The grind for Artifact power annoys players of World of Warcraft. But it looks like that might soon be a thing of the past – as early as Patch 8.3.
At BlizzCon, Blizzard announced that in the next expansion “Shadowlands”, farming Artifact power would be a thing of the past. But apparently, this grind will stop a bit earlier. The latest version of Patch 8.3 Visions of N’Zoth has removed an “infinite” trait. This makes farming Artifact power almost unnecessary.
What has changed? Until the last update, there was an “infinite” trait in Patch 8.3. This allowed players, starting from Heart of Azeroth Level 85, to unlock additional bonuses with each level. It increased the resistance against corruption so that players could equip more corrupted items. It was therefore necessary to level the Heart of Azeroth further so that this resistance against corruption would continue to increase. It directly contributed to the strength of the character.
In the latest version of the patch, this trait has been removed. The Heart of Azeroth no longer provides new, passive effects starting at Level 80 that would be particularly important.
The increased resistance against corruption can instead be acquired from the final boss N’Zoth or in the horrific visions, allowing players to upgrade the legendary cloak week by week.
Why is Blizzard changing this? Blizzard revealed in a post that they want to implement player feedback and agree with it. They say:
We have heard players’ feedback and agree that there is value in reaching a point where you no longer have to collect Artifact power.
What else does Artifact power bring? In Patch 8.3, farming Artifact power is only worthwhile for 10 levels – from Level 70 to 80. Then the Heart of Azeroth has received all meaningful upgrades. After that, further levels provide no significant advantage; they merely increase the item level of the neck by 2 points. This is such a minimal improvement that makes farming almost unnecessary. Thus, when the Heart of Azeroth reaches Level 80 in Patch 8.3, you can stop farming Artifact power.
How are players reacting to this? Players mostly welcome this change. In the comments on wowhead and reddit, there’s a lot of positive discussion. For instance, Wasselin says:
That’s good. The fact that there was still an infinite grind after the discussion at BlizzCon was quite surprising.
Or from AlakeiThancan:
Thank the gods, Blizzard finally understood that nobody wants an infinite grind in a game with 12 classes.
However, there are also a few players who find it annoying that leveling the Heart still provides any bonus, no matter how small it is. They still feel obliged to continually level the Heart. Lostelf writes:
So instead of fixing the issues, they shift half the bonuses of leveling into a raid… but still allow us to level the Heart? What purpose does that serve? Make it stop leveling at Level 80 and that’s it.
What do you think about this change? A step in the right direction? Or is it not well thought out?
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