Secondary Artifacts

The game has changed quite a bit and unlike in the earlier versions of the guide, there is now a much more clear (and less diverse) recommendation on what to use for the remaining three Artifact slots. In all ways there is typically one slot used to fill the Neck-Waist Artifact Set, so only two slots are open.

Mod 28 and Mod 29 added two great Artifact to the battle pass and lockboxes, that made the Stamina Regeneration artifacts more interesting: The Scintillating Symbol of Water and the Heart of the Volcano provide 15% Stamina regeneration! If you can, take these two! If you use the Heart of the Volcano as an active Artifact, then use the Mythallar Fragment as a secondary Artifact! When using Frozen as an active artifact, then taking another Storyteller artifact is recommended to gain the 2-set Storyteller bonus. See the Section below for more Information about the bonus. That's it. All other Artifacts are for beginners!

Information about the Storyteller’s Journal Artifact Bonuses

The old but still very effective way is by using the Storyteller’s Journal set: Frozen, Darkened (or Flayed).

When 2 slots need to be filled (recommended), then the Journal set provides the following Set Bonuses:

• With 2 of them: +2 to all ability scores (tooltip only shows 1, but it gives 2)

• With 2 of them: +0.5% Power for each Journal (together 1% with 2, 1.5% with 3 and 2% with 4) and 5 000 Hit Points for each Journal (10 000 with 2, 15 000 with 3, 20 000 with 4). Multiplied with the 1.25 multiplier for gear presented in the stat insights section leads to an amount of 6 250 / 12 500 / 18 750 / 25 000 gained Hit Points.

In unscaled content for a 100k Item Level Vanguard, the +2 to all ability scores gives around 15 000 Hit Points (CON at 1 500 000 Maximum Hit Points), +1% Forte (CHA), 1% more meelee damage (STR) plus several useful buffs from the remaining ability scores. The two Journals give further 1% Power and 12 500 Hit Points. Overall that is 27 500 Hit Points, +1% Forte for survivability and 1% melee damage + 1% Power + other bonuses which result in at least an increase of 1.5% damage.

When deciding to use 3 Storyteller Artifacts by using Frozen + 2 other Journals (not recommended), then the following bonuses are gained:

3 Storyteller Artifact Bonuses

• With 3 of them: Your powers have a 10% chance to deal additional unresistable damage equal to 10% of your weapon damage. The combat log calls its damage from ‘Tales Artifact Set’. It is pretty negligible with less than 1% of overall damage contributed. However it is useful for triggering the Band of Air.

• With 3 of them: Do an additional Hit on a Critical Hit. This bonus is the same as the one of the Lostmauth set. On a tank, it can contribute on average 2% damage (See the graphics below of a MToS first boss fight). In static fights without much movement the damage contribution may be closer to 4% (see dummy log at the right). The combat log calls its damage ‘Lostmauth Vengeance’.

The third Journal does not provide more ability scores and thus only increases the bonus of Power by 0.5% and Hit Points by 6250. From a survivability perspective, taking the third Journal Artifact is worse than taking two. However, from a damage perspective, the two added bonuses +0.5% Power overshadow the loss of damage from IL. Thus, this choice is still valid to increase the tanks damage and aggro. In my opinion this added bonus however does not outshine the possibility to take any artifact! So do not complain if your group requires you to take something else than Frozen Storyteller’s Journal as an active artifact!

Stamina Regeneration Artifacts

Another fully defensive oriented way was brought in by Mod 22. Stamina Regeneration can be massively gained by old Artifacts. They provide each 15% Stamina Regeneration at barely any cost of Combined Rating (down to only 90 / 75 / 60 / 30 CR for 15% Stamina Regeneration!). There are currently 13 Artifacts featuring Stamina Regeneration:

• Heart of the Volcano (1800 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration, -90 CR)

• Scintillating Symbol of Water (1500 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration, -75 CR)

• Mythallar Fragment (1200 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration, -60 CR)

• Beacon of Simril (600 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration)

• Bloodcrystal Raven Skull (600 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration)

• Champions Banner (600 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration)

• Gond’s Anvil of Creation (600 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration)

• Illusionist's Mask (600 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration)

• Sigil of the Bard (600 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration)

• Sigil of the Ranger (600 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration)

• Sigil of the Warlock (600 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration)

• Symbol of Water (600 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration)

• Wheel of Elements (600 IL, 15% Stamina Regeneration)

As we can see, the Scintillating Symbol of Water and Mythallar Fargment are the most interesting choices. In two or more must be chosen, the others are good choices too. Note that Stamina Regeneration only increases the standard regeneration rate when the Guard is lowered, thus it is not as strong as one might think of.