I returned to the game about a year ago. Before I left artifacts weren’t a thing. I have been saving nth and slowly leveling trans/strat/quiz, but recently switched to trans/strat/omega. My arts are at 160 and I was going to level them to 200 but was waiting for the mythical 2x exp (and the fact I didn’t have enough nth). I can now pretty much max those 3 but was curious if I should drop strat and use ebon instead. I know it will go well with omega, but didn’t want to invest in Ebon to replace Strategist if in the end, Strat would be competitive enough. I have 725 sp and I have played in enough content to see players with both combinations of arts already at 200. The problem is it’s hard to compare my damage to theirs because sometimes even with mine at 160 I’m doing more damage then them at 200 with either Strat or ebon and other times there are players with the both combos out DPSing me by quite a bit (possibly art swapping). Has anyone compared their performance with trans/strat/omega versus trans/ebon/omega to see if the difference in damage output is significant enough to invest into ebon rather than continuing with Strat? Is there a different combo that works better? Thank you.
Comparing your damage with randos in PUGs is not a good way to measure anything, because of vast skill disparity between players, as well as other factors, like different powersets synergizing better with certain arts, different builds being more effective in different situations, not to mention artifact swapping, et cetera. Strat used with certain powersets and builds can be competitive in some situations, especially, that it synergizes so well with Trans, but generally the consensus is that Ebon is stronger overall, for a couple of reasons. Mainly - Strat is DOT based, so if enemies die too fast (which they do when everyone is using Omega, especially in easier content), there isn't enough time for the artifact to do its full damage. Second reason - Ebon can be swapped out before finisher (Omega), then swapped back in, allowing for the full 30% Might buff to be retained practically indefinitely, as long as troll can supply enough power. In fact, many players swap Ebon for Strat before Omega Blast, so that they keep the buff, while also getting some Strat ticks. If you play a DOT powerset/build, you don't intend to swap arts, and you're ok with falling behind in easier content, you might consider sticking with Strat.
Thanks for the info, that helps. I might have misunderstood the art mechanic, but one thing you mentioned is that you can swap Ebon before omega to maintain the stack and keep your 30% might boost, but on the text it says that the 3% might boost per shady loan only lasts for 6 seconds, so even if you swapped it out, wouldn’t the might boost time out while maintaining your stack of loans? At this point, wouldn’t it only cost you more power per attack but the might increase would have timed out?
The idea is - you replace Ebon with some other artifact just before finisher (Omega Blast), ideally during some other channeled ability, like Heat Vision, or Frost Breath. Then, during the Omega Blast, you open the inventory again and re-equip Ebon, before 6 seconds passed. You need to be quick and it can be tricky at first, especially, if you play with keyboard and mouse, but with practice it can be done fairly quickly and easily. Yes - the abilities will cost a lot of power, so if you don't have a good troll in the group, you can't keep the stacks for very long. 6s is plenty to swap Ebon back in, but you need to practice it a bit to get the timing right. If you fail and lose your stacks - it's not a big deal, since the power cost will also return to normal and you can start rebuilding them. If you're not experienced at swapping, you don't need to do it - your damage will still be good, but that's something to think about for the future. Not everybody wants to open and close their inventory in combat every few seconds - it can be dangerous, because you might miss some danger and die. Also - and this is important - if you play with a controller there is a risk of deleting your artifact, if you press the wrong buttons too quickly (it never happened to me, but it did to some friends of mine), so if you don't feel like it's for you, don't worry about it. But with a bit of practice, if you do it at the right times - and as long as you have a troll in the group - it can be extremely powerful.
