I'm just curious about artifacts. I started playing with release of SI and left probably about 6 months after TOA came out. Came back when Catacombs released for a little while, but I think I played on a non-toa server. Then dropped out again. Then came back again about a year ago or so.

Anyway, it seems that at first, Artis were the bees-knees. If you didnt have the time/energy/desire to get them (and the level them), you just could not compete. Now they are still around, but, for the most part, dont seem to be the must-haves they once were.

My question is - did arties, as a whole, get nerfed, or did other items and armor just surpass them in general greatness?

there are still some pretty must-have artifacts. Egg of Youth is ALWAYS wanted. Croc Tear Ring is a good one to have as well. Some still like Winged Helm and Jacina's Sash. Maddening Scalars is used a lot as well. Just look through templates. Mostly going to be the artifacts with the useful /use

 

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Other items surpassed most artifacts over the years.

While a few of the charges/abilities are still useful, Shades of Mist, Bracer of Zo, Pheobus, Winged Helm, Staff of God, Ceremonial Bracers, egg of youth, croc tear ring...
The utility of each slot is weighed and considered more now then ever. And there are competing non-artifact items with utility and strong /use abilities.

I have a template now with only 1 artifact on my main. If I could "fit" more, I would but it is tough to sacrifice the utility.

Also some classes are yet without access to many artifacts, thane for example, has access to only 2 of the most compelling arties and the full use of their abilities.

 

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Actually, artifacts are still extremely profound. Three main things:

1) Artifacts are still the primary source of many ToA bonuses
2) Artifacts are usually templated in for a /use ability (like shades of mist proc), or one specific stat (like atlantis tablet spell pierce)
3) With the exception of a couple artis, e.g. EDS, artifacts have low utility

Because of #3 and the desire to cap everything in a template, people look towards the newer gear, which have high utility on top of ToA bonuses

- Dragon gear
- Slayer gear
- ML10 gear
- SI Epic dungeon gear (sidi/galla/tg, primarily the vests and)
- Summoners hall gear

http://www.daoc-toa.net/Artifacts.html

A quick glance over that list and you could name off 25+ artifacts that are used all the time, even more if you take into account battlegrounds (artis are used a lot in CV temps especially).

Artifacts are just more specific to certain archetypes now, and the variations aren't as widely used.

 

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the goal of any template is to cap all bonuses, and fit in as many artifacts as possible. some of the newer gear also has good /use abilities, but all of it has more utility than artifacts. so, everybody would like to 'fit' 6-7 artifacts into their template, but if they do then they're not going to get 400 hits, capped resists, or things like AF or spell duration.

 

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Artifacts usualy have /use or passive abilities (like croc ring) that is still worth it, but utility vise they are not very good, never where. So if you just want pure stats arties are not for you, if you want abilities they give they are still awesome.