Loot Locked from Catalysts??

I have run the Catalyst missions daily from when they started dropping, and received them. Today I'm loot locked for Catalysts on 'all' the missions.

The Catalysts are on a week lock. The content dropped on Wednesday. It reset yesterday. Welcome to Friday.

It's weekly, but you can always buy catalysts on the Marketplace.

Let's call it content gating .... err, I mean "a streamlined distribution of rewards in time".
But since we can also hoard nth metal basically everywhere, at every time, that is less of a burden, except for milestones of course, for which the most hurried will use the marketplace that low level players could potentially take benefit of, if they have said catalysts to sell.
At least it was one of the intentions behind the system as described by NerdOfPrey in their stream : allowing low lvl players to loot items that could be desired by high lvl ones.
Time will tell if it actually works as intended.

Well, chances are you don’t need everything at the same time. For instance, if my artifact hits lvl 60 before next Thursday, the only thing I need is one Mystic Lightning; and that’s from just running stuff on the regular weekly lock out with no replays.

If you run everything each week, then you’re building up stuff you likely won’t need for awhile.

I'm in the same boat or we could find other hoarders who want to trade.

What garbage. I knew there had to be a catch for the new artifacts missions and the devs made the catalysts weekly drops, making the advancement to the next a slow, painful crawl OR pay for more replay badges to advance quicker. This game is becoming less desirable to play with every new thing you introduce. The game has become nothing more than a shameless money grab. Thank you for another hunk of junk, Devs!!

The downside to the loot lock, I couldn't even get broken through to 40, so I lost my catalysts. That perfectly sums up my luck in this game, this is why I'm missing so many feats. Feats should absolutely not be tied to rng the way they are. I was so excited for artifacts but once I couldn't get broken through on a 95% chance, I haven't logged in since or even considered it. I do the grind and deal with it usually, I have to buy everything with in game cash because of drop rates. At this point I rarely enjoy my time online because I'm grinding cash more than anything else. I'm getting wore out on it after the last 5 1/2 years.

or use replays

And what do replays cost? money grab yeah it's disguised but a money grab for sure

or use alts.

Farm it on alts or buy it off the broker.

Or use alts. I have my main at level 54 and already have all the catalysts I need to hit 60. Just need more Nth metal and that drops everywhere!

So once I get my first alt to a level 80 I can start shipping everything to the next and the next. Not buying anything from the broker or using replays It will take a while to get all the ones i want to have that 80 level artifact but three days since the system went live and i already have NUMERO UNO to level 54?

Okay while i never use replays for content let's look at the system...

I am working on getting my first artifact to level 60 I NEED 1 Catalyst that can only be obtained by running a raid... Okay to replay a raid I'd need to spend 87 replays BUT I ONLY need ONE catalyst and i get that running the raid for FREE once that week. So Zero replays spent.

Now I also need two catalysts from an alert... now the alert resets daily but not the catalyst. but its a tier 3 alert. So any alt I have over Cr 53 can join a team, do that alert and catalysts are all account bound so I can then send that second catalyst to my main and not use any replays again.

I also need three (3) catalysts from a duo Same sort of a deal.... I get 1 running that duo with my main and then just run the same duo with two alt and ship the catalysts to the main. once again my main now has every thing I need to get to level 60 and not a single replay was used.

but let's humor you... So okay

You only need the one catalyst from the raid so no replays spent at all

You need two from the alert and the first one is free. To reset an alert costs 29 replays and you'd only need to replay once so total cost there.. 29 replays

You nee three catalysts from the duo. First is free and it costs 12 replays to reset... So to get 2 catalysts you'd need to replay the duo twice .. that's 24 replays

Total cost? 53 replays. Now I am a subscriber and i get a discount so i can go to the market and buy 150 replays badges for 450 Daybreak cash. That means that each replays costs ME 3 daybreak cash DOLLARS?? whatever they want to call them. Now i can purchase 500 Daybreak Cash for $5.00 US Dollars. So that breaks down to 100 DC for $1.00 US. Using that same logic .. 50 DC would cost about 50 cants. So if I spent 53 replays to run those added missions I needed to get the catalysts I need to get my artifact to 60.. i would "technically" have paid about $0.53. Now of course to get to 80 you'd need more catalysts and I needed some to get to 40 so It can add up a bit but really? we are not exactly talking a fortune .. plus do it the way I am and it doesn't cost you a thing.

Now are there players out there that have already spent a small fortune and have a level 100 artifact? Considering the player base.. I'm sure there are. but with a little patients and a few alts.. you can have the same thing they do in a week (or less) and not have spent a cent.

Yeah as stated above, alts come in handy. The metal from the Vault cannot be passed over, but any metal picked up from killing ads very well can be. I was working on an Atomic character over my days off, and as soon as I hit level 20 I ran that mission for the artifact. All the metal I picked up off her was account bound. So you are winning in both departments by having an alt since you can get the catalysts needed and you will likely pull some extra metal in the process. Beyond that. Another idea is to just look at what players are shouting for. I am a healer so I had to run Shadowlands, Trigons Prison, and the Gates Of Tarter sauce missions. I however saw people often shouting for Artifacts of the past and blackest night. I confirmed that I was able to get the catalysts they need by running it with them.

