Artifact Knowledge between rank 26 and 40 will only take 4 hours

Pending a hotfix, Artifact Knowledge work orders after rank 25 will only take 4 hours to complete, as opposed to the several days they take on live servers. Blizzard is currently working on the hotfix with “extensive testing” and they hope to have it in game within the next day or so. If you have work orders in progress, you won’t have to worry about getting behind: they hope to have it apply to pending orders as well as all future ones.

This will help alleviate the burden that returning players often find themselves in when returning to the game for a new raid. With Legion, the catchup required has been extra burdensome since it’s gated by time rather than effort. Gear itself can always be farmed, but Artifact Power and Legendaries are the barrier of entry these days.

With this change, players will be able to reach maximum Artifact Knowledge in a matter of days rather than weeks or months. It will also help returning players catch up on their much-needed Artifact Traits, and the only major impediment now will be acquiring the Order Resources to fund the work orders.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Blizzard change without being a “slap in the face,” this time to those who have already achieved Artifact Knowledge 40 after needing to spend weeks doing so. Never mind that these players have been able to benefit from maximum Artifact Power for a week now — not to mention, they can also send rank 40 compendiums to any alts. Can’t please everyone, I suppose!