Why I Might Just Love Artifact Weapons

It is still early in development and there is a lot that can change and we do not know all the information about them yet but I can imagine based on what they did say and it makes me think that artifact weapons might be the biggest step in the right direction for warcraft and I really like it.

Now as I said, none of us are really sure how it works.  But if it works like I think they meant it to work I would not be adverse to seeing artifacts for every single gear slot.  Why?  Because artifacts, at least as it seems, completely remove RNG from the game.  I love that.

Excuse me while I step away from the keyboard and do a happy dance for a minute.

~dances the jig because elves do an awesome jig~

I am back and I will try to keep my excitement in check, but the idea that there is something in the game that actively removes RNG from the playing field is beyond exciting to me.  I've had dreams about this, I have written letters to santa asking for the removal of RNG for christmas, I have said here and everywhere over and over that I hate RNG and would love to see it removed.  So yeah, getting a weapon that is not RNG and then just making me have to work to empower it, I can really get down with that.  Its power becomes something I work for, not something I luck into.  That is awesome.

Depending on how it is designed that means that someone that never steps into a raid could have a weapon that is as powerful as someone that is in a world first guild.  Because artifacts, as they explained, get more powerful the more active you are doing anything from questing to raids to PvP that means everyone is on the same level playing field and the person who actually works the hardest earns the more powerful weapon.  You see that... Work... Earn.  That is how gear should have always been from the beginning. No RNG.  This is why I am excited.

Is this the future of warcraft where people have to work for gear?  Where people have to actually earn something?  It brings a tear to my eye.

No more will I hear people say things like "My DPS would be better if I had a decent wepaon" because everyone will have the same weapon.  Now if your weapon is poor, it is your own damn fault for not leveling it up.  You can no longer blame back RNG, you can only blame yourself.  I am so loving the ever living hell out of this.  If someone says that now I an say, "well maybe if you got off your ass and put some work into it you would have a better weapon."

I always hated seeing lazy players and poor players that have better gear because they are lucky.  This would correct one of those problems.  No more good weapons for lazy players.  Poor players could still end up with a good weapon by working hard and maybe, just maybe, by working hard to level their weapon they will become better players.  So this is win win if you ask me.

I do have some concerns about it however.  If it is a huge grind to level up your weapon how is that going to affect alts?  How is that going to affect someone that starts playing 6 months after the expansion came out?  How is that going to affect me if I switch from marksman to BM and now need to level my BM weapon?  This is a pretty big concern of mine personally.

If it is not handled correctly it could be an alt killer.  I do not know how they are planning on making them level but I do have a hope.  I hope that the power level of the weapon is on the character level, not the weapon.  So, for example, I have 6000 experience on my MM weapon and switch to BM that my BM weapon has 6000 experience even if I never used it.  Because lets face it, it is going to suck if you have to level up three different weapons for the three different specs.

For alts I would like to see them add a 200% boost or something, so if you have a character with a higher level weapon that character levels theirs faster, perhaps that might be nice. 

And for late comers like the person who joins the expansion six months after it came out, something like the conquest system is now. Where you can earn more than the set xxx per week if you are late to collecting.  So if you can only gain 1000 weapon experience per week and started 16 weeks late, you can actually gain 16,000 to catch up before you get locked to the 1000 a week like everyone else.  And perhaps a 150% boost to help them catch up as well.

But outside of alts, second specs and late comers, I don't really see many other issues I might have.

A weapon that is as strong as you are willing to wok for it to be?

No "welfare" here, no RNG here, no luck here, just work your ass off and get stronger.  I might just love artifact weapons.

There is only one thing blizzard can do that could really screw this up in epic proportions (which means I expect blizzard to do this).  If they put in mandatory requirements such as "you must do PvP for this", or "you must beat this boss on myhtic for this", or "you must do 250 daily quests for this".  That would completely destroy the awesomeness of an item like that.  Making anything mandatory would ruin it.  Even if it is something super simple, if anything is mandatory, it will completely screw this up.  Some people do not like to PvP, some people to not like to raid and some people do not like to quest.  As long as they keep to what they said, "anything you do" can increase its power, then blizzard might very well have a winner here.  But if they lick anything mandatory to it, they just ruined a great idea.

In truth, if it works the way it seems, I could see myself having a lot of fun with it.  Finally the game makes people work for their gear again instead of relying on RNG for it, or luck for it.  I have no issue with working to get power.... but I do have an issue with RNG, and that is why I might really love this idea.  I can't wait to find out more.