Artifact Grind

[Krusza]

Only played on the PvP beta realm, anyone know how long on average it would take to max out artifacts? Hours wise.

[nazrakin]

2-3 months for the "base traits" would be my guess. Its a hard number to nail down because we dont yet know the rate Artifact Knowledge will be gained on live and even then so much of it will depend on how much time youve got to do world quests, dungeons, and progressing in Suramar.

Filling out the final 20 point trait will probably take most of the expansion.

[Gorsameth]

Only played on the PvP beta realm, anyone know how long on average it would take to max out artifacts? Hours wise.

There is no Hours number because it would be to high.

Your talking weeks/months here

[Nize]

Artifact Knowledge changes up the amount of hours it'll take to max the artifact. It'll take many less hours after plenty of levels of artifact knowledge than the start. If you have patience and don't want to go through a grind, then don't bother grinding AP at the start of the xpac and keep up your artifact knowledge. At max artifact knowledge, you'll get 250(!) times the amount of artifact power from most sources. That's 100k per daily heroic dungeon, and much more than that from doing all the AP world quests a day. Compare to the amount necessary on wowhead to see how much that is. Max Artifact Knowledge will be attainable after about 4 months.

[Flurryfang]

The artifact grind is very hard to calculate, since it is gonna depend on your gain of Artifact Knowledge. That is going to determined your speed. But Blizz said, that you are proberly going to max out after a few months of work. And following their comment of "You will gain 80% of the traits with 20% of the work", it will take some weeks to get near max.

[middling]

There is no Hours number because it would be to high.

Your talking weeks/months here

because math is well..hard!


i doubt it would take 24*60 HOURS? That would be 1440 hours.

I think what he/she is asking is "if i played X hours per day, how many days would it take"

So I believe there is an HOURS number in there but people just might not have added it up.

[Jotaux]

because math is well..hard!


i doubt it would take 24*60 HOURS? That would be 1440 hours.

I think what he/she is asking is "if i played X hours per day, how many days would it take"

So I believe there is an HOURS number in there but people just might not have added it up.

There really isnt because if you were taking it slow and maybe playing for an hour a day then it would take you less play time to max out the artifact. If you were going hard and playing 16 hours a day then it would take more play time to max it out.

[Krusza]

That's what I mean, it's hard to say "it'll take a few months" because it doesn't specify how many hours a day that's based on.

It's obviously going to be quicker for people that are playing 10 hours a day than people that are only playing 3 hours a day?

[Saracens]

My best guess, based on what I unlocked leveling my DK it's going to take me a fair bit, but not too long. I play 1900-0100 most days. 6 hours * 38 days it took me to get mostly done. So I would say between 260-300 hours.

[Nihilan]

A players Artifact research level is far more important a determining factor than how many hours a day they can play.

The L1 research bonus to AP gain is 25%.
The L25 research bonus to AP gain is 24,500%.

There is a non-linear but not quite exponential curve from L1 up to L25, which is the current research cap. And the rate of aqcuisition for the AK research is time gated. It also has a catchup mechanic built into the time gate where it becomes progressively faster to obtain AK levels over the course of the expansion.

[Deleted]

Long story short - regardless of how many research notes you have - the more you play the quicker it will get done, someone playing 10 hours a day will clear most/all wq for that day and then smash hc 5mans if you can get a guild group to chain them.

[Krusza]

Right, so people playing 10 hours a day won't be that far ahead of people only playing a few hours a day because of the artifact knowledge acting as like a "soft cap" for how many points people can possibly get each research level.

That's good then. What about multiple specs? Does artifact knowledge apply to all artifacts on that character?

[Nihilan]

Right, so people playing 10 hours a day won't be that far ahead of people only playing a few hours a day because of the artifact knowledge acting as like a "soft cap" for how many points people can possibly get each research level.

That's good then. What about multiple specs? Does artifact knowledge apply to all artifacts on that character?

Nope, its character specific, but it does at least apply to all of that character's artifacts.

[Krusza]

Nope, its character specific, but it does at least apply to all of that character's artifacts.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Thanks.

[Nihilan]

The "proper" way to keep alts up will be to play them through the leveling experience and stockpile 5-10k CR to fund 10-20 weeks worth of artifact research. Then log in as needed to flip your pages and geep the research going. By the time you get around to playing the alt, it will be getting the fat AP tokens.

[Blur4stuff]

you'll be happier if you ignore the points and just play. you'll max the artifact eventually anyways without the stress.

[Hashcrypt]

So how does this work with off specs?

I want to main prot for pve but go arms for pvp. Does this mean I have to do double the work in order to keep my off spec artifact competitive?

[Krusza]

So how does this work with off specs?

I want to main prot for pve but go arms for pvp. Does this mean I have to do double the work in order to keep my off spec artifact competitive?

Read 4 posts above yours.

[Deleted]

So how does this work with off specs?

I want to main prot for pve but go arms for pvp. Does this mean I have to do double the work in order to keep my off spec artifact competitive?

Since the cost of each trait point goes up as much as it does (after the first 12), you will soon reach a point where 1 trait in your main spec weapon could instead be spent on getting your secondary weapon almost up to par with your main one. I'd probably recommend spending the roughly 6.5 k required for the first 12 trait points pretty early, since the next one costs 6.5 k (1-13 = 13-14).

Either way, artifact research is going to be the limiting factor. No matter how much you play each day, you won't get that much ahead of others. So, level up your secondary weapon as you want. It won't gimp you nearly as much as some people say.

[Maudib]

So how does this work with off specs?

I want to main prot for pve but go arms for pvp. Does this mean I have to do double the work in order to keep my off spec artifact competitive?

No matter what people try and tell you... yes, you have to do double the work to be competitive. Although artifact knowledge allows your offspec to catchup within reason fairly quickly, one or the other will suffer... you cannot work on your main weapon and an offspec weapon and not feel like you are getting mired and falling behind in both.

Not so much the first 20 points in each weapon... but when it starts taking a couple days to earn enough AP to buy a point in your main spec weapon... you will feel really shitty if you spend that on two points in your offspec. Why?

Because it will be another 2 days before you earn enough AP to put it in the main spec.

Now imagine 3 days, 5, a week... you WILL reach a point where it takes a week to earn a point... you can spend it in your offspec and spend ANOTHER week to get a point in your main... or keep putting it in the main til it's maxed.

I have 24 points... and I already feel the dread of how much slower I am filling the AP bar with 1400% AP Knowledge (Level 12).