The impact of Artifacts on "loot joy"

[Hawg]

Dont get me wrong, I like the Artifact weapons. But a side-effect (at least for me) has been less anticipation and excitement from boss loot droops (loot joy).

In past expansions, nothing seemed like a better reward than getting a big weapon upgrade. Since our weapons are set this expansion, that anticipation and excitement seems to be missing. Getting a new bracelet or ring, or some fancy new shoes, just isnt as exciting or rewarding as getting a new kick-ass bow or mace or sword.

Im curious if others also find this dulling the "joy of the kill" a bit?

[hellgrazer]

Well I guess that relics kinda fill that spot? A big relic upgrade also makes a big difference

[Flurryfang]

I think that Artifacts are done pretty good in Legion, but not really perfect. Personally i believe that AP should be like Valor in dungeon/raids and like gold in the open world. It should never be the main reward, but a sub-reward, which is given as a bonus thing. So if they stopped making AP be a primary reward in some things or replacing gear/other resourses, then the game would be better fo.....Wait a minute, you are saying that the major problem with Artifacts is that you are not getting Weapon drops anymore??????

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!

[iamthedevil]

I get the same feeling from relics except that now there is 3x the chance of that happening.

[Deleted]

Im with you on this. I like artifacts but no weapons as loot in whole expansion feels kinda... wrong? Odd? Something like that. As you say, the excitement is lowered for me. May just be personal feeling tho.

[IKT]

Yep

Once I got the prot war hidden artifact skin I don't really have much more to play for.

Will probably do nighthold normal and quit till next expac

[Deleted]

So basically:
You are unable to grasp that you have way more skins available than in any previous expansions, additionally to more "weapon drops, in form of relics"?

Yes, 1 relic drop has less effect on your performance than 1 weapon drop did... but that isn't a bad thing.

[Sierra85]

the difference is you are no longer chasing a bad ass weapon, instead ur chasing a gem.

New raid tier or pvp season, its always cool to see the bad ass new weapons that come out. Now its what bad ass gems? cmon.

[Flurryfang]

Yep

Once I got the prot war hidden artifact skin I don't really have much more to play for.

Will probably do nighthold normal and quit till next expac

so you primarily play for weapen skins... Well... I don't even know what to say.

[Staalsy]

Yep

Once I got the prot war hidden artifact skin I don't really have much more to play for.

Will probably do nighthold normal and quit till next expac

Dont let the door hit ya on the way out

[Lazersblade]

As a warrior i like the system, since warrior weapons earlier almost always dropped on last boss, so now we get to use our weapon on progress

[Ghrog]

Yep

Once I got the prot war hidden artifact skin I don't really have much more to play for.

Will probably do nighthold normal and quit till next expac

Have fun storming the castle!

[Cyclone Duke]

It's been replaced by relic drops. Love seeing them.

[Geldor]

For me relics do that job pretty well. If you'd get a nice Titanforged upgrade of your best relic, that's quite something.

It might not feel as impactful as you do not exchange your weapon, but I personally don't feel less "loot joy" because of that.

[Deleted]

Just as often as it was fun getting a big weapon upgrade was it miserable to never see that weapon drop, and when it did, 8 other people were also rolling for it so you never got it.

[therealbowser]

I always got excited when a relic dropped. Not any more than usual, but still.

I feel like 'loot excitement' is a myth. The only time I get excited for loot is when I am farming old content for specific transmog pieces or mounts, etc. Everything else is just pixels to me.

[Nikkaszal]

There are fuckloads more trinkets in the loot tables. They are meant to be the "exciting" drops

Granted, not only is it first tier where trinkets are usually average, they have also been extraordinarily lacklustre on their own merits. But wait until we're in Tomb Of Sargeras and each boss has a couple of BITCHING trinkets that your raid can fight over, instead of weapons.

[IKT]

so you primarily play for weapen skins... Well... I don't even know what to say.

I primarily upgrade my character through acquiring gear yes that's correct. To be honest I'm pretty done with the game, once nighthold rolls around and I'm rolling around in 900 ilvl gear I will see no change in the game besides being able to do higher level mythics. So yeah, pretty done.

[thilicen]

Yep

Once I got the prot war hidden artifact skin I don't really have much more to play for.

Will probably do nighthold normal and quit till next expac

If gathering weapon skins was your reason for playing, you might as well go find something you enjoy more anyway.

[Haveth]

So basically:
You are unable to grasp that you have way more skins available than in any previous expansions, additionally to more "weapon drops, in form of relics"?

Yes, 1 relic drop has less effect on your performance than 1 weapon drop did... but that isn't a bad thing.

This is actually false.

~3 Leveling green 2h models w/ recolors > base artifact skin w/ 4 recolors
3~ 2h Challenge mode skins > Hidden skin side unlock, mostly luck, no real "prestige"
WoD had 7 2h models from dungeons > none from dungeons
Highmaul had 2 unique 2h weapon models w/ recolors > Now we have class campaign model w/ recolors
BRF had 5 unique 2h models w/ recolors > By Nighthold we'll have finally unlocked the Balance of Power model /w recolors
WoD PvP skins were a little wonky, but it was usually 3 unique models w/ recolors over time/elite > 1 PvP model w/ 2 current recolors


So far for unique weapon models:
WoD: ~20
Legion: ~5

Weapon models are obviously getting better because of artifacts, but weapon models improve every expansion. If I had one major non-gameplay related complaint, it would be that there aren't nearly enough weapon models to use for tmog in Legion. I feel like the least Blizzard could have done was release a artifact skin for each raid tier with a recolor based on difficulty. There aren't any models that make you go "Wow, this person did X!", the closest you get is the level 15 keystone recolor(Which looks atrocious for Fury).

Plus, some of the artifact recolors look really, really bad, like "take this and overlay it with a transparent green layer in photoshop" bad.