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AtlusSeven GADGETEER SPOTLIGHT
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AtlusSeven7 I appologize for not doing Spotlight Lord like promised. See, the thing is, i've been using the Gadgeteer an awful lot and have grown VERY fond of this wonderous Class. They've quickly become a staple in EVERY party I create. Anyways, sorry again for not doing Lord. I'll eventually get around to it, though. I have a lot of good stuff in store for that particular Spotlight that you'll hopefully enjoy. So let's get on with it! Spotlight Gadgeteer--Wizardry 8's resident lock pickin', tinkerin', gun slinging badass. ::pops Incubus' Morning View into cd player:: ---------------------- "Screw the Gadgeteer. Take a Bard instead!". "Gadgeteers develop way too slowly!". "My Omnigun only does 4 damage!" "I can't make any damn Gadgets!" "Gadgeteers SUCK!" Sound familiar? Chances are that if you've read any amount of posts on this board, you've inevitably ran across one or two threads where someone complains about or knocks on the Gadgeteer class. They've commonly been refered to as a sub-par class in Wizardry 8, not able to hold their own when compared to some of the other professions. To these people, I say-- POPPYCOCK!!! Gadgeteer's are one of the most powerful, useful, versatile, and downright AWESOME classes in all of Wizardry 8. Given lots of time and careful management, one can easily find their Gadgeteer leading the pack in kills, not to mention how much you'll rely on their powerful Gadgets and wickedly powerful Omnigun to get you through some mean encounters. Just how do you build one up effectively then? Just what makes them so powerful? First off, let's talk about the Gadgeteer's inherent abilities-- Gadgets--The Gadgeteer has the unique ability to merge certain items together to form a complete functioning gadget. These gadges are VERY similar to a Bard's instruments, in that the Gadgeteer can use them to create spell-like effects at the expendature of Stamina. The only difference is that a Gadgeteer must find the 2 parts that make up a particular gadget and merge them together before using them. For this reason, a lot of people pass on this class in favor of a Bard, who's power can be had as soon as you find a new instrument. Too bad for those people, for the Gadgeteer's gadgets rival almost every Instrument you can find (with a few exceptions, of course). Modern Weapons--This is the Gadgeteer's Primary Skill, in which they recieve a 25% bonus to on top of whatever points you've dumped into it and/or accrued through practice. The is great because the higher this skill is, the better a chance you have at scoring hits, penetrating enemy's armor, and the more attacks you'll have when using any modern weapon--not just his/her Omnigun. Engineering--This skill controls how powerful your gadgets acctually are. The higher this skill is, the higher the power-level you can operate your gadgets at, the less chance you have to fizzle them, the more damage you can do with them, and the better you can penetrate enemy resistances with them. In a nutshell, Engineering acts like how Intelligence, Piety, Spellbook, Realms, and Powercasting work for a spellcaster, all wrapped up into one neat skill for the Gadgeteer class. Locks and Traps--Gadgeteers--much like Rogues, Bards, and Ninja--are able to pick locks and traps. This is great because the Gadgeteer has so very few Skills they need to concentrate on. Letting them learn Locks and Traps allows your Rogue, Bard, or Ninja (should you have one of these classes in your party) to concentrate on other skills. Now on to which Attributes one should build up. Attributes-- Gadgeteers need adequate numbers in most every skill to become effective characters. However, the beauty part about Gadgeteers is that only two attributs really need to be maxed out, as there's only two Personal Skills that they can really exploit. All other's are simply just not needed. Let's go over the attributes, talk about which ones are important and why, and where you should allot your points. Strength--Strength is needed by a Gadgeteer for several reasons. First off, it allows them to carry more weight. This is important because all those gadgets you'll be lugging around, coupled with the heavy weight of their armor and ammo, add up VERY quickly. Strength also gives your Gadgeteer more Stamina. Stamina is important because using gadgets requires just that--Stamina. However, you don't want to increase your Strength beyond a score of 60. There's a nifty little item you can find that adds +20 to Strength that only Gadgeteers can use.....and you can wear 2 of them at once. Powerstrike (obtained by getting 100 in Strength) does absolutely nothing for a Gadgeteer because you'll rarely--if ever--want to have them partake in melee combat, instead relying on your long-range