Lesser artifacts are much more rare...?

[Hal900x]

Hey all. So I was thinking: if the drop rates are better at higher difficulties, doesn't that mean that the lower the level of artifact recipe, the harder it is to come by? And since higher level artifacts require inclusion of lower, wouldn't that mean you have to excessively farm Normal? Seems to be true for me. Not all that fun to blast through Hades over and over and over in hopes of that one last component to a Divine artifact.

Secondly, and this could just be RNG playing mind tricks, but boy does it seem like certain recipes are extremely rare. In particular, it seems perhaps the Ragnarok recipes are not so well seeded into AE content. I now have dozens of recipes for, say, Hand of Gaia. But after hundreds of hours of farming I have never seen Golden Belt.

I'm sure there are endless posts like this complaining of RNG, and this is subjective too. But I get the strong feeling the Ragnarok itemization/RNG is a big step below the old AE content.

[botebote77]

this has been helpful to me before when i was farming for artifact formulas

https://www.kirmiziperfect.com/titan-quest-arcane-formula-farming-data-by-closetchemist/

as for ragnarok artifacts, yeah it's been weird for me as well.. i have found many new blues/purples already and so far iirc i only found 2 ragnarok recipes.. both dvalin simulacrum

[Hal900x]

Thanks Botebote, I had seen that already and it did seem somewhat useful, for AE at least. However, I noticed in a recent patch that recipe drops were tweaked to be more in line with the level of a boss, at least that's how I read it. So it may no longer be relevant, hard to say.

Like many I immediately rolled a Rune class when I bought Ragnarok. However I am essentially unhappy with the drops and recipes that have been added. Something just seems off compared to Vanilla/IT/AE. By legendary I am poorly geared on my Runesmith after about 400 hours of gameplay, mostly farming. Probably just time to start trading, but I've always been stubborn about "cheating".

[botebote77]

but I've always been stubborn about "cheating".

me too   if it's just items in general, i don't really farm anymore but i got some purples doing all those recorded videos.. those are in xmax legendary so maybe xmax helps.. also, if the drop loot changed i don't think it affected MI drops.. you could try farming for MIs instead.. if your looking for recipes, hmm where did i get those dvalin simulacrum again? 

[tholuneve]

The drop rate are not "better" at higher difficulty or later Acts. They simply drop higher tier items (not necessarily better items), and the total drop rate does not increase, or at least not significant enough to notice.
“Wouldn't that mean you have to excessively farm Normal”
Yes. The drop rate for most recipe, as well as most blue/purple items, are Act-based. For example, if one item has highest drop rate at Epic Typhon, in most cases, it will also have very high drop rates at other Epic A3 bosses (Typhon belong to Act 3 although now it sits in Act 4); and reduced (imo around 1/3) drop rates at Epic A4 bosses. Other than Epic A3 and A4, the drop rate for that item would be extremely low. There are some exceptions, for example the Battlemage set seem to drop both in Epic A3-A4 and Legendary A3-A4.
So if you are looking for ragnarok recipe, the first priority are all Act5 bosses of corresponding difficulty, and the second priority are Act1 bosses of next difficulty.