Will our artifact weapon be our ONLY weapon from here on out?

[Svisalith]

Legioners will be ahead a coulpe million points compared to newcomers.

The AP gain is exponential, if you're behind on artifact knowledge then you'll get an AK every 3 days which means getting power at 10x the normal rate after 1 month, 100x the normal rate after 2 months, 1000x the normal rate after 3 months. Right now this caps at 250x, but that cap is arbitrary.

We'll get a lot more than a few million AP in Legion. IIRC it takes 5.2 million to max an artifact and 70 million to max the prestige level.. 70 million at max artifact knowledge is equivelant to 280k with no artifact knowledge.

[Winterstrife]

In the next expansion we won't have artifact weapons anymore. I'm pretty sure Blizzard will make the artifact skill tree something attached to the character rather than the weapon in the next expansion - they can't take away that massive chunk of progression.

I don't see why not, every expansion takes away a huge chunk of your progression in the expansion, that legendary ring you work to get it to ilvl 795? Well... shame if it would be useless when we hit 110 normals eh?

[Cerus]

In the next expansion we won't have artifact weapons anymore. I'm pretty sure Blizzard will make the artifact skill tree something attached to the character rather than the weapon in the next expansion - they can't take away that massive chunk of progression.

They can and have in the past. Look at all the WoD leveling abilities that went away. Abilities are removed left and right with each expac.

On topic: No one knows. It's all a guess at this point. The weapon skin unlocks certainly are not enough reason to keep them. The ones that are reason enough belong to Guardian and Feral Druids. The new forms took a lot of time and work from the art team. But Druids have been shit on for years when it comes to forms so there's that.


They could easily keep the artifacts permanently, add more skins, nerf the 100-110 requirements/reset them with new stuff and of course relics are the easiest thing to design to keep the ilvl current. Logically it would be a lot less work for them to keep artifacts vs going back to hundreds of weapon drops. But when does blizzard ever do the logical thing.

[aziras]

Kalecgos (his name on MMO-C, not the npc ) suggested we might each have to sacrifice a weapon of great power to help power the portal to Argus for 8.0

They can have my feral fangs, and I'll keep the other 3.

It would make sense to wrap them back in though. They need to fix that whole king of the universe theme for the player class. The class hall idea is noble as a replacement for a soul-less garrison. But to have all the NPCs treat me like the 2nd coming and then have all these other dudes all over that are ALSO the second coming is just strange.
I always preferred the themes where the players where "foot soldiers" fighting battles because the big heroes had better things to deal with. And while a single character could reach high rank in that army, they were still just part of the bigger picture.

Best example I can think of was Onyxia and Nefarian heads. Killing the dragons with your group awarded you the honor to bring back the trophy and present it to your leaders. You did the deed, they awarded you a special honor and acknowledgement. But they didn't make you the leader because they got captured by baddies themselves while you grab their long-lost artifacts of unmatched power. MMOs are meant to put the player as part of something bigger, but the latest years of WoW development has ruined that by putting the player in the lead-character's chair.
The reason why we fetch 10 rat's tails for some random dude in a town house is because at the end of the day, the world does not evolve around us. I prefer that it stays that way.

So I would be glad if they made us hand back the artifacts at the end of the expansion because we were not worthy to have them after all. Then make it so that in the next expansion we use the knowledge we obtained to craft our own. I would love to start all the way at the toothpick (or walking stick) and then slowly gather materials for upgrading, hunting down expert craftsmen to augment the weapon and watch the vendor-trash obtained in the beginning get evolved into a legendary weapon with it's own story. Toss in a few choices with regards to materials along the way to make it feel more personal and it would be perfect.
The artifact system though can be used more or less as it is. Rename a few strings and replace relics with materials (maybe add a few more slots so they could be used for more elements of the building process and add more artificial customisation). They should still be mog-able, but should have a custom-model/skin based on the crafting materials for those who wanted it to evolve over time.

[Thrif]

Well, we don't know for sure, but according to the latest interviews - one of those pre-legion thursday QAs - they will be going away and we will keep the appearances as transmogs. Which I honestly hope, it would be really boring for Spriests to always have that shitty dagger and for almost all 2h weapon wielder to just have swords.

[Nyel]

I don't see why not, every expansion takes away a huge chunk of your progression in the expansion, that legendary ring you work to get it to ilvl 795? Well... shame if it would be useless when we hit 110 normals eh?

The ring did not offer any character progression, it's just been an item. The artifact traits are more than any item could ever be.

- - - Updated - - -

Or they might enable upgrading the weapon with better artifact relics, but I've lost my faith in Blizzard making sensible or alt-friendly solutions.

Lore-wise it would make no sense to discard these weapons, at least certain ones. The other, made-up artifacts that were created just to get one for each spec are one thing, but what about weapons like The Ashbringer?

Speaking of solutions, I can understand us wielding a special weapon, but making our characters the leaders of our whole class isn't a good long-term idea. How do you improve from that when the only ones above a Paladin Highlord, for example, are basically just the faction leaders?

