With artifact power and the associated weapons, not everything went smoothly in World of Warcraft. The developers promise improvement.
It is one of the biggest features of World of Warcraft: Legion. Many quests revolve around it, and it is the permanent carrot that dangles in front of all players: artifact weapons and their upgrades through artifact power.
What worked perfectly in the first weeks, as players could constantly become stronger – and many still can today – became a problem during patches 7.1 and 7.1.5. Ion Hazzikostas, the Game Director of WoW, has commented on this matter in the official forum.
He admits design flaws but always explains what the intentions behind the concepts were, where they worked and where they didn’t. We have written down and translated some excerpts with the most exciting statements for you.
“Artifact power primarily served two purposes: First, it was supposed to offer players progress at max level that was not tied to items and loot luck. (…) Secondly, it was meant to be a universal, consistent reward for all types of gameplay content.”
The team considered whether to introduce weekly limits for artifact power but ultimately decided against it. If there were these limits, players would quickly feel the “obligation” to farm amount X of artifact power every week.
Through artifact knowledge, it was ensured that players could farm endlessly, but newcomers would never completely fall behind.
“When the Emerald Nightmare was new content, the average raiders had an artifact weapon with 20 or 21 points, while hardcore raiders had about 24 to 25 – a relatively small difference.”
The mistake was that for the last 20 points in the weapon, there was only a small increase in the necessary artifact power felt. Unlike before, the costs here no longer increase exponentially. This led to larger gaps between the heavy players and those who did not spend 8 or more hours in the game every day.
“Instead of the difference between 21 and 24 points in the nightmare, there was a group of hardcore raiders who went into Nighthold with 54 points, while others were just starting with the last trait [,so about 35 points]. This caused a damage and health difference of about 10%, which is almost equivalent to a complete tier of gear. (…) In short: We are absolutely not happy with how this turned out.“
For the upcoming patch 7.2, Hazzikostas promises many improvements. The final “curve” for the increase in artifact power and knowledge is still being worked on, but there is a fairly clear goal.
“… we are currently aiming for a scaling where players with twice as much artifact power have a weapon that is about ~1.5% stronger; those with four times the amount should be about ~3% stronger. Overall, this should drastically reduce the power difference between players.”
In addition, the distribution of artifact power is being reconsidered. Raids should become more rewarding, and repeatable content – such as “Mythic+” dungeons should be adjusted. Long dungeons will grant more power than short ones.
You can find Hazzikostas’ complete forum post as usual in our sources.
With patch 7.2, you can also fly – completely without mounts, thanks to some legendaries!
