Anyone else miss the Artifact Weapon system?

[MidnyteTV]

When I got BfA at launch, seeing my artifact weapon disappear was a little disheartening.

I thought, overall, the system was good. There were some flaws, but they were mostly exasperated by high-level players who bitched about it during streams or on youtube.

Having a weapon that stayed with you, that you had to level up just by doing any in-game content, as well as having numerous skins to unlock, was overall good for the game. Watching my guildies posting screenshots after getting their mage tower skin was incredible. There was general excitement about this gameplay feature.

What are your thoughts about the system overall, minus the typical "ZOMG AP GRINDED MAW FOR 10 HOURS!"

[salate]

Well, It wasnt really different from talent system. But artifacts made me learn some new classes because of mage tower (druids all specs, Death Knights, Monks).

Overall I guess Legion was the best for me. Farming skins was cool. Even catch up system was great. I guess I'm minority of playerbase, but I loved everything in Legion, well, one thing I really hated... Farmed around 100 warden caches for Sira's toy

Oh, it was even more sad when they killed Hati with artifact disappearance :|

[huth]

In my opinion they should have kept the Relic weapon upgrade system, maybe refined it a bit. Make everybody need the exact same number of "weapon" drops and average out good/bad drop luck.

Just pick a base weapon of whatever type you prefer and get going.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Compared to the garbo they replaced it with.. umm.. yeah.

[Jabbiz]

Well, it was a good system, but I didn't like the AP farming, nor do I enjoy it now unfortunately. Also, getting weapon drops was something I missed a lot in Legion.

Oh, it was even more sad when they killed Hati with artifact disappearance :|

Hati is back now, alive and well!

[Role Unknown]

I enjoyed it far more than this Heart of Azeroth crap......unlocking skins for essentially playing the game and its 2nd talent system kept me invested in the game. I was quite surprised they got rid of it.....they just needed to refine the AP system. Im hoping they bring it back next expansion where we work to design our own "Lore" weapon.....Artifact Weapons version 2.

[Evaddon]

Nah, I liked the artifacts aesthetically. But that was it.

It was still the illusion of progression the same way Azerite is, atleast Azerite appears to be learning with no new trait levels being added. I hate these falsified systems of progression that just keep you pushing for one thing that will be gone next Expansion or essentially meaningless although I do feel HoA and traits have more staying power then the Artifacts ever did

[Unlimited Power]

I guess it's gonna depend if the abilities from the Heart of Azeroth system in 8.2 carries over into the next expansion, especially the visual upgrades that are supposed to be rewarded for difficult content. At least the artifacts had the visual appeal that is still relevant and the Mage Tower has been almost universally loved (personally loved the journey to 36/36).

HoA neck and azerite gear in its current incarnation? Azerite is basically the netherlight temple for relics, so no real difference there, and the neck isn't particularly interesting either.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

not really no, the skill trees were kinda dull with few of even the gold traits being interesting, most of the skins sucked with only maybe 5 being good across all of the classes. over all a let down.

[Alex86el]

Not really, but the fact that we had class/spec specific questlines was amazing.
As a system it wasnt that great, but it was certainly better than the Azerite slot machine, that also fills up all your bank.

[Dilbon]

Grinding AP for two different weapons was bad. Otherwise it was fine.

[RobertoCarlos]

Well I would rather get new weapons throughout an expansion not just keep the same ones.

But I want titanforge gone because I dont want to farm the same dagger hoping it procs to max.

You should be happy with just the base version of it.

[Thelxi]

I much preferred utility like affliction's self healing coming from artifacts. Azerite traits feel like weak versions that ultimately gave back only a small portion of what artifacts gave specs and Blizzard took away going from Legion to BfA. Maybe they are planning on giving us even more things with future patch azerite systems, but so far it just feels lackluster.

[Wildberry]

Absolutely not. I hated the Artifact system almost as much as I hate the Azerite system.

It's not fun, it didn't improve any class I played. All the Artifact system actually manifested as, was an auxiliary progression system to keep players grinding at endgame. Unlike other grinds, like keys, attunements, gear, etc. This grind was to unlock your class' full functionality. And honestly, it didn't even qualify as "full functionality." It was a Band-Aid slapped over the gaping wounds left by pruning. I'd take fully fleshed out, pre-WoD classes over Legion Classes+Artifacts any day of the week.

Even ignoring the Artifact's toxic impact on class design, it was a bad system. We ended up having multiple play styles gutted for the sake of shoehorning specs into a single weapon type (RIP 2h Frost & SMF, you'll be missed).

I've seen people claim that it was cool to have a weapon that stayed with you the entire time. Why was that so cool? We had a bunch of big-name lore weapons tossed into the garbage disposal (Ashbringer, Frostmourne, Doomhammer, etc.) just to serve as the 'hook' for an expansion. Functionally, it wasn't much different, you were just grinding relics instead of weapons. If you think that felt so much better than just grinding for proper weapon drops, you've memed yourself.

Aside from that, what else is there? Skins? Mage tower challenges? Those things were fine, sure, but they don't really require the artifact system. Solo content that rewards weapon transmog is more than capable of existing without such an awful system.

That's really the big takeaway. Any positive thing to come from artifacts (Which isn't much) could have existed without the system. The few benefits we saw from the system simply aren't worth the massive costs involved.