They already said that we will lose the artifact weapons. They will most likely be destroyed at the last fight against the Legion in Legion. I could see them keeping the artifact tree as another part of character progression (I hope so) because losing it would be... a bit devastating.

And from a lore-standpoint I agree with you.

[thilicen]

As long as they let me keep the appearances, I've grown to love my Scythe of Elune

[Nyel]

They can and have in the past. Look at all the WoD leveling abilities that went away. Abilities are removed left and right with each expac

The Draenor perks were nothing compared to the artifact talent trees. They are very well made and much more than some boring perks. And even most Draenor perks were just "baked" into our usual skills and not entirely removed.

I can't see Blizzard removing Full Moon, Fury of the Illidari, etc. with the next expansion. It would take away one crucial skill we got in Legion.

[squeekinator]

I hope we get to keep them even though I know in my heart that theyll be gone after this. Theyll probably have some sort of way of writing the artifacts out of the story. Like we combine our artifact's power with all our other raid members to help deliver a killing blow to the image of sargeras. Thus, push back the legion but our artifacts are reduced to nothing. (Obviously this would just be the story and not an actual mechanic, much like how after we defeated deathwing the aspects became mortals without immortality, but the next week in the raid they were dragon aspects again)

[Bakinpacman]

They could handle it in a similar way to how they have coded the pvp prestige system into the game by taking you back to no skill points entered.

Make it so that we reforge the weapons we currently have into a weapon that has been attuned to a new arch type (fel/light etc)that can counter our new enemies directly.

So when we start the new expansion we do a quest chain that upgrades our weapon to the new beginning item level devoid of all artifact power spent on the weapon.

[Ehuehuecopter]

Will be so cool on 8.0 to kill a random boar lvl 110+

drop a random " Composite Bow of the Gorilla" green quality lvl 111, with more DPS than my MM weapon.



Or watching Retri switching from Ashbringer to a random BLUE "Shovel of Kobold King" because is actually better

[Arngrim310]

I don't want to give up my new druid forms. They look so amazing.

[Sarevokcz]

I bet they get set aside or taken at the end of the expansion. The system will surely live on just as the mission tables did but it won't be the actual weapon. Depending on how much it's loved or not will determine either a deminished role or a bigger one. Or if they start selling skins. It's forever if they find a way to micro trans on a appearences for them.

the artifacts are basically what I was expecting Path of the Titans to be back in Cata, long term progression beyond level and gear with some bonuses along the way, so I can see some variation of that

[ItachiZaku]

We will need to sacrifice it to unleash total power on the final boss, thereby destroying it forever!

[CrossNgen]

If they're smart about it, they could introduce new artifacts in the next expansion, with new trait trees that can create different playstyles for different specs, while also keeping the old artifacts to offer the more basic playstyles, instead of just throwing those weapons away.

[Sansnom]

It would seem incredibly disheartening to spend all of legion collecting points only for it to all mean nothing when the next xpac hits if they remove the artifact tree system.

I suppose it depends on the success on the artifacts system in the game. It would not affect the next XP since it would be stupid for to adopt a wait and see for this XP before deciding what to do for the next one. If anything do change, it most likely be the one after the next XP.

Most likely is an artifact reset. You get all your AP refunded and reassigned. New comers at the start of the next XP will probably have the same number of AP as you. It is most likely we will reach the cap before the end. It would be silly to acquire the last AP skill and have nothing to use it on. Looking back the talent trees of old, people acquired all the necessary points before raiding starts and it just becomes a matter of farming gear. For this XP, it would most likely be farming relics and maybe some AP too.

[Gatsbybutters]

They'll scrap it, change stats, abilities, skills, etc just like every expansion. They fucked up big time on artifacts, but it was a WoW fuck up, so... I guess I can see why they did it. In their never ending journey to create an accessible, fun version of the game they grew up on, they borrowed another system then twisted it. Everquest AA system was almost perfect, a way to get your character more powerful without it seeming all your power was in the shit you wore. You were stronger. You weren't stronger because a flaming sword, or a pair of enchanted bracers.
They almost had it. If they would have started a character progression AA type progression I think WoW could have hit that semi mmorpg feel it used to have.

[Pony Soldier]

From the looks of it yeah. I'm totally fine with that as I always found getting weapons was the most pain in the ass piece of gear to get. Less to worry about.

[Lochton]

well that's all fine and dandy for a so-noble-it-cringeworthy paladin but it'd be terribly irresponsible and stupid for my lock to just hand off Uthalesh the Deadwind Harvester to someone else. Same goes for my disc priestess' Light's Wrath and a few other weapons of less than savoury status.

But it wouldn't, if you knew they were a class of higher potential than you.

[Kuhnta]

I hope some classes keep there into next expansions and then find way for other classes to replace theirs. Seems better for story and some of these weapons are stronger lore wise than others.