Artifact Weapons - Worst idea ever

[Jademist]

It's almost like OP and several posters forgot that you've had to spend time farming up extra gear/mats/enchants/gems for offspecs the entire history of multiple specs being a thing since TBC. But no, surely this is a new and different thing to be outraged about and we should be mad with them.

People often forget that. People will complain about something in everything thing Blizzard does because obviously Blizzard is expected to cater to each and every individual need.

[Deleted]

If you are a two hand weapon user, it will be nice to not have to wait until the end of wing, or end of tier boss to get a weapon (unlike 95%+ of two handers since WotLK).

Absolutely, or run some raid finder version of a End of the Wing weapon, cause the proc outmatches other weapons, despite higher I-lvl and being from a higher difficulty (Gur'thulak, oh lord)

[WintersLegion]

If you play a Shadow Priest now and the bis weapon was a dagger you would still be out of luck on using staffs unless you were willing to be sub optimal yourself.

[Noxina]

You will be able to maintain alts/offspecs at about 80% of the power of your main spec, because of how Artifact Power scale and catch up mechanics.

[Turtlewithnoshell]

I've been playing beta a ton and think the artifact weapon system is fantastic.

[Satheling]

I would agree that cosmetic issues are valid issues, I would also agree that alt-spec issues are also valid issues.

The caveat is that those are mutually exclusive. BiS gear has always existed, and if you like staves and your BiS is sword/book that sucks for you because if you're at a point where you have to play the spec that maximises damage on an encounter (I.E. you can't play fire because arcane out performs) then you're also at a point in the game where you don't get to decide to go for cosmetics on your weapon over functionality.

Over all the artifact weapon plan is a good idea. it gives blizz a way to balance raid content around classes and specs via the talent traits etc. it also lets blizzard tune pve vs pvp content to solve the issues there too. There are very small cases that cause the system to fail for the end user.

If your prerogative is grinding out 5 toons to 110 and gear them all right away, maybe you aren't in a position where having all 5 toons with a max artifact weapon matters. The allure of alts to a majority of the player base isn't having them all at insane power levels, its to have their professions or their ascetics etc.

The raiders already know that they are a dps main tank offspec and they are going to plan accordingly. baring any disastrous tuning issues by blizz to completely gut a class (biggest fears here are Demo/Survival) and make a spec unviable. But that would require a rather large scale fail on blizzards side.

over all you do have some valid points, I think each point hits someone different and no one really experiences more than 2 of those issues (if that) and the benefits of content tuning, customization, and easy of use for the average player far out weigh those few outliers in the system.

[Sylvaeres]

Coming from a player that remembers the promise of Path of the Titans, I'm more excited about having the artifact to grind out than almost anything else in Legion. Having a grind for the full expansion is going to be astounding. It's something to work towards during the dead periods between the raids, when every boss is on farm. It also adds unique options to spells and attacks. There's literally nothing better they could have done to give hardcore players something to do after the raid is on 1 night farm status

[Grosbill]

no its not.

maybe you find yourself a better forum for useless statements like this. or even better: realize that forums are there for discussions. or what you think we should write on a forum ? everyday 1 thread how great all it is and be fine ? or what?

I'm not the one saying an idea is horrible because it would mean having to invest in your character. No one is supposed to be able to maintain 10 different alts

[Kithelle]

Well the Tmog rules for the artifact weapon do make sense.. Such as the doom hammer for enhance shammies would look too weird if you mogged it into an axe or fist weapons.. Be a bit strange having doom axe or doom fists even doom dagger would be silly..

Did the make a rule that you can only transmog it into the weapon type it is? I don't recall...

[WintersLegion]

Did the make a rule that you can only transmog it into the weapon type it is? I don't recall...

No they didn't the current rules that apply to transmogging weapons will apply to artifacts.

[effs]

At least artifact weapons are new to the game, unlike regular weapon drops (which are essentially relics anyway). For a game this old, it's good to have something different every once in a while.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Yup, as others have pointed out none of your points are actual issues.
I for one have really enjoyed the Artifact concept.

[Vynny]

I don't think you're considering the benefits of the system though.

