When I upgrade my artifacts, it is always consuming the maximum number of preservation wards, rather than giving a chance of success, as it should. There is no way I am unlucky enough to have it eat that many preservation wards and the system be working properly. This is bunk!!! I fully upgraded 4 artifacts, and it consistently used up the maximum number of preservation wards on every upgrade. That is 16 upgrades. It is statistically impossible.
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Sorry for your bad luck, but I've definitely had upgrades occur well before the "guaranteed" try has been reached, as recently as 3 days ago.
I use the same superstition when it comes to lockbox keys and invoke coffers for coal wards. I open 1 key at a time, I never see anything good. With the current lockbox, I've opened 20 keys 3 times and all 3 batches of keys granted mythic mount. Invoke boxes, 1 at a time I never see a coal ward, but if I save up 100 I tend to see 4+ coal wards.
I follow this myself and generally have good rng.
An example; I was talking to a couple of guildies who were new to the game and farming Juma bags - they said they rarely got anything decent from them. During the conversation they told me they had a bunch of them they were about to open. I told them to hold on and go from Avernus to the Stronghold & open them there. This time (and for the first time) they both received several mounts and companions as well as the armor pieces they'd been hoping to get.
Could this have been a random coincidence? Yep. Do they now always open any rng based items in the stronghold? Definitely.
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
To do something 'less serious', I go to workshop which load faster than 'nobody' stronghold.
@armadeonx I was in Protectors Enclave for the upgrades. And I too have noticed that in more lag, the less good loot I receive from RNG. I too speculate that there RNG has issues with the lag. I used to open 30 to 40 celestial coffers and receive 1-3 coal wards. Now I open 50 to 60 celestial coffers and receive 0 to 1. I will try opening them in a less laggy zone. My workshop seems to be laggy, though. When I create items quickly, then the lag is very evident. It makes things worse that they apply heavy anti-botting procedures, which limit the number of clicks you can make in a second.
But I also speculate that they only allow a certain number of items to be added to the game in a specific time frame. So if you happen to be opening bags at the same time other people are opening bags, you have less chance of gaining the better loot.
I had no issues with artifact weapons or neck/waist artifacts. Just the artifacts. And the storybook journals stuck out, because it was every single upgrade with them took maximum resources, not just the last upgrade.
I have literally been wondering how come i have to go through max number of preservation wards when I use them while ranking up Artifacts. I have done 7 so far, the majority of them being on my bard.
No matter what, when I use the P. Wards to get to Legendary, then to get to Mythic with each artifact, each one has maxed itself out to get the gauranteed 100% upgrade.
At first after the third artifact in a row on the bard (over a period of 48 hours), I suspected that the bard was cursed! I have always had pretty darn great luck with enchanting artifacts up to Mythic--so much so that when I acquired 90+ Preservation Wards from the Summer Festival, I was dang happy because I had a lot of things to upgrade for the bard starting with Artifacts, at least 1 Artifact Set, an Artifact Weapon Set, and to worry about later, Runestones and Enchantments... But the Artifact based equipment I wanted fairly quickly if not immediately.... and of course, fairly painlessly if possible. So naturally, the more Preservation wards, the better.
I need ten-fold more than what I had anticipated!
Could it be that the SumFest Preservation Wards were bugged? No, because I had P.W's from before the Summer Festival with the same results. They couldn't be completely broken because they were doing their job and protecting the reagents required in the upgrade process, but...???
So I switched to my Main toon--a toon with a LOT of good luck and experience to spare when it comes to getting artifacts to Mythic--even some artifacts that, when equipped in the primary slot, sometimes draws a question from anyone who snoops me as to why I took it all the way to Mythic?
Lol. For fun.
Because its fun as f--.
And because, when I give into my thumb-button-trigger-happy-mouse-click temptations that I am often plagued with when armed with a fun artifact that makes 60 seconds of cooldown time seem like an eternity, and I cast the Artifact Power...
It causes problems.
Havoc plays fiend to many lives.
Often a couple of my 'trinket' artifacts cause more damage on accident than some of our cookie-cutter DPS BiS artifacts--the same artifacts that generally carbon copies the other two DPS'ers in the party. And that guys, and that girls--Anyway, back to the point.
I have made a LOT of Mythic artifacts, and for the first time in ages, I ran into the same issue that my bard had. I claimed the bard artifact for the Ranger from the agent because that is the first one I am taking up... No problem getting it up to Epic, but then again, I didn't use a preservation ward, either. Now I tack on the pres wards to work on Legendary rank.
AGAIN, I used the max amount of preservation wards before it finally ranked up. It didn't surprise me at all that it took all 30 fails to get it to continue to Mythic.
That was the fourth Artifact in a row, each one consistent with the artifact before it. I had already gone through the freagin Summer Festival wards, had to buy more and those were going quickly already.
