Artifacts should be account bound

I think that artifacts should be shared between characters. It already takes a while to level up 3 artifacts for dps and 3 artifacts for support for just one character. If someone, like me, has multiple characters it becomes very expensive to level them up. It could even help with the population with the people creating other characters, and these characters would be strong enough to actually run tiers compared to some characters that have zero artifacts.

Lol yeah. That’s why DCUO sucks for this. They don’t care, and most of us are all too stupid Bc we keep paying.

They aren’t going to partially demonetise artifacts. They look for new ways to get us spending money, not save it.

Either pony up, or accept that your alts are going to have weaker artifacts, and that it takes a long time to get them to 160 with free nth.

Well,

Artifacts are "supposed" to take a while to level up as you play through the content. Don't want to wait that long? There is the marketplace option of purchasing artifact upgrades. The Artifact XP events are highly cherished, as you can level your artifacts faster without paying any money. I use all three options to level up my artifacts and I end up not paying much money, if any (depending upon when the Artifact XP event is active).

Investing in Nth metal detectors from the Marketplace is another option; they don't cost much and you get more Nth metal drops when you use them. They are account bound, so you can store them in your shared bank for your alts to help them level up their artifacts. Buying them from the Broker is a waste of time and in-game money, because players charge too much for them.

If your main character's artifacts are at the level you want them to be, then perhaps you should consider sending some Nth metal to your alts that your main collects. That way, you can help your alts level up their artifacts.

I think you need to look at your artifacts on your main again; why do you need 6 when some of them offer more than one function?

At this point in time I do not see a reason to have artifacts account bound; with the upcoming game changes coming next month, it will be a bit easier to level up artifacts.

Lol I have 3 arts on my tank at 100, and I did the math…

WITH double XP, it’s going to cost me roughly $300 to get them to at least 180. Nothing in this game should cost that much considering this game is meant for the ps3

How? Are you not saving your nth metal, running the vault daily....etc.?

I have 6 Arts at 200, and spent very little(less than 100 maybe), and even then would not have spent that if not for the seals or the random metal out of the MP before I started hoarding.

I actually did the math and even made a guide on it in the forums. If you are patient than you can get enough nth to level 2 artifacts to 160 in the span on a single dlcs (1 artifact every 2 months). Nothing the in game is requiring you to spend money on artifacts. The issue is that most people don’t want wait so they want to get it right away and spend to do so. But then turn around and say that they were forced to upgrade artifacts to run content when no content has any requirements for artifact levels.

Yup. You can beat reg content with level 20 artifacts. Unless these guys are trying to run elite raids off the bat. There’s no reason to be rushing to max out their arts. Should just hoard XP until Double XP.

You can get nth metal from the broker, from vault, from stabilizer and every 5 minutes from adds. If you play at a regular level there is no way you need a single real world penny to rank up your artifacts xp, the only thing you'll need to spend money on is seals. If you think the pace isn't good for you buy nth metal caches from the broker, the value for a 100 stack is pretty fair.

And... rank 200 artifacts aren't needed for anything besides SM, you don't need more than 160 to beat every content in the game.

1.) if you do it the natural way it’ll take forever.
2.) they do this for a reason. Money.
3.) 200 level arts aren’t just for SM. if you play elite regularly especially for feats, they absolutely are.

Which only really comes around bi-annually at this point.

I really don't understand why they would create so many systems that discourage alts and build diversity. The grind forces players into a narrow set of choices. Even Augments are a choice precision or might. And, don't switch power sets out of your role or it's a new support role grind. I'm sure it's all fine for veterans, but this has to be killing off new players.

I came back (quit 2016) casually about 3 months ago and started with a couple pre-30 characters to see what's new. I was trying the level artifacts & augments on 4 characters. By the time got my main to 140 on 1 artifact the whole system had reminded me what a waste of time this game actually can be.

How long is forever? If you actually do the math than doing it smartly it would take 2 months with minimum effort to get enough exp to get to 160. Most dlcs last about 4 months-ish. So in a single dlcs life span you’ll have enough to get 2 artifacts to 160. With the new source mark changes coming this will be even more true since you will be able to grind to get catalyst faster.

The game gives you all the tools to get what you need in game. The game and devs aren’t making you spend money to level artifacts. You are

Unfortunately that's role dependent. As a Buff Troll you need Claw of Aelkhund, Amulet of Rao, and Tetrahedron (and/or cog), none of which are ideal DPS arts, and only the tetra is a DPS artifact at all. While many tanks can use Eye of Gemini, they're also going to want Manacles of Force and Mystic Symbol of the Seven, which do nada for DPS. The list goes on with Purple Healing Ray, Page of Destiny, Parasite's Power Harness, Everyman Prototype, and many more. Likewise, your healer isn't getting anything from Solar Amplifier, or Source Shard.

