The long and demoralizing upgrade system for artefacts and others?

Hi, I felt like jumping on DCUO again, but when I see the artifacts and other similar elements being upgraded, it demoralizes me right away, especially when you have the idea of doing a role other than your usual one or according to the secondary role you have chosen.

Do you also get tired of DCUO with the artifact (and other) upgrade system?

With out seals it goes like this...
Catalyst green catalyst blue catalyst violet.
Unsuccesful Breathrough.
Grind grind grind.
Repeat.

In all honesty, I annoyed me a bit that I had pretty much got all my artifacts either maxed or in a few cases the highest level before a big dropoff in benefit..only for this sudden trend of high desirability for buff trolls to spring out of nowhere. Six months ago if you tried to buff troll your group would like “start throwing power or get kicked. Now people be spamming for them in LFG like they’re tanks, lol. I was all comfy in cruise control just throwing alittke nth in top for a wee bit of extra stats but ultimately not even worrying or thinking much about artifacts. Now I suddenly have 2-3 arts to level from scratch. MFer!!!

What do you mean by buff troll and throwing powers? I've been away too long, the only thing I can think of are debuffs. Or do you mean a might based battle troll?

Buff troll = troll whos artifacts an powers r focused on buffing the group (an prob debuffing the enemy since BOP artifact can do all debuffs w/one ability)
Throwing powers means being a traditional troll that gives power an keeps the group powered (still best troll IMO because power is nescessary And u can still debuff just fine and buff to a degree.
I see no reason personally to not be a proper troll.

Buff trolls an battle trolls just arent as beneficial to a group IMO.

I love this game. That said, the artifact upgrade system with the percentage failure rate has made me want to quit. Every single time I go to upgrade anything I grit my teeth and grumble and when it fails I walk away from the game for the rest of the day. Or the rest of the week. Eventually, it will be forever if the system remains in place and I continue to want to upgrade stuff.

I don't mind the grind of getting the catalysts and stuff. It's the failures that make me feel like quitting. Even with seals - which you have to buy, which grates all the more - the failures are stressful and annoying and take away the desire to play the game. I'm to the point now that I don't even want to bother at all any more. Just delete the nth metal and stick to casual play, I guess. Or quit the game, despite loving it. Between the feats stuck in time capsules and the failure rate on artifacts and other things, it's *almost* enough to make me walk away.

I've said it afore, I'll say it agin. my one & only "big" problem with this game is the breakthrough system. I like my artifacts. I like the choices they offer. but there should either be no failures, at all, on breakthroughs, or seals should drop freely in game - preservations fairly commonly from all content, completions rare from raids only. non-tradable, of course. I understand that the game has to make money, & I'm more than happy to contribute ( & I do ), & I don't know what the alternative is, but the breakthrough system stinks.

on my main, I got three at 160. that's it. I'm not knocking meself out getting them any higher. for me alts, 120, maybe 140, & that's gonna be it. as far as feats in artifacts, I just don't care, anymore. I'm not getting them feats, just like I'm not getting all the pvp & lpve feats. it is what it is. contrary to what some people may have you believe, you don't need to be maxed out super beastie with eighty gajillion sp to enjoy playing this game.

On this point, I fully agree, when you put all the elements together it is sometimes long on its own, but this percentage of success is probably the most odious idea of this system.
It also happens that I let go of the game when I fail, because it gives me more taste to play when you've taken so long to put all the elements together so that all your efforts are destroyed in a fraction of a second, probably the most infamous idea of this system...

There it is. That's the problem in a nutshell. You grind and grind and grind to get catalysts, then they are *poof* gone in a moment unless you pay to keep them safe - and then you lose the money you paid. It's like your efforts are worthless unless you also throw in dollars, which are mostly wasted with nothing to show for it. The reward is not great enough for the effort and money invested.

As Irvynnge said, it wouldn't be nearly as bad if the seals actually dropped in content - then it would just be more grind. Still very annoying, but not as bad.

