How much it actually is 0-200 arts.

I did the math the other day to get all of your arts for 4 different roles. It's about $200 for just the artifact xp per artifact, so if your'e running 4 different roles, that's 12 artifacts=2400$ on 4 roles for just art xp. It's 1382 source marks to get all catalysts for 1 200 art=16584 source marks for 4 roles. You'll need 4-5 seals of completion for each art 120/140-200 ranks=240-300$ just on seals of completion. So the estimate price is 2400+300+100(dio)+160(quantum)+180(paradox)=$3140 for all 4 roles for artifacts....

That's why players don't comeback and most new players don't stick around. Artifacts are to op to be that expensive

Mepps. I hope you take a good look at this and push this higher up. This is a VIDEO GAME. NO ONE in their right mind would spend that much money in a game on something like this. That is just for one character too. Imagine someone who has alts, maybe just 2 or 3. That is absurd for a game. I would highly recommend changing the way the artifact breakthroughs work and rework the membership perks to include 4 Seal of Preservation or one Seal of Completion per month. This game is greedy, and a cash grab. Dont get me wrong. I enjoy the game. But what I don't enjoy is the developers (not you, but the higher ups) who control and are in charge of these cash grabs. I've lost friends on this game for this very exact reason. Not every one has the money to spend on this game like others do. Some people only pay the membership price and grind out everything else. But the company should be grateful regardless because they are still supporting the game. But that's just not the case. $$$ is all the company cares about. It's not a rant. Just facts.

Yes, it is expensive, when i came back to the game since i had 3 160 artifacts i switched them on a double experience and it was less painfull, but i did had to spend near 100 bucks in total in order to be "competent".
I never really understood why they removed the seals of completion as rare drops in game, from a business perspective it makes total sense to get as much money as you can, but i always felt that action did not seemed too harsh back in those days, but now when artifacts are a cornerstone in the game and not just a "little improvement" now you can feel that if you don't spend money, you can level up but it takes months.
This may not be the place but i think the prom-boxes should have a rare chance to give u a seal of completion and in the loot choose from where the options are repair-bot, bank-bot, mail-bot, broker-bot or vault-ticket, one fo the options should be a seal fo preservation.

This would be the cost if you want to get an Artifact from 1 to 200 within a day. There's a lot of variables that are missing from this equation: Nth Metal drops for free in game, Catalysts can be purchased from Constantine for Source Marks, Members get a monthly stipend of 500 MC which equals one free Seal, Double XP/Double Drop bonus weeks. There's not good reason to jump an artifact from 0 to 200 within a day, they're supposed to take time to level.

What would the cost be if you added the Batman statue and the art book with the poster?

I get they are suppose to take time. But one. Artifacts are required at end game. To even be sub optimal at that. Yeah rank 120s are fine. But when you have someone who plays consistently but also likes to play alts and doesnt want to wait years to max all 6 of his artifacts out without spending money aside from the other artifacts his/her alt has, its misleading and it turns people away from the game. Yes it's a new system in the game but when you factor in the cost of every little bit of what it takes to upgrade them , (again let alone alta) it's ridiculous. I may agree that Nth Metal can be acquired quite easily, but when it comes to alts, breakthroughs, SoP and SoC and need to HAVE to buy a SoC to breakthrough is absurb again. You cant possibly tell me that you agree with their system and how they have it set up. I dont think you do, but you never really know. There are for forumites here who will defend the dev's no matter what so just see it from my (and everyone else's point of view.) And for those that know me, know that I don't post alot but lurk quite often. This system needs to be reworked.

What make that post even worse is, it take 25 stacks of nth metal caches to make 1 200 artifact. Each 99 is 20 hours worth of gameplay. 25 stacks is 2,475. If you count the extra catalysts that drop, that's 20% more exp. So 20 stacks plus extra catalysts is enough for 1 200 artifact for 1 role. That's 400 hours of straight gameplay. Not standing around waiting on groups to form, q's to pop, playing the broker, or just selling stuff. That's 400 ganeplay hours. Don't understand how people use the "take time to level" excuse. It's not a good 1

Defenders of this system are being hypocritical when they say you don’t have to spend a dime on artifacts. Be that as it may, artifacts weren’t intended to be absolutely free.
If they’re not spending loyalty points or cash on seals, then they’re not supporting the system from which game thrives on. Without seals, you’re either a compulsive gambler or a self imposed paywall, waiting to get a free handout.

We already knew this is a p2w.

So not only support the game with my paying membership but also support the system within a game that's already getting my support that has a wild RNG chance and requires multiple seals for each artifact upwards of 6 for one toon in both roles? Excluding alts? Yeah...

Oh and support the time capsule system too right? You know because it gives feats and all and helps progression.

Do you see where I'm going with this lol?

There's artifacts I'd like to try, but I can't waste resources leveling them up when they cost so much

I see where you’re going. And good point. Seals not dropping in game is a slap in the face to players who support the game through other systems. I wish I had included that in my last post.

I know this wasn't addressed to me, but I should point out that as it was originally set up the system featured seals that could be traded on the broker. There's still a category for seals in the UI there, in fact.

Seals purchasable for in-game currency, or seals that drop in content (other than from time capsules) would dramatically improve things.

I made a post recently about a soda machine that allows you to rent them at different levels and try then for 30mins. Real money but could save a lot of money vs finding out you don't like the arti.
Or you could jump on test server

Or you could just let Trex, AV or Obsidian or whoever test them completely and tell you if it's worth leveling or not. Wouldn't cost you a dime or a second of time.

I'm aware of what is considered best in slot. I'm saying I'd like to try some non meta artifacts for fun but it would feel like a waste of resources leveling something up that isn't meta

Or we could be given the option to test things for ourselves and rely on our on opinions instead of waiting on someone else’s critique to tell us if something is good or not

I gotta agree with those against doing what someone on video says. I watched obsidians source shard vid and I did it anyway against his advice and it has been plenty "end game viable". Is it as good as meta builds? No but it's close and I'm still working on proper pairings for it. Which would be a ton easier if I could rent some artis to try. Someone saying "this is good art" doesn't make me want it. Good for who? What if I'm not the same power set/ rotation/ other arts?
Like I said before, I would spend money on rentals. I'm not spending a dime playing around so when another arti is ranked up enough that it's worth trying, I slot it in and try it. I'd honestly rather spend $100 renting a few vs $200 hoping for the best. Trying new things keeps the game fun. I've been playing with amulet instead of la mort to see how it goes with source shard/ grim. Definitely would have rented, instead just leveling up naturally and practicing patience. Patience doesn't open my wallet

Would it be great to have a system like Legends PVE where you can que up and test or be given an Artifact that is Free for the week as a promotion? absolutely. But at the same time I can see how unique that would be logistically to accomplish in game. To be given an artifact that is equippable, to run content with or would you have it like the Legends testing arena? what rank you get to choose or you expect the devs or the vendor/promotion to give you the 1 artifact each at rank 80-120-160-200 so you can test the different effects? that is a mountain of things logistically to happen in the game. All for after 7 days or whichever length those artifacts just "disappear" from your inventory without there being some bug or exploit that you can delete it early and recover or something else this community will try to cheat the system and keep the artifacts.

The year is 2020 and DCUO can run the test server on a potato of a laptop so it doesn't take much if you really want to test artifacts for free on the PC test server. Maybe tablets are just more popular now and families don't keep any PCs or Laptops in their household but that's a mountain of work for a questionable payoff so I don't know how realistic that would be.