A Possible Future Artifact System

With the Legion expansion drawing to a close and a possible new expansion announcement on the horizon due to Blizzcon, I think now is a good time to publish a few articles about how I think existing features should work in the near future. While these won't be a formal article series, it might be something I do every couple of years so that I can get my opinion in many months before a new expansion releases. That way, much like when I suggested a Paragon system with largely utility and vanity benefits, I can reflect on my foresight or lack of it. In a sense, these articles will be something of a postmortem though since the expansion isn't over yet, I'm not sure if the usage of terminology is appropriate.

As the title of this article states, the Artifact system is the topic of discussion. Specifically, I'm giving my thoughts on what I believe the Artifact system should be like in the next expansion and hopefully beyond that. These thoughts will be expressed in the form of suggestions based on the current state of the Artifact system. Because of how ingrained the Artifact system currently is and how strong my opinions are regarding it, this article is going to be long and highly specific in some cases; feel free to skip to the end for a brief summary.

The Fate of Weapons

This will be a mercifully brief section since it's already been mentioned by Dave Kosak that Artifact weapons will be a Legion-only feature. This makes sense since while currently the Artifact system itself is tied to the weapon, it doesn't need to be forever. I can imagine that having a character using the same weapon, even if its appearance can be altered, can make personal progression feel a little stagnant even with the existence of relics. Therefore, I think Artifact weapons themselves will be removed in some capacity and if they're not, they should be. A total removal of the system, which is implied to some degree by Kosak, is a bad idea in my opinion and would also defeat the purpose of this article.

The system that remains probably can't be named the Artifact system though since unless more Artifacts are added, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Furthermore, I personally think no new Artifacts need to be added to replace the old ones even if they're some kind of non-equippable item of sorts. Instead, my iteration of the future system would be based on some of the Legion lore that involves the Titans, which seem to have a significant role to play in the Antorus raid. I believe after the story involved with that raid concludes, players will be infused with Titan power to some degree allowing them to gain power similar to what their Artifacts provided them with. This would provide access to a similar system that could be named "Path of the Titans" in reference to the proposed Cataclysm feature that the Artifact system bears a resemblance to.

The Fate of Traits

Traits, which provide benefits that empower the character, can largely remain in their current form. While some passive benefits are generic and uninteresting, they do lead to some interesting mechanical enhancements such as many of the golden traits. In addition, because Artifact traits can be acquired while leveling the character, it can be used to deliver benefits normally earned from leveling such as new active abilities. With that said, I don't think there should be more than a couple of active abilities learned from traits, which includes the one that most weapons had by default.

One major difference I would include is that there would be no paragon-like trait once all the other traits are acquired. I think it's a cheaply designed, unenjoyable benefit for players to grind for and it has consequences such as causing a steep increase in character power that can have a lasting effect for the remainder of the expansion among other issues. The aforementioned consequence is further exacerbated if new traits are added with each major patch. The problem that remains is how Artifact Power is handled since without something to spend it on, its purpose as a consistent reward is lost. This is an issue I address in the next section.

The Fate of Artifact Power

Aside from the fact that under my fictitious system Artifact Power would need to be renamed to something like Titanic Essence to fit the thematic, I believe a couple of fundamental changes are needed. Artifact Power at face value would work the same in that players acquire it as something of a passive reward for doing content. It can then be spent to unlock traits, with the cost to unlock traits increasing slightly. However, as player level increases, base Artifact Power rewards would also increase to allow players to unlock traits at a steady rate. The cost would then plateau at a soft cap that represents the typical cost to unlock a trait at the level cap which would be time-consuming for a leveling player to unlock. Base Artifact Power rewards at level cap would be a lot higher, allowing players to catch up on their Artifacts and steadily unlock all of the traits.

