.
Rogue > some sneak dices, pointblank range, 10 ranged power at T4
Arti > action boost, 10% doubleshot at T4, some small bonusses to equiped weapon/armor ... and if you are already there then fusilade synergy (but would not go there because of this)

Hallowedone wrote on Apr 14^th, 2019 at 4:35pm:


Sure but i was reffering to only the T4 in enhancemnets difference. Not to how to classsplit. I bet majority of those 26d doesnt come from mechanic tree

Classspllit and other things are whole lot different story and of course rogue levels gives alot of sneak dices.

EDIT: Oh he asked about pure 20 arti. My bad. A thought he asks about some char that is already splitted and just wants to know if invest into mech or battle eng tree

Carpone wrote on Apr 15^th, 2019 at 10:22am:

Agree, pulling numbers out of his ass imo. After getting t4 mech, you only have 17 ap to work with. And if you're going 6 ranger and not getting sniper shot you're an idiot...6 AP left for harper so no assassin. Even with max racials you can only grab 2d6 from halfling, so I call BS.


41/23mech/11swash or DWS/6 harper lands at 16-20d6. Any more than that numbers are being made up or character is being gimped for sake of epeen.


EDIT:Shadow dancer could be the last few, but missing out on LD is equally retarded

Lack of runspeed on ranged builds is a dealbreaker for me.  13/6/1 Barb may be a hair less DPS, but you net 10% runspeed and Improved Evasion without having to readjust AP to get runspeed from Thief Acrobat.

For fun:

Regular xbow crit profile at 12 is 16-20x3 for 29/20 dmg instances.
Ratcatcher is 14-20x4 for 40/20 wpn dmg instances per 20 attacks.
At 25 diplomancer base dmg is 2.5 (1d8) +7=18.25 base damage.
Ratcatcher is 1.5 (1d8) + 4 =10.75 base damage.

Just finished inquisi life and at 25 my dmg mod was about 60 pre ranged power. So Ratcatcher doing 70.75 base and Diplomancer doing 78.25. Let's say 150 ranged power.

Diplo- 78.25*2.5= 195.625 pre crit damage.
Ratcatcher - 70.75 *2.5= 176.875 pre crit damage.
Diplo - 195.625 *29=5,673.125 damage per 20 attacks.
Rat - 176.875*40= 7,075 damage per 20 attacks.
Diplo added damage 5d6(17.5) and 5d8(22.5).
(22.5+17.5)*19=760 dmg add per 20.
Diplo with both effects applying = 6,433.125 per 20.

Yep as I suspected, a level 8 xbow is better than a level 25 pre sentient. 7 or 8 filigree would push level 25 diplomancer to probably about even.

I will continue to run Rat from 8 to 29 and laugh gleefully as I do so.

And every point of additional damage modification, ranged power and most of all seeker, benefit the Ratcatcher more than any other xbow in game.