Legion changes

[magnetox]

Hi all,

I have some questions for you, and they might seem really nooby, but please have patience with me as I think it'd be a good thread to have for old players who aren't familiar with the legion changes. And yes I have tried to research these questions on my own, to no avail, and am currently in the process of re-installing so I can't see for myself.

If you could just respond to each question individually, that'd be great. I realize there's a lot, and partial responses are still appreciated, although a complete response will get more brownie points .

Can you explain the artifact system to me? It seems that all players are on an unequal playing field. Depending on what factors? How do you level up your artifact trait tree and how long does it take to do so? Ideally, I'd like to have all artifact traits fully unlocked and also 20/20 on the primary skill. Is this an unreasonable goal? On the talent calculator it started getting really expensive for certain traits, in terms of artifact power. Where are the glad arena players at in terms or their artifact trees and where are the top raiders? Assuming of course that this artifact system is used in all arenas and rated bgs. If not, that would be great as it would be more balanced.

How does the "honor leveling" system work? How many points or how close to a "level" do you get for completing battlegrounds, arenas, or world PvP? My build I want to use is level 34, am I gonna have to work for hours and hours trying to grind it out?

How does arena gear work? I'm used to the old save up your arena points and then purchase your gear. But I know things are different now. If you are using PvE gear with an item level of 840, and another person has an item level of 840 with PvP gear, in the arena or battleground are you both converted to the same "effective power" using the stat templates created by blizz or is there an advantage to gearing through PvP for PvP? Do your stats on your gear matter at all? Or is it only item level, that is converted to stats by the template? Is the best thing to do to play both PvE and PvP and just try and get the highest item level you can?

How is healer balance in the current arena game, specifically in 3v3. Some people have said RSham and MW are very strong, others say Hpal and Rdruid. Is it sort of just pick one of those four (sorry priest) and you'll do ok as long as you're skilled? Specifically with Hpal, you have to be within melee range to utilize mastery and also do a fair amount of damage, what has that been like so far? I'm also worried about Rdruid and their stripped protection for their HoTs, as now they can simply be purged or spellstolen very easily. Is a purging shaman a hard counter to a resto druid team? Or can you survive with lifeblooms and LoS/CC? From what I've heard, all healers get owned by melee cleaves that train them currently. Is Hpal therefore the best because of his bubble? Are games really that short?

More generally, how is your experience in arenas so far? From what I've read melee cleaves and zerging cleaves seem to just roll through teams, and matches are apparently short (<1 min sometimes). Is this because healers are too weak, or simply bad teams getting owned, or both? Are r1 players having trouble with certain gimmicky comps, are there extreme imbalances, or is what blizzard is trying to do a step in the right direction for the game in comparison with the last expansion? Are typical comps such as RMD, Turbo Cleave, and God Comp still strongest? Or is it more tertiary comps such as Shadowplay, Kitty cleave, Thug cleave, and TSG style cleaves that are gaining in prominence?

I do realize that the rated season has not started yet, but I'm just looking for some opinions, preferably first hand, that address these questions. DPS, how do you find the arenas and healers, etc. Healers, how do you find things, etc. No need to tell me about DH, I've already read enough of that.

Thanks for your time and response in advance.

[Woop Woop]

With the artifact weapon, you can get an item called artifact knowledge, it increases your artifact power gains.its a catch up mechanic for your offspecs, but once it stacks high enough you can progress further in your artifact tree. Blizz said this is something you do throughout all of Legion. Maybe they will add traits or its just that slow.
I have heard that artifact traits doesnt work in rated, so only your artifact ilvl matters (through good relics)

For honor levels, you get 300 each bg, and from 1-10 its 500 you need each level, to 750 from 10-20, 1000 from 20-30, 1175 from 30-40 and 1250 from 40-50.
You gain 300 from doing Tolbarad, can do this once per hour, same honor gain from pvp world quests (there is a cross on them). If you prestige now you lose all honor talents and must farm again. In 7.1 you wont lose them.
34 isnt too slow to get to, the hardcore streamers can do 50 in 1-3 days, so expect a week or two perhaps.

Arena gear is 100% ilvl, stats doesnt matter at all.
The arenas doesnt last long because heals are weaker than before, while burst is higher. From streams, it looks like one shots (or close to) is something you can expect from time to time.

I play priest, but shamans look very strong. Would definitely reccomend that. Might even level up one at some point. Druids seem to stuggle a bit with melees, priest even more so. Shadow looks really strong in arenas, will definitely try that, with firemage or rogue.
Melee do seem to domitate every aspect of the game, i hope they are toned down a little and more casters will rise (ele, for example).