Omnigun. Intelligence--Intelligence is important to a Gadgeteer because it's one of the controlling attributes for Engineering, and subsequently allows you to raise Engineering much quicker through practice. However, you don't want to raise this skill past a score of 75 because you can find a neat Helm that raises your Intelligence by +20, and the secret fountain in Trynton will raise it by +5. Powercast (obtained by getting 100 in Intelligence) does absolutely nothing for a Gadgeteer, since they rely on a high Engineering skill to tear through enemy resistances instead. Piety--Piety is only marginally useful for a Gadgeteer. For this class, the only thing Piety does is add more Stamina. However, since Strength and Vitality both raise Vitality by the same amount, as well as grant several other bonuses, you can see why Piety is the LAST attribute you'll want to work on with your Gadgeteer. Iron Will (obtained by getting 100 in Piety) can be great since it raises your resistances to spells. However, all the points you'd have to pump into Piety in order to unlock it are better spent on other, more important attributes. Vitality--Vitality is important because it not only adds more Stamina to the Gadgeteer, but it increases his/her carrying capacity, adds more Hit Points, AND helps you to stave off the effects of Disease much easier. However, keep in mind that your Gadgeteer will be sitting relatively safe in your back-rows, out of reach of most enemies. Hence a lot of Hit Points aren't really needed. The Stamina bonuses are great, but since Stamina regens quite fast in Wizardry 8, you can afford to skip over Vitality in the early game. You can find a piece of upper armor and a piece of lower armor that Gadgeteers can wear that increase his/her Vitality by +15 for each piece. That's a whopping +30 to Vitality! Iron Body (obtained by getting 100 in in Vitality) is pretty useless for a Gadgeteer since this Personal Skill only reduces the amount of damage you take from enemy melee attacks. Again, your Gadgeteer should be in the back rows, safe from melee attacks, so this Skill isn't very important. Dexterity--One of the most important attributes for a Gadgeteer to pump up. Dexterity bestows upon a character some much needed combat bonuses in the form of increased chance to hit and penetrate, as well as increased number of attacks. Also, Dexterity is one of the controlling attributes for all 3 of the Gadgeteer's most important Skills-- Engineering, Modern Weapon, and Locks and Traps. Again, the higher the controlling attributes of a Skill are, the faster they increase through practice. Dexterity is only one of two Attributes that you'll want to pump up to 100 through level-up points because you can't find any good items that they can use to boost it. Reflextion (obtained by getting 100 in Dexterity) is only marginally useful for a Gadgeteer. Gadgeteer's can only use mostly light and medium armors, and the bonuses to Armor Class that Reflextion can give you can come in handy at times. However, once again, your Gadgeteer should be in the back rows, so lack of good Armor Class isn't really an issue. Speed--Speed is needed by a Gadgeteer for a few reasons. First off, it increases the number of attacks/shots per round. Secondly, it gives you more Initiative. Thirdly, it's one of the controlling attributes for Modern Weapon. Snakespeed (obtained by getting 100 in Speed) is--like I always say--very useful for most every class in Wizardry 8. The combined Initiative you can garner from a high Speed score, coupled with a high Senses score (see below) and a high Snakespeed rating are INSANE. Senses--Finally, we get to Senses--the most important attribute to a Gadgeteer IMO. First off, Senses gives you more Initiative (which is always good). Also, it gives some decent combat bonuses (increased chance to hit and penetrate). Lastly, 100 in Senses unlocks the awesome Eagle Eye Personal Skill. Unlocking Eagle Eye is what makes Senses so important to a Gadgeteer. This skill grants some great bonuses to hit and penetrate with ANY kind of ranged weapon. And since you'll be wanting to using your long-range Omnigun all the time, you can see why this skill is so great. With all that said, here's how your point allotment should go. Pump 3 points per level up into Senses and Dexterity until they're both at 100. Next, start pumping 2 points each into Strength, Intelligence, and Speed. Once Strength gets to 60, start pumping those points into Vitality. By level 26 or 27, I had a Human Gadgeteer look something like this (with certain items equiped, of course)-- STR--100 Not to shabby, eh? Now lets delve into which Skills you should be raising-- Skills-- Deciding which Skills to raise with your Gadgeteer is easy. There are only 3 Skills that are really important to this class--Engineering, Modern Weapon, and Locks and Traps. Quite simply, pump 3 points into each of these skills on every