For a more numerical example, at level 110, significant Artifact Power rewards would typically be 100 AP on average while traits cost 1,000 AP on average to unlock. At level 120 (the supposed new level cap), significant rewards would give about 500 AP on average while traits cost 5,000 AP on average to unlock. The total AP needed per spec is about 100,000 AP. These values can be tweaked as needed but the idea is that adjusting base Artifact Power rewards and Artifact Power costs should allow for a steady unlock rate of traits at any given point excluding when the player hits the aforementioned soft cap.

Once all traits have been unlocked, players can continue to accumulate Artifact Power. In this system, Artifact Power is retained between specializations so excess Artifact Power can be spent on other specs. Personally, I would make other specs accessible by making two changes:

• The cost to unlock traits in other specs after one spec's traits are fully unlocked is halved. The cost reduction would apply based on when traits were initially made available. For example, traits added on release would have their costs halved once a player unlocks them all for one spec.
• Players could spend a small amount of Artifact Power (1,000 AP at level cap, for example) to reset all Artifact Power spent on traits.

These changes, along with the increased base rewards at level cap, should make other specs far more accessible sooner.

For players who either do not want to spend excess Artifact Power on other specs or complete all of them, they can still accrue Artifact Power which can then be spent on the following:

• If a Paragon system exists, excess Artifact Power could be converted into Paragon experience. It could also be converted into Honor if the Honor system continues to exist.
• Artifact Power, since it's basically a currency, could be converted into other currencies or goods such as bonus rolls.
• The only exception to this is an Artifact Power to gold conversion. Further gold inflation is probably not a good idea.
• There can be an Artifact Power sink similar to the one I proposed for the Netherlight Crucible. More on this in "The Fate of Relics" section.

There's probably far more ways to sink Artifact Power effectively than this but the general idea is that these sinks would be available after a player has unlocked all the traits in one spec, which helps to keep Artifact Power a relevant reward.

The Fate of Artifact Knowledge

Artifact Knowledge fills the role of providing players with a way to reduce the length of the Artifact Power grind by increasing the amount awarded. In some cases, it was mandatory to research a few ranks in order to earn enough Artifact Power to purchase traits. Personally I think the time for Artifact Knowledge is over and it's possible to implement a number of changes to eliminate it.

In the Artifact Power section, I suggested altering base Artifact Power rewards to provide a consistent trait progression experience with some soft capping, but nothing so extreme that Artifact Knowledge is needed. Artifact Knowledge also isn't needed to catch up on investing Artifact Power into other specs due to my suggestions above such as the reduction in Artifact Power cost once one spec's traits are fully unlocked. This leaves the purpose of Artifact Knowledge as a catch-up mechanic when new traits are introduced or similar situations.

One way to address the need for Artifact Knowledge at this point is to not implement new traits at all. However, a catch-up mechanic of some sort will likely be needed to prevent new and returning players from having to spend time grinding to get up to speed, taking time that could be spent enjoying new content or reducing the enjoyment of said content. In addition, I think it's okay to add a few new traits every patch to make Artifact Power more useful than usual to increase participation in newly released content. It also provides an opportunity to organically balance specs instead of tuning in an arguably arbitrary manner. This is where two changes come in to account for the possible addition of new traits.

The first change is that in any case when new traits are added, all excess Artifact Power is converted. The excess Artifact Power can be converted into a number of useful benefits, but personally I would convert it into a special type of Artifact Power that cannot be spent to unlock newly added traits. This obsolete form of Artifact Power would be useful for unlocking existing traits and spending on various Artifact Power sinks like the ones listed above. The purpose of this change is to level the playing field to make Artifact Power equally worthwhile while still rewarding players who earned more Artifact Power.

The second change is to increase Artifact Power gains for players who haven't earned enough Artifact Power to unlock a single spec's traits up until they can access newly added traits. The increase in these gains can be as great as needed but personally I think doubling Artifact Power gains is a good starting point. To prevent players from potentially cheating the catch-up mechanic, the loss of benefits would be based on total Artifact Power gained on that character. For example, if a player earns double Artifact Power and has earned 90,000 Artifact Power out of the 100,000 needed to unlock older traits but spent 45,000 each on two specs, the next 5,000 Artifact Power would be doubled and all Artifact Power gained after that would be the normal amount. Note that a player in this scenario can spend a small amount of Artifact Power to reset all of their Artifact Power used to unlock traits if they so desire.

