So what items are good on artificer?

[DarkRaiiin]

There's a thousand "tier list" threads posted a day and everyone seems to say artificer is item dependent, but don't actually go into detail on what items are good on her. I'm thinking of playing her some more because I'm kind of getting bored of the other characters, but my runs with her don't last very long...probably because I don't know what to pick up. xD

[AFG Mr. Alan]

Isnt it fun? The mage is one of those classes that just seems so hard to get a decent build going for her, i get it. Usually I will keep restarting the first stage until my first few items are somewhat helpful. Healing items, tougher times, damage building items. She is just a difficult character to get started due to the aerial enemies being slightly harder to hit than the other characters. Also her mobility is weak early on so possibly building movement, defense, and damage first could serve well.
You see, I say, we start with building for those 3 things, but the RNG prevents that from being certain. For me I can't simply pin point items because you might not get a single item drop from my list before the game kill you. Understand the enemies attacks and understanding each player character abilities really changes the game, practice dodging the variety of enemy attacks.
Just keep playing, with more practice and experience you will be able to get in that 60+min run with her.
TIP- look through the items description at the mainmenu to help plan what items to be looking for in an upcoming run. After a handful of runs you'll just be flying through levels.

[Lord McSmith]

You probably already know to prioritize mobility-enhancing items if you want a chance at surviving with artificer. Beyond that, she benefits more from on-kill effects than from on-hit effects because of her slower attack speed and higher burst damage. Things like gasoline or will-o-wisp really bring out her crowd control potential because taking out groups of weaker enemies will deal substantial damage to the more tanky ones.

Personally, the two items I always keep an eye out for are the backup magazine and the crowbar. Backup magazine gives you extra charges of her lightning orb skill, which means keeping big enemies stunned longer, and having one or two crowbars lets you one-shot wisps with fireball in later levels, which can save you from a lot of damage and wasted time.

Oh, and primordial cube is a marvelous equipment item for her.

Artificer currently relies on items to overcome her innate disadvantages, but luckily a lot of those items are commons. Once she gets up to speed, she can go as far as any other class.

[Zeddy]

Looking at the item mega-guide, I've got to say pretty much all of them. (Usual disclaimers apply.) However, as said you want to prioritize mobility items in particular. You want hopoos and goat hoofs the most (and of course wax quail, and energy drink is also good because you can sprint while charging Nano-bomb.

People say on-proc items aren't good with her, but that's complete madness. Flamethrower has a procrate of 1 and is a piercing damage monster. Not building for flamethrower is a massive waste of her potential.

For usables, Primordial Cube is amazing, and Royal Capacitor feels like a fifth skill, which I like the feel of.

[Russ Rockjaw]

Who isn't item dependent? This game is built around items.

[Spireblast]

As of late, the easy way to play Artificer, would be with a focus on these items (top to bottom based on priority):

- Crowbar
- Will o the wisp/Ukelele (both important, but always pick Wisp if they're in the same shopstand)
- Backup magazine
- Ceremonial dagger (try to get one after stage 8 at the bazaar)
- Strides of heresy (just because no one uses the frostwall)
- Lensmaker glasses
- Armor piercing rounds
- 1 Shaped glass (you're gonna be out of range of most enemies anyways, might as well pump up the damage, you can grab 1 more for every 5 infusions. e.g. if you own 12 infusions, you should have 3 shaped glass. (12/5)+1 rounded down.

This build is based on having the new Ion Surge skill at your disposal.
The trick is to always be airborne (unless you're in a cave or opening chests), and just unleash hell upon everything you see.
This works even better if you also have the Plasma bolt primary skill, and the Royal capacitor as your equipment.

Become the god of lightning!

[DarkRaiiin]

Should have waited another half a month and necro'd this on its anniversary.