So essentially you could probably communicate with a healer, troll, tank, or DPS and find out which missions they need to run or you could just watch LFG for shouts related to missions that are not from the last 2-3 DLCs. Odds are that is why they are shouting. I myself will be handing the Troll/Tank pieces over to my league members, and I will stockpile the DPS stuff for whenever I get my healer one to 100. Especially after seeing how this next DLC will void pretty much all progression, I will never grind my soul out on another DC update again. Kick back, rack up those easy metal collecting feats, and let the progression come whenever it comes.

Use replays? Use Alts? Really what if you want to level up both roles ? How much time do i need top spend grinding content to get what i need ? This whole artifact thing is a stupid copy of a system used by other games and you know once you hit 80 and 100 you will start losing your catalyst and will buy the preservation seals or just use replays and run all the content again. Either way you look at it none of this adds value to my playing experience it just makes this game feel more like job and less fun with each passing day. To top it all off we get a new episode in a week and a half that will just compound the grind since you could never finish all the stuff from this latest episode without using a lot of replays anyway.

Essentially your argument is that you want to simultaneously level up artifacts for two roles all within the first week of the release? Technically you could still use an alt to acquire all of the catalysts needed for both roles, but the problem then will be that you will either have to divide the metal you obtain or choose one that you want to favor. I do plan on leveling up both of my roles, but I prioritized healing first. Just like I did when gearing up with the RWC update. Nowhere did it ever say that you had to complete any of this stuff within the first or second week of the release. And don't use the "I will fall behind" excuse. You won't. I have not seen one single group asking what level Artifact someone had. In fact, the only person I even seen reference their Artifact in LFG is some idiot who was trying to rub it in people's faces while simultaneously asking them to help him.

The problem is if you don't run alts or use replays you wont finish one in several weeks let alone the secondary role one. Requiring 3 catalysts from the same duo with a longer reset period gives you no other choice. I have no problem with a moderate grind to accomplish something, its what makes it valuable. I have a problem with making it a senseless grind and requiring the use of alts or replays to progress. Each character should be able to run for their own and not be relied upon as an income source for a main.

Okay I am just going to come out and say it.... What i have seen on the thread is the exact same sort of thing that we are dealing with in a variety of aspects of the game these days.

SPEED FREAKS.... This one is two parted. First we have the ones on missions that are rushing like mad men to get to the end to get their "Big Reward". Skipping a ton of adds that the rest of us are knocking off because.. GUESS WHAT? Adds drop Nth metal and we need Nth Metal to upgrade the Artifact. Now if that was all they did it would be one thing but I've already had one guy screw up a League of Assassins Alert and make Ras al Guhl unable to be targeted.. had to just quit that team and start all over again.. YEAH that idiot is on ignore and Its not just that one incident I have already seen some other players talking about the same sort of things happening to them.

But let's look at part 2 can anyone show me where it says there is a race to get your artifact to 100 level? Yes there are ways to speed up the process including replay badges, the market place and alts. Or you can just PLAY the game like normal and run whatever duo, alert and raid are required to get the right Catalysts for whatever level your working toward and EVENTUALLY you will have you artifact at 100. It's not a race and no content has been altered to require you have that artifact at 100 level or you will never be able to complete it.

CASH FREAKS... Just from a few posts I have seen here you can tell there are already players out there longing to be able to just pull out that credit card and PAY their way to 100 level. Hey for once the Dev team actually gave us some thing that doesn't allow that sort of thing and actually requires a player to PLAY the game. And before the rant starts... Yes I KNOW replays cost money. But in my mind there is a small difference. Okay so I need a catalyst from a duo and don't want to wait a week to get it. I spend a whole 12 Replays to reset and grab my catalyst. That cost me a whole $0.12 but I still had to actually Que up and play the mission to get the catalyst. I didn't just go to the Market and BUY what I needed with my credit card and never played a single duo, alert or raid.

Now here's the bottom line.. As I already mentioned while the artifact is helpful nothing in the content of the game, aside for the Nth Metal and Catalysts dropping, has changed. You can continue to play and be quite successful with absolutely no artifact at all. So if the idea or grinding away to get all that stuff together to craft one or two just sickens you... DON'T BOTHER MAKING ONE LET ALONE TWO.

You do realize i am not talking about getting the artifact to 100. I am talking about even getting it to 40 or 60. I hit 40 easily with the original mission and 2 days worth of running thanks to the normal reset day. Now I sit with knowing that when I hit 60 which with the way the metal is dropping wont take but a few more days, i will have to wait 2 weeks worth of loot lock resets or use one of the other methods needed to get the catalyst. I can only imagine getting to level 80 and 100 will bring the same problems. Why make it so easy to level it up and then make us wait ? The real problem is everyone has gotten used to just dropping a few replays, no big deal right? just what was it 53 cents isn't that what someone said earlier? Or spend the whole day running alts through content and hoping you don't get one of the genius players who just smash everything as fast as possible. No thanks Games are supposed to be fun. This one is quickly becoming the opposite. Also for anyone who thinks that these artifacts wont become important for finishing content is delusional. New content structure with elite raids and gear and wonder what will happen during the next survival mode?