You literally just described the entire reason the Azerite system as it stands is complete garbage in BFA and is being re done for 8.2 lol
The guys in Method were grinding islands upward of 16 hours a day for some of them.
There were stop points for AP for the artifact, but that’s because we weren’t aware Blizzard was going to move the goal post. After getting 51 traits, they added the new wheel and 4th level to basic traits. Then they added AP level reqs for Netherlight Crucible.
Every time you thought you were done, they added more. They did the same with Legos and needed Essences to increase their ilvl.
So the AP grind never stopped fully until you hit max AP level needed for NC.
And how did you get enough gold from just raiding? Raiding is a negative gold endeavor except if you’re lucky with BoE’s. I assume you got most of your gold from mission boards, which is, once again, an activity outside of raiding.
And if you played in TBC and Vanilla, then you would have known very week that there activities needed outside or raiding.
Sorry, I do agree that the AP grind is annoying, but I can’t agree with your comparisons to past expansions and how things were done as it wasn’t really true what you’re stating.
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I realize that I’m not treading new ground here.
The point of this entire thread is that this system is garbage enough as it is and removing catch up and forcing an ungodly grind on Mythic raiders is excessive and unfair.
Azerite sucks … we all know that … I want Articact Knowledge catchup because it makes it just ever so slightly less unbearable.
For some reason though the forum white knights and salty casuals just want people to suffer even though changing the reqs for the Mythic gear has ZERO impact on their gameplay.
Typical GD unfortunately.
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Funny part is after 8.2 I am pretty sure stuff will still be locked behind what is equivalent to neck level 48. The grind is still there but since most ESPECIALLY Alliance are not doing Mythic they do not understand the pain.
I feel you and like I said do not pity you. My Human Paladin is up to 45 but yeah grinding is just painful.
To completely max out your gear with the iLvL increase, maybe it is balanced against that. But you specifically mentioned that you were really worried about your defensive traits, which as Akston pointed out, unlock at 43, meaning you already have them.
And if you’re wearing Azerite armor that’s base iLvL 415, that means you’ve got iLvL 415 gear with all the really important traits unlocked. It’s not “completely unlocked,” meaning you haven’t 100% maximized your gear by getting those +5 item levels from each piece, and I’ll grant that having that increase is obviously beneficial.
But at HoA level 44, you’re still better off with 415 gear instead of Heroic gear, which would only be 405 with that last trait unlocked. At 41, I’d still benefit more from iLvL 400 gear than I would from 385, because I’d have all the traits unlocked and still be 10 item levels ahead.
You’re basically complaining in your original post that you don’t have all the traits unlocked on your Mythic gear that you have on your Heroic gear, even though you do. The only “trait” missing is just bonus iLvLs, which you effectively already have more of just by equipping the Mythic piece instead of the Heroic one in the first place. I know that Mythic progression is obviously really helped by gaining any and every edge you can, and those last five item levels will really help. And there’s a grind to get them, for sure.
The problem is just that they’re not reducing the grind necessary to get them. In a perfect world, sure, less grinding would be nice, or adding a bit more AP to Mythic bosses would help players on the extreme high-end of gameplay. I guess that the extra 5 iLvLs (or lack thereof) just doesn’t seem as heinous to me as gaining 10 iLvLs from equipping the piece without that last trait unlocked. It’s still an upgrade, even if it’s not the maximum.
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I’ve complained about this before as well. I think it’s dumb that the AP system in BFA is bad design. This is the first expansion where getting an iLvl upgrade on an identical piece of gear can be a downgrade if you did not continue to raise your AP.
I’m totally on board with you that this is bad game design.
Blizzard finally realized that and they’ve stated they’re not going to do this with the next raid tier and said that instead all trait levels would automatically be unlocked.
However, I’m only disagreeing that the endeavor to reach certain AP levels seems hyperbole. It hasn’t been tough or a grind for me to get to 44 (almost 45). And all i’m missing is the +5 ilvl traits which will be a very small dps increase (probably 1% total).
