I try to be really patient with Blizz and give them the benefit of the doubt, after all they built this game we all love.
However, looking back at Legion I believe the designers really dropped the ball with casting off Artifact weapons. There really was no reason to discard that system and azerite could have simply been tacked on to Artifacts and make sense within the story.
Weapons are the most precious of all our gear. Entering into a lengthy grind to power up my main weapon(s)? You bet I will commit to that. A necklace…? Kind of dull in comparison.
Mage Tower and everything associated with it was extremely popular. Why not do a BFA version of that for more exclusive Artifact skins for leet players to show off? No need to reinvent the wheel on this one.
Azerite could have fueled our Artifacts. Stripping metal from the huge buried sword could have moved our familiar weapons to the next level AND given the factions something to fight over.
1 titan sword. 2 factions.
Get it, Blizz? There’s your real warfront (SILITHUS) for the only resource that matters; titan sword material used to power our Artifacts.
Anyways, I am not trying to start another emo shrieker “ZOMG everything Blizz does is teh worst!!!1” thread filled with hyperbole, but this is one case where I feel like the devs really made a bad choice. A bad choice that negatively affected both gameplay and story.
Story BiS items are the worst thing Blizzard can possibly do, all it does is “Here, have the best weapon you can possibly have in the game, now go grind it”.
Never have I during Legion gone “WOW! Awesome, a new weapon, I hope it has a cool mog, it’s better than my old one too! That’s exciting”.
Mogs were awfully limited, if you didn’t like your mage tower or any artifact mogs, sucks to be you.
I loved artifact weapons. Great aesthetics, nice stories attached and much more “fun” than waiting for that one day when a lucky weapon drop occurs.
I loved the artifact weapons - I just wish the BM hunter artifact appearances looked a little cooler. The other classes and specs have some really beautiful appearances.
I thought the artifact trait system was straightforward enough. I was sad when I heard it wouldn’t carry over into BfA but not surprised.
One reason that turned me off from coming back for Legion was the thought that I’d never get any new weapons afterwards (at least until the next expansion, which occurred). Leveling through Legion was neat with it, I did enjoy the little upgrade trinkets. But going through an entire expansion’s life with the same weapons would have been a bit much for me.
I enjoyed the Artifact weapon. It was nice to have the ability to put points into something that made you feel stronger. I also enjoyed the mage tower.
I know a lot of people complained it was to hard and this is probably why Blizzard seems to not want another mage tower type thing.
I feel that anyone in the past that said things like “The mage tower is too hard and I’m gonna quit. I deserve to have the looks because I pay monthly too”
Well, sure you do and by paying your sub you have the ability to try and get better to earn something. The feeling of reward is lost in most games now because everyone wants a trophy.
Relying on luck for weapon upgrades? Not fun. I will take an involved grind with questlines attached any day over “I cannot get this effing weapon to drop no matter how many times I run this instance!” bad feels.
That’s why I feel like Artifact and Mage Tower were a perfect balance.
Everyone gets a BiS (theoretically).
The leet poopsockers still have a weapon much stronger than the average player.
Mage Tower is a huge test, needing time, resources, and perseverence to conquer (not to mention high level play), and it’s accesible to everyone. And repreatable.
There’s an acceptable floor (stater artifact for everyone), a high ceiling (Mage Tower and ilevel grind), and story tie ins to bring it all together.
The thing I miss most was that everything was a 2-hander. No “oh, you have one really good weapon and one green” no “Did I just scrap my shield?” after a fishing trip.
You’re not wrong, and that mechanic gives back a little “lucky drop” vibe without making you feel feeble because you cannot replace your underpowered main weapon.
Blizzard really boxed themselves in w/ artifact weapons. The majority loved them, the scenarios that surrounded obtaining them, their appearance, ap traits. Separating the weapon into multiple things, the neck and 3 armor slots, hasn’t been well received at all and they should have seen this coming. You can’t give people something nice and then take it away with a lousy replacement and expect no complaints.
Also, the way the weapons were made obsolete left a bad taste.
I’m not happy with any system that substitutes powers bestowed by an item talent tree for powers bestowed by an actual player talent tree that carries over from expansion to expansion.
I disagree. I think Artifact weapons were also bad. In comparison to what we have, sure, they’re much better and I was much more interested there.
However, this faux grind that we have to go through at 120 is bad juju, in my opinion. I don’t like having to constantly feel like I have more to do on my main. There was something satisfying about getting to that point where you could focus on alts and have fun leveling other things while also feeling content that all your main needed was the raid. This artificial carrot we keep getting thrown in our faces in the form of artifact power is old and unnecessary.
Blizz never needed to dangle a carrot in front of my face to get me to log in. I was content just logging in because WoW is fun. Now that I have all these carrots assaulting my hooded face, I don’t even wanna log in anymore.