I remember when it first came out I thought it was cool, I’m sure I wasn’t the top but I bet I was quicker than most people to max it out and get the rare “drops.”
I’m not saying it has to be tied to anything important or power level, but man at least give it as much attention as pet battles.
Ion hates it.
It takes development away from the next throwaway system.
Plus like nobody has used it for like the last two expansions… 
would be cool if they added the climbing gear quests to the already existing archeology profession 
(i like digging for the treasure too, so i hope they just expand on the profession rather than completely delete it)
It was abandoned after Legion.
Would’ve been perfect to update too, with draconic artifacts from each flight and stuff.
I guess Blizzard doesn’t like people who do content that involves exploring? Or maybe it was too lucrative for what you recieved- it doesn’t have any time gating or anything, so you can kinda just brute force through it all and get the good stuff. (It’s RNG though.)
That’s what I did, although it did take a few years, and perhaps not everything, but all the pets and mounts, and some weapons like Zin’rohk.
Also the cool Highmountain ghost-moose mount they added in Legion, and that bind-on-account polearm. That was pretty much the last time I used it.
Adding new stuff to archaeology is basically a semi-new, easy content loop. I’d keep at it if Blizzard updated it.
I guess it was argued that surveying and walking around and surveying again ad-infinitum could be considered boring gameplay, but I enjoyed it. Especially reading the pages about each artifact and what exactly it did.
Not everything in WoW has to be combat-oriented.
Have dig site for:
Could also have had a Scryers/Aldor type thing going, as early on in the expansion there was talk and excitement from the explorer’s league about a new land to study and gather artifacts and what not.
Upon hearing this, Scalecommander Azurathel (the dracthyr liaison to the alliance) said something to the effect of “there will be no stealing of artifacts from our land.”
Join one side to kind of preserve/maintain things (ala Indiana jones)
Or
join the other side and smuggle the artifacts about (maybe even feeding some kind of a black market within Valdrakken)
Each of course would have their own unique rewards.
There also could have been world quests (pve and/or pvp) where the two sides clash.
Could have incorporated the rock climbing with it to get to secret/rare dig sites
Could have been neat. Then again, I feel like they also missed with BFA not having a questline based off of temple of doom (especially with the cultist blood trolls in Nazmir)
oh well
it’s been dead for two expansions.
I miss it honestly. It was a fun way to just zen out and not do anything impactful.
However that aquamarine battle tank still eludes me, and I spite archaeology for that reason
Petition to bring back Archaeology.
this is 2 years old lol
You have my pledge and support.
I think it’d be a good fit for TWW’s setting too. IMO considering professions are functionally “reset” every expansion there should be one or two new professions for every expansion that go away for the next one.
Kind of weird that it is still collecting dust when a signature part of this expansion is DELVES. It’s right there, folks!
1> No. The last use of Archy was in BfA.
2> In its current form, it’s nothing but a MASSIVE waste of time that everyone should hate.
Well, maybe not to just “interact” with it, in the most basic sense.
You realize that Archy was put in the game as something to do while you wait for your queue? That’s all it is. LFG was put in the game, people complained about being bored while waiting for their time to play … and next expac we get this terrible “mini game” as something to do while we wait.
If you like that mini game… that’s fine. Have at it. The little bits of lore are nice, but like anything lore-related in this game, it’s utterly wasted. Blizzard does absolutely nothing with it. It might as well not even be there.
My issue with Archy are the Achievements.
From not just collecting the Rares, but collecting TWENTY of the exact same ones in MoP …
… to then the utter misery of just digging over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over to find a “Pristine” version of the same garbage. Seriously, NO ONE should be asking for more of this. It’s junk. It’s stupid.
And I’m speaking as an authority here-- I just finished the last Archy Achvs just a couple days ago. I know 100% what it takes to do them all. They don’t need to be like this. Archy doens’t need to be like this.
Keep the digsites small. Don’t put mobs in the areas where digsites are. DO SOMETHING with the items/lore that we find. And make the Achvs as simple as just finding the damn things.
Do it like that, and maybe I could agree. The current dynamic?? It’s beyond stupid.
Three, it hasn’t been updated since BFA.
If I ever get enough Anima to buy everything in Shadowlands, I might go back to finish out items I haven’t collected in archaeology yet.
Archeology was an abandoned idea that ended up getting buried in the sand. 
/rimshot
No? …Very sorry…I’ll see myself out… 
/em Adjusts tie
Wow…Tough crowd.
They were experimenting with a new system in DF that felt like a mini-game…
I’m hoping they don’t go into that direction. I preferred the older archeology to that system tbh, because it was too involved with no real meaningful reward tied to it, so it wasn’t worth the effort.
They put a lot of effort into these systems that don’t respect player time, and I think that’s why they’re dead…kinda like their profession system as a whole.
You’re on the right path sir, you dug up four years old posts this morning, you deserve a mount.
I’m still impressed they were able to come up with something even more mind-numbing than fishing.
They dropped it like a hot potato.
It’s very sad, too, because oh my goodness, it would be so nice to have it back. Imagine all the pets and toys and STUFF we could have had from it if they hadn’t dumped it.
I love Arch, I go through bursts where I just commit myself to Archaeology, the reading, checking for achievements and stuff. Very cozy, easy, and fun way to revisit old zones. Wish it was still here. It was a good way to integrate lore into the game and I appreciated the time and effort.