Test Discussion Episode 34: Philosopher's Stone - Artifact

This page is for testing the Philosopher's Stone artifact. Please post any feedback here.

Thank you!

-UPDATE 3/19-

Coming soon(ish), the following changes are being made for this artifact:

• Compiled rank 120 breakthrough into rank 80 (increased field size and 0 power cost will now be rank 80)
• New rank 120:
  • Flat Cooldown reduction
  • Cooldown reduction for every cast artifact holder does during 0 power cost window (only works on person holding artifact that used the supply drop)

-KNOWN ISSUES-

• Rank 80 still gets power regen from supply drops (Fixed for future build)
• Power 0 cost not working in certain zones (Fix in progress, will be available later this week)

I can’t get on test anytime soon but I’m wondering does the person in group with this artifact benefits from the o power cost for the 8 secs or the whole group ?

- From Obsidian

The buff should affect everyone in group that gets the buff.

Thank you for video, I will look into why the supply drop isn't stopping power consumption.

I am having issues replicating this bug locally. Can you please give me the following information:

• What supply drop rank is it? (visually, I would think max rank)
• Are the generator batteries fully charged?
• What supply drop item is being used?

Also, the way supply drop currently works on live, there is about a 2.5 second delay from when you cast supply drop and you get the buff. With the artifact, you should know when the buff is active by the little fire ring under your feet. So if you start casting the second the supply drop is used, you won't be getting any effect until after the 2.5 seconds.

Bug Report
The "0 power cost" aspect of the Philosopher's Stone is not working for me in certain areas. Here is a demonstration in Chaos Gotham:


Supply Drop is at max rank.
All Generator cells are at 53%.
I'm using the Supply Drop Uplink Device.

Am i the only one seeing the Problem of the Artifact being Extremely weak compared to others?
The effect itself is way too weak in my opinion (except the increased range wich is good but not needed).

I think it would be more interesting to get the Unlimited power buff exchanged by something else because, lets face it... Unlimited power for 8 seconds every 3 minutes is defeniteley not worth any artifact Slot for any role.

Or am i missing something? If so, please let me know...

I'd rather it be like Power Efficiency but stronger. So say:

Rank 80:
- Reduces power costs by 5%
- Supply drop reduces power costs by 50% for the full duration

Rank 120:
- Reduces power costs by 10%
- Supply drop reduces power costs by 75% for the full duration

Rank 160:
- Reduces power costs by 15%
- Supply drop reduces power costs by 100% for the full duration and shields those standing inside of the field for up to 30% of the user's health.

Everyone runs into a supply drop by default so increasing the range of it isn't a useful benefit.

Reduce Supply Drop's cooldown by 10% or 15% at rank 160.

So I wanted to test Philosopher's Stone in conjunction with Dead King's Scepter. I don't believe that the supply drop is getting the reduction in cooldown from 160 DKS. Sorry not the proper place to report.

I think the 200% size change is still rather small as visually it looks smaller than the 160 Eye of Gemini. Most people are not going to give up their 160 Eye of Gemini for this artifact because they can use Eye much more frequently than they can the supply drop. So you may need to do a much greater reduction on the supply drop cool down. Just trying to figure out how to make this artifact more sexy.

Even when the Philospher's Stone is working correctly, I'm not seeing much of a reason to slot it. Other artifacts provide more valuable and tangible benefits. Also, I generally value a full power heal more highly than having a few seconds of free power casting. No loadout I use can deplete my Power bar within a few seconds. I generally use Supply Drop to enhance my Supercharge damage or to help refill the Power bar for a Controller/Healer.

It would be nice if there was an effect that let you know when the free power casting kicking in. I know there is a small lag between summoning the Supply Drop and when free casting kicks in.

There should be a little ring of fire that spawns under your feet (not the large alchemy circle), this is the FX to indicate you have the buff.

Some changes and bug fixes will be coming to this artifact based on feedback later this week. I will go into further specifics once the changes are ready to roll out.

Now that I can post until these changes roll out pointless to leave my feedback but I can tell you that if one of the following 2 things aren't added as at least a Rank 160 bonus the artifact will continue to be passed over

• Supply Drop Cooldown Reduction
• Passive Power Cost Reduction

Right now having access or a supply drop itself is not worth it enough for any role besides that of a Healer to sub one of the other artifacts in, there aren't even DPS who use the Dead King Sceptre for this same reason. Tanks and even Controllers don't have a use for it and it is only because Healers don't have a true 3rd artifact that they would consider it. No DPS (besides maybe Mental) Tanks or Controllers can drain their power bar in 8 seconds, logistically it's not possible so that only leaves Healers and there aren't many moments in raids that require 8 seconds of unlimited power spam heals. Also Healers know that the next round of artifacts there will be a healer one so to invest 700k XP into an artifact for a couple months is not worth it for them either.

rather disappointed quite frankly, when the artifact description was mentioned to say unlimited casting for 8 seconds in the livestream, i thought it meant timer cool downs XD. unfortunately for me as a super power tree user the unlimited power spamming is rather useless and far inferior to having lessened or non-existent ability timers for that 8 seconds, especially since i do have to wait for the powers to become available to use again either way.

I agree, as an Electric healer, the only power I can really spam constantly is Bioelectric Surge, I can spam that all day long and never lose much power. 8 sec no power use is useless to me as a healer, so this one is a no for me.

Updated original post with upcoming changes to this artifact.

Just to clarify:

Is the cooldown reduction a reference to Supply Drop or is that a power cooldown reduction? I imagine it will be for Supply Drop. Any details on what kind of reduction percentages will be provided in the new version?

VERY interesting update.