AK research time reduced!

[Tradu]

Is this a joke? They already went too far by making rank 40 purchaseable. Does it affect me at all? No, but it is annoying to see blizzard up the stakes over and over for undermining the accomplishments of people who play the game and don't take breaks every 2 months. This completely trivialized the entire system. Why even have It? Just give everyone ak40 and skip the song and dance.

Yes, they should just get rid of the system, and this essentially does that for now.

[Gorgodeus]

exactly. they trivialized it means they took it out of the calculation for balancing because it was basically not possible.

=> they recognized the failure of that system and just gave everybody the chance to obtain max in very short time

Lol, no. It is simply a catch-up mechanic, no different than catch-up mechanics they have done in every other expansion. The closer to the end of an expansion, the more accelerated the catch mechanics are when implemented. It has nothing to do with "failure" whatsoever.

[lockybalboa]

good move.

[ComputerNerd]

So basically the whole AP thing is pretty much pointless and a shitty design, and Blizzard grudgingly recognizes it.

exactly. they trivialized it means they took it out of the calculation for balancing because it was basically not possible.

=> they recognized the failure of that system and just gave everybody the chance to obtain max in very short time

It wasn't "hard" in any way that makes it trivialised by this change, it was a time gating with no input involved from the player besides a very low cost every few days.

Again someone using a buzzword, "trivalized" either without understanding, or more likely ignoring what it actually means.

The same amount of play over a different period of time is still the same amount of play.
Is it fair that someone can't have a similar return on the effort.

Some things like legendaries are still not tied sufficiently to effort.
But this is a good start at fixing something which cannot possibly be in its current form.

[Daffan]

Sucked in for all the people that actually spent time farming AP between 30-40 AK. Blizz hammerfisted your time investment again.

[Dracullus]

In future expac AK (or whatever it will be named) should be region-wide buff that auto increase with every reset. It would completetly solve alts and new players problem, also no one would wait for last AK before reset to clear raids.

[Zinxu]

I quit for quite a while so it helped me a great deal.

[Deleted]

Does that mean they're close to admitting there's no point in this redundant mechanic?

[Deleted]

This is more or less and admission that the whole artifact knowledge/power thing did not turn out well, who'd have guessed, players did not much like yet another levelling process and particularly one that introduced very significant power differences between players who could farm AP and those that could not, and which also tended to "lock" players into a given spec and class only to find they get fucked over when the inevitable nerf/buff random number generator gets cranked up like it always does. Oh and it made alts a even bigger pain in the arse than they were when just gear was the problem...

Now if only they;d do something about legendaries. I know, let;s have an earnable one that is a reward for effort so that everyone who puts in enough trouble can obtain a really good one. We could create an interesting story line to tag with that.

Unbelievable they put so much time and effort into a class mount, but made the class ring just another shitty randon drop from trivial, grindable content pftttt..

[Sierra85]

In future expac AK (or whatever it will be named) should be region-wide buff that auto increase with every reset. It would completetly solve alts and new players problem, also no one would wait for last AK before reset to clear raids.

i like this idea alot. makes new alts feel less punished!

[Banquetto]

That seems unrelated. Anyone that played the game should have 40 already, it only applies to people that didn't play since 7.2 launched, and thus are behind on AK.

Yep, this is 100% a catchup mechanic for people who haven't been playing during the period between 7.2 and 7.2.5.

[Nevcairiel]

This is more or less and admission that the whole artifact knowledge/power thing did not turn out well, who'd have guessed, players did not much like yet another levelling process and particularly one that introduced very significant power differences between players who could farm AP and those that could not, and which also tended to "lock" players into a given spec and class only to find they get fucked over when the inevitable nerf/buff random number generator gets cranked up like it always does. Oh and it made alts a even bigger pain in the arse than they were when just gear was the problem...

It is nothing of that sort. Any player with an active account should have had AK40 already, or at least be very close, so it changes absolutely nothing for them. All they change is speed up the catch-up mechanic, which is all that AK was always ever meant to be in the first place.

There is no difference for active players, has no impact on "switching" specs or whatever. They already fixed those problems in the system with 7.2 more or less. Right now it takes about a week to get to 52 if you play actively, so the bar for switching specs or character is relatively low as it is.

[Jaylock]

This is just a terrible thing and heres why.

The AP system was supposed to be a system that rewarded you for staying up on it. Now giving max AK to everyone in "a few days" undermines everyone who was consistent with it over the course of the expansion so far.

Bad move by Blizzard.

[Eleccybubb]

This is just a terrible thing and heres why.

The AP system was supposed to be a system that rewarded you for staying up on it. Now giving max AK to everyone in "a few days" undermines everyone who was consistent with it over the course of the expansion so far.

Bad move by Blizzard.

Agreed Jay. The current time was fine. It rewarded you for patience as well as hard work.

[Mister Cheese]

So the entire concept of AK is meaningless not even halfway through the expansion.

[Deleted]

Kick in the teeth for players who did it first.

[Livnthedream]

It's a good thing. It helps close the gap between those who have 52+ traits and those without them. It makes changing specs less painful as well.

At 40 ak a new toon can easily get nearly to concordance in a day. I just did it yesterday on my shaman. https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/ch...oore/menominee

[Deleted]

Agreed Jay. The current time was fine. It rewarded you for patience as well as hard work.

What hard work, lol? You're literally playing the waiting game because of this ludicrous system since it's always a matter of "well I shouldn't be farming AP today because AK is done in 2 days".

Why should there be a system that artificially forces people to progress in a relatively similiar pace?

[TOM_RUS]

Should have made it this way from Legion day one. Too late I guess, harm already done...

[nalle]

Just extended my sub on one of my accounts just to get the AK 40 token because it was the furthest along. Now they do this?..

Wasted my money...