my sister and i have tested the system thoroughly on balhae (the deadest of all dead shards). the breakdown is, if you kill 5+ mobs at a champion spawn, you have a chance an artifact, period. you dont have to even touch the boss. to be honest, the numbers we seem to come up with is if you dont touch the boss you have a better chance at getting an artifact (although this is probably just random chance). dying is irrelevant. even if dying wiped your looting credits, all you would have to do is res and kill 5 or more champion spawn monsters again. you can even kill monsters after the champion boss has spawned, not do damage to the boss, and still have a chance at an artifact. we've gotten several trying this method.
we have only tested the artifact system on felucca vermin spawns, as this is the easiest one to do with 2 people. your complaints may hold true for the ilsh and tokuno spawns, although i doubt it because they all work on the same principles
my suggestion, if you want artifacts, make a stealth mage, go find pvp guilds that are fel spawning, and drop random EVs and kill a few dozen champion mobs. stay on the same subserver as the boss at all times. or just get in a pvp guild
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