Test Discussion Episode 40: Artifacts - Circe's Mask

If a dev can confirm there is a cooldown until the art can be used again then that must be included in the tool tip for sure. Try it out on celestial. Reason being is because Hardlight Shield has a long cooldown and so does Density so it's harder to notice but powers such as celestial DMcB doesn't trigger it due to its short cooldown of the shield ending. This can pose a problem in instances where adds or even bosses can eat through shields especially in dps role. If I were to pop one shield then wait a second or two and pop hardlight shield all while fighting a strong enemy and it destroys both shields instantly I believe you will only see one animation go off. Perhaps this is intended as to not exploit how long the artifact can stay activated.

I tested out Dustoff as it says it's a shield. It takes around 12 seconds once you activate the supercharge for the artifact to take affect.
If Amazonium Deflection says its a shield just like Dustoff then it too should activate the art but as of now it doesn't and we request if that can happen or at least insight in some powers not working with the art. As I continued to test the artifact I noticed something about it. The effect at rank 200 last 6 seconds yet shields cooldown is beyond the 6 seconds duration of the art. Therefor spamming a shield back to back that have short cooldowns aren't going to trigger it such as DMcB. Despite this finding enemies can destroy your shields in harder content. If you where to have two shields in your loadout and activate them together and they both get recked instantly you will not get a double duration and you will only see one animation of the artifact go off.

Thanks for the feedback, I've noted the issues and will begin investigating them.

Just came back from test server and came across some interesting findings.

DPS ROLE & A HEALER POWERSET
-Orb of Arion is more beneficial than Circe Mask but this only applies to healer powersets as they can benefit from Orb of Arion in dps role.
-Both Circe Mask and Orb of Arion are ranked 200 when I tested them out and the priority heal from Electric buffed by the 30% of Circe Mask is underperforming compared to Orb of Arion plus you don't have to use power to get heals.
-Group Transducer is a supercharge shield. I tested this out in 4 man alert and the animation only appeared on me

My thoughts: The whole artifact not working on other players when a group shield expires on the players poses a serious look in that matter. In solo content Orb of Arion outperforms the heals from Circe Mask 30% increase healing. Has anyone else compared the two artifacts as well as group shields?

Wait, what? The artifact isn't anything like orb/ isn't supposed to be anything like orb. Isn't even meant for healers just like orb isn't meant for tanks. Aside from that, your restoration stat increases when your shield expires using this arti. It doesn't actually heal you. If your powerset has a heal that follows your shield, it would (should) be 30% stronger at rank 200.

Unless I'm just not following what you're trying to do? It isn't meant to shield your group either since it isn't a shield arti, just a shield related one that is meant for the tanks themselves. Like I'm guessing the atomic supercharge shield can proc this artis effect but not every players resto would increase the 30%. And not sure why it would need to other than granting a healer god mode every time

The tool tip on Circe Mask doesn't say our restoration is increased by 30% only that our increased healing. I tested each one to see the difference regardless. Lets start with Circe Mask

Circe Mask
-Activate a shield (requires power), wait for it to expire or be destroyed then your increased healing now 30% stronger (activate a healing power, requires power)
-Last 6 seconds

Orb of Arion
-Last 12 seconds
-Requires one power to activate

Lets look at the numbers I got with just Circe Mask using BioElectrical Surge

1. 9985
2. 10137
3. 9952
4. 10373

and now with the 30% increased healing from the artifact

1. 13276
2. 13248
3. 13338

I switched the art with Orb and waited for my health to drop. One single activation of my priority heal (bioelectrical surge) and my heal was 29k easily... then the spectral comes out and heals each time around 18k

This is where I see the difference in how effective your heals can be mind you thought its only possible if your powerset is a healer. I'm working on a video it'll be much easier to understand. Basically I'll waste more power trying to spam my heal to get to full health with the added 30% increased whereas one heal using orb of arion will do the job and then free heals from spectral which again are stronger than one activation of a circe mask buff.

From my understanding I thought the increased in healing was to anyone who has a shield and it expires but if it only works on the player who has the artifact equipped then I guess I was wrong in that understanding.

Circe's Mask is supposed to only heal the person holding it. It's an innate heal artifact for tanks, not a group heal artifact for healers.

That’s how the rest of us understood it. Were you trying to see if this tank artifact would be a viable replacement for the orb?

Ah I see well that's what I get for thinking outside the box. Yes the artifact is intended for tanks but any powerset can use a shield thus making this artifact available to them to use and since leeching attacks won't work with Circe Mask the art itself only really benefits fewer tanks such as Fire and Atomic. I know you can't use Orb as a tank but I was speaking in dps role.

Circe Mask can be used by any powerset and role, Orb can only be used by a healer powerset that can use a priority heal. I just think it's underperforming compared to orb. As I said other tank powersets might find it more useful such as fire and atomic but there's more tank powers. I mean is it intended for a dps to get that strong of a heal using the orb? Ice has a lot of shields I think only one healing power and that's Hibernation. If I'm thinking of this correctly, the dps with orb equipped has better heals than a ice tank with Circe Mask.

Here's a video showing the difference in terms of the heal while in DPS role of course. I also apologize for the audio sounding off. I'm still working out the kinks to OBS.

Ranmaru stated that it is meant to increase healing in to yourself by 30% so a healer with Orb would be able to do his regular orb priority heal plus an extra 30% if the tanks shields proc the art.

My earth tank loadout has gemstone, hard light and perfect poise. My artifacts are manacles, mystic symbol, EoG. Should I feed the mystic symbol into this new artifact or leave everything as is?

I'm feeling like you should probably wait it out and see how it performs/ wait till another double nth event. Or just level it up while retaining the mainstays. This arti seems promising but seems mostly promising to ice and fire and mayyyybe atomic. My only tank toon is rage and I just don't see it fitting in well for that powerset even tho I do use 2 shields.

The healers can already heal your health all the way to full without the help from a players artifact i.e Circe Mask. Normally it would be two healers depending on content so I don't see the point in a healer benefiting from a tank with Circe Mask. Healers already have amazing arts that make them overpowered. The reason I didn't test it in groups is because healers can already heal you or the group fairly easy. As a stand alone player Circe Mask 30% incoming heals aren't all that impressive as I compared which art gives the most heals. I know on my atomic tank my heals are going to be strong if I have Circe Mask equipped. Personally artifacts need to stop catering to certain powersets.

My advice is to be reluctant to ever feed anything, because it involves a loss of money and you never know when that previous artifact might suit a circumstance better.

I probably would recomnend keeping the symbol and leveling this one up fresh, tbis artifact looks to have interesting potential, but probably not game breaking, time will tell though and you want to be careful you don't regret something later.

I would add Earth in that list as well because despite using Brick to transfer damage or Jackhammer to stone skin, earth is still predominantly about shielding as well and when that shield wears off you are then most vulnerable, cushioning that period with a 30% healing increase, is potentially highly useful, if anything the tank power that stands to gain the least is rage, but only because their damage mitigation relies less so on shields, that isn't to say they won't still benefit though depending on their type of build.

Lots of people run with solo healers so everything helps, theres all sorts of variables as to when a 30% boost to healing on a tank is incredibly beneficial, that 30% additional healing could even make the difference between making an active choice you kite or not for example.

Despite the fact I'm not recommending feeding something into this artifact just yet, I think this artifact looks quite promising.