Artifact Knowledge will help players gain Artifact Power

Since Artifact trees were introduced as a pseudo-talent progression system, players wondered how quickly we would be able to complete those trees and if there would be some sort of gating in place. While Blizzard said that unlocking the whole tree would take place over a few months, it seems that won’t necessarily be true — especially for off-spec weapons.

Now, Artifact Knowledge has been introduced to the Legion alpha as a way to increase the rate players gain Artifact Power and unlock their full Artifact trees.  

For those unfamiliar, Artifact Power is a bit of a cross between Garrison Resources and talent points. Like Resources, you can gain Artifact Power via a range of items that are rewarded from questing, treasure hunting, and even killing enemies around the world. You then spend Artifact Power in your weapon’s Artifact tree to unlock increasingly powerful abilities, much in the way of classic talent points. Up until now, the amount of Artifact Power required to fill an entire tree seemed quite high, and off-specs players would have to suffer through unlocking multiple weapons’ Artifact trees.

Now, Watcher has explained Artifact Knowledge will increase how quickly players can gain Artifact Power. For example, an item that might normally reward 10 Artifact Power might reward 30 Artifact Power once a player has acquired enough Artifact Knowledge. What’s more, acquiring Artifact Knowledge will fill players in on important lore and provide a backstory for your weapons. While the numbers still require tuning, this system will allow players to not only learn more about their weapons but also flesh out alt-spec Artifact trees in a timely fashion.

For those wondering, many non-repeatable sources of Artifact Power such as quest rewards or treasures will not be affected by Artifact Knowledge — the design intent is not to encourage players to game the system and stockpile items, but to reward players for simply playing the game. Additionally, Artifact Knowledge will not affect items already obtained, so there’s no need to hold off on adding Artifact Power for when you have more Knowledge. All in all, this seems like a welcome addition to the Artifact system. With Artifacts adding so much to player power, a way to make the system more alt-spec friendly will surely please anyone planning to dabble in more than one spec.

Be sure to check out the full post (and the follow-up clarification) over on the official forums.