I think the azerite system overall is a misstep. I enjoyed the artifact levels in legion as early on in the expansion you felt a clear power up the more you leveled up your weapon. Then they made it easy to catch up later in the expansion.
Maybe it’s because it’s armor instead of weapons, but the azerite system feels anticlimactic. Putting points into your weapon had a similar feeling to putting points into the old talent trees. The power up wasn’t intense, but it had impact, especially when you put a point into a new passive or ability.
The azerite system doesn’t give me that feeling, it just feels empty. I often times forget to pick traits when I get a new piece of azerite armor because it’s not as satisfying or memorable.
I will say though, the sound when you pick a trait is really nice.
As far as the continued goal post moving, yes, and that’s where this garbage started. It was fine the first half of it until they went full retard with the truly uncapped power potential in the last (maybe two? I can’t remember when that mechanic started) raid tier. I thought it was dumb every move then, and I think it’s dumb now.
I got enough gold from raiding to afford enchants and such by getting enough garbage DE gear to get all the mats I needed and having guild mates do the enchants for me. As I said, I got enough blood from just raiding to afford enough herbs.
The only things I needed to actually use gold on were gems and runes, which the pittance gold you got from raid bosses was enough. I did supplement runes with EZ mission table stuff, though it wasn’t necessary. I always had a surplus of 50 or so.
Also, queuing up mission tables is hardly active content. It’s basically free mats (which they neutered this xpac).
As for TBC and vanilla. I wouldn’t know. I was ret both of those and raiding was basically not open to me in the capacity I wanted to do it. Wrath onward, though, was great and just raidlogging for max power in raids.
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In order to get your neck up you need to take part in a bit of everything, you belittling some other players idea of fun is not going to change this. If I am not mistaken they said in Q&A that it would max at 50 so that’s what I am aiming for, mind you this is my alt now and I am still gaining it steadily off of just doing emissaries.
I’m not asking for those activities to not exist. I’m asking for those activities outside of raiding to not have impact or influence on power in raiding. If they weren’t already proven to be incapable at the concept, I’d honestly just prefer raid templates to exist so people who want to no-lyfe afk activities for “power” can do that while I still get to engage in the sport-like competition of DPS epeen stroking without worrying about artificial barriers affecting it like “hurr durr my items are better than your items!”
And here we are. The usual “if someone doesn’t hate an aspect of WoW as strongly as I do, they are a White Knight/Salt/Casual/Whatever”
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I do the quests on my main, but I gave up on worrying about the alts anymore for AP. The pitiful minuscule amount that piddles based on the ever decreasing AK is ludicrous.
Not gonna grind for the sake of grind.
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Why I don’t chase ap. absolutely not worth the effort.
So by this standpoint, the people who purely pvp who come in here and say I want raid level gear are right too? This artifact system has changed raiding yes. You want those rings do the work for them, I am not white knighting here, this is WoW for this expansion. I hate the grind too, but accept it as part of game play.
Which is what people do. Everything but raiding in this game is terrible, so Blizzard has to force people to do the other stuff.
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I’d prefer a system where raid and pvp and WQ and any other had different gear sets that you built exclusively through doing that activity to maximize it (hello resilience). Or an incredibly easy path to BIS that isn’t perma-grind that you reach within a few months of a new content patch a’la destiny 2. OR templates for competitive things, like raiding, m+, and arena so skill has maximum impact and grinding has none.
5 ilvls and increased potency on traits. It’s effectively another trait. 
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You do realize that some gear has small defensive capabilities on the 2nd to last tier where the 5 lvls are. To some those are pretty important. 3 small shields, Osborn’s or heals in mythic can help a lot. None of us are world first players but every advantage we can get to progress can help in some situations… don’t belittle the fact an say “EhH yOuR 5 iLvLs”
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There are zero pieces that have defensive traits you need 48 HoA to unlock. Your last row of defensive are 41, 42, and 43. By 48 you are ONLY getting +5 ilvls.
[Removed by Forum Moderator for discussing disciplinary actions.]
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Considering I’ve also almost doubled my DPS from 385 to ~410, even small amounts of Ilvl are clearly important and impactful as well. The ilvl is no slouch on the power chart.