Game of Thrones: Kingsroad has introduced a new artifact, the 'Broken Sword', alongside the latest season update. It is a passive artifact that grants bonus effects every time you use an active skill. As a standard Legendary tier item, it is relatively easy to obtain, and you can even acquire 8 of them using the current season pass currency—a solid choice for a quick power spike. So, how does it actually stack up against other artifacts? Let’s dive into the performance comparison.

Performance of the Broken Sword

The Broken Sword stacks the 'Deadly Sharpness' buff each time a skill is used. This buff lasts for 15 seconds and can stack up to five times. With each stack, you gain a 1.0% boost to attack power and a 1.2% increase in skill damage, while your fury cost drops by 1.2%.

At 1-star, hitting maximum stacks reduces the cooldown of your active skill by 10%. However, since this only triggers once every 60 seconds, it is less effective in actual combat. At 3-stars, you get a 30% chance to restore 10 fury on skill use and a 5.5% damage increase for 5 seconds, which enhances the artifact's utility. Finally, at 5-stars, maxing out your stacks nets you an extra 6.5% skill damage. The 4-star and 7-star upgrades focus on buffing the core stats of the artifact.

By the time you reach a 7-star Broken Sword, maintaining max stacks gives you a 10% attack boost, 15.5% skill damage, and a 5.5% total damage increase. Plus, the 10% cooldown reduction and 9% lower fury cost are nice little extras.

Drawbacks of the Broken Sword

The maximum effect of the Broken Sword is only realized when you have at least 5 stacks of the 'Deadly Sharpness' buff. In other words, you need to go through a 'warm-up' process of using skills 5 times to enjoy the full benefits. While the 15-second duration makes it easy to keep the buff active, it falls off significantly in scenarios like the Kraken Raid Phase 3 where stacking is difficult. It also struggles to perform in content with short play times, such as 'Worm Path' or 'Beyond the Wall'.

Comparison with other artifacts

I compared it against the 'Letter of Corso Scholar' and the 'White Staff', which are commonly used by players, using the 5-star mark as the benchmark for peak performance.

Compared to the popular White Staff, the trade-offs are clear. The White Staff remains the king of convenience and sustain. You do not need to worry about maintaining buffs, and it offers superior reliability through shields and health recovery every time a skill is used.

On the flip side, the Broken Sword is an absolute monster in terms of pure offensive potential. At max stacks, the 'Active Skill Damage Increase' stat more than doubles that of the White Staff, and you get extra bonuses to attack and overall damage. If you have the mechanical skill to read enemy patterns and avoid taking hits, the Broken Sword is a highly effective choice.

The Letter of Corso Scholar scales damage based on your current fury, so managing that resource is essential for max efficiency. Like the Broken Sword, it requires a bit of prep, but there is a critical difference: The Letter of Corso Scholar consumes fury with every skill use, which can lead to efficiency dips in specific windows.

While it depends on your character build, the general benchmark is 200 fury. If you have 201 fury or more, the Letter of Corso Scholar is superior, but once you drop below 200, the Broken Sword takes the lead. If you are playing a class that spam-casts and drains fury rapidly, the Broken Sword offers a much more stable and reliable performance.