Firstly, the variety of skins is amazing and since they keep with the same general shape and feel there are going to be way more total weapon models in legion than there were in any other xpac, and they're all going to be available right off the bat which means that there's room to add more in future content patches. Also, they're still implementing some of the artifact skins and they said that they understand that there are people who prefer different weapon types, so they're putting in skins that are a different weapon type, so they might allow the artifact skin system more leniency than they allow the transmog system such as changing the dagger for the shadow priest to a staff. Because the artifacts are a self contained system use functions specifically meant for them, they can go a little more crazy on what the limits are without worrying too much about far reaching consequences or really stupid edge cases.

Secondly, there's the "paragon talent" or the one that just gives you a passive damage done/healing/damage taken increase the more point you put into it. Now, this limits your offspec effectiveness as a class with multiple dps specs or healing priest, but it offers a way for someone who is completely devoted to a single spec or someone who dislikes the current best spec a way to make up the difference. I mean, for example I hated having to play destro in HFC and I would've preferred to play demo, but the damage just wasn't there; however, if I could've sunk hours upon hours into that paragon talent over the course of the patch on a demo artifact then I could hit a point where my demonology spec is equal or better than me playing destro thus I can work harder to be able to play what I want despite it not naturally pulling as much dps. Granted, if I put that same amount of time and effort into increasing my destro paragon talent then I would be doing even more dps, but the amount of time and effort that would be required to overcome even a 10% damage difference is huge when you think about it, so it's a question of if someone would put that effort in when they don't have to make up that difference in order to play the spec they want without holding back the raid.

[Kithelle]

No they didn't the current rules that apply to transmogging weapons will apply to artifacts.

Okay good...what I thought.

I personally don't like how the majority of melee artifacts are swords and plan to transmog a few.

[Deleted]

You will be able to maintain alts/offspecs at about 80% of the power of your main spec, because of how Artifact Power scale and catch up mechanics.

Will people stop with that 80% number of your "main" artefact. Nowhere is said that you second artefact will stop at 80%. The correct statement is "It should be pretty easy to keep off-spec weapons up to around 80% of your main spec weapon. Anything beyond that will require more effort." Translated with simpler words - you can keep 2nd artefact on around 80% of the main with ease or both artefacts at the same level, but the second option require you to grind more than the average Joe. That's it.

[Molis]

I am looking forward to the Artifact weapon system, and even though it sounds like an opinion I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt this is not the "Worst Idea Ever"

I like that I do not have to wait for the drop I want or roll against several other casters when it finally does drop.

[Satheling]

Will people stop with that 80% number of your "main" artefact. Nowhere is said that you second artefact will stop at 80%. The correct statement is "It should be pretty easy to keep off-spec weapons up to around 80% of your main spec weapon. Anything beyond that will require more effort."

To expand on this, the Catch-up mechanic is active till 80% of "main" ArP. It is true that it is possible to turn your tank artifact into your main with enough grinding. Additionally, You have multiple catch-ups in place at one time. You have the Offspec catchup, and you have the time gated catchup. So if you wanted to turn into a tank halfway through the expansion it will be MUCH easier and quicker to acquire ArP. Additionally, the levels between 80-100% of your ArP get easier over time as well simply due to the time-gate allowing for an easier grind as the expansion progresses. And even moreso, as the content you're able to do increases in difficulty the amount of ArP awarded increases. So the whole argument "i'll never be able to play my alt-specs" is null with the amount of catch up involved in the whole process.

[Flurryfang]

People are proberly blowing their load a bit too early here. Lets wait and see how it works inside the game. Blizzard are proberly gonna puss out anyway and drown people in a sea of AP after the first month or so.

[Satheling]

People are proberly blowing their load a bit too early here. Lets wait and see how it works inside the game. Blizzard are proberly gonna puss out anyway and drown people in a sea of AP after the first month or so.

Even if they do something like that, that is the glory of the Artifact system is it has no upper cap. There is no "cap" on the amount of damage you can etch out of your weapon simply due to the talent system on it.

[shaunika123]

Alas, sometimes, you must make sacrifices to have the best dps. Not optimal, but it does happen.

i literally have to sacrifice dps to get dps

since ill have to waste my last artifact upgrade to reroll the spec

it makes zero sense, it should be like in hearthstone, if your spec gets a nerf you have the option to reroll another one with full points.