Why treat your players this way?

NA PS4. As populated as you can get. And I don't play often enough for people to have me on ignore.

My annoyance isn't that it's hard to get in. My annoyance is that yet again the forums exaggerate how "easy" it is, just like they exaggerate how fast runs used to be (before monthly content made it all that fast).

Why apply logic when whining and complaining is apparently more emotionally satisfying?

Because they want your money. Period. Buy seals. This game is P2W.

Pretty single minded don't you think? Considering that you don't have to spend a single buck to get an artifact to 100...

Then ofcourse it is so easy to call something P2W and be done with it, isn't it?

idc. No point complaining about something they wont change. If changes dont bring in money, they wont happen. Just think this is such a non-problem. Other things to be concerned about.

I agree that there are more important things are out there. However the argument on being pay to win is imo misplaced here. There is no need to pay anything. And by paying you don't really win that much. You don't have any advantage over ppl who don't pay since all the items you need for artifacts can be bought for ingame currency

At the end of the day you dont win. Eventually the game shuts down and all your investments in your characters will be gone. Just be happy there are seals to protect the catalysts. I've played games with a similar mechanic. But instead of losing the parts you'd lose the whole artifact.

Plus it tells you the odds of success, RNG is gambling. Feeling lucky?

You need to think about this from the dev's point of view. They don't add anything unless there is money to be made. Breakthrough is purposely made not be 100% chance. So you buy the seals. Hence money.

consider that other then DLC, you can actually get everything for free... this game is not a very good example for P2W..

let's take Time Capsule for example, everyone's favorite P2W example... you can open it for free... i open mine for free.. they didnt lock Time Capsule content behind a pay wall.. same thing with artifact material, you can get everything for free.. they never force you to pay a peny for it....

not to mention, artifact dont add enough bonus to even call a must have.. you can play the game perfectly without an extra 3% of might..

Artifact to 100 for free!? How do you get the required catalysts without owning DLC, having legendary, or having access to escrow? It is true that you don't need artifacts to be successful though (*up to this point, at least.)

Of course they don't force you to pay for anything but when they rig the system so hard against those who don't spend money then its an issue. This is even more so when they have the platform to do it (Marketplace) but instead stuff them in Time Capsules because it will make them more money. Not because of any gameplay reasons or technical reasons its simply done that way to make money. Pure greed at its finest.

That's the problem tho. The slightest bit of bad luck and suddenly it's the system that's rigged by the greedy corporate devs....

I am lazy and just buy the catalyst and preservation.

It is ture that you don't need them to be competitive. They are helpful, nothing more.

And now let's be real here for a moment. Just because something needs a DLC or a Sub does not mean it is pay to win. The subscription is the intended MMO model. You are free to play the way you want. But if your way contradicts with the developers designs then it is badically on you.

I personally have no problem with the monthly sub system.

And basically yes, you can get the artifact to 100 unless the catalyst itself says "DLC XY needed". Otherwise you can just trade to get stuff. I knew premiums who saved rare items and who let friends sell them. With this money they bought themselves new stuff. I myself had a "bank toon" who sold stuff for a premium player. So it is doable.

I have spent money with DC; DLC, MP, and Legendary purchases. Premium implies money spent. Realistically, the best bet is to be Legendary and use your 500 loyalties to buy the Seals from the Loyalty Vendor. If one were to have leaguemates that were willing to give you the materials, so be it. That scenario may not be likely for many.

Wasn't what I said. You just need someone who takes care of selling your expansive stuff when you are premium and buys stuff with that money for you.

A funny little thing that a LOT of people are forgetting when it comes to these artifacts. In everybody's mad rush to get their artifacts to 100, they forget that the same artifact does not stack. If someone in the group is rocking a level 80+ DPS artifact, the whole group gets the benefits meant for the group (read the descriptions on your artifacts). Mepps and Avair told us that the highest artifact in a group wins. So in a group with 4-5 DPSes, if one person has an 80+ plus artifact, all the other lower artifacts are rendered useless to the rest of the group. Sure, there's still the personal bonus...but let's be real here folks...that little personal bonus is not making or breaking anyone...EVER!!!