It still and will always boggle my mind why this is intended and why this is allowed by the developers. Art swap is simply put a mechanic that defies the effects of what the developers intended for some arts like for example in this case the Omega Totality. I mean why not just simply remove Omega's role as a finisher and allow us to pair it with Ebon without the need of art swapping either one of them? Artifacts should have a separate tab like the allies do and not be allowed to be swapped and to defy what the developers had intended for them period. If they want us to invest more money in leveling up artifacts then please I love DCUO so and for the sake of this game give us more slots so we can have more options for all roles, instead of condoning entering and exiting the inventory menu and again and again and again defying the intended mechanics of some of the artifacts! I am so sorry and i apologize if my post offended anyone but this art swap phenomenon needs to come to an end, because it feels to me like cheating and i will never practice it even if this will mean being the lowest dps on the server. With those being said i hope that some day the developers will make the right choice when it comes to this sensitive matter. With Respect, Kayla El
"Period" notwithstanding, swapping artifacts in combat was intended - the devs stated so themselves. And they've had plenty of time to put a stop to it, if they wanted, but they only address swaps which were particularly out of balance. So I'm guessing it's here to stay in one form or another. Years ago people used to say the same about clipping - including some devs - that it wasn't intended (at least not to the extent that it was used to DPS) and that it was unfair to players who couldn't do it, but - in the end - 14 years on clipping is still in the game, they only fixed the most overpowered/broken clips and introduced new powersets that could compete without clipping. Before artifacts players used to swap other stuff, like trinkets, gear, mods, et cetera. That's because this game's core combat system is not very deep and becomes pretty easy and boring once you're really good at it. Some players might be happy with just spamming rotations, but others can do this in their sleep, so they look for things to make it more effective and engaging, to develop new builds and strtategies. Without that possibility - most good players would get bored and leave. They might add a slot at some point, but that won't solve your problem, because then art swapping will still be more powerful, just the power creep will increase and content will become even easier than it is today. For players with 4, or more artifacts, I mean. For new players with fewer arts than slots - it will become harder and they probably won't stick around, being told that now they have to have 4+ 200 arts to get into a group. Adding 1 more slot is not going to motivate players to level a dozen or more artifacts like swapping does. And obviously if they keep adding more art slots, the problems will get worse - players will be more overpowered, will tear through any new content in hours, get bored with it quickly and leave. There's no need to anything about swapping, except nerf the most imbalanced swaps. It's fun and makes combat more interesting for more skilled and experienced players, because it carries risks and demands more awareness and dexterity. If you don't want to do it - just don't do it. There are plenty of ways to play well without swapping. Better players always have and always will outperform others, with or without swapping, so there's no need to get worked up about it.
Brother sorry for getting worked out but there is nothing you or anyone can tell me that will convince me art swapping is not somewhat like cheating especially when you can cancel the effects of one artifact by removing and adding another one and if it's indeed intended by the developers themselves then that's even worse and i will never understand why you or anyone in their right mind would think that entering and exiting your inventory in the middle of a fight requires any skill or is something that ads immersion to this game's gameplay. This game has reached a state where for speed feats people will ask you to be gadgets might dps and art swap in order to have a chance at completing that feat cause apparently this is the new meta now which if you ask me is sad really really sad...
Luckily, I don't need to convince you. You need to convince the devs, that it is actually cheating, not that it feels "somewhat like cheating" to you. If it didn't require any skill - everyone would do it and there wouldn't be a problem. But most DCUO players can't survive in an E+ boss fight for more than a few seconds, even while - supposedly - being able to see what's going on the whole time. Being able to avoid 1-shots and other dangers, while also keeping rotation going and managing your inventory - that sounds like a skill to me. You don't need to be Gadgets, or swap in order to complete feats - you just need a group of good players. And that's the problem - most players aren't as good as they would like to think. Having people who can art swap in the group helps carry those, who are not that good at their roles. But you can make your own speed feat group, with other players who don't swap and have the chance to get it.
I think they already know that art swap is cheating but sadly they decided to do nothing about it for so long and i will never understand why because lately they have been so very silent here on the forums that it's hard to guess what their opinions and motives are regarding this matter. Let's agree to disagree on this one mate if you ask me opening/swapping arts/exiting your inventory doesn't require any skill at all the only thing that i might say would require a bit of skill is timing the swaps right other than that there is nothing to it oh and perhaps knowing which arts to swap but that takes more knowledge than skill either way art swap no matter how you or me or the devs, or the community likes to see it if you ask me is nothing more than an exploit. I know you don't have to be gadgets or to swap artifacts in order to complete feats including the speed ones i was just telling you what are the communities requirements and expectations that i came across lately.
