So how long does the artifact grind take?

[Deleted]

From how my own artifact has progressed on the Beta - guessing you could get the 34/34 traits in 3 month's or so - that would be hammering the game. Then the additional 20/20 trait - I expect to take a good part of the rest of expansion.

[Kikazz]

if you grind and do dungeons, you can farm it in 2 months if you grind 20 hours a day.
if your sane you could have maybe 3/4 of them done by the end of the 2nd month.

[Schmilblick]

Alts are dead, that's all.

[Kanael]

I really wished there's some catchup mechanics for alts (Diablo 3 has em with heirlooms). I know there will be heirlooms for level 100+ but in the first weeks of Legion we're going to concentrate on our mains or level alts and make our mains suffer.

[OrcsRLame]

I made this chart for my own personal use and for my guild, but I'm bored so I might as well post it here. This assumes ~30,000 base artifact power per day, which is about ~50 heroic dungeons and some world quests. The leftmost number is AP gained per 5 days, the number to the right of that is total AP. The percent is increased AP gains from artifact knowledge, and the far right notes how many traits you would have at various time intervals. This is a rough estimate and assumes ultra hardcore play. In reality most will not max an artifact this quickly and some people might max it faster

Days 1-5-150,000, 150,000, 0% 20 Traits
Days 6-10 225000, 375,000, 50% 24 Traits
Days 11-15 285,000, 660,000, 90% 26 Traits
Days 16-20 360,000, 1,020,000, 140% 27 Traits
Days 21-25 450,000, 1,470,000, 200% 29 Traits
Days 26-30 562,500, 2,032,500, 275% 30 Traits
Days 31-35 712,500, 2,745,000, 375% 31 Traits
Days 36-40 900,000, 3,645,000, 500% 32 Traits
Days 41-45 1,125,000, 4,770,000, 650% 33 Traits
Days 46-50 1,425,000, 6,195,000, 850% 34 traits
Days 51-55 1,800,000, 7,995,000, 1100% 35 Traits
Days 56-60 2,225,000, 10,245,000, 1400% 36 Traits
Days 61-65 2,812,500, 13,057,500, 1775% 38 Traits
Days 66-70 3,337,000, 16,432,500, 2250% 39 Traits
Days 71-75 4,425,000, 20,857,500, 2850% 41 Traits
Days 76-80 5,550,000, 26,407,500, 3600% 43 Traits
Days 81-85 6,975,000, 33,382,500, 4550% 45 Traits
Days 86-90 8,700,000, 42,082,500, 5700% 48 Traits
Days 91-95 10,950,000, 53,032,500, 7200% 51 Traits
Days 96-100 13,650,000, 66,682,500, 9000% 1 Artifact Maxed
Days 101-105 17,100,000, 83,782,500, 11300%
Days 106-110 21,450,000 105,232,500, 14200%
Days 111-115 26,850,000, 132,082,500, 17800% 2 Artifacts Maxed
Days 116-120 33,600,000, 165,682,500, 22300%
Days 121-125 37,500,000, 203,182,500, 24900% 3 Artifacts Maxed

Personally, I predict semi-casual players will take 8 months to 1 year to get all 54 traits. That's if they keep up on their artifact knowledge. Without artifact knowledge, it takes roughly ~6 years of playing at this rate to max your first artifact.

[DeltrusDisc]

If you're a raider, don't think of it that way. Think of it that you have to do EVERYTHING to get the maximum amount of A.P. in order to stay competitive. :-)

If you're not a raider, then yeah, I'm guessing that you can still get A.P., but not as fast as raiders can. They do tougher stuff, they get higher rewards... (With the condition that, as stated above, EVERYTHING strengthens them, so they're going to feel forced to grind EVERYTHING... It'll make the Mists of Pandaria dailies feel like chump change, I bet.)

No longer a competitive raider... but I like a good challenge!

[Xires]

Alts are dead, that's all.

lol no...no they aren't.

[PragmaticGamer]

lol no...no they aren't.

I'm a casual, and mostly focus on my main with a little bit put into my alts.

But I'm curious: how does grinding an alt for raiding (let's say "social guild never expecting to make it to mythic" as a baseline) work in Legion, compared to grinding the legendary cloak and ring? (If you--and by "you," I mean anyone who cares to respond--have had access to the beta.)

[Fallensaint]

Realistically, the biggest limiting factor for artifact progression is Artifact Knowledge. Eventually you reach an equilibrium point where you only get 1-2 traits per Artifact Knowledge level up every five days. Where you hit that point will depend on your AP income. Laurcus' crazy 30k base AP a day hits the limit after 20 points, but most players likely won't hit it until 13-ish points when the scaling kicks in hard.

If you're keeping up on your Artifact Knowledge research and doing your daily dungeon and emissary cache, ~100 days from launch to 34 points is a reasonable estimate. If you aren't always doing your dailies (like on an alt), as long as you keep up your Artifact Knowledge research you shouldn't be that far behind more active players.

[Deleted]

So, essentially, I could get tokens from things other than raids? :P

basiclu evrything gives AP tokens.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm a casual, and mostly focus on my main with a little bit put into my alts.

