The Seat of Knowledge

[Batix]

Why does everyone claim that this takes so long/is so difficult?

Does the chance to get pristines drop dramatically towards the end of the achievement? Like once you're waiting on just a couple more or something?

I spent one entire day of doing archy yesterday, about 10 hours or so, and I am 9/20 from 0...

[Makarena]

Because when you are 19/20, what are the odds that you are getting that one item you need as pristine? ANd then, after you eventually get it, get it as pristine?

[Zoma]

The first few are easy, but it takes forever later on, unless you get really lucky.

[Deleted]

When you are on 10/20, you are only about 20% done with the achievement. If getting 9 took you 10 hours, then getting all 20 will take you another 40 or so hours. I'd say that's quite some time for an achievement.

edit: i was bored so made you a little table. First column is the amount of pristines you want. Second column is how many solves it will take on average to get that pristine artifact (from the previous one). And the third column is the amount of solves it takes you (on average) to get to that amount of pristines (from the start).
I took a 10% chance for an artifact to be pristine for these numbers.

1	10.0		10.0
2	10.5		20.5
3	11.1		31.6
4	11.8		43.4
5	12.5		55.9
6	13.3		69.2
7 	14.2		83.4
8	15.4		98.8
9	16.7		115.5	
10	18.2		133.7
11	20.0		153.7
12	22.2		175.9
13	25.0		200.9
14	28.6		229.5
15	33.3		262.8
16	40.0		302.8
17	50.0		352.8
18	66.7		419.5
19	100.0		519.5
20	200.0		719.5

[Asmekiel]

Pretty much what Zoma said. The first day I also had 8 or 9, the second day I got 2.

[Batix]

Well, damn. lol ><

[Falu]

I'm like 19/20, and I just gave up on it... I never get the item I need, and when I do, after hours, it's never pristine.... oh the desperation....

[Mormolyce]

Yeah even though the % chance of a pristine remains the same, you're hunting for them out of a shrinking list so your effective pristine discovery rate goes down.

Presumably in the back end you're actually still getting pristines that you already have, but the game just makes them come out normal instead of pristine as dupes would be useless.

[Sanssanity]

Took me around... 3 months to get my last one. I had 19/20 - around 800 solves later I got my last (damn Twin Stein!). Obviously I wasn't working purely on the achievement - and I've seen people with way more than that. The last was definitely the most painful.

To add to that - although I have 40+ solves of most artifacts I still don't have all the 20 X achieves - missing two - one each of pandaren and mogu... Yay RNG

[Deleted]

It's just completely random. The last time I tried to get it was January I think, but I stopped, because I spent more or less three days doing nothing but archaeology without getting the last two pristines I needed. Then last weekend I thought I could try it again and it took exactly five projects to get both...

[Deleted]

55 manacle solves to get my last pristine.

It basically took me half the time that it took to get to 19/20 solves, to get the last pristine.

[Mhyroth]

Last time I checked my solves with the macro I was at around 2100 solves at 19/20. Funny how I see those people who don't care about it get it in 2 days and me, doing achievements and as a completionist, don't get the dam' item. Guess you'll have to be a "newbie" or a "noob" to get things free in this game.

[Ozzayel]

It just is....
I got all but one pristine and it took me months (yes months cos it was so demoralising and frustrating) and hundreds and hundreds of additional solves to finish the damn thing.
By the time I was done i had 1500 solves for mogu/pandaren combined before i got that damn pristine teaset...
My 19th pristine was probably at around 600-700. It was ridiculous and the worst grind i've had in MoP so far.

[Adsertif]

As you get closer to 20, you'll find yourself solving almost 300-400 artifacts before you proc a pristine one.

9/20 isn't even half way, you have a long ways.