Artifact Weapon Retirement - yes or no?

[Super Kami Dende]

Artifacts are not even remotely like gear or sets from old expansions.

And they aren't remotely special in a fact that they are required to be carried on past Legion.

[Ielenia]

That's kinda the point. You need far beyond the usual power creep. A Guardian Druid with "perfect" relics needs a weapon of well above 300 iLvl higher than his artifact.

Item levels are being pruned in this expansion, just FYI, and, again, Blizzard has already gone on record to state they're aware of how artifact weapons play on class balance and rotation.

[Calfredd]

I always played nice... I was routinely insulted and spat upon over criticised and shit upon and misunderstood and persecuted by a bunch of
usual trolls (a world wide web redundancy I only knew all too well would happen)... all because I expressed in anger what Millions of gamers will
express in silence when they refuse to buy the new expeac... I guarantee it! Wake up gamers! Coffee time!

Yeah because calling people who don't agree with your overblown and hyperbole opinion scum was oh so endearing... I probably should have said you are playing nicer because you are still trying to push that same overblown and hyperbole opinion only this time you aren't outright calling us scum. "You can clean up a pig, put a ribbon on it's [sic] tail, spray it with perfume, but it is still a pig."

[huth]

Item levels are being pruned in this expansion, just FYI, and, again, Blizzard has already gone on record to state they're aware of how artifact weapons play on class balance and rotation.

Which doesn't affect the issue. They'd still need a weapon 300 iLvl above their artifact. What iLvl the artifact has has no impact. Squish only lowers the baseline, it doesn't affect the scaling beyond that, deliberately so.

And that they're aware of it is the reason i expect them to disable them. Though you'll probably just lose it entirely around the time you start BfA.

[Dellis0991]

We get new toys every expansion this too shall pass just like our rings in WoD or our capes in MoP or all the other legendaries.....

[ohwell]

At least he's not typing in giant rainbow text this time around.
Let them die. Every expansion your hard grinded gear gets retired for new grinded gear.
Why would this one be any different?

Because it isn't remotely like gear from the past.

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And they aren't remotely special in a fact that they are required to be carried on past Legion.

They are exactly that in every way possible.

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Valid point, but it was still known from the absolute outset that they were a Legion feature that would not go beyond Legion.

Not really. They said it once and then any response after was never a sure answer.

[Mirishka]

Not really. They said it once and then any response after was never a sure answer.

Selective memory is selective. They said it at Blizzcon, they said it in interviews, they've said it in blue posts since. They directly compared them to garrisons as the big feature of the expansion that lets them go all out because it is intrinsically tied to said expansion, because they don't have to worry about expanding on it/adding even MORE stuff to it in later expansions.

This was literally never a secret. Ever. At no point during Legion were we in the dark about this. If YOU missed those comments and posts, you have my condolences, but that's on you and not Blizzard.

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Like it or not, the poll results speak for itself.

It does. The vast majority don't seem to give a shit.

I'll miss having a persistent weapon (because that was damn nice) for each spec, but as long as I can transmog the appearances I've earned, I'm okay with it.

Not that it matters to begin with. No matter how many of us like it, hate it, or don't care... they're gone next expansion, end of story. I'm on the alpha and honestly I can't say it bugs me much because the weapons I've seen there look pretty neat. There's an amazing cutlass model (perfect for Outlaw) and some really neat spears and polearms.

But yeah, all the polls and opinions in the world don't change the fact that we've got about 5 more months to enjoy these weapons before they go the way of the dodo bird.

[Arcene]

I'll miss Felo'melorn but I know I'll get to keep the transmog so I'm not that fussed. I just need to finish up collecting the appearances before certain tints and appearances become unavailable.

At least with Transmog I get to keep the essence of my cool ass elf blade but I will have to stick to Sword and Offhand for the entirety of BfA lol.

[Galathir]

I do feel bad about relinquishing my artifacts. Not because of the work I put into them but because it is a waste. These weapons (most of them anyway) are treasures that have shaped the lore of the entire universe of WoW to this point.
We are trading the most powerful and well-known weapons in the entirety of Warcraft for random Zandalari butter knife #7.
Stat and ilvl squish aside I will feel weaker than I felt in Legion. It's a step back.

[thatmikeguy]

Can't wait to grind out two or four warforged weapons as Fury.

[Super Kami Dende]

They are exactly that in every way possible.

Ok then Einstein. Give one good reason as to why they would have any requirement to continue on?

[Kathranis]

If you think Blizzard is ever going to let this game's community name their own weapons, you're high.

