So as a returning player there aren't really in detail guides on YouTube about artifacts. How do you go about leveling the casual way and the whale way. I may prefer the whale way to avoid grinding. So if anyone could explain in the most simplistic form that'll be great or link me to a guide on here.
https://www.dcuosourcewall.com/guides/artifact-level-guide-2020 If you need specifics on what artifacts to invest in:
I’ll tell you something I wish anyone would have told me at first. If you’re not going to constantly run elite content, avoid the “whale” way.
I whaled on six 200 leveled artifacts before realizing that I don’t particularly find elite content to be fun and 200 leveled artifacts make regular content way too easy. After both of those realizations, I slammed myself because I didn’t need to spend all that money. So I suggest either buy artifact packs and mostly do elite content; or save your money and do whatever content you can do while grinding up your artifacts.
Alts are the answer. My main is maxed out with like 10 200 arts. Elites are fun for a bit but sometimes you just want to play and relax. So both alts artifacts are all around 120 to 140 and if I want a real challenge, I take them into elite or just have fun in regular stuff and they're plenty capable
Ain’t that the truth. My alt opened my eyes. He’s an atomic tank. I leveled him up to 155 from scratch. He has the manacles of force at 80 and that’s the only artifact he has. The other two slots are blank. He can solo survive the legion open world bosses really well. I have the most fun playing with him and I haven’t spent a dime on him yet.
The only thing you really have to buy are seals of preservation and completion, and even then if you're patient you could use your monthly membership reward to purchase those. If I could do things over again with artifacts I would only buy seals and perfected nth metal during sales, earn catalysts in game through grinding source marks or buying from the broker, and level my arts normally from 0-120 and then save nth metal for double xp weeks to get then from 120-200. As others have said 120 is fine for pretty much everything. Obviously you'd do better with higher arts but the only content I'd feel 120 is kinda low is CTE, FGSE, and COUE.
The Whale way is buying perfected catalysts out the MP. For 3 slots, that's 900$. The grindy way is buying detectors out of the broker and play the game. It take 20 hours per stack. Take 25 stacks for one artifact to 200. 2 if you only level on double exp weekend. Either way. You need to buy seals. At level 139 you need the gold seals. That's 4 per artifact. At the very least that's 54$. If you use loyalty points, that's another year wait. Can only buy one per month on that. If you want to max out both roles, just double what I said. We not going to even talk about switching artifacts out in combat. GL
If you got money like that. Whaling is the best “I need it now” option. As said before. I’d only recommend it if you have a lot of money to blow because artifacts are mad expensive. If you wanna get it by grinding the game. Nth metal detectors are your friend, same as using loyalty points on seals. This method would take a while so unless you’re really patient. Buying seals allow you to level your artifacts once you reach breakthrough status but have no patience to wait a month for the next batch of loyalty points.
