Artificer Build

The Artificer is a beast in modes with capped cooldown. Because you can make his main weapon the single biggest driver of damage via AoE and speed, he shines in Hero Clash. But that means you need to focus on his weapon.

Forge + Energy Infusion = Massive Damage

Artificer gets massive benefits from his forge, even relative to other heroes. The goal is to maximize the uptime of his skill, Energy Infusion. Any time he has five or more projectiles spinning from his other skill, Charged Blades, Energy Infusion pulses for a ton of weapon damage.

That means you want to do everything possible to increase the chance of proccing Charged Blades to keep Energy Inufsion pulsing. The main way to do that is by increasing his Area of Effect and his Forge.

The 2* Forge Blade Surge increases the chance to spawn additional blades by 1000%, which is a big synergy. That's when you'll hit a massive power spike with Artificer, as it keeps Energy Infusion up almost constantly.

You're further rewarded with massive damage spikes at 4* and 5* forge, making it worth the investment if you really want to pump DPS with Artificer. However, I would say that you need that 2* forge to make him feel "worth it" during end-game content.

Invest In The Forge Over The Hero

If you are presented with the option early in the game, I would suggest getting weapon forge tokens over hero shards if you already have 2* Artificer. Getting his weapon to 2* forge should be a relative priority over 3 starring Artificer himself.

For the Artificer, you run the HvH standard max damage per second (DPS) gear build.

You can substitute the Wizard Ring for a Rogue Ring if you have it at a higher tier or if the mode has Instant Kill enabled.

Early Nightmare Mode (Chapters 1-50)

Artificer does so much damage that you can actually run an aggressive DPS build for the earlier stages of Nightmare Mode. Because his kit does not revolve around cooldown, the 40% Nightmare cap doesn't impact his top-line damage.

With that in mind, here are some Nightmare Mode DPS builds to test:

You get the most damage from those two pieces of Rogue gear and then try to maximize your survivability and movement speed with the rest of your gear.

I run the standard base weapon build with Artifcicer:

Main Weapon

→

Fire Orbs

|

Bomb

→

Chain Lightning

→

Crossbow

|

Ice Wand

Ice Wand if you need the survivability. Crossbows for max DPS.

You can substitute in better special weapons like Mighty Borer if you have them.

Tomes to compliment the build are:

Speed

→

Area

|

Duplicator

→

Cooldown

→

Damage

You will end up grabbing Speed Tome because that's how you evolve the Artificer's weapon. That will then cause Crossbow to evolve. Unless you have 4* Crossbow, it might be better to run Ice Wand.

The lack of cooldown on the Artificer's main weapon makes his jewel build different from most other heroes. You want to pump as much DPS into the main as possible, even at 0* forge.

Instead of pushing CD, you push AoE followed by projectile speed. This combination helps to maximize the uptime of his Energy Infusion skill, which is a big source of his damage.

At higher star forges, then pure AoE will max your damage even more.

So here is one example jewel build:

Ultimate Charge

|

Ultimate Duration

→

Vulnerability

→

Area

No concern about Cooldown, no fancy projectile jewels. Just a massive focus on Area of Effect.

Now, if you can't fill every slot with Area, you can start to mix in other high-level jewels.

Ultimate Charge

|

Ultimate Duration

→

Vulnerability

→

Area

→

Cooldown

|

Speed

Again, you're trying to max Energy Infusion uptime, so favor projectile speed. Cooldown will net all of your other weapons more damage, so that's also a fine choice. You can do your own experimenting to mix and match on the jewel side.

In my testing, it was fine to substitute in better Cooldown and Speed Jewels for lower-level Area jewels.

However, do not load up only Cooldown jewels as that will lower your net damage dealt, at least in my testing.

The forge is particularly important for Artificer relative to other heroes. That's because the 2* forge "Blade Surge" impacts his skill "Charged Blade." Any time a forge tree improves a skill, the hero benefits greatly.

So let's go through forge decisions with the idea of maximizing the chance at proccing "Charged Blades."

Forge 1 - Left or Right

I would do right for Zeal and the increased projectile speed. Other people go left for Critical Rotation. Both work. Go Right if you are already close to or over the 100% critical strike chance.

Forge 2 - Right

Go right for Blade Surge and the giant power spike. Ignore what it says about "Base" it also works on the evolution.

Forge 3 - Velocity Boost

This global is below average. Nice to have, but no major impact.

Forge 4 - Energetic Discharge

Like all heroes, this will be a big spike in damage for Artificer.

Forge 5 - Right

Removing the charge-up time for Energetic Discharge should net you out to a much bigger damage boost.

So let's go through the Artificer's skills.

Level 40 - Charged Blade

Charged Blades are the backbone of the Artificer's damage. You need to maintain as many charged blades as you can. Each Charged Blade reduces the chance to proc another one, but your goal is to keep as many up as you can.

Level 80 - Energy Infusion

When there are five or more Charged Blades, a damage wave is emitted every 2s for a lot of weapon damage. And you can immediately see the synergy in his kit as both skills work together.

Level 100 Ultimate - Blade Dance

Killing enemies fills a meter. Filling it causes him to get 5 Charged Blades, more projectile speed and damage, and draws all enemies in while increasing his evasion chance. This will just wipe out horde with a ton of damage.

And again, you can see it will make sure that Energy Infusion is up for the duration because of the 5 Charged Blades.

For Pets, you're looking to max damage for most event types. That means for Normal and Hard Mode, you want your main pet to be your highest rarity pet with your two next-highest rarity pets as your passives.

Here's a detailed breakdown of the best main pets and best passive pets to help you think through your choices.

You generally run like Hydro Basilisk main with Emberpaw and Pyrokraken as your passives. As you get Crystalsaurus, he can become your mai,n and Hydro Basilisk moves over with either Emberpaw or Pyrokraken.

Nightmare Mode (NMM) Pets

You can actually use Artificer in Nightmare Mode with high-damage pets. He does so much damage that he can actually clear out a lot of the early stages of Nightmare Mode as if they were a standard Hard Mode chapter. That means run your highest-damage pets in NMM to help clear out horde.