Leveling Your Artifact Weapon

brandonv516 · May 2015

I'd like to hear some opinions on the best way to level your artifact weapon. Mine is level 24 on the way to Epic quality (level 34 I think?) but it's taking so long to get there lol.

I've been picking up Uncommon/Rare items and feeding them to my weapon for refinement and salvaging Epic items to buy Refinement stones with the AD profits. I was considering forking over some cash for the Blood stones on the Zen Market but I'm not sure if it will be worth it. Anyone have any further advice?

trappy1026 · May 2015

Wait for double RP weekends, stock up on dragon hoard enchants in your utility slots to get those refinement stone drops. You can hoard blue items in your bank if you have the room, and wait for double RP weekend for those.

That's what I'm doing at least, if you're impatient and feelin like a baller, blood rubies are the way to go lol.

skeld11 · May 2015

What would be the most efficient way for a PvPer to upgrade artifacts and enchants?

Where do the marks of power and potency fall in this process?

lordsarverious · May 2015

skeld11 wrote: »

What would be the most efficient way for a PvPer to upgrade artifacts and enchants?

Where do the marks of power and potency fall in this process?

Have to get off your high horse and go play PVE. Otherwise, you aren't going to level that artifact. Drops in PVP are few and usually not very good. I think farming PK Epic for drake seals and cheap drops is best. Drake Seals = purple items to put into your artifact.

skeld11 · May 2015

I see. Probably not going to happen so I guess the next best would be to buy Blood Rubies with Zen?

What about something I can buy off the AH with the AD I'm making from PvP dailies? I'm also leveling Leadership which might lead to a stream of AD eventually.

nem3sls · May 2015

Blood rubies then. Buy em, feed your weapon with them and keep all your AD for those greater marks, you'll need them.

skeld11 · May 2015

nem3sls wrote: »

Blood rubies then. Buy em, feed your weapon with them and keep all your AD for those greater marks, you'll need them.

Sounds expensive, lol. I'll have to go find a tutorial on YouTube I guess, I have fed my Waters artifact some enchantments but I don't understand the role of the Greater Marks as of yet.

thezer0flux · May 2015

lordsarverious wrote: »

Have to get off your high horse and go play PVE. Otherwise, you aren't going to level that artifact. Drops in PVP are few and usually not very good. I think farming PK Epic for drake seals and cheap drops is best. Drake Seals = purple items to put into your artifact.

Yep, gonna have to play the actual game for a while (or spend some money) if you want to upgrade your artifacts.

Or... you know... don't.

If all you're interested in playing is the half-baked PvP add on mode, artifacts (particularly weapons) probably don't matter as much. They don't have tenacity or anything, so stuff you buy in the Trade of Blades might be better anyway.

skeld11 wrote: »

Sounds expensive, lol. I'll have to go find a tutorial on YouTube I guess, I have fed my Waters artifact some enchantments but I don't understand the role of the Greater Marks as of yet.

You need the marks (greater or otherwise) after you feed the artifacts the refining points required to level it up to the next tier (rare, epic, legendary, etc.). Each tier typically costs progressively more than the last. For example, ranking up from uncommon to rare might cost two normal marks of something and one lesser; ranking from rare to epic would cost one or two greater marks of something, a normal mark of something, and a lesser mark... and so on.

Also, if you're making AD, you can buy refining stones and stuff on the AH for AD as well. And don't forget you can exchange AD for Zen too. In the case of the blood rubies, they actually cost fewer AD than converting to Zen and buying them from the store. I don't think they're worth it in either case though. Dragon's Hoard enchantments and playing PvE (even farming adventure zones) is the most cost-effective way to upgrade artifact equipment. It can even be fun.

axemthegreat · May 2015

Wouldn't it be more cost effective to buy zen and convert it to AD for something like a brilliant diamond (250,000 RP) than it would be to buy a blood ruby pack ($20, for 150,000 RP) The blood ruby equates to 7,500 RP per dollar spent if you buy the three pack (if I remember correctly).

A brilliant diamond's price can vary widely, but if you just went with a straight 500k AD for one, that's roughly 3000 Zen ($30) depending on auction house prices and current zen/AD values (went with 165 AD per 1 Zen). That's more like 8333 RP per dollar spent. Could be more, could be less, but it might be a better option if you're willing to shop.

skeld11 · May 2015

thezer0flux wrote: »

Yep, gonna have to play the actual game for a while (or spend some money) if you want to upgrade your artifacts.

Or... you know... don't.

If all you're interested in playing is the half-baked PvP add on mode, artifacts (particularly weapons) probably don't as much. They don't have tenacity or anything, so stuff you buy in the Trade of Blades might be better anyway.

You need the marks (greater or otherwise) after you feed the artifacts the refining points required to level it up to the next tier (rare, epic, legendary, etc.). Each tier typically costs progressively more than the last. For example, ranking up from uncommon to rare might cost two normal marks of something and one lesser; ranking from rare to epic would cost one or two greater marks of something, a normal mark of something, and a lesser mark... and so on.

Also, if you're making AD, you can buy refining stones and stuff on the AH for AD as well. And don't forget you can exchange AD for Zen too. In the case of the blood rubies, they actually cost fewer AD than converting to Zen and buying them from the store. I don't think they're worth it in either case though. Dragon's Hoard enchantments and playing PvE (even farming adventure zones) is the most cost-effective way to upgrade artifact equipment. It can even be fun.