Best would be to not have the failures at all, since people grind so hard just to get the catalysts as it is.

The breakthrough failures are one of two things I absolutely hate about this game - and while it's not quite enough to drive me away completely, it has been enough to make me stop spending money on it and to consider walking away.

The upgrading of artifacts that system will not get any easier just yet. Wait for them to talk about gear ranking or some other new progression system. My money is on them announcing gear ranking very soon. Because we are all sick and tired of end game and there should have never been an end game to the game. We want to enjoy all the content dcuo has and we want gear progression for doing so. We are very sick of playing the same ep over and over the same alert the same raid the same old same old.

“Throw power” meant power heal. If a buff troll is running the claw then they don’t even have a power heal, just a buffed PoT. Even if they’re not running claw but are runng Cog, and or Tetra, they’re vit takes a pretty solid hit weakening their power heals. Though most healers by now have replaced the Orb with the Page or Ray which significantly reduces their power consumption, so it’s more feasible now.

IMO it’s better to just look at it like every breakthrough from 140-200 costs $5. Don’t get me wrong, I have a big issue with that when there isn’t any way to grind for the seals. But for me personally, I’ll take the feeling of disagreeing with and being highly critical of the catalyst system and being essentially forced to pay money over the rollercoaster feeling of repeatedly building hope and instantly getting it torn down on rapid fire.

I also have a traditional troll he's very powerful and I make sure to power dump and debuff and stun adds etc . However for those powerful groups who can manage there own power I do have a build for buffing .

The other day me and a group of friends ran a raid and one of my friends was the regular troll and I was the Buff troll lol because I have a build for it. We had allot of fun good times
So I believe with the right groups A Buff troll with a strong powerful group is Lethal .

Good youre right where they want you. Create a problem, to sell you the solution.

Wow ok...I actually kind of like this... Makes the troll very versatile at support. You can provide the group with whatever they want, if they need/want either the traditional debuffs/powers build or buffs. Having the time/cash to be flexible and get all the required equipment to switch to either build style is a different story! lol

Renewed my sub yesterday. Why I don't sub up for longer periods of time I don't know but when the time comes I get a 25 dollars psn card, sub for a month and treat myself to ten dollars worth of marketplace goodies.

I must have about 8 or 9 artifacts scattered among my alts all waiting breakthroughs from level 99 to 139. I considered getting two seals of completion to help them along and then decided against it. Its just too expensive to maintain your artifacts. Since they've been introduced i have gotten lucky with chances Ive taken. I have had 140 and 160 breakthroughs on the first try without seals of preservation, some only used two or three...but I've also wasted dozens of seals of preservation doing the same thing. Factor in our episode augments which also requires seals and have a low chance of success...

As far as trolling goes calling yourself a "buff troll" is kind of redundant. As a troll you're supposed to debuff the hell out of everything while provided power to your team. I run with the power harness, the amulet of rao and the cloak at 140,140 and 160 respectively and have never had any issues. If someone is constantly at less than half power in a group i'm in is because they're either spam crazy healers or dont have enough skill points to come close to maxxing out might/power. This extends to all my controllers, even my weakest one with some 250 skill points and just basic vendor gear.

In a way you can probably blame game development for that, the increased frequency of damage checking has inevtiably lead to a desire to increase damage output by as many means available, resulting in trolls being used to buff rather than focus on more pure power output.

I still don't understand why the breakthrough system has to be so punishing. There are games that have probability breakthroughs in them, but they are successful because you can still do it again by achieving the items again IN GAME. The fact that seals are required at high levels is just absolutely disheartening.

Don't get me started on how catalysts work. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY?! And why can't the catalysts drop in game and for purchase from a vendor? For that matter, why do Adaptive Augments require a breakthrough system in the first place?

The reason is of course simple, money. I agree though there should be a more reasonable pathway in game.