Community Question: Sharn Artifacts

[Aelonwy]

Was there a deliberate change in the drop rate of Sharn Minor Artifacts recently?

I have just run twice (in the past two weeks) the Sharn sagas on Legendary True Elite with my hubby and son and NONE are dropping for any of us, not in the quests, not on the sagas. Are they now only available from the raids?

 

[Jack Jarvis Esquire]

Unsure.

But I am sure RNG can be a pig.

 

[rabidfox]

not on the sagas

Since you used this in plural, just remember they come out of the main saga not the cogs saga reward list.

 

[Vua]

Was there a deliberate change in the drop rate of Sharn Minor Artifacts recently?

I have just run twice (in the past two weeks) the Sharn sagas on Legendary True Elite with my hubby and son and NONE are dropping for any of us, not in the quests, not on the sagas. Are they now only available from the raids?

I have been soloing it every life in epic and usually get a drop and 1 on the list each life. Bad luck is my guess and i have a lot of that. I've still never pulled a bloodstone from a chest I hit over 3000 times at least through the years. I don't want it now, but it's the principle.

 

[mbartol]

We players are never happy, are we? We complain that the BTC minor artifacts fill up our precious bank space, so SSG graciously reduced the drop rate to prevent bank bloat. And, naturally, someone has to come to the forums to complain about the fix. SMH

/s (in case it wasn’t evident)

 

[erousted8]

Symptom of a wider bug.

 

[Douglas Glyndwr]

Sounds like you've been generally lucky. Sharn artifacts don't drop a lot for me in-quest, but I usually get a pick or three in the saga.

 

[Aelonwy]

I guess it could be just really awful RNG but it seems... well unlikely.

I know when we first started running the quests we would see 2-3 between us just running the quests and at least one on the saga. But to be skunked twice in a row on the saga... ALL 3 of us? And none in any chest at all? Legendary Elite all the way. I don't know what the odds are but apparently they stink.

 

[PurpleSerpent]

I guess it could be just really awful RNG but it seems... well unlikely.

I know when we first started running the quests we would see 2-3 between us just running the quests and at least one on the saga. But to be skunked twice in a row on the saga... ALL 3 of us? And none in any chest at all? Legendary Elite all the way. I don't know what the odds are but apparently they stink.

I had to run the full saga, on R1, three times before I saw my first artifact. This was back in mid-2020, and naturally it wasn't the one I was after - that took me twelve saga runs in the end.

As for the saga end rewards business, the chances of 9 straight failures is 1 in 512, or roughly 0.2%. This is a low probability, but still well without the bounds of possibility. It's irritating, but probability cares not for the lives of us mere mortals.

If you really are getting sick of running the Sharn saga, I'd suggest running the Sharn raids a few times. At least the artifacts are on the standard end loot list there, and if you can stomach running the raid you need 20 times, you can get one artifact of your choice guaranteed.

 

[Aelonwy]

I guess we've just been very lucky in previous years with regards to Minor Artifacts so the absence of what we considered normal feels weird and awful. By the way its not me that needs one, its my son, we are running with him to help him gear.

 

[droid327]

I guess it could be just really awful RNG but it seems... well unlikely.

I know when we first started running the quests we would see 2-3 between us just running the quests and at least one on the saga. But to be skunked twice in a row on the saga... ALL 3 of us? And none in any chest at all? Legendary Elite all the way. I don't know what the odds are but apparently they stink.

At a generous 50% drop rate, there's still a 1.6% chance to skunk out on 6 rolls for the saga reward

At a more realistic 33%, it goes up to 8.2%

As far as the chests - I think the Artifact drop rate there is 10%, and 10 quests * 3 players * 2 sagas = 60 rolls. That gives a 0.18% chance to skunk, which is definitely unlucky but not astronomical. I usually arbitrarily peg 0.1% (1 in 1000) as the cutoff for "time to question RNG"...there's at least 1000 people playing any given week, so someone is statistically bound to be that unlucky.

Not that I'm excusing this game design - its more just explaining how statistics work, and the high variance some are going to experience from the average, with any sample size this large. This highlights the ongoing need for a conservative-but-still-extant safety net system for loot drops, because no one should have to farm 60 rolls to get the item they want.

 

[Lazuli]

Was there a deliberate change in the drop rate of Sharn Minor Artifacts recently?

I have just run twice (in the past two weeks) the Sharn sagas on Legendary True Elite with my hubby and son and NONE are dropping for any of us, not in the quests, not on the sagas. Are they now only available from the raids?

I did the saga last week, and I got several artifacts. What I have noticed since they released the pack is that its drop is low, and luck is capricious. Other times I have not gotten any artifact in one, or even in two runs of the saga.

In short, I haven't noticed any change in the drop, and the artifacts are still dropping judging from my experience last week. But the loot system in this game can be incredibly frustrating, you have all my sympathies.

 

[jotmon]

SSG says they don't change drop rates...
Player experience indicates otherwise..
who are we to question SSG.