Another artifact. Same thing. all Fails until the guaranteed upgrade kicked in.
5 in a row. Requiring max amount of Preservation Wards to rank up each time from epic to legendary, and legendary to mythic.
At this point, a patch had gone through at some point there, and I'm back at the bard, new day, new patch, no notes really on what they patched, feeling good. Start the process on bard again. Fail Fail Fail. etc. Max out, rank up, Max out again, Another Mythic artifact at what cost already???
MOUNTAINEERING WEAPON SET:
You think that getting them from the tradebar merchant already at purple epic gives me one clean shot straight to Legendary for a temporary weapon set, right?
WRONG. This Rapier and Lute are the most expensive freagin artifact weapon sets I've ever ranked up between all 9 of my toons, each one with up to four Legendary sets. Need I say it?
Both main hand and offhand weapons took max preservation wards. Breath of fresh air for a moment that they don't go all the way to Mythic.
The last Artifact that I did worked the same as the artifacts before it.
I am fed up.
I am worn out.
I feel abused and mocked just like the day when ..... nm. what's done is done with that.
I feel as if the pres wards are broken. I know my patience is. I've never gone through such a blatent waste of preservation wards in my few years of playing--not like this. Not consistently, not with one artifact maxing out
upgrade fails like the artifact before it, then repeating the cycle again with a new artifact. There could be nothing wrong at all, and I simply all of a sudden have no luck at all....I'd rather have "the worse luck" because at least then you know where you stand with luck and karma, but NO luck... that's such an empty feeling and it really really really starts to wear down on a person when it just nettles you with frustrating reminders...one...click....at....a....time....
7 in a row. Every single one. Max fails. Max preservation wards.
Weapon set to Legendary....max fails, max pres wards. For Mountaineering ffs. sheesh.
Although I am calm now, I assure you, I was getting beyond frustrated with every single click...fail! click...fail!.....Click...Fail! CLICK...FAIL! CLICK! FAIL! CLICK! ... etc. All the way to maximum amount, then Viola! here's your new artifact, chump. Pleasure doing business with ya'. Don't let the door hit you in the .... w/e.
I do know this. I am logging in in a few minutes. I do have another artifact--two actually--to rank up to Mythic. I am only going to do ONE because now, that is all that I can afford, and I might not even have enough pres wards left even to see it through to Mythic, but it'll be close. I'm hoping something inadvertently got fixed this morning with the patch.
I know there is a problem.
Even for the non-believers...
How do I know?
Oh I guess because I'm not an idiot, for one. Sometimes. I am. Sometimes I am. There.
Two, common sense and experience is a powerful tool sometimes.
Oh, and three... of course... since it seems like NW forumer's tend to assume that a poster is clueless, inexperienced, exaggerating or just downright lying when they post something in these here sacred forums, this has been brought up more than once by Alliance and Guild members alike for quite a few weeks now, I am pretty certain there are more players out there having the same remarkable experience.
As far as my Preservation Wards go, I feel slighted, cheated and burnt but nothing I can do except say that I think there is an issue, because.... it's my own fault for continuing to rank them up with each single stupid click that I have been doing--especially since I am 99% certain that there is a bug bite thrown into the mix somewhere. I know I'll never get reimbursed for the obscene amount of preservation wards I've ...'wasted' isn't the right word because they did protect the required resources.... "knowingly and carelessly gambled away" works for now simply because IF the pattern were to continue, I already knew EXACTLY how many Preservation Wards I would go through to get each artifact to Mythic. I chose to run that gamble without even a sign of the odds breaking into my favor to give me the reason to do so.
HA. And I am about to do the same silly thing. Again.
If It gets to Mythic without the preservation wards maxing out, I'll be back in a flash to update this post.
Have an epic day, all.
(maybe certain accounts are bugged...like these accounts with @accountname#3000 - @accountname#4000
somehow got bugged? or players from a certain time zone, etc... just a thought).
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
I had 2 more artifacts to do the max level upgrade on. I did them in my stronghold, per advice from earlier, and they used very few pres wards. So lag does seem to be a factor with upgrading. And since the newer modules have made many zones laggy, then it is good to go to less laggy zones, like your stronghold, any time you need RNGeezus to bless you, like when upgrading artifacts or opening Celestial Coffers.
green -> blue: 0
blue -> purple: 1
purple -> orange: 1
orange -> cyan: 30 (max)
I usually do go to the SH or the workshop sometimes which seems pretty lag free for me. Although lately, yes, everything has seemed to have a touch of lag hanging around more than usual it seems. It might just be my service since majority of the time, I DO use my cellphone service to run my internet. its fast and more reliable and a lot cheaper than the usual home connection people have (where I currently am located geographically).
