Why are YOU grinding artifact power?

[Sevyvia]

I'm really not grinding AP. I raid once a week, do most of the emissary quests, and that's about it. That has almost gotten me to the last trait by now, and I'm just about satisfied with that. If Blizzard release Nighthold so that I have 0-1 point in that final boring percentage trait, then it seems to me that either them or me hit just about right. I'm by no means a completionist.

[Flextt]

41 @AK24 on my FDK spec by comfortably doing Emissaries, 1-2 M+12 per week and some additional worthwhile WQs per day, plus mythic raids in a 7/7 EN M, 3/3 HC ToV prenerf guild. I am surprised to not be middle of the pack and even more surprised by the amount of ire AP farming is drawing. The legendaries are a far bigger shitstain as well as the issues that FotM class picking causes in conjunction with M+.

[Deleted]

Even the mythic raid guilds have time... we hit AK25 today, and there sre still 2 weeks left.
Most active player already have 40+ traits so its not the big deal to grind to 50+ for the nighthold release.

[Deleted]

I'm confused. You're earning gold and AP by doing the WQs that award order hall resources?

OH! I bet you're thinking of the order hall missions that you send your champions on. That's not what I meant; I was referring to world quests that award Order Hall Resources.

I'm 99% sure he means both. He does the World Quests for Order Hall Resources, as you need to spend those to send your followers on missions. The followers then go off and earn you gold and AP. One Resources WQ can give you enough Resources for anywhere from 1 to even 5 or 6 follower missions, so you multiply how efficient your in game time is by turning that 1 WQ into the reward you would have got from multiple whilst not even playing.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

I'm 99% sure he means both. He does the World Quests for Order Hall Resources, as you need to spend those to send your followers on missions. The followers then go off and earn you gold and AP. One Resources WQ can give you enough Resources for anywhere from 1 to even 5 or 6 follower missions, so you multiply how efficient your in game time is by turning that 1 WQ into the reward you would have got from multiple whilst not even playing.

Ah ok. I never do WQs for order resources (unless that's easiest way to emissary), but I've got over 50,000 anyway. After completing that last order hall perk, the one for equipping two legendaries, there hasn't been much to spend them on. I buy all my seals with order hall resources, so that's 7k/week? I do use a champion with two items equipped that give me order resources every time I complete any WQ, so that may be part of it. Anyway, I am swimming in order resources. And it's been a very good xpac to be a JC, so I'm not hurting for gold either. When I look at WQs, I look for AP since that helps progress my character. Everything else is just more of something I already have too much of.

- - - Updated - - -

With 46 ranks in Truthguard, I finally hit 4 million unbuffed health (a lot for a pally!) and 7k armor. Both benchmarks felt very satisfying. The steady advancement of my characters through AP has kept me from fretting over the RNG of loot drops. And the loot has eventually come, just by doing the stuff that brought AP.

[Pua]

I raid mythics and seeing how I'm not in World First guild, I need every bit of advantage I can get. In this expansion, this happens to include farming AP and getting all those seemingly "irrelevant" 0.5%. Said "unimportant" 0.5% (be it damage, healing or just stamina) did happen to secure at least couple kills which wouldn't happen otherwise, thus further proving the "need" to do that. I don't have angry RL/GM shouting at me to do that, but being behind on AP does make a character feel far less useful for raids.

Okay, this interests me.

We're not talking "competitive" here, but we're talking about contributing to a raid group as best you can and trying to contribute the most. I'm glad you also said it wasn't about a raid leader shouting at you, because the response would be "find another guild" which doesn't solve anything.

Do you feel you're the only one who does this in your group, or is it quite a communal thing?

Only time I grinded ap was when I was close to my next point, other than that just did wq and what ever randomly. Done with main and off spec now so just throwing whatever into my third weapon.

I admit, I've done that a couple of times. I'm close to getting a trait, so I'll nip out into the world or do a heroic dungeon and pick it up.

I reckon that's part of the design?

[MatadorMedia]

I play like 5 hours of WoW a week. I played a lot more at the start of the expansion, but I've got 3 more points to put in my Artifact for completion. Hasn't really been a grind, like I haven't targeted artifact power in any way, it's just been a nice reward to get a point every now and again doing normal gameplay.

[Deleted]

Because according to the posters that post here and qq about the ''grind'' all of them are super pro players in 90% percentage that play in a world first guild and if they don't they will get replace with another super pro player, so blizzard 'force' them to grind

[Lochton]

I'm genuinely curious, because I'd like to figure out (if possible) why people feel that the artifact power is such a horrible grind.

One point:

This isn't really a topic for competitive raiders.

For that group, it's obvious why you'd be grinding out anything that benefits performance and, to be honest, I think it's a bit of a ridiculous ask simply to remain competitive. It's something I have some sympathy for.

For me, I passively amass it as I play the game on an average of about 15-20 hours per week. I generally do World Quests, dungeons, some normal/Heroic/LFR raids and I mess around in the odd random battleground. I really don't feel the need to grind it out aggressively and, therefore, I probably don't grasp why people outside the group I'm referencing would be that fussed about it.

