My wild idea for archaeology and glyphs revamped.
Archaeology:
- not a digsite grind-like profession like it was before, but more a "find secret event" version that we see in the anniversary patch
- talk to npc, find that, bring it here, answer corect to a (lore) question, etc. It sounds like a quest, but this will not be mandatory for any power level, reputation, or experience gains, and there will not be any quest (archaeology) marks—only one small shovel icon on your minimap at the beginning of your archaeology path.
- Archaeology path: This will be the name for one archaeology mission, three types: normal, heroic, and mythic.
- every race (allied races too) will have their separate archaeology paths, but you can do them regardles of your race or faction (example: a dwarf can make a tauren archaeology path for some only tauren rewards and some rewards available for all races), now we have warbands, you can unlock rewards on one of your characters for your other characters.
- Normal archaeology path (a short time version, you can make it imidiatly): rewards will be: pets, transmogs, toys, normal glyphs (more on that later)
- Heroic archaeology path (you can make it only once per weekly reset): rewards will be: mounts or mount tints (like dragonflight customization), transmog, heroic glyphs (more on that later)
- Mythic archaeology path: a long version of the archaeology path, one for each season per race, and you have to do some normal and heroic archaeology paths to unlock it; the reward will be mythic glyphs (more on that later).
- Some of the rewards look like travelers log, but please cancel travelers log, and make it archaeology. I am not naive that Blizzard will always have some store mounts, transmogs, etc., but the travelers log feels so "cheap". You only do what you will do anyways in the game, and it will (mostly) reward you. The new archaeology will not be mandatory for any player power, so anyone who only prefers raiding, mythic+, or PvP can totally skip it.
Glyphs:
- Glyphs nowadays are purely cosmetic, and it should stay so (no power).
- A glyph tab is needed with one normal, one heroic, and one mythic glyph.
Normal glyphs: glyphs like are now, purely cosmetic spell changes, only class specific, the glyphs from retail wow will all be moved to this category.
example:
glyph of snow ghost wolf: Change your ghost wolf spell to a white/snowy version; shamans and wolves are heavily tied with orcs, so this will be an orc normal archaeology path reward.
Heroic glyphs: Tied with transmog restrictions, this will be sometimes race-specific, sometimes class-specific.
examples:
Glyph of headhunter, allows trolls and Zandalari trolls to transmog their ranged weapon into a throwing javelin.
Glyph of tidesage, allows Kul Tirans to transmog into a tidesage cloth armor (regardless of armor type).
Glyph of feral worgen: allows your worgen to hide your weapon transmog to attack with your claws.
Glyph of balance within: allows your druid to not change your humanoid appearance while you are in moonkin form.
Glyph of elemental shield: allows your shamans shield to be transmogrified as a small staff or hide its appearance (classic W3 orc shaman look).
Glyph of brewmaster: allows your monk to transmogrify their weapon into a barrel of beer.
Glyph of righteous libram: allows your (holy) paladin to transmogrify their shield or double-handed weapon to a libram.
Glyph of elemental fury: allows your shamans two weapons to be transmogrified to a double-handed weapon.
Glyph of goblin tech: allows your goblins ranged weapon to be transmogrified to a rocket launcher.
Mythic glyphs: these will be race/class specific, very hard to acquire, only one per season
examples:
Glyph of the Priestess of the Moon: Your night elf priest's healing spells now have a moon-based aesthetic.
Glyph of lightforged: your lightforged draenei and draenei shadow spells now have a light-based aesthetic.
Glyph of skeletons: your undead warlocks demons are now skeletons.
Glyph of witch doctor: Your troll shamans spells now have voodoo-based aesthetics.
Glyph of tauren brave: your tauren warriors abilities now have earth-based aesthetics.
Glyph of firelord: your dark iron dwarf shamans abilities now have fiery-based aesthetics.
Glyph of Sunwalker: Your tauren paladin abilities now have a more sun-based aesthetic (something similar also to tauren priests).
Glyph of raptor: your troll druid's feral and bear form is now a customizable raptor.
Glyph of shadow stalker: your undead rogue will have a shadowy appearance and your abilities leave a shadow cloud behind them.
Glyph of void priest: your void elf priests light abilities have a void appearance.
Glyph of dark priest: your undead priests light abilites have a shadow apearance (looks the same like void elf priest, but we now have a shadow apearance spells and some more void/space spells that are visualy different).
Glyph of stonewarden: your earthen shamans spells have a stone appearance.
Glyph of technomancer: your gnome mages spells have a slightly mechanical apearance.
Glyph of dark hunter: your undead hunter's pets can now be undead minions.
Glyph of Spellweaver: All your dracthyr evokers abilities have a blue dragonflight-themed appearance (with dracthyr, you can go so on with every dragon aspect).
Glyph of drust: your kultiran druid spells have a drust apearance.
Glyph of moon guard: your night elf mage spells have a moon/arcane appearance.
Glyph of machine speaker: allows your earthen warlock's spells to have a fiery appearance, and your minions will have a robot appearance.
Glyph of druid of talon: your night elf druids moon and sun spells have a nature or wind appearance.
Glyph of sun druid: your tauren druids moon spells have a sun appearance.
Glyph of archmage: your human mages spells will all have an arcane appearance.
Glyph of eredar: your Draenei or lightforged Draenei warlock spells have all green fel appearances. (i know many of them are green but not all)
Glyph of Wildhammer: Your dwarf shaman's spells have a lightning appearance.
Glyph of thraegar: your earthen paladin will have a slightly diamond appearance, and your spells will have an azerite appearance.
Glyph of Abandoned Elune: Your nightborne priests spells have an arcane appearance.
These new glyphs will bring the race/class archetypes to life without the need for new hero talents, bloating of abilities, or more and more class balancing. It will be purely cosmetic and totally skippable.
Some mythic glyphs will be hard to figure out; I don't know what lore is behind a goblin shaman, but Blizzard can make new lore for them through archaeology and, for example, make their spells more goblin-mechanical.
It's season one with this perfect new archaeology feature™ (lol). You are very good at it with your night elf priest, and you earned the mythic glyph. What will be your motivations to take a mythic archaeology path in season 2? The answer: You can upgrade your glyph; it will again be very hard (timewise), but the reward can be even more of your abilities will have a moon-based aesthetic, and your tooltips and icons for spells can change too. It's season 3; yeah, again upgrade it with more color tints for your spells or maybe a specific mount only for night elf priests. The possibilities are endless, and when you claim your mythic glyph, you will feel unique with your race/class combo; that's what's now absent in the game. There can be added new archetypes of class/race every expansion, so it should stay an evergreen feature.
I find cosmetic changes some sort of problem in pvp, but the solution is simple, if you are in a random pvp you can have your glyphs active, if you are in a rated pvp your glyphs will be deactived for pvp visual balance.
Glyphs are now made by inscriptionists, but the time when glyphs where the best or most expensive products of inscription are totaly over, so maybe some normal glyphs can be made further by inscripiton (you will earn a recipe through archaeology), but majority will be earned only through archaeology.
The glyph system can bring some lore-accurate cosmetics, and abilities—not like some hero talents (wtf is a tauren dark ranger?)—and just a little repopulating of old zones.
I am not an RP player, but with the new housing system we will see in the Midnight expansion, archaeology glyphs and player housing can be somewhat an endgame content for RP players.
Thanks T&E for some ideas from their older video.
Please share with me some of your glyph suggestions, or totally... me for my nonrealistic post.
Have a nice day.