How will Artifacts be dealt with at the End of Legion?

[Realsykes]

Shadowmoure was made to counter Frostmourne, and the Warglaives were just "The Legendary Weapons of Illidan Stormrage!!!!!!!!!". Awesome, yes, but they were not "The greatest possible weapons of all time!!" Like Artifacts are.

Who said they're the greatest weapons of all time?

Frostmourne is surely one, and Shadowmourne is crafted to beat it.

Hell, we are even picking up shards of Frostmourne to make these weapons for unholy and frost, and yet we built an axe forever ago that can stand with it's full self?

Lore and logic holes ftw!

The Warglaives literally have the same backstory as the Scythe for blood dks. We picked them off some great demon (illidan did originally), and yet here we are.

[SirCowdog]

They could certainly make up whatever they wanted along the way, naming things after different iconic heroes. The thing is, we're already getting a few iconic weapons from iconic people - and there are certainly quite a few weapons for specs that people are having trouble guessing. After having the Doomhammer, Ashbringer, Frostmourne, Shaohao's weapon, the weapon of the first Guardian, etc, what else really is there? There aren't a whole lot of famous warriors with weapons that we could obtain. There aren't, really, any famous warlocks other than Gul'dan, Cho'gall (to a point), and Teron'gor, unless you wind up crossing into other types of evil energy (Old Gods, Void, Necromancy).

So, while they could add more artifacts later, it would be a bit anti-climactic to get an unknown person's weapon while leaving Ashbringer in the dust - especially since they have to make stuff up now to fill out slots (Prot Warrior Vrykul weapon, Highmountain Tauren spear, Druid claws, etc).

It just seems like it would be very easy for them to come up with new items on the fly. Or extend the idea to armor pieces, which would make doing that even easier.

[Rosstafa]

They probably will go the way of legendaries and no longer be useful, but perhaps the idea of levelling weapon skills will continue.

[Torgent]

That's what everyone said about Illidan's Glaives, Atiesh, Shadowmourne, etc etc

No, nobody said that about them unless they were idiots. We are dealing with the (lorewise) most powerful weapons we've created. While each legendary we've had was immensely powerful, they weren't necessarily the MOST powerful. These are iconic weapons that would not be capable of being replaced with random greens. IT would make no sense. Also they created an entire weapon system just for one weapon? I doubt it. Expect to see this in the future.

[Stellan]

Quote Originally Posted by Squishysib View Post
If they did go away, what would people leveling 100-110 do after Legion? Not use weapons at all? Be stuck using weapons from 2 expansions ago?

The entry quest to the 110-120 continent would send your account information to a Chinese Gold Seller, When you get logged out and recover your account and log back in, You would be absolutely butt naked on the new continent and have to get new gear.

Works for me although I'm amused that people don't know how players would get new weapons after Legion.

[Deleted]

I really don't wanna be THAT guy but I don't think there is an after legion in the sense that the story will progress to a completely new storyline. There's no way Sargeras will roll over and die or give up in just one "half"-expansion. I'm thinking it will be more of chapters from this point on instead of expansions in terms of story. Maybe we'll land a few hits and push the legion back a bit and then we need to go to a new place and push them back some more, perhaps go after some relic to help us kill Sargeras once and for all. I mean, there are so much tied into defeating the burning legion: The Pantheon, The Old God's, Azshara, The Emerald dream, Argus etc.

I have a feeling Blizzard wants this to be the ultimate epic of warcraft and spreading the story out over several expansions or "chapters" will help them drag this out for as long as possible because I'm pretty sure this is technically the last expansion of the series. So we'll get to keep our weapons I'd say.

[Destinas]

It just seems like it would be very easy for them to come up with new items on the fly. Or extend the idea to armor pieces, which would make doing that even easier.

Well, as I said, they certainly could. But from a lore standpoint, a lot of them would fall flat, because some of them do already. Some of them involve characters we know and love, with stories we know and love, and others aren't as exciting because we know nothing about them.

For instance, Ret Paladins get Ashbringer, which was forged by Magni (probably from the spark of a Naaru) for Alexandros Mograine, later given to Darion Mograine, and later given to Tirion Fordring. Compare that to the Blood DK weapon, Maw of the Damned - it's a weapon used by a demon named Gorelix the Fleshripper, and he used it to bleed people dry. Certainly the Maw is a powerful weapon, but we've never heard of the weapon or Gorelix before, so the lore for it falls flat. Felo'melorn and the Eagle Spear are similar - we've seen the characters that used them (Sunstriders and Huln Highmountain, respectively) in lore, but that's pretty much it.

If they made new things on the fly every expansion going forward, it wouldn't feel as epic as many of the ones we have right now. There aren't that many powerful weapons in Azeroth/Draenor that we've seen in lore, and it would eventually feel a bit ridiculous if every spec got a new artifact every expansion. As far as armor, I can't think of a single piece of armor (aside from the Lich King's helm) that is powerful enough to be considered an artifact. Maybe Terenas' crown?

[smokii]

honestly I think it will help a lot for more casual players and the lfr crowd, as well as alts.

Sourcing a new weapon for an alt can be a pain in the ass for one thing, so having one you continuously level up as you play that toon is handy.

Aren't weapons also supposed to be a large part of a players dps and healing? Which from a design perspective, would then allow the devs to fine tune things like dungeons, normal, heroic and time walker, as well as the new "adventure zones" (which tbh sound like solo scenarios) with greater accuracy. Wouldn't be surprised if they also used the levelling system of the weapon to gate entry into lfr.

Honestly, I think from a content balancing perspective, this could actually make a significant difference.

If there is enough variety of skins and customisation options to keep expanding on it as the game moves forward, blizz could conceivably continue with it, or we give it up and then go craft our own and upgrade that instead. There would have to be a way to regain the weapon or a new one at 110 once the next expansion ships, as blizz would likely be chucking a boost in the shop.

