Leveling Alts for AK Research

[sunbrother]

Was planning to have a main and alt, but might also be interested in having a 2nd alt. Do I need to power level the 2nd alt ASAP to not fall behind in AK research?

Blizz said AK research rate will be sped up later on for catch up, will it also be capped? Do I lose out anything if I don't level the 2nd alt right now?

[Deleted]

Well. yes. You will miss out if you dont level right now. Compared to you main. But ofc at that your Main will fall behind cus other people are farming Artifact power so.

But not really needed. I mean if you want to min max sure.

[Deleted]

You will always be behind on characters that you do not actively play. That is the nature of the game. But because Blizz plans to speed up the process along the way, you will not be FAR behind. What takes a month at launch will not take a month later. It might take a week. You will still be behind, but if the full process of going from 0 AP to max takes (random number) 150 days, then as time goes by it will only take (another random number) 35 days. You will still be behind, but you catch up faster.

[ItsTiddles]

You'll be a little bit behind, but not terribly. If you would rather put this time into your main/1st alt, that's what I would recommend.

[Schmilblick]

You will always be behind on characters that you do not actively play. That is the nature of the game.

Wrong, it's the nature of this shitty new system that's coming in Legion.

[Deleted]

Wrong, it's the nature of this shitty new system that's coming in Legion.

One could see that coming 5 seconds after blizzard announced the artifacts (besides the obvious balancing implications). The idea is to bind players to a class or spec, but of course, that's not going to happen for higher-tier players. Those will grind out multiple artifacts and classes anyway. Mucho fun.

<PSA: This is the point where you insert the argument that if you want to have multiple classes maxed, you have to play them. That is true, and always has been. It's just much more work this time around, so it doesn't really compare. Anyway.>

The only way to pull this off would be to literally literally make it impossible to max more than one class. No chance for that happen.

[sunbrother]

My only concern would be that I would be too far behind on the alt until the next patch hits, and the catchup is implemented.

So I guess if I intend on playing the 2nd alt before the next patch, then I need to level it now.

[Nighelf]

Was planning to have a main and alt, but might also be interested in having a 2nd alt. Do I need to power level the 2nd alt ASAP to not fall behind in AK research?

Blizz said AK research rate will be sped up later on for catch up, will it also be capped? Do I lose out anything if I don't level the 2nd alt right now?

You don't need to power level your 2nd alt ASAP.

Here is how it works; you level your main and gather 6 levels of AK. (lets assume each level is taking 1 week to research). So by now we are at 7th week of legion.
at 7th week you decide to level up your alt. Until she reaches 5th AK level, she is going to complete her research in a day or two, that about 10 days. After she catches up to the rest, she will continue as normal.

[Deleted]

This artifact grinding is the worst idea that blizzard ever hard, worse than garrisons.

It's clearly in the game to force you to stay subbed, wod part 2 is coming.

[Deleted]

You don't need to power level your 2nd alt ASAP.

Here is how it works; you level your main and gather 6 levels of AK. (lets assume each level is taking 1 week to research). So by now we are at 7th week of legion.
at 7th week you decide to level up your alt. Until she reaches 5th AK level, she is going to complete her research in a day or two, that about 10 days. After she catches up to the rest, she will continue as normal.

Hmmm... kind of depends how you think about it. Not leveling artifact power right away and using the catch up till it's the same length (5 days) means you're still behind at least those 5 days on your research (or 1 point of artifact reserach). That does not sound like much but it's like later having to do ~30% more stuff that gives artifact power compared to reseraching it right away from the very start. And with quite many artifact power sources being static and only a few repeatable it's probably more like 50-100% more time spent for the SAME result if yous started it right away.

[Deleted]

You will be very far behind, that said you will catch up relatively quickly, but also that takes a lot of time. Usually catch up mechaniks are so that you get relatively good itemlevel relatively easy, so that you can get equip to enter the actual normal raid. But this time the artefact weapon is so important that you can t just gear up and enter raids, without a serious artefact weapon. It will take you several weeks to catch up. But if your char was doing the artefact knowledge research from the beginning, you will catch up so incredible fast.

So if there is a serious change that you will play a second alt, i would defenitely level this one asap.

[Berndorf]

This artifact grinding is the worst idea that blizzard ever hard, worse than garrisons.

It's clearly in the game to force you to stay subbed, wod part 2 is coming.

