Random "minor" artifact as a bonus, not so minor!

[Tich]

So who else plays on extra hard and loves seeing the necro player start with the +1 dmg trinket for his skele archers, or the some other Joe getting a +250gold a day trinket, and you're sitting on a +50% earth damage scepter that will be barely be worth it even if you're Sinitar with Implosion.

"Minor" seems like a VERY broad term. If they took out the +dmg and resistance items maybe, but a sack of gold amounts to what? 7k gold every month? For expensive teams like Inferno and say Academy, namely Academy, that means ALOT. What's another bonus? 1k gold? This is 7 times that after a MONTH, and these are considered bonuses?

I just see a disparity between 7k gold, 70 skele archers hitting like a trio of titans after the Battle Fenzy they net after the 3rd day or so, and me sitting on a + earth damage trident that I will never use.

I maybe play 1 real game with all my friends every 2 weeks, you know like 6 or 8 of us, big MP game, lots of fun, but seriously, this seems bigger then good starting heroes since basically every team has a good starting hero and can creep basically the same speed, but we notice when a game has been labeled someone's since the start due to artifacts. I am refering to my previous examples where a necro had battle frenzy and +1 dmg trinket on day 2 and creeped to 500 skeles in blistering speed, and an Academy player pimping out way too soon with his artifacts for his titans and golems, amazing + magic resist (like 70% with the 15% thing from luck?) and blew us all away with Armagheddon. We noticed the free 21k by the 3rd month.

Does anyone else feel that way?

[Blaze85]

Random starting artifact is not for a serious mp game imho.
Play with the gold or resource bonus.

[Tich]

Random starting artifact is not for a serious mp game imho.
Play with the gold or resource bonus.

We're not serious about it, it's just annoying. The other bonuses are trivial compared to most artifacts.

[winterfate]

Oh yes. What you say is completely true.

IMO, the two strongest artifacts you can start with are:

1. The Sack of Gold - 250 gold per day (totally abusive because you will gain a lot of extra gold by the time you can actually be attacked).
2. Necklace of the Bloody Claw - +1 unit damage. This'll own the first 1-2 months of the game (where most units are under 3rd level anyway). As you say, Necromancers are totally evil with that.

[Elvin]

Well I have also started with pendant of the sea elves...Risky.

[Tich]

Oh yes. What you say is completely true.

IMO, the two strongest artifacts you can start with are:

1. The Sack of Gold - 250 gold per day (totally abusive because you will gain a lot of extra gold by the time you can actually be attacked).
2. Necklace of the Bloody Claw - +1 unit damage. This'll own the first 1-2 months of the game (where most units are under 3rd level anyway). As you say, Necromancers are totally evil with that.

I just had to point out that Casino owners must LOVE you. But yeah, 7k gold a month is rediculous.

[winterfate]

...on a map with no water!

I know, those are the games you wish you could pick the artifact . (or wish you had taken the gold!)

@Tich: Never been to a Casino in my life (I get a feeling I would be their best client though ).

[Tich]

Well I have also started with pendant of the sea elves...Risky.

The whole point of my post is that "minor" artifact encompasses a spectrum so broad that games are won or lost by it.

[Elvin]

You are exaggerating. Only the necklace of the bloody claw can be gamebreaking and if there weren't more powerful arties in why would anyone bother to choose it? Btw does anyone?

[winterfate]

I do actually. The other two bonuses are lame, IMO (even in Heroic).
Back in 3, you might have needed to take gold at Impossible.

The logic that drives my decision is that while most artifacts are iffy, most will be worth over 1000 gold (I tend to get the +2 spellpower plate a lot, that'll help more than 1000 gold).

[Elvin]

I rather prefer the resources.

[Tich]

You are exaggerating. Only the necklace of the bloody claw can be gamebreaking and if there weren't more powerful arties in why would anyone bother to choose it? Btw does anyone?

I never said they were all good. I said 2 were good, too good, game breaking good. The point of my post was that it IS game breaking, so you roll the dice and if you get lucky, guess what, you win. If you get a bad item you're (AT WORST) down 1k gold or a few resources your team uses alot of, and you still have an ok artifact. I'll take that dice roll thanks!

[winterfate]

I rather prefer the resources.

Who do you play as? Perhaps it's your playstyle (I've never felt comfortable taking the resources, they feel so...limited).

Even though the Sea Elves Pendant is a lot more limiting .

[Elvin]

Necro->kinda...
Academy->No comment
Dungeon->mage guild if nothing else
Sylvan->must
inferno->heh, it's badly needed

Only necro, haven and fortress(for now) don't really need it. I generally care much about what I'll built in week 2 and resources are a safer bet than an artifact. I like depending on luck occasionally but I prefer stability in some things.

[winterfate]

I see. You make a good point.

[Tich]

Necro->kinda...
Academy->No comment
Dungeon->mage guild if nothing else
Sylvan->must
inferno->heh, it's badly needed

Only necro, haven and fortress(for now) don't really need it. I generally care much about what I'll built in week 2 and resources are a safer bet than an artifact. I like depending on luck occasionally but I prefer stability in some things.

Resources are random, if you get gems, mercury, ore, crystal it's just not worth it. The only think Inferno seems to guzzle down is Sulfur and Wood and so if you hit either of those that's fine, but "stability"? I end up selling my gems and crystal they are so uneeded, and ore too more often then not, so I can hardly call that stable. Gold is nice, but I mean even that is a sretch since you seem to need resouces more then gold until way later.

I dunno, to ME, Inferno needs 2 of the 6 possible resources, so i can hardly call that "stable." Even then, a +1 luck or morale artifact is GREAT since Nightmares and Cerebi just seem like lucky creatures in general in terms of double activations/crit attacks.

[Elvin]

Not random, the dercription lies! By experience I know they give:
academy&fortress->gems
sylvan->crystal
dungeon->sulfur
inferno->mercury
haven&necro->wood+ore

Alright I was wrong about fortress, it's imperative that you pick resources.

[Banedon]

The Sylvan Resource bonus is a real shame. Sylvan needs Wood and lots of it, without needing the Crystals except to upgrade the Pixies. The bonus should've been Wood, make things easier for Sylvan early.

I kinda thought the Resource bonus for everyone was Wood and Ore (too much Heroes 3), but when I realized it gave Crystal for Sylvan I started taking Artifact.

[okrane]

I always take artifacts. The reason: pretty simple: even in heroic you start with some resources, so the bonus is not that significant. OTOH an articaft can be really useful. I disagree that a +damage to spells artifact is useless. It is all a warlock could wish, and it is also very useful to the other races that have a good spellcasting hero(like academy, necro, dwarves, and later on even ranger)

[durin]

For a Warlock the Necromancers Helm can make a huge difference in the first few weeks to avoid having to return to the castle or waste a day using Dark Ritual to regain mana.