New artifacts question (replacing old)

Here is something I’d like for you to try out.

I’ll put my old build here and let me know what you find.

For might:
Chainsaw, impact, chompers, grasping, handclap, neo venom

For melee:
chainsaw full combo clipped with chompers > chainsaw fc x2 > chainsaw fc into chompers > repeat

Not the most optimal but easy to get consistent baselines. fc = full combo


For range:
Chompers > impact c light blast c minigun c ram/chompers > repeat

C = combo into and “/“ = clip with

For single target:

Grasping hand c pull/chompers > grasping c pull/handclap fc (This part of the rotation x2) > repeat

I haven’t been HL recently so not sure if these are the most optimal loadouts.

Basically I want you to test out 2 things. Check your parsers using your first 3 artifacts using 30 second parsers. Then switch your 3rd artifact for the trans artifact. And redo the test. What you need to look for is the damage change from one artifact to the other. The second thing you should look at is the crit percentage from one to the other. If you are replacing a 200 artifact for a 160 artifact than you will likely see a slight drop in damage. But you should see an increase in crit percentage.

im really considering the transformation card and strategist card as long term option artifacts my only concern is how well are these artifacts with might? i sometimes switch between might and precision so they have to really be good for both playstyles for me to hop on board with them.

I'm probably not the best person to weigh in on this, but imo the strategist card feels underwheling, but to be fair I only have it at rank 80. And it's really hard to tell if/ when it's actually proccing, it just gets kinda jumbled in with all the other numbers. I think I might have been better off (in terms of dps) keeping my rank 80 eye of gemini and/ or scrap of the soul cloak tbh. Transformation card seems pretty decent critting way more often, even with the reduced damage ( also only rank 80). Working on getting grimorium verum to 160, so these will probably just stay as is for now. Strategist / transformation also helps with my "battle tank" cus I don't use a super so I guess thats a plus over my old artifact combination.

I just posted this in another thread but I'll post here as well. Draw your own conclusions. Transformation seems to be one of the better ones. Strategist not so much according to this.

I think the Strat is more about powerset. Nature and Electric would seem to benefit more than other powers due to AOE. The Transformation Card is a dual purpose card so I can't see the downside to it. Mines is currently at 126 and I've seen the difference on both sides.

You should think of the Transformation card as a straight buff to damage. Kind of like having a mini-supercharge going at all times, and you don't have to change the way you play to get it.

The Strategist really needs lots of hits to make its presence known. In my testing it was decidedly meh against a single target. If you're using something like Shuriken Storm or Arrow Storm or Doom Spin against lots of targets it's pretty good. If you're using anything else, or you're against a single target, Grimorium or Horus is the same or better. It also pretty much requires the Transformation. Also, I'm not recommending Arrow Storm-- there are better range AOE options-- but some people just like certain weapons

thank you

so what 3 precision artifacts would you recommend to go with the transformation? Venom, gemini, transformation or Venom, Grimorium, Transformation?

Depends on which supercharge you're using with Gemini. Most of the artifacts seem to be pretty well balanced... If you're using NVB it's a wash and literally whichever artifact you have leveled higher is the one you should use. If you have a really good supercharge like Electric or Rage you may want to steer towards Gemini.

Mental's Mass Hysteria Supercharge is precision friendly, but I haven't tested it much. It might go really well with the Strategist card, but that's just guesswork.

Nature has some good Precision-friendly supercharges, but I'm pretty sure Nature Might is unbeatable at this point.

Again, we're talking precision here, right?

Artifacts summary