Development Update: Weapons and Artifacts

DCUO has released a Development Update on Weapons and Artifacts. You can join the discussion about the changes by clicking the prior link but we’ll be summarizing and breaking down each section to help folks understand whats going on.

Above is the Summary and its pretty clear cut. The biggest news here is indeed the Artifacts are going to be increased to its final Rank of 200. According to Mepps on the forums, he teased its “possible” to see the Catalysts get adjusted too and before you ask, he also confirmed there will be no 4th Artifact Slot. The other news is the Venom Wrist Dispenser Artifact (from the Assassin Time Capsule and sold on the Space and Time Vending Machine) will be receiving a nerf while other Artifacts will be getting buffed. What the changes are for these Artifacts is unknown until they appear on the PC Test Server which may be this Friday after the Episode 35 Metal Part 1 Preview Stream.

We also got a summary on the highly requested Weapon Pass looking to bring the Weapons closer together in damage and performance. As they state in their Goal they want players to choose more freely and during testing its best to keep that in mind. Now then, lets take a look at this post.

The Devs have acknowledged the Player’s discussion and desire for the Weapons to get adjusted ever since the Stats Revamp happened. It seems adjusting Weapons also included adjusted the Artifacts, clearly because of Venom Wrist Dispenser and other Artifacts.

While not giving details yet about the specific adjustments to Artifacts, they have increased the performance of the lesser powerful Artifacts which may certainly include the Original Set of Artifacts. Again the biggest change is to Venom Wrist Dispenser which they say was too powerful. Especially to certain Weapon Combos. Its certainly a risky thing because folks have spent real money in order to level up their Artifacts so any adjusting, nerf or buff, is going to not sit well with the Community. But the post below should help alleviate that.

So as with making big changes to in game items that really determine gameplay, the Devs know the changes to Venom Wrist Dispenser are a very big change. So for that they are offering these Gifts.

Gift 1: This item is Per Account and will most likely be Account Bound and you will have 2 weeks to claim the item. So either log into the character you want to have it or use the Shared Bank to give it to an Alt. The Seal of Completion should be the Regular MP version and NOT the Unstable version so this Seal WILL NOT expire. This Pack does not give you an Artifact but will allow you at least Level it with the Perfected Nth Metal (75,000 XP) and all the Catalysts needed to get to Rank 80. You dont really need to use the Seal of Completion to get to Rank 80 so be sure to use it for Rank 120 or Above. You can use the Nth Metal and Seal for whatever you want but I believe the Catalysts will only be set to be used for Ranks up to and including Rank 80.

Gift 2: This item is PER Venom Wrist Dispenser. I can make an educated guess that this means this Gift will go to all characters on your Account that have the Venom Wrist Dispenser in their Inventory or Bank. As long as your Artifact at or above Rank 80 your Artifact will be boosted to the specified Ranks as explained in the image above. As you can see, if your Artifact is between Rank 141 and 160, you’ll have it at the Max Rank of 200 which we may see folks in game grinding right now to get their Artifact to at least Rank 141 and wait for these changes to take place. For players who decide this boost is not worth it due to the changes of the Artifact, this increase in Rank will allow those players to use it as Artifact XP for another Artifact and it will be more XP because of this boost.

This is where we may see a shift in the Precision Meta. Some Combos are getting buffed. Others are getting nerfed. Others may go out for brunch. But ultimately it seems the majority of the Weapons are seeing large buffs and our usual hard hitting Weapons will be getting minor adjustments. Weapon testing will prove to be the trial and error come this Testing Session and maybe we see some underused Weapons come into the fray. But so far we only have the knowledge of Venom Wrist Dispenser still having the 6 Second Buff so the shorter the Combo, the better you will be but it’s all a guess at this point.

Big changes always require big testing (large testing?) and its highly encouraged if players can be on the PC Test Server to help out with the testing. So far we have Artifacts to test and Weapon changes. We’ll also probably have Episode 35 to be tested during this as well so the more the better. For those not able to join the PC Test Server its always encouraged to provide feedback on what you see on paper but do understand things on paper don’t normally mean the same thing when you are in game. Be sure to provide feedback in the relative Threads on the PC Test Server Forum and you can also use the Source Wall Discord Channel to find groups or discuss the changes.