Don't see it that way at all unless you are thinking you need to do a certain amount each week against your will or else you will lose your raid spot. Otherwise, its just a really good way to allow people to feel like they are making meaningful power progression every time they spend a few hours doing quests or dungeons or w/e else. Its really one of the few good new ideas Bliz has put into an expansion in a long time for the average player.

[Deleted]

Don't see it that way at all unless you are thinking you need to do a certain amount each week against your will or else you will lose your raid spot. Otherwise, its just a really good way to allow people to feel like they are making meaningful power progression every time they spend a few hours doing quests or dungeons or w/e else. Its really one of the few good new ideas Bliz has put into an expansion in a long time for the average player.

You can't play another character other than your main and you are forced to grind or you'll lose your raid spot.
Doesn't really matter to me since I'm not planning on raiding (I'll most likely just buy legion and play the ah) but if you want to be competitive good luck with the forced grinding.

[Deleted]

So how exactly, specifically, does Artifact Knowledge help with alts? Let's say I raise AK with 10 characters to a high level, will my 11th character gain insane amounts of Artifact Power every time thanks to 10 alts giving huge bonuses?

[Turtel]

So how exactly, specifically, does Artifact Knowledge help with alts? Let's say I raise AK with 10 characters to a high level, will my 11th character gain insane amounts of Artifact Power every time thanks to 10 alts giving huge bonuses?

No, Artifact Knowledge only affects one character. It takes 5 days to level up your Artifact Knowledge if you're leveling it consistently from the beginning of the expansion. But if you make a new alt a few months into the expansion, it will only take that character 1 day to level up, until you catch up to everyone else. Since Artifact Knowledge boosts Artifact Power gains by so much (exponentially increasing amounts), it basically makes all those months and months of AP grinding prior to the present obsolete; the vast majority of your Artifact Power will come from the last couple of weeks of AP grinding (when you had the highest Artifact Knowledge).

[Aphrel]

If you have the time you should lvl all the chars you plan to play on as early as possible. Myslef im planning to do 3 chars back to back lvling 2morrow.

[Berndorf]

You can't play another character other than your main and you are forced to grind or you'll lose your raid spot.
Doesn't really matter to me since I'm not planning on raiding (I'll most likely just buy legion and play the ah) but if you want to be competitive good luck with the forced grinding.

*shrug* They can always play something else if they feel forced into doing anything. imo its one of the best things Bliz has added in any exp.

[Deleted]

No, Artifact Knowledge only affects one character. It takes 5 days to level up your Artifact Knowledge if you're leveling it consistently from the beginning of the expansion. But if you make a new alt a few months into the expansion, it will only take that character 1 day to level up, until you catch up to everyone else. Since Artifact Knowledge boosts Artifact Power gains by so much (exponentially increasing amounts), it basically makes all those months and months of AP grinding prior to the present obsolete; the vast majority of your Artifact Power will come from the last couple of weeks of AP grinding (when you had the highest Artifact Knowledge).

So what's all this talk about Artifact Knowledge boosting off-specs and alts then? I'm pretty sure I've seen several people talking about you being able to boost your alts somehow, and didn't some Blizzard developer go off on how this is supposedly the most alt-friendly expansion ever?

Guess it's just about the catch-up mechanism then, and what you do on a character has no bearing on your other characters.

[Deleted]

*shrug* They can always play something else if they feel forced into doing anything. imo its one of the best things Bliz has added in any exp.

Yes, Legion will have a sub drop just like wod did.

[Scorned]

You will only fall behind a little. The Artifact Knowledge "catch-up" mechanic is already in place, but it's not commonly understood. Every 5 days, the "server AK level" advances by one. If your AK level is below the server AK level, it will take less time to research, down to a minimum of 1 day. Here's some examples:

Legion releases, and you're the fastest leveler on the server. It takes you 8 hours to hit 110, and you start your AK research immediately. You will see 5 days left on the work order, and will continue to see 5 days for each so long as you keep them queued up.

Now let's say you're a more casual leveler and it takes you 7 days to hit 110 after release. Your first work order will only take 1 day (since your AK level is lower than the server's) and your next work order will take somewhere between 2-3 days. That second order should finish at the exact same time as the second research order for that first person, the fastest leveler on the server.

50 days after Legion's release, you hit 110 on your alt. Your first 10 AK research work orders will take 1 day each. So will the 11th order and the 12th, since by that time it will be 60 days after release. Once you catch up to the fastest leveler on the server, each of your AK research orders will take 5 days.


Hope this helps.