What happens to Artifact Weapons in 8.0?

[Sliske]

So we all know by now that content is generally 'abandoned' with each .0 patch. We aren't still running Vault of Archavon, or tending to our farm at Sunsong Ranch. The key different between those things and the Artifact weapons is that they dramatically change our classes in some cases. Some artifact abilities are basically fundamental components to the rotation, where as others (like the fury warriors Odyns Fury) are more just flavourful 'hit this to do a cool animation and some decent damage' abilities.

So with that said, and the major spec changing ones in mind, what will happen in 8.0?

Will we keep our Artifacts? Possibly. There is definitely room to grow with this system. But that means basically abandoning any upcoming weapon models and an entire gear slot becomes automatically obtained every expansion, leading to a feel of less gear progression.

Will we abandon them? Again possibly. We've abandoned seemingly important shit in the past. We abandoned Wintergrasp, Tol Barad, and will soon abandon Ashran and the Garrison system. However this leads to the weird feeling of unequiping your Ashbringer to equip a green [Spikey Mace of the Monkey] in 8.0 questing.

Has there been anything said about this? I'm sure its been asked before, but has it ever been answered? What do you think will happen to Artifacts and the whole fantasy of you being the top dog of your class in 8.0?

[Daedius]

Get replaced by greens, obviously.

[nVIDIA]

We sacrifice all artifacts for defeating sargeras

[Schattenlied]

As long as we retain the ability to use them for transmog after Legion, I don't care what happens to them.

[Deleted]

So with that said, and the major spec changing ones in mind, what will happen in 8.0?

Same thing that happens every expansion. We replace our gear while leveling to new max level. Blizz will change our rotations to match the loss of some artifact abilities while making others baseline, like with the WoD perks. All in all, the game will continue to change every expansion and we will more or less ignore previous content.

[Kryos]

The same that happened with the Ragnaros Hammer, Thunderfury and all the other weapons. They are useless and just good for bragging rights. Well the Legion Artifacts are not even good for that. Maybe we are allowed to keep the transmog looks and that's it.

[Deleted]

perhaps a piece breaks off of them on the final boss for the last 18 months of the last tier of Legion

on another note, do we really care right now ?

[zubaja]

We don't know, My guess would be that our weapons will break or be sacrificed against the last boss of the final Legion Tier.

But what about non-raiding casuals? Oh wait, I'm one of those...

[Dracullus]

I hope they keep system, it looks like a great way to keep casual people play after leveling. Spec/class accesories could be a good replacement for artifacts in 8.0.

[Thrif]

Nobody knows. All we know is what Blizzard have told us, that they intended for Artifacts to be a Legion thing, so most likely we'll give them up at the end of the expansion. What happens in the next we can't really predict, if we go back to greens or if there's a whole new system introduced.

Will we abandon them? Again possibly. We've abandoned seemingly important shit in the past. We abandoned Wintergrasp, Tol Barad, and will soon abandon Ashran and the Garrison system. However this leads to the weird feeling of unequiping your Ashbringer to equip a green [Spikey Mace of the Monkey] in 8.0 questing.

Nope, those atrocious game design choices are staying in Legion. Ashran will stay, and Order Halls are pretty much Garrisons.

[Sliske]

Nobody knows. All we know is what Blizzard have told us, that they intended for Artifacts to be a Legion thing, so most likely we'll give them up at the end of the expansion. What happens in the next we can't really predict, if we go back to greens or if there's a whole new system introduced.



Nope, those atrocious game design choices are staying in Legion. Ashran will stay, and Order Halls are pretty much Garrisons.

They will stay yes, but we won't be doing Ashran for Legion gear, correct or no? If it doesn't give current gear it will be abandoned for sure. And Order Halls are not Garrisons, they literally share one trait, and don't share dozens of others. Odd that you say that.

[ItachiZaku]

We get humbled for some reason, like what we do also brings down say Thunder Bluff, our Warchief punishes us with banishment, which includes taking away our weapons and armor and rank. We start the next expansion with the help of a stranger (probably wrathion) who gives us green starter gear.

[sykoex]

Assuming the artifact system is really successful, I suppose there could be some lore event that empowers them even more at the start of the 8.0 expansion and gives us more artifact talents and skins.

[Deleted]

I do not know why you are down on Sunsong Ranch, if I ever stop raiding I will retire to my farm and live out my final days as a farmer and let the new players fight the threats against azeroth. They better add old man wizard beards to humans by that time, get to it blizzard.

[Sliske]

We get humbled for some reason, like what we do also brings down say Thunder Bluff, our Warchief punishes us with banishment, which includes taking away our weapons and armor and rank. We start the next expansion with the help of a stranger (probably wrathion) who gives us green starter gear.

Or more likely, we hop off the boat in the new continent / zone / world, a guy in overalls with a frying pan on his head says "hey buddy, can you go collect some sheep shit for me?" and we run around with Ashbringer equipping, carefully collecting the sheep craps, to get the reward of [Excretion Shoveler] , a green 2h axe that has slightly better stats than our Ashbringer



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Assuming the artifact system is really successful, I suppose there could be some lore event that empowers them even more at the start of the 8.0 expansion and gives us more artifact talents and skins.

To be honest, I remember being really disappointed because as an outsider to the WoD beta, Garrisons looked INSANE. I mostly went with the information with Blizzcon on them, and the whole system sounded great, like I permanately had shit to do, constantly, that was meaningful. And before they even released the expansion, they had already confirmed that the Garrison system wouldn't continue with us to the next expansion.

It felt like a massive waste, and pretending it was a great system, it would suck major balls to lose a system for no reason other than 'lets progress boyz!' in the same way we've lost every pvp zone or old raid.

[Divinexve]

Or more likely, we hop off the boat in the new continent / zone / world, a guy in overalls with a frying pan on his head says "hey buddy, can you go collect some sheep shit for me?" and we run around with Ashbringer equipping, carefully collecting the sheep craps, to get the reward of [Excretion Shoveler] , a green 2h axe that has slightly better stats than our Ashbringer



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To be honest, I remember being really disappointed because as an outsider to the WoD beta, Garrisons looked INSANE. I mostly went with the information with Blizzcon on them, and the whole system sounded great, like I permanately had shit to do, constantly, that was meaningful. And before they even released the expansion, they had already confirmed that the Garrison system wouldn't continue with us to the next expansion.

It felt like a massive waste, and pretending it was a great system, it would suck major balls to lose a system for no reason other than 'lets progress boyz!' in the same way we've lost every pvp zone or old raid.

FeelsBadMan with a gun

[jaber2]

They max out way before 8.0 comes out, you'd have to switch weapons to fight the final boss before 8.0

[lightofdawn]

We sacrifice all artifacts for defeating sargeras

i really hope we dont kill sargeras this expansion... maybe his avatar, or all of the generals like balnazzar and anetheron and kil'jaeden, but i hope sargeras is around till the end, or close to it

[Taeldorian]

I could see is sacrificing them to kill whoever the final boss is. Would make a lot of sense if they don't want to keep artifact weapons as a thing. Hopefully the skins we get can be transmogged in the future though.

[Djriff]

Maybe the power fades away. Like the shadow priest weapon would be easy as it talks to us. It could just deem us no longer worthy to wield it.