They let them name their own characters, guilds, and arena teams.

Honestly if they wanted, they could just preselect a few dozen words and let you mash them together / change the language. Ala Felo + Melorn or Ash + Bringer.

[Mirishka]

I do feel bad about relinquishing my artifacts. Not because of the work I put into them but because it is a waste. These weapons (most of them anyway) are treasures that have shaped the lore of the entire universe of WoW to this point.
We are trading the most powerful and well-known weapons in the entirety of Warcraft for random Zandalari butter knife #7.
Stat and ilvl squish aside I will feel weaker than I felt in Legion. It's a step back.

This is a curious instance of it kind of making sense that we feel weaker, because we've just fought an exhausting war against an initially endless army, and it takes the destruction/corruption of our artifacts to stop whatever's going on with Sargeras' sword in Silithus.

Premade warrior and hunter feel fairly vulnerable on the alpha, if dealing with more than 3 mobs or so, but I kind of like it because it seems like... oh right, don't have a god's weapon anymore. Better be careful.

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They let them name their own characters, guilds, and arena teams.

Honestly if they wanted, they could just preselect a few dozen words and let you mash them together / change the language. Ala Felo + Melorn or Ash + Bringer.

Naming from combinations of words, I could see them doing that.

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Ok then Einstein. Give one good reason as to why they would have any requirement to continue on?

I think their 'demise' is pretty fitting of the expansion's end, personally. Legion is the end of a lot of things... the Legion itself, Illidan's story, etc - so it makes sense thematically that the tools we used to achieve that victory are retired as well.

I do hope that the super-iconic weapons like Ashbringer can be restored and used by like, an NPC or something, but I'm good with moving on from them myself.

There's some neat weapon models on the alpha. Already seen a couple of swords that I can't wait to get on my rogue.

[Zelk]

Voted Just No in response to this thread, rather than the OP's question

[Steampunkette]

We know that they become "Unstable" but that doesn't mean they're destroyed. It may be that they're rendered powerless, or simply lose the power we explicitly -invested- in them, before we hand them over to a new generation of leaders of the different Orders.

Like giving Arator the Ashbringer to be the big dog Retadin within the Silver Hand. Or passing the Doomhammer off to Thrall when he returns from his journey of self-discovery. Or whatever!

[Amathricus]

There isn't an option for my simple "don't really care", though #2 is close, but I have no definitive yes or no. It doesn't matter to me. The nature of the game. It was cool to have the artifacts for some classes. The power they added did feel good. Some looked cool, I transmogged a few others to old weapon skins I liked a lot more.

I've played for a long time, I've earned legendary weapons/armor with the usual grinding. Multiple cloaks/rings in Mists. My mages Dragonwrath staff in Firelands felt like it took forever. And had the add bonus of actually giving you a 'mount'. Or making you one, as it were. But Mists followed and it now lives in my bank. Much like the other Legendaries I earned after the expansion ended. :P The mace from Ulduar, the daggers from DragonSoul, a second Dragonwrath on my warlock. And so on and so forth.

It's not a big deal to me.

[Galathir]

We know that they become "Unstable" but that doesn't mean they're destroyed. It may be that they're rendered powerless, or simply lose the power we explicitly -invested- in them, before we hand them over to a new generation of leaders of the different Orders.

Like giving Arator the Ashbringer to be the big dog Retadin within the Silver Hand. Or passing the Doomhammer off to Thrall when he returns from his journey of self-discovery. Or whatever!

That is one solution I could live with. They do not deserve being thrown in the trash bin.

[mondoduece]

I worked hard on a few artifacts and had no expectation they would stay around as a carry over, maybe, maybe get replicated anew. As others have stated before me I transmogged every weapon pretty quickly.
I'm glad that blizzard has built in a "sendoff" to the weapon, that's enough acknowledgment for my effort by my standards.

[Mirishka]

That is one solution I could live with. They do not deserve being thrown in the trash bin.

Agreed fully.

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Yeah, but ofc OP keeps insisting he speaks for the silent majority that won't buy BfA because our weapons go away. The silent millions actually. Oh well...another constructed reason why suddenly everyone will stop playing and WoW will die...I guess....

Yeah. I get being angry about something, but its eyerolling when people act as if their opinion represents some vast and huge number of people. Its like... get over yourself, you know?

[Xar226]

They should remove all power from it (i.e., make all traits completely disabled, the equip ability disabled, etc). Whether or not they physically "take" the weapon from us I'm utterly indifferent about, particularly if they give you all the appearance options you've unlocked as transmog options anyway.