Leveling Alts for AK Research

[irdsyd]

There are a lot of misunderstandings about how artifact power, artifact knowledge and class order hall resources work together. Without giving a long explanation it is quite possible to tri-spec without losing a lot from your main spec. It is also quite possible to have alts, level to 110 and just do the minimum you need to do to keep artifact knowledge ticking over before devoting time to levelling the artifact.

As an example for alt-specs, there are currently 34 levels of artifact talents. For the same cost as levelling your main to 34 you could have 2 specs at level 31 and one spec at level 26.

As an example for alts - lets say you levelled to 110 and only farmed enough class order hall resources to keep artifact knowledge ticking over. Lets say you can farm 2000 artifact power in a day. At 110 you will be about level 13 (the first 13 levels don't cost much). The next level costs a lot more - and 2000 artifact knowledge would only get you less than a third of the way to level 14. So you think ok Ill just keep knowledge ticking over and come back to this alt later on. If you max artifact knowledge to 25 (which takes months)... then level 25 artifact knowledge would give a bonus of 24,900%. So 2000 artifact power would become 498,000 with the benefit of artifact knowledge. If you had parked at level 13 this would get you from level 13 to level 25 in a day.

[Berndorf]

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

I doubt it will have one near as bad as WoD had. I bet it has a similar curve to MoP.

[Deleted]

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.

To stress my point again here though, you can't "fully" catch up on artifact knowledge since the research time stops being boosted once you catch up (it's only 1 day if you are far far behind and 3 days if you are somewhat behind, once you're close to the typical knowledge level it stops behind boosted). And with catch up I mean catch up to what your alt would be at if you had leveled it right away.

So if you want to save your some work on your alts for the months in while playing get it leveled up as soon as possible and keep that artifact research going and keep it going - no need to actually collect artifact power, that soon starts to be inconsequential if you don't want to play the alt right away.

[Deleted]

Well research itself is not important for alts
You can level one after month and still will get to your main level of research prety fast
What will force me to level up my alts ASAP is the professions quests who request lv 110

[Deathquoi]

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

No, it's literally always been that way.

[Walrock]

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.

Very good explanation, thank you for that

[Blur4stuff]

i don't want to constantly farm artifact power

then don't problem solved

play however much you feel like playing

[Role Unknown]

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.

So, basically the AK catch-up mechanism is only as fast as the best AK leveler on the server? Does that mean no 2 servers will have the same catch-up time frame?

[Walrock]

So, basically the AK catch-up mechanism is only as fast as the best AK leveler on the server? Does that mean no 2 servers will have the same catch-up time frame?

No, it will be the same for every server in your region (US/EU).
So for example, if Blizzard opens up a new server 6 months after Legion release, the AK research will always be 1 day until the characters on this new server hit the region cap, which gets a +1 every 5 days.

[ehxy]

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're joking right? Have you ever heard of a game called farmville? Plant this and wait 1hr...next level plant 2hrs...next level plant 5hrs...10hrs...24hrs...5 days...

The only thing missing is the microtransaction speed up mechanic.

[Berndorf]

You're joking right? Have you ever heard of a game called farmville? Plant this and wait 1hr...next level plant 2hrs...next level plant 5hrs...10hrs...24hrs...5 days...

The only thing missing is the microtransaction speed up mechanic.

That was garrisons. With regard to artifacts, I don't see that much similarity. You can get ap from just about anything you do.

[Spotnick]

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.

No, it's the game giving you stuff to do because too many people complained about lack of content.

[Skozen]

I'm planning on getting my main well on its way in the first week, and then leveling a few alts to 110 to get them started on artifact knowledge. They'll be a week behind but I'm trying to push mythic raids on my main ASAP and have limited free time.

[grexly75]

No, it's the game giving you stuff to do because too many people complained about lack of content.

Saw something like below somewhere on these forums:

Blizz "Hey everyone we are going to give you heaps to do in MoP.."
Players "Oh hell no we don't want to be forced into doing this everyday.."
Blizz "Hey everyone we saw that you didn't like what we gave you in MoP and have removed it all in WoD.."
Players "Oh hell no we want stuff to do it is boring not having something to do.."
Blizz "Ok everyone after what we read about what you didn't like about WoD we have given you lots to do in Legion.."
Players "Oh hell know we don't want all this stuff to do we don't want to be forced into doing it all.."
Blizz "Oh fuck this we can never please you lot so we are all going on holidays for the next 12 months.."

Must wonder if some at Blizzard really do think like this with the crap they have to deal with from the community..

[Deleted]

Must wonder if some at Blizzard really do think like this with the crap they have to deal with from the community..

Well stuff does not have to be as binary. There is something in between there being nothing worthwhile to do at all and making you play till you burn out. Event he pandaria dailies would have been great if staggerd in some fashion. Like if you had chosen one of their factions each day and then only being able to do their dailies. Would have been a lot less grindy.

[Midoree]

There added a catchup mechanism. So if you do fall behind it won't be that far, so in week one if the quest took 5 days to complete in week 2 it might be 4. In week 8 it might be 1 day etc.

[Delaios]

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.

Worst idea for a niche group of players, but a solid idea for most players.

[Deleted]

Up to now I was levelling alts for professions effective farming etc. Now its no longer needed. I think its good that I can finally focus on my main without needing an army of alts geared tuned all in all for backing up my main with mats gold and items.

Invasions gave a chance to people to make new classes and pick new mains if they want. I think its a good system. Not much different from dinging alt to 100 and then spending weeks and weeks getting pvp gear from random BGs etc. You will spend time anyway the main difference is if you spend it doing it a quality thing or you spend it wasting time in ashran queue to gear up an alt. New system seems great atm.

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Thats a great explanation and a very interesting (and fair) mechanic. Thanks.

Not sure what makes you think that. An army of alts at 110 gives you quite a few benefits with the class order halls stuff and daily profession quests.

[Schmilblick]

No, it's literally always been that way.

No, now you will have to play for weeks JUST to unlock your SPELLS.Before, you just got to max level to unlock it.

[lukoil]

No, now you will have to play for JUST to unlock your SPELLS, before, you just got to max level to unlock it.

Spells? You mean buffs? Like tier bonuses that you need to farm for each spec before legion?
Yeah sure. But now you don't need to farm items for each of your specs. Main stat and tier bonuses changes depending on current spec (only trinkets matters and secondary stats in some degree)
For example before if you need a tank/heal/dps spec you need to farm separate set of items for each of the specs. Now -> you only need to level artifact (simple grind without luck/item drop dependancy) and farm trinkets.