[teddytous]

Definitely think we should not carry them into the next expansion, fine with them being trasnmog next patch.

Would be cool like some have mentioned, if there were some lore to explain why. Destroying them in some epic way, giving them to old/new heros, passing on, etc.

[ComputerNerd]

It is potentially messy I think.
Ever increasing number of talents going forward I think is going to be harder to balance.
I could see some talents perhaps becoming passives or otherwise rolled into something else.
I would rather there be some progression reset each expansion IF we are to continue with the same artifact, though that comes out to be messy from a lore or story point of view.

If we get this (sometimes) lore-significant weapon that is so important that is earns us the right to lead the class order, then how can we justifiably replace that every expansion with another which just happens to be even better.
And why would the power or skill we gain over the course of the expansion suddenly disappear or become irrelevant.

[SirCowdog]

It is potentially messy I think.
Ever increasing number of talents going forward I think is going to be harder to balance.
I could see some talents perhaps becoming passives or otherwise rolled into something else.
I would rather there be some progression reset each expansion IF we are to continue with the same artifact, though that comes out to be messy from a lore or story point of view.

If we get this (sometimes) lore-significant weapon that is so important that is earns us the right to lead the class order, then how can we justifiably replace that every expansion with another which just happens to be even better.
And why would the power or skill we gain over the course of the expansion suddenly disappear or become irrelevant.

It will be interesting to see where they go with Artifacts. It's dangerous to take away some of the random drop aspects of the game that make it so addictive.

On a side note, does anyone else feel like Artifacts might be re-using a LOT of the Path of the Titans resources from way back when?

[Xargoth6634]

I don't see how they can do anything BUT continue using these weapons in future xpacs. As others have said, they're giving us the biggest lore weapons there are (and making new ones as well for the specs that need them) and it's not like they can really go back to greens after that. It's one thing to have one legendary for a couple of classes or specs one xpac, or a cloak/ring, but the amount of concerted effort they're putting into artifact weapons seems like a longterm strategy to me. As long as they allow people to transmog them, I don't really see any problems except from the vocal whiny minority. They can always add more vanity weapons in for people to earn for transmog, like they did this xpac with challenge modes.

EDIT: one thing that will be interesting from my perspective is how they'll handle the look of the individual weapons. Will they be tied specifically to the weapon's talent tree choice? My main's a ret pally and I like the original look of Ashbringer. I'm casual enough that if the look was tied to a specific tree I'd take whatever tree ended up with that look, but that might irk some more hardcore raiders who are min-maxing, you know?

[Gemini Soul]

I don't see how they can do anything BUT continue using these weapons in future xpacs. As others have said, they're giving us the biggest lore weapons there are (and making new ones as well for the specs that need them) and it's not like they can really go back to greens after that. It's one thing to have one legendary for a couple of classes or specs one xpac, or a cloak/ring, but the amount of concerted effort they're putting into artifact weapons seems like a longterm strategy to me. As long as they allow people to transmog them, I don't really see any problems except from the vocal whiny minority. They can always add more vanity weapons in for people to earn for transmog, like they did this xpac with challenge modes.

EDIT: one thing that will be interesting from my perspective is how they'll handle the look of the individual weapons. Will they be tied specifically to the weapon's talent tree choice? My main's a ret pally and I like the original look of Ashbringer. I'm casual enough that if the look was tied to a specific tree I'd take whatever tree ended up with that look, but that might irk some more hardcore raiders who are min-maxing, you know?

Each artifact has 5 different shape designs, and each design has 4 different color skins.

[ZazuuPriest]

So i have a question, what about dual spec, do we all have to farm 2 artifact weapons?

[wrv451nlp]

So i have a question, what about dual spec, do we all have to farm 2 artifact weapons?

It's simply not known yet, Chances are your artifact weapon will transform into whatever your Specs Artifact should be when you respec.

[Deleted]

What makes you think Legion is the last expansion?

Because they're throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the players in Legion. For example, everyone gets all the big lore weapons. I don't see much of the franchise left afterwards. Second, I don't think there will be enough players left after Legion to continue with the old model. Legion is just more of the same as before, so I fully expect the steep decline in subs to continue the same it has since WotLK. Their business strategy has been to diversify away from being almost entirely a WoW shop into a more diverse set of f2p titles. They even stated that they're not going to do WoW scale new titles in the future, instead focusing on smaller, simple titles. That suggest they're not going to put in the huge effort needed to turn WoW around with its current model, so f2p is the logical next step.

People have thought that about almost every expansion.

What people? I don't recall ever seeing anyone say that before. It was always clear that there'd be another xpac to milk more cash from the franchise, but we're now at a point where there aren't going to be enough subscribers to milk the old way.

[Gemini Soul]

It's simply not known yet, Chances are your artifact weapon will transform into whatever your Specs Artifact should be when you respec.

They already said you will have to pick up that artifact as well, they are unsure of how they will handle the catch up mechanics with the Artifact Power.

[Eon Drache]

After this expansion the naaru will forge weapons of pure light to combat the Burning Legion with weapons specifically for them. The exception will be the Ashbringing as it is already forged from what is "rumored" to the be the heart/soul of a naaru. In which case the Ashbringing will be used again as the original wielder is dead.

[Selastan]

They already said you will have to pick up that artifact as well, they are unsure of how they will handle the catch up mechanics with the Artifact Power.

I bet respeccing changes your artifact power as well. You would still have to do the quest for your other artifacts, but Artifact Power should be shared.

[Froggy]

Just vendor the Artifact weapon and replace it with a green weapon from the first quest in the expansion after Legion. That would be so horrible. But I wouldn't be surprised up if that's what happens.