I see a lot of people prioritizing AV as their first or second Insane and I think it might not be the best investment.
I'm going through my second SAsc with a Legendary AV and I found that generally it's more than sufficient, here are some details from my experience.

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During the first SAsc (25% AP) I used about 17 Market Raid powers and 22 SM powers (didn't take notes very consistently, sorry), starting from the Siege of Feldmere. In the second SAsc (50% AP) I only needed 10 MR and 14 SM. More AP allowed me to unlock the AV advancement from Phase 2 quicker, saving on powers. About half of those powers can be saved by digging the MR/SM arti. Almost all of those powers came from daily bonus/spinning the wheel, the rest from the maps themselves (I saved a set from from every map on my first run). Roughly, I need 40% less 'MR/SM' every 25% AP I get from SAsc.

MR was needed to make up from money in all the hardened levels (first ascension only) and the regular levels from The Siege of Feldmere until roughly Fort Harbor (first SAsc) and Breaking Green (second SAsc). I don't play Hardened China and Hardened Europe Huge, but based on my experience, you would need to raid markets there even with 100% AV+ and 50% Merc Discount from Phase 2.

I play Hex Earth using the 3 IM route and based on the powers I have left on the map and the average I get from daily bonuses, I will run out of Skip Levels before IMs, so more money from Insane AV wouldn't benefit me in that case.

In my Advancement I prioritized Joint Strike, Additional Mercs, Alloy+, Merc Discount, Draft Boost, Skip Level, Efficient Hospitals, Caches+

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Initially I though I would run out of powers around my 4th/5th SAsc, but now that the numbers are coming in, I'm starting to think I won't need Insane AV at all. Now for the cons:

-Raiding markets can take anywhere between 3 and 10 minutes, depending on the level and accounting for the time it takes to upgrade the mine techs. You need to calculate your maximum raid to make sure you get the most money possible. I have a spreadsheet for that where I input the recipe and the amount of smelters I have and it tells me how much to upgrade the mine itself (you can find the formula from this post https://www.warzone.com/Forum/570602-church-smmr )

-Less money impacted my ability to maximize drafts by upgrading army camps to insane levels. However, that's only temporary because the draft boost advancements will make up for it already at around 50%.

-The post SAsc levels are almost impossible without maxed out Advancement and an Insane AV. You can't Market Raid your way out of that, mercs are just too expensive.

With all of that said, I will definitely make an Insave AV at some point, but I would first prioritize other artifacts, like Army Cache Boost and Time Warp that can offer better value. After that, I would probably go for Cache Boost or even Hospital Boost, but I guess that depends on the play style.

Feel free to chime in with more info on your runs

@geforce
There are different ways to play, and you can absolutely get by w/o AV at all if you compensate for it. I compensate with Insane TW & IM. Who needs AV when you just drain the mercs from merc camps? Conversely, who needs IM when you can drain the money from markets and buy mercs?

Insane AV is absolutely worth it - when the time is right, but to your point, if you're getting by fine with Leg, figure out where you need the biggest buff and augment/upgrade that

At some point you'll find though, that with Insane AV, things just get easier; take Hex Earth for example; if you have Insane AV + 125% Additional Mercs Adv + 100% Alloy Values Adv + 100% Cache Money + Leg Money Cache Boost + Leg Merc Discounts + 50% Merc Discounts Adv, you can finish it with just 1 IM instead of 2-4 IMs (depending on what other arits/Advs you have and what powers you do/don't use) by using the markets to buy mercs (b/c you have more mercs that are cheaper and have enough money to buy them to get to the West Russia army cache); and if you drop an Insane QS or TS (maybe even Leg) at the right spot, you can even finish it with 0 IMs

Similar for other levels; maybe you _can_ finish it with Leg AV, but you'd finish it more easily with Insane AV

I can only describe my experience with my insane AV, and you may (and must) draw your own conclusions out of it...

My style/gameplay so far is, that I only have 2 artifact slots (insane AV and leg SAC) and discarded everything after each of my so far 4 super ascensions. Furthermore, I am trying to collect only minimal AP during a super run, so I will never have phase 4 advancements, for instance. In the moment I unlock phase 4, I am basically ready to super ascend again (just playing HEX 2-3 times and push the button).

So what do I need the AV for? Being ready to apply market strat for the plain normal levels in the first (and only) ascension.

Early to mid normal levels (up until Africa or Rise)
They are super easy. The problem is never money, but only that my additional mercs (AM) is not yet high enough. Even with +100% AP, the maps 1 to (n-1) do not generate enough AP that my current AM are sufficient to speed run level n. However, insane AV helps in some aspects:
* I never pay attention to only buy mercs after I have the merc tech tree
* I barely bother waiting for the AV tech tree before raiding the markets
* I dont bother looking whether the very first hospital is super expensive to upgrade to the next level, I just do it
* I dont need to waste precious AP to alloy sell value or merc discount, but can dump every AP into AM
* Even with the above points, I can often still pump all army camps to ~100B upgrade cost, which helps with emptying the sliding draft pool faster...
Can I beat the levels with leg AV? Definitely. Will it be easy. Probably. Can I do it without caring at all? Dunno.

Mid hardened levels (HPele to HCCC)
These are nasty, even with insane AV. The maps just dont generate enough money from markets. They dont do with leg AV and they definitely dont do it with insane AV (alone). So I postpone those maps until after Africa/Rise to have enough AP collected to invest into IASV.
I could do them earlier, but then I would have to spend more time for the map and/or invest APs in a different order...

Some late levels (Garga, US, Trisk, HC, HEH)
These are nasty, even with insane AV. I was never able to beat HEH in under a day so far (remember I only have those 2 big artifacts from carry-over plus the few I can collect within ~1 month, so not even a leg TS, for instance). I was short on money with leg AV, I am still with insane AV (even with max IASV and MD).
My strategy so far? Collect enough AP to invest into SL 3 and just never play them. Can I beat them with a bit more time and patience and applying other strats like market raid powers? Yes. Is it worth the effort? For me, I decided against it.

Summary
In my experience, the jump from legendary to insane AV is not as huge as it is/feels from epic to legendary. Maps which do not generate enough money with leg AV will also not generate enough money with an insane one. However, it is a great convenience artifact to not care about money at all on many maps and allows you to shift AP investments to a later point.

Edited 5/7/2023 07:56:54

ok

TLDR: Insane AV gives more money.
For some levels, this means less AP/time investment in advancements and techs that save money.
For some levels, there simply isn't enough money for it even with insane AV, so it doesn't help too much.
In some levels, Insane AV can save IM powers and MR+SM powers.
IM artifact is an alternative to AV.
(Have I missed anything?)
But what about the alternative artifacts that could be upgraded to Insane? Would they be more worth it?


@Valentino why did you just type ok as a forum post? this isn't global chat, don't spam the forum like this.

I think that ACacheB is better then AV at ins but AV is better then ACacheB at Leg. Enough money is enough money, more doesn't do alot, but Increased Army Caches are useful when you have low AM/can't get Cache Boost tech. Other insanes could be CB, TW, IM, ACampB, SAC...

I like my insane AV, definitely speeds up game once you have heavily increased number of mercenaries in camp. That way without using any powers you can quickly (few hours) complete higher tier levels.
On the other hand it's not that useful in super ascension levels where cost of mercenaries is just huge and you don't get enough money from markets