Edit: Unfortunately this theory has been disproved. It might have been accurate initially, we never know what the Devs do behind those doors. 🙂
An article was brought to my attention (via the Contact form, thanks Yaushee). It’s from an Orc named Odok who explains how you can increase your chance of initially finding the rare artifacts.
Using the rules that govern if a player can be eligible for an artifact, you can give yourself a higher chance at say Zin’rokh.
There are only three main reasons a player can be ineligible for an artifact:
1). Their skill is too low
2). It’s a rare the player has already completed
3). It’s a repeat of a common artifact when the player has yet to complete all available common artifacts.
That third point is how you can effectively “cheat” the system.
Check out the rest of the article here.
Article by: Odok @ winterwolves.org – Jan 5, 2011
This is merely a speculation. No one proved this.
A speculation worth mentioning 😀
“It’s a repeat of a common artifact when the player has yet to complete all available common artifacts.”
I’m pretty sure that’s not true. I’ve had repeats of common artifacts many times, and I have not completed all available ones at all. Which pretty much means his entire speculation is wrong.
Interesting. Were you high enough skill to collect all commons when you had repeats?
as noted below, yes. saving troll solves until 450 (no longer practical with the fragment cap) showed repeats, repeats, and repeats. no zin’rokh, though.
odd… I didn’t capitalize every word, but the comment posted that way.
What about the Vial of Sands recipe? Isn’t that only available to Alchemists?
“It’s a repeat of a common artifact when the player has yet to complete all available common artifacts.”
while this was a popular throry when archeology was launched, it is absolutely false. from the FAQ on wowdigsite:
Q: Will I find a second copy of common object?
A: Yes – You will find copies of artifacts unfortunately, often before finding every unique/single one.
from personal experience: I have, in the pursuit of zin-rokh, ground out archeology on three toons, each before the fragment cap, and each saving troll solves until 450 skill. commons frequently repeat before ‘rerolling’ new commons.
the entire premise of this speculation rests on an erroneous assumption.
Hello. I’m the one who suggested this article to the admin. At this this time i hadn’t completely validated this theory (because damn, didn’t want to dig more after finding my Zin’rokh), but with my spare time I decided to finish all of the Troll commons to see if it was true, or if I just had incredible luck.
In the end I didn’t get ANY duplicate until the 14th artifact was in project. Here is the screenshot of the artifact solving count using Professor :
http://membres.lycos.fr/dsfc/arch_theory.jpg
It’s not a DEFINITIVE proof, one could say I had incredible luck without ANY duplicates at all AND finding Zin’rokh, but somehow I doubt it 🙂
To those who found duplicates, I think you either stared solving before 450, or found all 14 and started getting duplicates.
So you’re the guy single handedly responsible for destroying any credibility this site may have wished to garner. Point 3, the point the article author’s argument is entirely dependent upon, is provably false, and has been proven false multiple times on multiple sites where the article was posted.
The thing about this theory is that to disprove it only takes one person getting duplicate commons. And TONS of people have reported getting duplicate commons when there were other commons still available to them.
I’ll believe it when I see it, at least I bring some evidence 🙂
I don’t suppose which you may be following up this post with an additional 1? I adore what you wrote right here, but I’d enjoy to get a lot more information.
yeah…
[21:04] Troll
[21:04] × [Zin’rokh, Destroyer of Worlds]
[21:04] + [Drakkari Sacrificial Knife]×6
[21:04] + [Cinnabar Bijou]×4
[21:04] + [Gahz’rilla Figurine]×4
[21:04] + [Zandalari Voodoo Doll]×4
[21:04] + [Tooth with Gold Filling]×4
[21:04] + [Skull-Shaped Planter]×5
[21:04] + [Lizard Foot Charm]×3
[21:04] + [Jade Asp with Ruby Eyes]×3
[21:04] + [Fetish of Hir’eek]×3
[21:04] + [Atal’ai Scepter]×6
[21:04] + [Fine Bloodscalp Dinnerware]×7
[21:04] + [Bracelet of Jade and Coins]×9
[21:04] + [Eerie Smolderthorn Idol]×4
[21:04] + [Feathered Gold Earring]×7
Probably way too late to really add to this discussion, and this may be discarded as anecdotal, but…
I recently (in the past 2 weeks), on my 450 Arch character, decided to go complete Orc, Draenai, Nerubian, and Vrykul artifacts. Every common, every rare. In all 4 cases, I never had a repeat of a common artifact before I had solved them each once, while checking the numbers of commons available in Atlasloot. Once or twice might be happenstance if point 3 is incorrect, but 4 times?
Pretty sure same was true for every other race, the just weren’t recent. I was counting the artifacts available vs those solved and every time I got to repeating commons, I had solved them all, at least those available at my skill level. This has been true of both characters I’ve levelled arch on. It still seems like a viable theory to me.
This theory has been disproved? Link please. You need to either prove that the author’s third point is untrue, or that the artifact allocation doesn’t work as the author believes. It’s still only a theory, but I haven’t seen any actual “evidence” disproving it as yet.
So, to disprove, we need one of these:
• A screenshot that shows you have dug any single race COMMON more than once, while you are still missing commons of that same race.
• A Blizzard post detailing the mechanics of how the artifacts are determined, proving it is a different system to what is speculated here.