level up. Once you max them out, start working on Ranged Combat. Other than those 4, there's really nothing else that a Gadgeteer can benefit from. However, if you decide to have your Gadgeteer on the front lines for whatever reason, you might want to start working on Sword, Dual Weapons, and Dagger after you max out the above 4 skills. This will allow your Gadgeteer to partake in some heavy melee combat should you want them to. Which brings me to the next good point about Gadgeteers--They can use a good amount of armor and weaponry found in the game. A lot of the better swords and daggers can be used by them such as Bloodlust, Fang, Light Sword, Vorpal Blade, Stilletto, etc. This is great because you can have your Gadgeteer on the front lines, relying on their Omnigun for long-range battles, using their Gadgets to soften up the enemy, and then--should the enemy get into melee range--you can dice 'em up with some dual Fang/Stilletto action. However, this isn't recommended for optimal Gadgeteer performance due to the sheer versatility of his/her Omnigun, which we'll delve into next. Omnigun--aka--The Crippler-- The Gadgeteer's Omnigun has to be the most wickedly insane weapon ever concieved in an RPG. Once it hits it's final form, this puppy has a chance to inflict EVERY SINGLE status ailment on whatever poor, poor sap you decide to target in battle. Even bosses. And loaded with the right kind of ammo, they simply don't stand a chance. Granted, the Omnigun never really deals out high amounts of damage. However, the simple fact that you can concievably Blind, KO, Paralyze, Instant Kill, Nauseate, Frighten, Disease, Poison, etc. the enemy is such a bonus. It allows you to severely cripple the enemy so your other characters can more easily take them down in combat, hence the nickname I gave the Omnigun (The Crippler). You also need to keep in mind that throughout the game, your Omnigun is no stronger than the ammo it's loaded with. You'll never recieve ANY damage bonuses from high stats like you would with a bow or melee weapon. The damage delt is exactly that of the strength of your ammo. The great thing, though, is that all the types of ammo you can find have a chance to inflict various status ailments on the enemy (on top of whatever status ailments the Omnigun itself can inflict). And again--the true power of the Omnigun lays in it's ability to inflict so many different status ailments on the enemy at an alarming rate. The best types of Ammo to have loaded are Medusa Stones or Lightning Bolts. Medusa Stones have a great chance to KO or Paralyze opponents. I almost always have Medusa Stones loaded as soon as i'm able to start purchasing them. Damage is pretty decent as well. Lightning Bolts on the other hand don't have any status ailments they can inflict outside of an insane chance to Critical Kill (8%). However, the power of Lightning Bolts lays in the heavy amounts of damage these suckers can dish out. Up to 40+ per hit. And at 12 shots per round at max, that 40+ adds up FAST. I also need to note that the Gadgeteer's Omnigun gets upgraded after every other level or so that your Gadgeteer obtains. Each time the Omnigun is upgraded, it gains different abilites that range from being able to load different types of ammo (Arrows/Bolts, Darts, Throwing Knives), to increased chances to hit, increased Initiative bonuses, and again, inflicting various status ailments. I recently put up a post that details the exact progression of the Gadgeteer's Omnigun on the VNBoard's Wizardry 8 Board. It can be found here-- http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=22541260&replies=15 Just one more note before I go on. In the early game--when your Omnigun is still relatively weak--you'll want to instead rely on the Lightning Rod you find in the Monestary. This pre-made gadget enables you to "cast" Energy Blast. And you know what? It's MUCH more powerful than ANY Energy Blast you'll EVER cast with your Mage, Samurai, or Bishop. You'll want to use the Lightning Rod not only for the good amount of damage that it does, but because it'll help you to raise your Engineering skill through practice very early on. By the time you're able to start making new gadgets--and if you've been using the Lightning Rod diligently--you should have high enough Engineering skill to be able to use them. After all this, if you're still not convinced of the power of the Gadgeteer, then keep reading. Among the best of a Bard's Instrumental arsenal include the ability to cast Freeze All, Heal All, Restoration, Nuclear Blast, Haste, and Cerebral Hemmorage. Some pretty powerful stuff, and no doubt the reasons why so many people dig the Bard. I can understand completely. But......... My Gadgeteer can Heal All, too.........and cast Asphyxiation, Noxious Fumes, Earthquake, Tsunami, Prismic Ray, X-Ray, Detect Secrets, Instant Death, Boiling Blood, Superman, Hypnotic