I was really excited about the armourer subclass but other than being able to disregard strength requirements for heavy armour it just seems really boring compared to the other artificer subclasses. However, I used to think that the alchemist was similarly dull until last week when I put together a yuan-ti alchemist for a one shot and realised that a level 5 alchemist paired with the elemental adept feat (I chose acid) can make your spells really powerful. Also, for a one shot being able to max out on tool proficiencies was amazing. If you combine artificer tool proficiencies with those you get from certain backgrounds you can be like a walking Swiss Army knife.
So I think the thing with all the artificer subclasses is that they’re all going to be heavily reliant on attuned items and infusions, such that all the subclasses really do seem a little weak until you remember that they have can take a shitty starting sword or crossbow and have a +1 magic weapons at level 2 as a base class ability. It’s sort of like how a lot of the wizard subclass features seem kind of meh because the real wizard feature is “I have all the spells”. Armorer isn’t totally my thing, but it does grant some good stuff. I think I unsurprisingly prefer the artificer subclasses that seem more focused on support, so alchemist and battle smith (and especially battle smith, which seems to really strike the balance)
With that said, alchemical savant + elemental adept for acid + just casting melf’s acid arrow all the time does sound pretty great.