Lots of info, thanks.

pentnoir · May 2015

My method is pretty brain dead grinding with hoard enchants in neverdeath dragon area. I can aggro multiple groups at a time for mass drops. The gold is also nice as I can trade with it. It was easy to level them up to epic, but for legendary, I'm saving the refining stones for the next double event.

obliviousluster · May 2015

lordsarverious wrote: »

Have to get off your high horse and go play PVE. Otherwise, you aren't going to level that artifact. Drops in PVP are few and usually not very good. I think farming PK Epic for drake seals and cheap drops is best. Drake Seals = purple items to put into your artifact.

You can put some nice gear into an artifact, or salvage it for rough astral diamonds and then buy refining stones with those. The most common gear to use is the drake gear rings- which refine an artifact for 650 points. However, they salvage for roughly 6k rough astral diamonds. Aquamarines are currently worth around 5k at this point and refine for 1,500 points. So you can either get 3,250 (650 x 5) points with using the rings, or get 30,000 astral diamonds from salvaging and buy 5 aquamarines for 7,500 points. This wont exactly be worth it if aquamarines rise in price though...

I feel like the refinement for artifacts is far too demanding, and indefinitely steers players towards the cash shop. If they would cut back on the amount of refinement points required to upgrade, then I think a lot of people would be happier, but sadly, I don't see this ever becoming a reality since they rely upon the cash shop to pay the bills. I cant blame Cryptic/Perfect World Entertainment, but I lost lots of friends in the PC version because they refused to do anything about the staggering number of refinement for artifacts.

nechr0 · May 2015

You can also use those bound epic drops and salvage them for rough astral, and then buy level 60 rare weapons from the tradehouse for cheap and use them to upgrade your weapon.

Basically get lesser dragon hoard enchantments(DragonHoard or better if you have the cash to spend, can always sell them back too)

Play either...Pirates king, castlenever or kill cultists by dragons.

strictlyevil · May 2015

I actually prefer to get a few of the same type of artifact weapon up to epic using refinement stones during double xp and then using the extras to refine into my main used one. Tends to get me about 1.5 mil or more RP each double xp for each item I do this with.

atlas77777 · May 2015

I got my weapon, lantern, and belt to legendary last double rp event. I saved everything I had for a month and converted all my AD to zen when it was cheapest (ended up close to 50k zen) and used blood rubies. I also bought peridot on the AH as long as I could get close to a 1:1 ratio AD/rp. I'll still snag any refinement stone if I know I can get a 1.1 ratio for double refinement, and if you buy zen at 160-162 AD you're looking at 1.07 ratio with blood rubies.

But back then the shirts and pants I sold were going for 250-280k each. Now these idiots on the AH want to sell them for 50k-80k a piece. Hard to make nearly as many AD as I was at the time, but I'm still doing the same strategy for next double refinement.

trappy1026 · May 2015

I feel you atlas. The market is plummeting for shirts/pants, I'm furious about it lol.

atlas77777 · May 2015

trappy1026 wrote: »

I feel you atlas. The market is plummeting for shirts/pants, I'm furious about it lol.

Well, if you're anything like me, you rode that wave as long as you could haha

trappy1026 · May 2015

What boost do you get for putting artifact weapon into artifact weapon? This could be appealing, since I have a bunch of bones/gems etc laying around.

strictlyevil · May 2015

5x multiplier to RP given.

trappy1026 · May 2015

strictlyevil wrote: »

5x multiplier to RP given.

Thanks. Immensely helpful! Have my bow at purple, may just grind to get more arties and save them for double rp, not much doin right now for me otherwise as campaign is maxed, etc.

tellistorterra · May 2015

Just got the one Artifact Bow i've wanted on Nora. Golden Dragon's Tooth

(for rapid shot/rapid strike) on the first try in the Campaign Task.

Took a lot of tries on NWPC. but now that i have it, i'm going to be running dungeons for rare quality gear lol. and saving up Sigils for Shores of Tuern and Lair of Lostmauth. but which should i get first: skirmish or dungeon?

ancojo · May 2015

strictlyevil wrote: »

I actually prefer to get a few of the same type of artifact weapon up to epic using refinement stones during double xp and then using the extras to refine into my main used one. Tends to get me about 1.5 mil or more RP each double xp for each item I do this with.

I just got my first Artifact bow weapon but it wasn't the one I wanted so would I be wasting refining points if I refine it to the highest level before needing to upgrade with all the stones but then stopping or would I loose all the refining points if I dont take the final step but feed it into another artifact weapon?

Thanks

lvlkarmalvl · May 2015

ancojo wrote: »

I just got my first Artifact bow weapon but it wasn't the one I wanted so would I be wasting refining points if I refine it to the highest level before needing to upgrade with all the stones but then stopping or would I loose all the refining points if I dont take the final step but feed it into another artifact weapon?

Thanks

http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Artifact_weapon

There is a table half way down that page that references how much RP it takes to level up to that point, and then how much RP that level of artifact weapon would be worth. From how I'm reading that, it looks like leveling past level 4 would cause you to lose RP points. There was a really good discussion on the PC side of these forums where I found this information - maybe do a general forums search for it but it pretty much comes down to diminishing returns. The only reason I could see to do it would be to have a use for dumping green and blue equipment drops into it rather than selling them or filling up your inventory.

ancojo · May 2015

Thanks for that, it does seem to show diminishing returns so I think I'll stop refining the bow.

Thanks again

Leveling Your Artifact Weapon

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