There are certainly some builds and powersets that lend themselves to dual uses on Transformation and Strategist (for example) but even then you usually need one role-specific artifact for each side, giving you a reasonable minimum of 4, and for most 5, with some at 6 (or even 7 with aforementioned tetra & cog Buff Troll) just to build both roles.

Some of this, perhaps, makes a case for account bound artifacts. Mostly, I think people would just be looking at Amulet of Rao, and starting a healer like, "well, guess I need different artifacts anyway."

I think it's reasonable to consider the cost of a 160 to be $7, in the form of seals. Maybe like $9 with weirdly poor luck. My 200 arts have cost me around $17-19 each, with seals of completion at 160/180/200 and a few preservations lost along the way.

While you can technically do it for free you start to lose a lot of catalysts at 140+ and you may literally never breakthrough to 200. ObsidianChill has a video showing this in action.

From your own guide:

This is highly disingenuous. Almost having enough and having enough are not the same, and last I checked Double Nth events don't happen every 2 months. Without membership you're not even close. Within your guide you also "Guesstimate" a "point of relevancy" for Nth metal drops, your words. I'm sorry to inform you, but that's not math.

In order to do the math you claim you have two options; 1) you can use minimum values, considering drops of 70 xp, or 2) you can time your play and collections for months and then do an average value once you have a substantial sample size. Also not math: doing an instance without noting how many drops occur within the time of running, and then considering progressively shorter times as the DLC goes on and players gear up. RW reg takes my groups around 8-9 minutes, so you might get a second nth drop, but might not. At the beginning of the dlc it was much closer to 15 minutes, so 2 drops were guaranteed, but 3 was a possibility.

So, as you can see things like "doing the duo and alert" aren't mathematically usable measurements. "Minimum effort", and "doing it smartly" are also meaningless.

Anyway, if YOU actually do the math, let us know.

(PS I have spent very little as I mentioned and I have 8x 200s and over 15x 160s, so I have some clue as to what I'm talking about)
(PPS I'm not trying to offend, I think you're a good guy and very helpful to many people on these forums, but you bring out this highly flawed guide a lot and it's not your best work.)

I feel the need to point something out. This game is not "meant for the PS3". It came out on PC first. The console ports for Xbox and Playstation consoles came later. And it's been discontinued on PS3. So how is DCUO "meant for the PS3" again?

That’s why I chose my words carefully and said you would have enough nth, and not you can get an artifact to. You are right and double nth exp doesn’t happen every 2 months but they can be guesstimated with some accuracy. They do tend to happen about 2 weeks before each dlc which I also mentioned that it isn’t guaranteed. That’s the reason I used measure of the length of a dlc to have the nth required to level an artifact to 160.

Also, the minimum parameters I laid out for players is a pretty safe estimate too. Just doing the vault, stabilizer, daily missions, duo, and alert is a pretty save benchmark even if it is a guesstimate as well. Most players would end up doing the raids at some point during the week as well as the open world weeklies. Most players will also do other random actions throughout the week. It is a pretty safe bet that most players can reach those minimum numbers I laid out.

As for if I’m willing to do the real math. That’s something that is tricky to do because of the randomness of the type of nth you get. There isn’t a way to determine the minimum since a person would need to have atrocious luck to even come close to the very minimum nth drops. But on the opposite side of the coin flip someone would need godly levels of luck to get the maximum rolls on nth drops.

It released for both pc and ps3 at the same time. Xbox was much later. And what I meant by it’s meant for the ps3 is Bc it still utilizes the unreal 3 engine. Know your facts bud.

Other imaginable ideas, why not be able to clone an artefact once it has reached level 200? And then make it an artefact attributable to another character?

I had some rerolls, but since the artifact system I've cut out some of my rerolls I only play 2 characters because artifacts made the game unpleasant and practically made the game anti-reroll...

While obviously EVERY player would benefit from this including myself, for other reasons, I wouldn't support this. However, I DO think we should at least be able to salvage an artifact into an nth metal containing 50% of the XP and that THAT should be account bound so that we can utilize XP from artifacts we no longer want to use on one character but have artifact needs on another character.

One detail that has been grossly overlooked about the new membership benefits is that nth metal drops will be increasing by 50%. So that's at least something.

I've only paid for seals and then two of my ten 200 arts I paid to get from 160 to 200 and one I paid to get from 180 to 200. There was also the VWD granted increase from 160 to 200 because of the nerf. The rest was all slow grind (including lots of detectors bought off the broker and utilizing double XP events).