Feedback on WotC's Artificer option for Wizard?

[Nightblade]

I had a character concept for an Artificer and figured that Wizards would've put out a splatbook by now, but found the UA article. My feeling is that the class looks more like a crafting wizard than a true artificer and that an Artificer should be his own base class or at least grouped with Alchemist/Runesmith, an idea that a custom class had.

[WickerNipple]

My feeling is that the class looks more like a crafting wizard than a true artificer....

That is a lot more generous than most of the things I've heard said about that UA subclass.

[JackPhoenix]

The artificer still needs a good amount of work, so that one will go back to the drawing board. I think the class needs a more unique, evocative feature that does a better job of capturing a character who crafts and uses custom items. We played it too conservatively in our initial design.

I think we may get a different Artificier with Eberron material, maybe even as it's own class instead of arcane tradition, because it was one of 3 most wanted classes according to the june survey results. (And alchemist, another of the 3, sounds more like artificer subclass then something worthy of its own class like in Pathfinder IMO)

[Nightblade]

Artificer just really feels like it lacks oomph. I disagree about Alchemist though. I'm very fond of Pathfinder's alchemist. Also, I'd hate to see either true artificer or alchemist hamstrung by the inherent nature of the class path, unless it deviates as much as Fighter.

[JackPhoenix]

As I see it, both classes have the same concept, to quote Mearls "a character who crafts and uses custom items." In that context, Artificier is the general class, and Alchemist is specialised on a subset of "custom items", in this case potions, elixirs and (if we go with PF) bombs, not different enough to warrant its own class (and Mearls said he was surprised by the number of respondents interested in Alchemist, as it never was a class in D&D). I can imagine some sort of homunculus master as other possible subclass for Artificer, very different from the Alchemist (who may be focused more on healing, buffing and using grenade-like weapons, maybe?) and something like Renegade Mastermaker to turn himself into a fantasy cyborg. 3.5e Artificer had Eberron Prc Alchemist Savant, and ability to craft homunculi in the base class, so there's a precedent for both. I haven't played 4e version, so I'm not sure what was artificer's schtick there.

[SharkForce]

2nd AD&D had an alchemist in one of the later books iirc.

i think it was pretty much just a specialist wizard using a different set of schools, plus it learned how to make a few potions automatically.

edit: actually, come to think of it... i think there was an artificer in the same book that looked almost exactly like the 5e artificer they put up on UA.

is it possible that WotC just had an epic fail and someone converted the 2nd edition specialist wizard artificer instead of the 3.5 eberron artificer?