End of legion, we hand back all our artifact weapons (theory)

[ThrashMetalFtw]

I can see Blizzard making the artifact spell baseline for each spec, and then the 3 major artifact traits would become talents, that would make a lot of sense.

For Shadow, Void Torrent (our Artifact spell) and Mass Hysteria (one of the golden traits) are absolutely vital to how the spec plays. Remove one of them, and the spec no longer works. For a lot of specs, losing their artifact traits next expansion, would require a full design to make them playable again.

[Raetary]

> The Titans are back and Khaz'goroth will be forging our new weapon.

titans are dead.

[Tikishock]

For Shadow, Void Torrent (our Artifact spell) and Mass Hysteria (one of the golden traits) are absolutely vital to how the spec plays. Remove one of them, and the spec no longer works. For a lot of specs, losing their artifact traits next expansion, would require a full design to make them playable again.

Isn't that par for the course now? Blizzard re-tooling almost every spec for each new expansion.

[ThrashMetalFtw]

There will always be changes each expansion, but I'm talking about a full redesign of how the spec plays.

[Raetary]

They need to make Azeroth into a rightful planet. Its just 4 continents in a circle surrounding a whirlpool. That cannot honestly be the ENTIRE planet. Stop making more and focus on fleshing the one we have.

it was one gigantic continent that blew up, lost 80% of its landmass and split into 4.
and the number of continents doesnt determine the size of the planet.





azeroth most likely looked like mars if it had water

one side covered with kalimdor, the other with an ocean.

[Al Gorefiend]

I still want to see Azeroth bigger. It looks like we've only explored one hemisphere of it. Even Kalimdor looked like it was in a northern hemisphere of Azeroth. Blizz thinks they can make continents out of thin air and I think they can too.

[Crawclaw]

I think next expansion, artifacts should not be replaced, but maybe expanded? Maybe add new artifacts with alternate playstyles, like Meta Demonology, 2-handed Frost, full caster necromancer Unholy DK, and ranged Survival. Of course, keep the old ones to implement choice rather than replacement.

[Deleted]

it ruins classes to have to hand them back.

you are now the supposed strongest of your class which is why you have the 'strongest' weapon associated with the spec you play. To hand them back for stronger weapons just ruins the legitimacy of having the weapons in the first place.

the more likely scenario is just new skins and different artifact traits/relics

[Aucald]

My personal theory is that the Artifact system will continue, and in some cases (and depending on class) we will either get a new choice of weapon and/or a new progression path will be laid over top of our existing Artifact and the original traits will get baked into or otherwise refactored into the class/spec's baseline. This will allow them to use some of the storied and lore-rich weapons not already being used (e.g. Sulfuras, the Axe of Cenarius, or any of the existing Legendaries no long level-relevant). Just add a rule in that Artifact xmog's can only be used on their specific Artifact, as in you can't xmog over the Doomhammer with Sulfuras, and you keep all the basic benefits of the Artifact models and prestige.

[Ethenil]

I am thinking now that lorewise, to seal the Tomb of Sargeras the Pillars of Creation just won't be enough and we'll have to place our artifacts, destroying them afterwards or rending them useless.

Another possibility, and one I like much more, is that we go to Argus to fight alongside the Army of the Light, but we realize it's a failure and we have to flee, having to sacrifice the weapons in the process. An alternative to this is that in the final raid (like the Tomb itself), we beat the Avatar of Sargeras, or whatever the last boss is, only to discover we have played into N'zoth's hands, and we have to sacrifice our weapons to be able to flee his grasp.

The point is that we don't win

[Agartha]

For Shadow, Void Torrent (our Artifact spell) and Mass Hysteria (one of the golden traits) are absolutely vital to how the spec plays. Remove one of them, and the spec no longer works. For a lot of specs, losing their artifact traits next expansion, would require a full design to make them playable again.

Exactly, they've designed and balance classes around having artifacts. We saw what a mess pre-patch was. Maybe we "consume" the artifact and get the ability and gold traits baked into the class? I dunno, seems like a lot of wasted resources if they're going to have redesign every class again.

[Squigglyo]

I am thinking now that lorewise, to seal the Tomb of Sargeras the Pillars of Creation just won't be enough and we'll have to place our artifacts, destroying them afterwards or rending them useless.

Another possibility, and one I like much more, is that we go to Argus to fight alongside the Army of the Light, but we realize it's a failure and we have to flee, having to sacrifice the weapons in the process. An alternative to this is that in the final raid (like the Tomb itself), we beat the Avatar of Sargeras, or whatever the last boss is, only to discover we have played into N'zoth's hands, and we have to sacrifice our weapons to be able to flee his grasp.

The point is that we don't win

I can see the logic here, or we need to drain the power out of them.

and someone powerful makes a replica for us that has 'limited power', thus allowing us to still keep it, upgrade it but logically through it away for the next xpac.

[ati87]

Personally I think that Blizzard will determine towards the end of the expansion if they liked how the Artifacts worked out.

If Blizzard doesn't like how the Artifacts turned out I can imagine that we ''lose'' them during battle and we get a replacement weapon right away so we don't start empty handed.

[Leodok]

What I think will happen is: the artifact traits will be applied to everyone (all prot warriors get all prot warrior traits, doesn't matter if they have the artifact) or just removed. Skins will become available for transmog. So, gameplay-wise, very little will be lost.

Lore wise, I can see four main possibilities:
-we spend all their power defeating the final boss, breaking free from some prison or something similar. Maybe the Legion will destroy the pillars of creation and we'll have to spend our artifact's power to close the portal.
-we hand them back to our class orders or to their previous owners (makes sense with some artifacts, but not with all of them).
-the artifacts will simply be ignored. We'll trade them for random greens like they were common weapons.
-each artifact, or each class at least, will have a small questline that explains why they'll lose their weapons. Druids give them back to the ancients, a demon steals them from DHs, the Lich King gets them so they can be "empowered" but doesn't give them back to DKs because he's EEEEEVIL.

Getting more powerful artifacts doesn't make much sense to me, as many artifacts are either really powerful or really iconic.