Good riddance to Artifact Weapons, I'm glad they're gone. It's an absolute pity that Blizzard didn't get the message and decided to replace them with a system that's even worse.

[Weeps]

I liked it but I did not like the idea of having to get AP for all the other weapons of other specs.

Should've been consolidated.

[naeblis495]

yes i do .

just to not have to rely on rng to get a good ilvl weapon ( without even counting titanforged and stuff) is enough to make me miss it dearly

then you had the visuals wich were awesome. this garbage neck piece we have for bfa doesn't even show up on our charaacthers

the points system could have used some tweak by adding some choice like a second talent tree of sorts , same for the farming of artifact power but otherwise i really loved the artifact system

[glowpipe]

Not really. Getting a new weapon feels so much better then just getting a relic that hardly impact the weapon

[arkanon]

When I got BfA at launch, seeing my artifact weapon disappear was a little disheartening.

I thought, overall, the system was good. There were some flaws, but they were mostly exasperated by high-level players who bitched about it during streams or on youtube.

Having a weapon that stayed with you, that you had to level up just by doing any in-game content, as well as having numerous skins to unlock, was overall good for the game. Watching my guildies posting screenshots after getting their mage tower skin was incredible. There was general excitement about this gameplay feature.

What are your thoughts about the system overall, minus the typical "ZOMG AP GRINDED MAW FOR 10 HOURS!"

Honestly, when it was announced and launched i really didnt like it. Over time i came to really enjoy it, and did actually become somewhat attached to my artifact. I have been using them as xmogs a fair bit on various classes - not all, i didnt like some of them at all visually, but thats obv subjective. It certainly felt substantially better than the bullshit azerite system, which i hated at announcement, hated at launch, and still hate now.

[MidnyteTV]

Honestly, when it was announced and launched i really didnt like it. Over time i came to really enjoy it, and did actually become somewhat attached to my artifact. I have been using them as xmogs a fair bit on various classes - not all, i didnt like some of them at all visually, but thats obv subjective. It certainly felt substantially better than the bullshit azerite system, which i hated at announcement, hated at launch, and still hate now.

When you first heard about it, what didn't you like?

- - - Updated - - -

Absolutely not. I hated the Artifact system almost as much as I hate the Azerite system.

It's not fun, it didn't improve any class I played. All the Artifact system actually manifested as, was an auxiliary progression system to keep players grinding at endgame. Unlike other grinds, like keys, attunements, gear, etc. This grind was to unlock your class' full functionality. And honestly, it didn't even qualify as "full functionality." It was a Band-Aid slapped over the gaping wounds left by pruning. I'd take fully fleshed out, pre-WoD classes over Legion Classes+Artifacts any day of the week.

Even ignoring the Artifact's toxic impact on class design, it was a bad system. We ended up having multiple play styles gutted for the sake of shoehorning specs into a single weapon type (RIP 2h Frost & SMF, you'll be missed).

I've seen people claim that it was cool to have a weapon that stayed with you the entire time. Why was that so cool? We had a bunch of big-name lore weapons tossed into the garbage disposal (Ashbringer, Frostmourne, Doomhammer, etc.) just to serve as the 'hook' for an expansion. Functionally, it wasn't much different, you were just grinding relics instead of weapons. If you think that felt so much better than just grinding for proper weapon drops, you've memed yourself.

Aside from that, what else is there? Skins? Mage tower challenges? Those things were fine, sure, but they don't really require the artifact system. Solo content that rewards weapon transmog is more than capable of existing without such an awful system.

That's really the big takeaway. Any positive thing to come from artifacts (Which isn't much) could have existed without the system. The few benefits we saw from the system simply aren't worth the massive costs involved.

Good riddance to Artifact Weapons, I'm glad they're gone. It's an absolute pity that Blizzard didn't get the message and decided to replace them with a system that's even worse.

So much I disagree with in this. But some I do.

Were relics bad? Yes. I admit that.

However, think about it like this, in a 3-tier expansion, how many different weapons do you really get? 4-6 at best. (Getting the same weapon with higher ilvl doesn't count).

The skins and the mage tower are part of the feature system. A big feature. Each skin had its own way of progressing through content (PVP, questline, raiding, etc). It showed a level dedication and skill to get each skin.

It was probably the best auxiliary progression system ever introduced in the game. Think about previous expansions, what did you have to look forward to? MoP had the sha-touched stuff and the cloak, which were pretty decent. WoD had the horrendous ring. Before those two, we had NOTHING.

I hope you're not serious about taking pre-WoD classes. MoP class design was horrendous. Classes were homogenized with too many abilities and cooldowns.

It also really accompanied the lore of the expansion. We need the most powerful weapons to defeat the Legion. And if Ashbringer and Doomhammer have to go to finally end the Burning Crusade, then that's a pretty good storyline. What else would you do with these weapons if they weren't introduced in Legion? They lasted 2 years. And without them, Legion would have been a streamlined version of MoP without much else to progress to.

And one last thing. Don't give me that crap about class design. THe player in Legion proved (through their complete disregard and criticism of the legendary system) that they could give two fucks about dynamic class design and would rather just get gear thawt makes them DPS harder without doing anything differently.

[Swnem]

Not at all.

All AP systems are poison and i would rather see them completely removed.