Lure, Guardian Angel, and Eye for an Eye. You were saying? You see, IMO, the "spells" a Gadgeteer can "cast" are many times more effective and powerful that those of the Bard. Sure, Freeze All is great.......until the late game when every enemy resists it. Nuclear Blast is awesome.........except for the fact that so many enemies are strong against Fire by the time you find the damn thing. Heal All is AWESOME...........but the Gadgeteer can "cast" it too, so that point in moot. Really, Haste is the only effect that a Bard has that my Gadgeteer is jealous of. Now, take a look at the effects a Gadgeteer can cast again. Notice something? Yup, that's right. VARIETY! They have so many offensive effects from many Realms. You have a VERY powerful water effect in Tsunami. Two strong Fire effects in Prismic Ray and Boiling Blood. The oh-so-damn-powerful Earthquake from the Earth Realm. One decent Divine effect in Instant Death, which can Instant Kill an enemy in one shot. Two great Air effects are found in Asphyxiation and Noxious Fumes. Wait a second? Come again? ASPHYXIATION?!? You heard right. An "infinite" MASS-KILL spell........all at the cost of some measly Stamina. Talk about badass! I don't see the Bard with anything comprimable to these effects other than Nuclear Blast, which again isn't very powerful to begin with. :) Then we have the ever-useful buff effects. First off, the Superman effect. Ever use this spell before? At power-level 7, this effect can boost all of one character's stats by insane amounts, turning that character into......well......SUPERMAN! Guardian Angel and Eye for an Eye are 2 awesome defensive spells to have up as well. Guardian Angel can absorb some decent amounts of damage. Great for protecting your weaker spell casters or the Gadgeteer him/herself. Eye for an Eye can reflect spells back at their casters. Be careful, though--this gadget has a limited number of charges. Another neat aspect of the Gadgeteer is that he/she can merge Light Crossbows together to make a Doubleshot Crossbow. Merge another Light Crossbow with your newly made Doubleshot Crossbow to make the deadly Tripleshot Crossbow. You have to have 35 in Engineering to make the Doubleshot, and at least 75 to make the Tripleshot. These 2 weapons are great to have, especially if you also have a Ranger in your party. If you would like to know what each of the Gadgets you can make are, as well as how to make them and where you can find the parts, check out Jandrall's site. He has a listing of this information. Big THANKS to Quert and KinjoRyu for originally posting this information. :) You can find the post Jandrall archived here-- http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/jandrall/Wizardry8/Recipe1.htm After all this information, if you can still walk away and say that a Bard is more powerful (as a whole), there's simply no convincing you whatsoever. :) Now, i'm not knocking the Bard at all. They're a wonderful, WONDERFUL class to have around. However, IMO, the Bard peaks way too early and really starts to lack during the end game where his/her effects just aren't as poweful and useful as they once were. Read any rant that a Bard lover wrote and you'll most often read them say something along the lines of "My bard is great! She casts Heal-All all the time!". Again, the Gadgeteer can do that, too.......and then some......and then some.......and then some. Oh.......then some more with his/her awesome Omnigun as outlined above. :) There's just no matching the sheer versatility of the Gadgeteer. From casting Heal All on injured party members, to buffing them up with Superman, to wiping out an entire group of Rapax with Tsunami, to engaging in melee combat with the many different powerful weapons they can use, to being able to hold their ground due to the great armor they can use, to all the stat raising items they can use, to blinding, KOing, paralyzing, nauseating, insaning, sleeping, hexing, poisoning, draining HP, SP, Stamina, and even Instant Killing with their dreaded Omnigun. "Locked and Loaded!" :) --------------------------------- I hope you enjoyed my latest Spotlight on this awesome class. Hopefully it'll get more people to acknowledge the Gadgeteer class as a force to be reckoned with. It's true that they take a while to come into their own, but once they do--watch out!! Give the Gadgeteer a shot if you haven't before. I think you'll fall in love with them like I did. Anyways, enjoy. I'll eventually get around to Spotlighting the Lord class one of these days. There's just soooo much to the Lord class that I would like to cover, and I haven't found the desire to really put it all down on paper just yet. Hold tight, though. I'm sure i'll be able to get around to it sometime soon. And again--my sincere apologies to those of you who were eagerly awaiting it. Take care! Happy gaming! :) |
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