Artifact importance for tanking

[snoooze]

To Clarify I am aware the artifact is important for any role that a player is taking part in. My question stems from a problem that I will be facing as a raid leader when the first legion raiding tier hits. Our main tank will be unavailable for roughly a month of raiding due to his job.

Also to add we are a semi-hardcore raiding guild looking to get into mythic as soon as possible. Which makes the decisions a little harder because of how much of a set back artifact power is if you're missing that much time (from what I have gathered so far).

How important is it for tanks to have an artifact powered up? Could someone get away with just the base weapon for 4 weeks? Also I've heard conflicting reports about how long it takes to get an artifact fully powered. Is it that much of a catch up if you decide to throw any artifact power into another artifact?

I ask this because I see a few options and I am trying to pick the best one. I also want to know how much catching up our tank will need to do when they come back. Assuming they will be unable to play at all during that month.

A few options I'm looking at right now are:
Tanking on my DH but keeping the artifact power going towards Havoc.
Fully taking the role of main tank (thereby putting all power into Vengeance) and having him dps until we are able to swap at some point.
Recruiting a new tank.

The plans for my DH were to Havoc in raids and push Mythic dungeons as Vengeance. But I was hoping to have a bit more time before making the move towards Vengeance.

Any help is appreciated :] and sometimes I get carried away so if any of what I said is confusing feel free to post a question about it.

[Fayenoor]

This is a very relevant question for a lot of semi-hardcore raiding guilds who have similar attendance issues and need people who maintain multiple specs.

From the little I have gathered from my research, what people seem to be recommended is to unlock 13 artifact traits in your main spec and then 13 in Off spec before buying the 14th trait. The 14th trait onwards they become very expensive. You should be fine tanking or DPSing anything with 13 trait points put correctly.

This is also relevant for DPS who double as healers for fights which need extra healing, or a DPS who might need to be a 3rd tank for a certain encounter.

[relindrani]

I didn't read this article since I was just trying to find the image it contains, but it is a chart that shows the time it takes to solely focus on your main vs focusing on your main and somewhat you OS. The relevant part for you is the first couple of weeks where it shows that by week 3 you can have 20 points in your main and 14 points in your off without any extra delay. The only noticeable delay by putting some AP in your OS is after 27 weeks, where you are only 1 point behind in your main, but have 34 points in your off. From a quick glance, the article seems to give a little bit of extra information.

http://blog.askmrrobot.com/2016/08/a...t-path-legion/

[Fayenoor]

I didn't read this article since I was just trying to find the image it contains, but it is a chart that shows the time it takes to solely focus on your main vs focusing on your main and somewhat you OS. The relevant part for you is the first couple of weeks where it shows that by week 3 you can have 20 points in your main and 14 points in your off without any extra delay. The only noticeable delay by putting some AP in your OS is after 27 weeks, where you are only 1 point behind in your main, but have 34 points in your off. From a quick glance, the article seems to give a little bit of extra information.

http://blog.askmrrobot.com/2016/08/a...t-path-legion/

That's a solid find. It also links to Kib's spreadsheet:

[snoooze]

This is all super helpful! :] Thank you so much