Any insight would be good.

Because I'm an achiever, and I wanna complete my weapons. As well, I raid.

[Pua]

Because I'm an achiever, and I wanna complete my weapons. As well, I raid.

Completionism is a very real, if oft-overlooked, aspect to all of this.

I still shudder at the thought of having to compete in RBGs in order to get a blacksmithing plan.

[KaPe]

Okay, this interests me.

We're not talking "competitive" here, but we're talking about contributing to a raid group as best you can and trying to contribute the most. I'm glad you also said it wasn't about a raid leader shouting at you, because the response would be "find another guild" which doesn't solve anything.

Do you feel you're the only one who does this in your group, or is it quite a communal thing?

I don't have raid leader screaming at me because I am said raid leader. I'm being quite lenient, which is why I'm not really chasing people to farm M+ in their spare time. However, many of them do it on their own accord, to varying degrees - and it shows.

I guess it's a good thing we're nowhere near as hardcore/"competitive" as we used to be, because otherwise this would cause a lot of issues. There's already some people being considered "lazy" for not having (insert trait level here), but fortunately even the top farmers understand that this is a rather tiring and grindy process. Thus it remains more of a joking mention rather than truly biting remark.

Unlike Legendaries, which are down to pure luck, Artifact Power has no such excuse. It's uncapped source of character power. It doesn't seem all that relevant, until at some point death log will show that Character X died, overkilled by (less than 10k, which means a single trait). Or maybe it was a 0.1% wipe after a long and tiring raid. You don't point fingers at people, but there's that unspoken "if only you farmed a bit more and had that extra trait..." hanging in the air.

[ItachiZaku]

Daily pvp win is basically half an artifact level for me. I don't go out of my way to get AP, i don't see a point in it for my main. My alts have lower AK, so they only really do emissary and gear upgrades and resources. More grinding honor levels, but not even really doing that so much.

I have a twink that was grinding AP (rather, my healer/dps main was grinding raids for the BoCs for my twink), so there was that.

[Faesroll]

while being a competetive raider... Would someone be able to answer something else then: "To upgrade my Artefacts power"?

What other answer can there possibly be.

[Woop Woop]

I'm grinding a bit, but not hardcore farming it.
I do it because I rerolled maybe 4-5 weeks into Legion and I've been behind everyone else on AP.
I want my character to be the best it can be, and the 35 trait is a requirement for that, I also like to be competitive and have fun maxing dps.

[Morae]

First I want to say that I'm compeltely tired of farming AP.

Yet, I continue to do so. My guild raids mythic difficulty and honestly, if I didn't farm AP, I would feel like i'm slacking. What if our progress fight is a wipe at 1k hp because someone didn't farm that one point of extra dps? I don't want to be that guy who caused that sub 1% wipe. :/

Only reason I do it so that I feel I'm not slacking.

[MasterHamster]

I'm not grinding it, because I have no urge to get burned out. I do a few WQs when I feel like it, mainly clearing the high AP ones, maybe get a trait or two.
Playing 3 characters, so I've amassed quite a lot of AK even though some of my weapons are as low as 27.

I can't understand those who rushed it to the point they did 50+ WQs for another +3% ability damage or whatever. "Rushing" to get the third golden trait I can understand.

[Diggy]

This isnt a grind - even for the so called competitive raiders outside of maybe world top 10.

The problem is that people lost their ability to manage expectations so they do crazy stuff that doesn't apply to them. If you are bottom world 100 guild, you need to come with grips that you are not Method or Serenity and that you trying to grind out 54 traits before Nighthold is a ridiculous expectation. Your progression will improve more if you spend time going though your logs instead of farming MoS for increments of 0.5% power increase. Unfortunately, it is much harder to present log research time in terms of concrete numbers while it is very easy to do in terms of AP.

Finally, your increase in AP isnt gonna save you from being out of position of Helya orbs. It is gonna save you from healers not being able to dispel more often than an odd debuff every other minute. IT won't save you from being being poorly positioned for phase 2 transition that you lose a ton of dps not due to not having enough traits, but due to poor play. All those things the very top guild generally don't have a problem after relatively short time compared to even top 20-30 guild, that's why they go all out on other grinds like AP. Guilds that are lower rank need to bring themselves to a higher play level before chasing a black cat in the dark room.

TLDR, manage your expectations better

[Lochton]

Completionism is a very real, if oft-overlooked, aspect to all of this.

I still shudder at the thought of having to compete in RBGs in order to get a blacksmithing plan.

Aww.. I haven't had time for RBG, as my group goes when I am taking care of my child.

[Amonthar]

I am only grinding my main spec and first off spec to 35. After that I plan on putting AP into my main spec and start leveling a third character.

I have enjoyed the catch up mechanic for AP. I leveled my Warlock to 110 and ten days or so later my Druid hit 110. They are both at AK level 24 and working on AK 25 which should finish within a few hours of each other.

[shonist]

lol, i dont grind, why are u asking questions to 12yo childs? (i mean, the only ppl who can be farming ap all day).