But I'm curious: how does grinding an alt for raiding (let's say "social guild never expecting to make it to mythic" as a baseline) work in Legion, compared to grinding the legendary cloak and ring? (If you--and by "you," I mean anyone who cares to respond--have had access to the beta.)

later in expansion artifact research will go fatser automaticly so say by second tier instead of 1rechearge lvl taking a week its takes 5days(is just example i dont know the real numbers) depending on how much later nightold releases after emreald nightmare people will have some decent progressed alts likly. alts certainlt arent dead

[PragmaticGamer]

I've heard that the most recent builds of the beta, current levels of research take 5 days, and the further behind you get, it takes as little as 3 days (sigh, the earlier builds had it reducing down to 1 day...). Ramping up the closer you get to current.

Third-hand information, of course.

[Deleted]

One of the most retarded idea by blizzard, they really don't want their game to be successful

Making easier to switch between specs and then they force you to stay on one unless you start the grinding from zero. They literally have no clue, it was enough for me to skip legion when at the announcement they showed artifacts...

Wod part 2 is coming in two weeks.

[bufferunderrun]

but what about relics? From what i can see dropping the good one could take a bit of farming and those are a big boost in therm of power.

[OrcsRLame]

but what about relics? From what i can see dropping the good one could take a bit of farming and those are a big boost in therm of power.

"The good one" is whatever relic has the highest ilvl. Relics are the replacement for weapon drops and having nothing to do with gaining AP.

- - - Updated - - -

One of the most retarded idea by blizzard, they really don't want their game to be successful

Making easier to switch between specs and then they force you to stay on one unless you start the grinding from zero. They literally have no clue, it was enough for me to skip legion when at the announcement they showed artifacts...

Wod part 2 is coming in two weeks.

Except this isn't true, at all. First off, if you refer to the chart I posted, it takes a whopping ~9 days to max an artifact after achieving the maximum level of artifact knowledge, and getting your artifact up to a playable point where you have most of your good traits takes less than 5 days even at the start when you don't have 24,900% increased AP gain.

Furthermore, the problem with WoD is there was virtually nothing to do outside of raid, and of the things that did exist they lacked incentive after the first couple weeks. Legion is the polar opposite of that with world quests and mythic+ being an infinite source of content that exists outside of raiding, and AP, legendaries and titanforged being the incentive to go out and do the content that does exist.

[PragmaticGamer]

First off, if you refer to the chart I posted, it takes a whopping ~9 days to max an artifact after achieving the maximum level of artifact knowledge

Can you provide some baselines for comparison? You're assuming 30,000 artifact power per day (before adding in the Artifact Knowledge bonus). So it'd help to know some sample rewards (e.g., "this world quest, which took me about 20 minutes the first time I did it, awarded me 5,000 artifact power"), to know how much effort it takes to get the amount you're specifying.

[OrcsRLame]

Can you provide some baselines for comparison? You're assuming 30,000 artifact power per day (before adding in the Artifact Knowledge bonus). So it'd help to know some sample rewards (e.g., "this world quest, which took me about 20 minutes the first time I did it, awarded me 5,000 artifact power"), to know how much effort it takes to get the amount you're specifying.

As I said, that's ~50 heroic dungeons worth and some change. Jewels of Victory have a, (if I'm not mistaken) 50% chance to drop off heroic dungeon bosses and provide 55 AP each. The daily heroic reward gives 800 AP, and every heroic after that gives 400. I'm assuming that on average you'll get two Jewels of Victory per run, which I think is a fairly realistic estimate. That plus the random rewards puts you at ~25,900 after 50 runs. It actually varies, how much AP you get from world quests. If I recall, some give like 125, some of them give the same as the daily heroic reward, some are epic and give like 1,000. You can also gain AP through sending your champions on missions; think WoD follower missions, but with much less maintenance and only 5 dudes instead of 25.

I'm basically assuming you'll gain ~4,100 AP through other daily activities which I don't think is an unreasonable amount.

[PragmaticGamer]

Sorry, maybe I'm not understanding you.

But are you saying that we'd have to do 50 heroic dungeons PER DAY (plus associated world quests) to keep up with the table you listed?

How fast do heroic dungeons go? How involved are the boss mechanics? I can't see cramming all of that into the 2-3 hours per day, on average, I have to play, in addition to running around and doing however many world quests. That'd be less than 3 minutes per heroic dungeon, if my math is correct.

[OrcsRLame]

Sorry, maybe I'm not understanding you.

But are you saying that we'd have to do 50 heroic dungeons PER DAY (plus associated world quests) to keep up with the table you listed?

How fast do heroic dungeons go? How involved are the boss mechanics? I can't see cramming all of that into the 2-3 hours per day, on average, I have to play, in addition to running around and doing however many world quests. That'd be less than 3 minutes per heroic dungeon, if my math is correct.

That's exactly what I'm saying, you're not misunderstanding at all. I'm assuming that a 5 person pre-made can do these dungeons in about 10-15 minutes once they get some gear and familiarize themselves with the dungeons. I'm assuming roughly 8-10 hours of heroic dungeons every single day, with a few more hours leftover to do other stuff like world quests, Suramar Collapse scenario, professions, Class Campaign, etc. As I said, the chart assumes ultra hardcore play, and it will take more casual players close to ~8 months to max their artifact.

[PragmaticGamer]

So pretty much, casuals (let's say, doing a tenth of that--5 dungeons a night for about 1.5 hours, plus 1.5 hours of various world activities; not hardcore enough to power-rush through dungeons), we can expect to get to our 34th trait by day 500 (50x10)?

That kind of sucks...

[Frolk]

When ppl estimate how long it will take, do they include the 20/20 node?
How long for just 34nodes and how long for 34 and the 20 bonus nodes?