However, even during peak hours my network rarely gets over populated to lag me up all on its own without lag from the game servers assisting with it. Plus when I am doing upgrades, unless I absolutely cannot wait, I usually do them between the hours of 1:00 am and 5:00 am. (My reset is is at 3:00 am)--when most normal people are asleep and cellphone and network speeds are population me, and someone with insomnia a couple miles away
But I do know that this doesn't always mean that there isn't some sort of lag somewhere.
I don't know where to go, really now. I can tell you that I have had much luck with Juma bags and lockboxes in Vallenhas.
I love to SOLO Bel. (solo is important so that you are alone, isolated and away from others with no party members attached to you or in your map space infecting your good luck air with their bad luck, negative karma, and other things that online gamers carry naturally. (Except for YOU, awesome person reading this post at this very moment--it is the rest of us inflicted with these ailments).
So, alone... solo... (or if you like to group, nothing wrong with that just make sure you abandon party when you all are done, and don't leave the boss fight map--but make sure they do).
I WOULD:
Kill Bel.
Reset Map.
Kill Bel.
Repeat.
And Again.
And Again. Again. Again. Again, keeping an eye on the time with two goals in mind.
The first was to max out my weekly allowance of 'Infernal Secrets' in one session of Bel's appearance. And two, I need to make sure I don't accidently reset the map with no time left to reenter the portal back into the arena for another Bel fight.
With my Ranger (Warden), with an unrushed and relaxed play style that still involves consistent non-stop punishment to Bel's body and ego, I had been averaging 2.5 minutes a fight so it was very easy to keep track by simply activating my forgers Box AFTER I had stepped through the portal into Bel's arena and was facing him from the entrance point after the cinematic cutscene. By activating it then and not prior to stepping through the portal with the other buffs to avoid long cooldowns per buff, it becomes a very convenient timer for rebuffing, etc.
Casually, I do 3 fights per Forger's Box Buff, 4 if I really wanted to push that hard which can get exhausting which leads to stupid mistakes the longer you keep it up, or 4 if I switched my paragon to Hunter (they naturally do quite a bit more damage than the Warden, but imo, Warden is a lot more exciting and fun to play--I am first and foremost Warden, but will use Hunter when needed for more dmg output).
The trick I used with this was to squeeze through the portal into Bel's arena within the last few minutes (sometimes even seconds to spare) of his challenge to us, just before Bel retreats back into Cloud City or Tatooine or wherever he goes for an hour and a half our so.
Fight him, rough him up a little bit, kick him off my new turf that I just stole from him... THEN, if i planned a little ahead, I would have a lot of Juma bags and at minimum a weeks worth of VIP lockbox keys on me that I saved up from the last week that I did this same scenario, and of course, Lockboxes to open.
(For the Juma bags, I would spend however long i needed at random collecting 'Chaotic Writings' from both Apes and insurgencies to get as many Juma bags as I could--but I wouldn't buy them until right before I went to pummel Bel over and over again because... well, Juma bags don't stack. Buh Bye, bag space).
And with no Bel event going on at the moment anymore, and time to access the boss map expired , and while still in the "Some Like It Hot" Bel Boss map arena, I would start to pop Juma bags and lockboxes with an abundance of good luck on my side. While doing this, I would be reading Zone chat and half laughing, half feeling bad for people... While people were cracking jokes and/or getting upset about how many astral chickens they were getting, I wasn't having that problem. Sure, I would get them, but not to the extent that others did. maybe 2 astral chickens per 8 or 9 Juma bags to be fair, but I really didn't have a lot of grief having to dispose of a bag full of astral chickens. one by one. Like preservation wards, haha, only this would be click drag release. Click to confirm. Click drag release. Click to confirm.
I would like to believe that I occupied the only Bel Boss map at the times I started opening boxes--that everyone else had finished their fight with Bel and had left their maps--which then becomes impossible to regain entry into until the map is once again retriggered by the completion of Insurgencies. But until then, in my head, I was convinced that I alone had the only Bel boss map still open, that everyone else had left their instances, therefore closing their Bel boss map out of existence--there is nothing more isolating than being alone in a boss map that phases in and out of existence and doesn't allow access to it until it is triggered again--especially when that trigger can't be triggered for another hour or longer.
That means nobody can hear you scream..... in excitement when your lockboxes you a Mythic dot, dot, dot....
What a time to open Juma bags and lockboxes.
I haven't done Bel in about 6 months now, and the only reason I discontinued this method when I was having such great luck is because I got really, really, really burnt out on Bel, and even after discontinuing this method, my luck with lockboxes seemed to carry on quite well up until about a month ago...
I think it's time for Bel again... just to see if it works again.
You guys are probably right about lag affecting things like that, but usually if I know I am lagging that bad, I don't use keys or pricey consumables.
Well, I have a few more things to rank up, not tonight though. over the course of this next week. i'll let you know if anything changes when I do, and if they do.
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