9.0 speculation.

[arkanon]

Expect a return to "traditional" gear. No artifact power hamster-wheel grind. No azerite armor, no gimmicky essences

This would be fantastic, but i think its very unlikely. My opinion is this return to traditional gearing / progression would be very beneficial to the game, and to me as i prefer that method, but i just dont see it going that way. After E3 and the devs talking about 'live service' games and 'a major shift in monitisation' etc etc, i just dont think the entire industry is listening. Well, except CDPR, those guys are listening. They get it.

[Nathanyel]

Does it bother anyone else that when you hover over your bar, it says "Artifact Power" and not Azerite? Why is it called artifact power, if we do not have artifacts? Just something small that bugs me every time I see it.

The Heart of Azeroth IS an Artifact, just like the Legion weapons.

[nyc81991]

I hope it's gone after BFA and they bring back tier sets.

[CynicalPenguin]

We will probably either fight with or against Lich King Bolvar, possibly against the appearance of the void lords.

[MrLachyG]

they definitely won't be continuing with it, it's an expansion feature. I will be interested to see where they go next. I would like to see tier sets make a return but they should make 3 sets: a dungeon set for mythic plus, a world quest set and a raid set. and literally make the only drops for the tier slots be tier

[Nathanyel]

and literally make the only drops for the tier slots be tier

That would make tier boni trivial, as well as actually reduce the number of looks you can get from raiding, as you can only get your class items, and not lookalikes from other classes on your armor type.

[gioderpington]

Will probably be a cloak/ring/trinket thing closer to legion artifact weapons but with more options like now instead of it being a talent tree. They will call it some other weird thing that starts with "a" so we can continue using the term "AP". My bet is on ascension pessence (p is silent)