All that to say that everyone needs to take a horse sized chill-pill. Artifacts were meant to be a nice little side project to work on casually over a certain period, while providing paid for shortcuts/accelerators in the Marketplace at a price. While it's true that the Devs will take all buffs and whatnot into account when creating content, nothing in this game is ever made challenging enough for people to desperately break their necks trying to min-max at ludicrous speed (outside of survival mode....which has not seen the light of day yet, so arguments null and void). If you can't get your Artifact to rank 60-80-100 right now, keep working at it....you'll get there eventually and you won't notice some kind of earth shattering difference...and you'll see that this noise about breakthrough failure is a bunch of inconsequential nonsense. It really is.

Don't get me wrong there are things going on in this game that I personally consider play 2 win...

1. Advance to CR 100 with 60 SP (you did absolutely nothing to earn). The original idea behind this to allow long time players with numerous alts a way to skip some lower tier content and get closer to end game was OKAY but then they opened it to ANYONE so a brand new player creates a character and not only doesn't run the tiny bit of a tutorial provided on the Brainiac ship but arrives at Safe House with a complete set of armor to get them to CR 100. Still have not even stepped outside and looked around at Gotham or Metropolis (depending on Mentor) but already able to walk into Gotham Under Siege?

2. Time Capsules that allow a player to use their credit card to grab a complete set of armor exactly 1 combat rating less than what is available for purchase from the vendor. This fiasco began back with Amazon Fury 3 and allowed players to be at practically the highest Cr available within 1 day of the DLC arriving.

3. Holiday Cash purchases on the Market. Why even bother to run ANY of the holiday events when you can just go buy enough holiday cash to purchase everything the holiday event has to offer.... And can even go back a few years and buy furniture and styles and grab even more feat points for content you may not have even been an active member and had ANY access to when they were live.

Now notice anything? every example i just gave you either allows a player to gave combat rating, feats and even skill points without actually running a single mission. Basically you hand them money and they hand you stuff that makes you stronger and gets you into higher tier content.

Explain to me how going to the Market and buying a protective seal (the only way to get one other than that freebie Constantine gave you at the end of the tutorial) advances anyone's CR or SP? All the seal does is allows a player to attempt a break through without the FEAR of losing all those catalysts they may have spent weeks running missions to earn. Now is it a new way for Daybreak to make some added cash? Of course it is. But the price, even when not on sale like RIGHT NEW, is not that high and personally I'd rather shell out a dollar or two and protect all those catalysts I EARNED doing the duos, alerts and raids.

The cold hard fact is the artifact does nothing but enhance a couple of stats.. and at level 80 can provide a buff to any team you are on. It may make you a bit more effective on missions but I don't care id a MONTH from now you have TWO artifacts at level 100 slotted unless you are CR 166 or higher you can not take your alt into Typhon's Monster Invasion Zone. If you are at CR 206 and still have only 61 SP you are not going to anywhere near as capable on a team than a CR 188 with 250 SP. I'm sorry but buying a protective seal is NOT P2W.. at the very worst it might be considered Pay to be a tad bit better. And YES I have taken advantage of both the Black Friday and the Winter 75% off sales and have over 20 protective seals available. Funny thing.... My CR 150 ALT still can't hop into the war Torn zone or the Riddled with Crime Amusement Mile zone and run missions. Heck can't even visit Tyuphon's zone YET. So aside from some peace of mind that all those catalysts i earned won't vanish in a heart beat exactly what did I WIN ?

Seal 4 pack in Loyalty vendor is sellable. Just made almost a mil on one. 200 loyalties will net you approximately 3.5 mil. Lol. Not the motherload but easy money.

I had a seal, but one of my leaguemates used it and it didn't save anything! So that was my reasoning there. right or wrong, that's the reason for that.

As others have mentioned, this is common in an mmo. Not a DCU basher, just call it like it is, and this instance is nothing bash worthy imo. Many mmo does this.