So, what happened to "All Azerite Armor Traits will Unlock Automatically in 8.2"

Community General Discussion
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So apparently, they slipped this in a week before 8.2 releases. (See bottom of post for sources backing up the claims in the title)

Apparently, now we’re back to having an Azerite Level requirement to unlock traits in our gear. Everyone is boosted to level 35, but that’s only enough to get you all the traits in ilvl385 and below gear.

400 and above gear you’ll need to grind if you aren’t above 35. The kicker? To get the “Azerite Empowered” trait? You’ll need Azerite Power level 65 total. (AND I’M PERFECTLY FINE DISREGARDING THE +5 iLVL TRAIT, THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT THAT, AS THAT DOESN’T IMPACT YOU MUCH I only brought it up so people know.) Though I know some of you WILL have a problem with that, and you’re welcome to complain about that here as well, as that’s a trait that we also assumed would be unlocked.

We were outright told all traits would be unlocked in 8.2, and now we’re being told that we’ll need HoA 43 to get those, which last I checked, is not automatically unlocked regardless of our level, because people who didn’t grind Azerite and new alts will start at 35, which is 8 shy of unlocking half of their traits.

And again, I’m WELL AWARE that HoA43 will be easy to reach, even on alts, as Azerite Knowledge gets stronger, since we start at 35. That’s really beyond the point. The point is they outright told us in multiple interviews that Azerite Armor would start completely unlocked for us in 8.2 and beyond. And then they go and do this.

*Note, it IS possible that the traits are still unlockable before you actually hit that level, but wowhead makes no note of that, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t.

(Link to Livestream where they announce that Azerite Traits will unlock automatically in 8.2)

Link to MMO-Champion of an Interview with Ion where he again Re-affirms that this is happening. There are also a few more interviews as recent as last month where this was reaffirmed but I’m struggling to find them at this moment out of annoyance. If people for some reason doubt me, I’m willing to dig them up.

BlizzardWatch confirming that they indeed know this was announced.

Even Wowhead’s Overview of the Patch shows this as an announced feature. (Scroll down) “All current and future Azerite armor traits will be automatically unlocked in patch 8.2.”

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They’re moving the focus of AP from azerite gear to the necklase. For characters who have already reached a high rank, its true that all future azerite gear will have all rings unlocked. The fact that the pre 8.2 mechanics/tiers are being allowed to fade in obseolence rather than being torn out was not made explicitly clear.

Those sorts of details are the danger of setting expectations based on interviews rather than waiting to see the actual implementation.

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That’s not automatically unlocked, if you level a character now, you’ll still need to grind some azerite to use the traits.

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No one should have expected that to have been a free unlock. It is basically a free titan forge for AZ gear and would have never been included in the first place.

That said, I was a bit surprised that we went from everything being unlocked to almost everything. Yeah for most people only the inner most ring will still be locked but that isn’t what we were lead to believe was going to happen. And why are traits rings still different prices as you go up in ilvl. So we are still stuck with the “well if I upgrade I actually lose traits” issue still. At least they reduced the HOA level in most cases so this won’t be as big of a problem.

I am still hoping the article is incorrect and traits (empower trait) will be auto unlocked but I am having my doubts.

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Who cares? It takes like three days to get to 40 on a fresh 120 right now. Boost up to 35 and you can easily be 45+ within a few days. And that’s with the catch-up mechanics how they currently are. This is a non-issue.

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On that chart if you exclude the +5 ilvl trait, the highest you have to be is 43. That’s easily obtainable.

It wouldn’t make sense for the +5 ilvl trait to always be active. If that were the case, it would make more sense just to get rid of that trait and boost the base item level. It’s a very small gain anyway.

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You can get to 43 neck level without even trying. Anyone complaining that its too high is someone who probably wont have any use for the traits in the first place.

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While I don’t disagree that it isn’t a big deal or huge time sink, for BfA 8.2 it’s a little surprising they aren’t just letting everything be unlocked considering how many players have left the game. It’s an easy give to the community for a patch that, for lack of better term, is going to make or break the expansion imo.

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8 levels of azerite (35 to 43) should take like 52 seconds.

Just normal questing should bring you to it.

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Did you actually listen to the interview? Go to the 54 minute mark. Ion clearly says ’ They’ll be fully unlocked based on your Heart level’
As long as you have minimum HoA 48 then they’ll all be unlocked and any new Azerite armour you get for the rest of the expac will also be unlocked

The 50 and above is to do with the new Essences not Azerite traits

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Who cares? You automatically get the two primary traits, which are the only ones with potential impacts on your class’s rotation/playstyle.

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While not actually pertinent to unlocking the 4 rings on gear, they did also substantially increase the AP needed each level to go beyond 50 on the neck. Even with AK thrown into the calculations.

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He specifically said they’d be fully unlocked going forward based on your heart level, did you watch the interviews? If you’re neck level 50 you’ll get all the traits unlocked and won’t have to grind for them. It seems like your confusion is based on not actually reading/watching the interview with Ion, he says it’s based on your heart level. Not only that but from 35>50 is maybe two weeks of grinding, probably less with paragon rep caches.

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Who cares what Blizzard said specifically - AP and the azerite gear / neck system sucked at BfA launch (boring, grindy, not fun), and still suck in 8.2 (still boring, grindy, and not fun).

The new essence system is just more grinding for grinding sake.

Not impressed at all with 8.2 changes, and will not be sticking around.

Maybe they will pull a rabbit out of the hat in 8.3 and salvage some aspect of BfA, but as of now, BfA is worse than WoD.

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The problem with azerite isn’t the unlocking. That’s not why you can get situations where 15-35 iLvl upgrades are actually downgrades.

The problem is the spec agnostic nature of the gear and traits that wildly out perform other traits. Essentially they took what should be talent choices and put them in loot crates called azerite gear. And the azerite traits aren’t something that you’re just min maxing for an extra 5% of performance, these rented abilities are nearly the majority of your performance.

So like the titan vendor, this doesn’t fix azerite gear. It’s just smoke and mirrors to give the impression that somethings been done.

What would help is changing the gear to be spec specific so instead of having a piece of gear with traits for 3 specs and only being useful for one at most, they would have most of the traits for a single spec. What would help is balancing the traits so there aren’t obvious out performers and barely useful consolation prizes.

But that would go against the point of the system which is to allow the game to give out a lot of gear without progressing your character much.

That’s the point. They know there’s only a couple viable trait set ups. They know that even though gear will drop for all specs, it’s only really meant for one. It’s designed to not give you the drop you want 5/6ths of the time.

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I’m sorry. I’m not even mad anymore.

This is so bad that it’s genuinely funny.

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You guys haven’t given up on this expansion yet? I’m impressed.

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Pretty much this.

If you expected a free handout to get level 50 HoA, which is already laughably easy, then too bad.

Take the 1-2 hours to do WQs, emissaries, warfronts and warfront turn-ins, and the questchains and you’ll be level 45 easily.

They said a while ago you wouldn’t have to unlock anything you already unlocked previously, not that you’d be able to get all the traits at whatever level.

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I don’t know why I’m still here anymore.

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They tried balancing all the traits to be equal in value, and what happened? The forums blew up in outrage because whats the point in having different traits if they’re all equal and it doesn’t matter what you choose. It doesn’t matter what blizz does, it is and has always been a lose/lose situation in good ol’ GD.