These suggestions should be sufficient for sealing the fate of Artifact Knowledge. Problems such as ridiculous numerical inflation should now be a thing of the past.

The Fate of Relics

Since I strongly recommended the removal of Artifact weapons the fate of relics should be pretty dire. This is true for the current iteration of relics but since they empower traits, there's still plenty of use to be had from them after some tweaking. The Netherlight Crucible has also shown the potential of relics by making each one unique, though perhaps in a frustrating way because of the uncontrollable random element. With these points in mind, the following is how I envision relics in the new iteration of the Artifact system.

Relics would be acquired in a similar way as they are now, meaning they could potentially drop as loot from bosses and quests and placed into one of three slots which can have typing like relic slots currently do. However, relics should ideally be more of a bonus reward since all they'd do is amplify a trait while providing no other benefits to character power. Also, since there's no weapon, relics would be slotted directly into the interface that remains and each spec would have its own respective relic slots. This would remain the case until a player unlocks all of the traits for a spec.

Once all the traits are unlocked for a spec, that spec is able to empower their relics in a manner similar to the Netherlight Crucible. Like the Netherlight Crucible, all of a relic's traits are randomized but unlike the Netherlight Crucible, traits can be rerolled in a manner similar to what I suggested. Furthermore, players can craft or replace relics for a specific slot by spending Artifact Power, replacing the trait enhancement provided by that relic. Finally, traits cost a little Artifact Power to use which is not refunded if the traits are rerolled. The Netherlight Crucible-like features could be as follows, complete with Artifact Power costs based on the values shown in "The Fate of Artifact Power" section:

• Craft/Replace a relic for a relic slot. This only rerolls the trait enhancement of relic itself and does not replace relic traits if there are any. (5000 AP)
• Lock in a trait choice, providing its benefits to your character. (1000 AP)
• Reroll everything except for the trait enhancement of the relic. (5000 AP)
• Reroll an entire tier of traits. (3000 AP)
• Reroll a single trait. (2000 AP)
• Discover a new trait, allowing players to reroll a single trait by replacing it with one of three choices. (3000 AP)
• Choose a new trait, allowing players to reroll a single trait by replacing it with exactly what they want. (4000 AP)

These values are also based on a scenario where there's at least two tiers of traits initially since the Netherlight Crucible's first tier is a single trait that increases Artifact weapon item level, which is incompatible with my suggested system. More tiers can be added in future patches and these AP costs should work as long as there's two or more tiers of traits in general and no Artifact Knowledge-like mechanics. The ultimate goal is that relics would remain a core part of the Artifact system but have its role expanded to help sink excess Artifact Power.

Final Statements

Despite all of the flaws the Artifact system may have, I strongly believe some form of it should remain because when done well it's an effective feature for increasing content consumption by providing a worthwhile reward that enhances character progression. In the interest of preventing the system from becoming a treadmill grind of frustration, I strongly suggested towards the removal of paragon-like traits and Artifact Knowledge. Instead, Artifact Power gains and requirements would only be exponential while leveling and plateau at level cap to create a more steady progression experience. This would then culminate into multiple useful Artifact Power sinks by taking advantage of its status as a currency of sorts. Finally, additional quality of life changes were made such as increasing accessibility of the system to players who play multiple specs.

Hopefully, the next expansion will have at least a few of these ideas in some form instead of going forward with business as usual or worse, discarding the Artifact system entirely. It would be nice to think the opinions of myself and what seems to be many others on this matter aren't falling on deaf ears. In the meantime, as I mentioned above, I have plenty of other ideas like this waiting to be published, so more should be coming soon.