New prot weapons: proof they are paying attention?

[Tirilka]

Prot warrior sword was the only artifact with redundant recolors for their artifact.

Those recolors from wotlk could have been made for future use

Our artifact being later used by NPC would defeat the entire purpose of them, so thats not likely to happen.

And them all being the same sword at first was my entire point. They didnt plan on making these new models. They could have just used the default 4 colors they had for the base weapon, instead they not only made new recolors, they applied a special effect to the other swords.

Contrast that to the demo dagger, which, since they didnt have a model for it yet, they just gave it a basic dagger model.

No it wasn't. Prot Paladin sword, Shaman shield for elemental and restoration were simple recolors too.

You don't understand, do you? They are not made specifically for NPCs. It's the other way around - sometimes (and only sometimes) NPCs are given unavailable weapon recolors, when it fits. Most of the time NPCs get the same gear we wear. So your point about "well they couldn't be made for NPCs because that would defeat the purpose" is invalid. Because the recolors aren't for NPCs, they are done for more diverse choices for the game designers to choose from.

There are more than 4 recolors for older weapons - some have up to 12. So they most certainly didn't go and make an effort to draw new colors for the artifact, it was already there. I'm sure we can find more recolors for every artifact of each spec than the 4 available in-game, it's just that Blizzard chose four best ones for each one. And in case of prot, that sword had to fill 20 slots, not 4 (5 models * 4 colors each), so they decided to pretty it up a bit so that it wouldn't look completely placeholderish. Unlike the demo dagger, which survived a couple of weeks at best - maybe Blizzard didn't want to hold up an already late spec simply because of some variants still being in the works. If it was released at the start of alpha, it would probably have only the first model option too for all different skulls.

[Murlocbait]

Reality is that there's no way to know if these were planned from the beginning, unless you work at Blizz.

These are solid models that seem like they were probably planned early on, since artwork takes time. On the other hand, early complaints about the swords were met by Blizz saying the Shield was the Artifact and getting the most attention, NOT "we're working on better weapons, these are just placeholders." So there are strong arguments to be made either way. My personal guess would be they had designs for these weapons, but weren't sure they'd be able to make them for launch with so many other artwork demands. So their initial statements were based around not wanting to promise something that might get cut later. For whatever reason (perhaps a change in priority based on player feedback) they were able to make these models and some others a reality, and now we see them.