Well, My ST and I were upgrading my 2-dot sword to a 4-dot, and from what we could figure out from Oadenol's Codex, a 4 dot artifact should need a committing of 10 motes. Myself, not being an exalt, I have to double-attune to an artifact made out of the five magical materials, hence 20 motes.
It's statline is:
Speed: 4 Defense 2
Acc: 3 Damage: 16L/5L
Rate: 5 Overwhelming, Piercing.
Attunement: 10, activated: 6: Blazing Solar Bolt (ST modified, unsure on the details.)
Alright, good point.And no, to wear artifact armor, you have to attune to it, because it is otherwise too unbalanced, since artifact armor is in all ways superior to non-artifact armor. Attunement is the balancing cost.
I'll likely be late with my next reply, sorry about that. But.. Yeah.