Development Update: Artifact Catalyst Consolidation
/A new Development Update post was given to us today about Artifact Catalyst Consolidation.
We all know the Catalyst Cache nightmare that is currently in game with opening a box inside of a box inside of another box. The devs have known about this issue and have finally released a plan of action on how they will handle the situation.
This plan is to come out with Game Update 97/Episode 35. They are condensing the 21 known Catalysts down to 3. The Dionesium (Common Catalyst) will cost 7 Source Marks, the Quantum Field Energy (Uncommon Catalyst) will cost 10 Source Marks, and the Paradox Energy (Rare Catalyst) will cost 15 Source Marks. These Catalysts will be sold by John Constantine so the method will not change. This also means that the Bonus Catalyst Weekends when they occur will be changing to allow these new ones to drop. With them being broken down into Rarities, the question is will we see these drop from specific instance types? Will the Dionesium drop in Solos/Duos? Will the Quantum Energy drop in Alerts? Will the Paradox Energy drop in Raids? Or will they work like before and these 3 catalysts will just drop randomly from all instances?
They have also stated you will be able to consume the current Catalysts and gain 10 Source Marks. This exchange can be done after the Game Update hits Live Servers in September. The Catalyst Packs in the Marketplace have also been removed and New Packs with these new Catalysts later on and there will be fewer.
A Question was asked on the Official Forums and Stealthblue offered some math on the subject of Source Marks Cost buying the New Catalysts vs the Old Catalysts.
Having the Common Catalyst cost 7 Source Marks is a weird number to start off with but Stealthblue taking the Current # of Catalysts needed for a Breakthrough in mind, he looked at what the Cost will be at each Rank 20-160 including the Pricing for Uncommon and Rare Catalysts.
Original Pricing:
20/30/60/90/120/150/180/210
Catalyst Prices: 7, 10, 15
14/24/56/88/120/152/184/216 (So save some Source Marks at the beginning in this comparison and at Rank 120 we see the increase in Source Mark costs which isnt that much of an increase.)
He took it one step further by also providing a look at Costs if the Common was at the Community suggested 5 Source Marks.
Catalyst Prices: 5, 10, 15
10/20/50/80/110/140/170/200 (So with this model we as players are saving 10 Source Marks each Rank which of course isn’t too bad for us but possibly a too big of savings in the eyes of Developers.)
As Stealthblue mentions too, the # of Catalysts needed for each Rank could indeed change entirely and this model would not reflect the actual changes.Its at least fun to play with numbers.
This update to the Artifact Catalyst system is a great addition to the recent announcement about the Weapon and Artifact Changes. We still have Friday’s Episode 35: Metal Part 1 Preview stream to get ready for and hopefully we will see what these new Catalysts look like and how many we will be needing. If the PC Test Server does open this weekend we’ll have as much information to give you as we test and find everything we can.