I love this idea. I was sad when they took class quests out.
What if my Ret Paladin prefer a mace instead of Ashbringer or polearms or even an axe, will there be different weapon type artifacts available for a single spec? Or are Ret Paladins stuck with the Ashbringer?
Wait wait wait... Survival Hunters are changing from Arcane Archers to more Ranger style characters? I'm even more excited now. And glad that I enjoy Survival so much.The fact that it's a spear is extra cool. Most spears are pretty much stat sticks, having a spec focus on spear based combat finally gives reason to all those animations we've had since the beginning that no one really gets to see.I'm kinda curious what Restoration Shamans will get, hopefully a main-hand as well. I rather enjoy having a shield, if just for the aesthetics of it.
Alright, so lets speculate about all the possible artifacts (or more accurately, from whom are we taking them) that haven't been revealed so far.Warriors1: ArmsWhen I think of arms warriors, nobody beats Grom Hellscream. I'm willing to bet Gorehowl his famous axe becomes the next artifact. If not Grom, then maybe Broxxigar Saurfang and his enchanted wooden axe blessed by Cenarius.2: FuryHard to say. Maybe Varian's Twin Swords?3: ProtectionWhile its name and appearance wasn't revealed, it was confirmed that they get the weapons of a Vrykul King in Stormheim.Rogues1: Assassination: The absolute best assassin in history is nobody other than Garona.2: Combat: Edwin Van Cleef.3: Subtlety: Valeera Sanguinar. Come on, it fits :P her name is a variant of sanguinary, which in itself is a variant of the word Sanguis which means Blood in Latin. What do Subtlety rogues do most? apply bleeds of course.HuntersNot much room for speculation here, 2 out of 3 of their artifacts were revealed.1: Survival already got confirmed to get the Eagle Spear.2: Marskmanship. I'm betting they're the ones who get Thas'dorah, Legacy of the Windrunners (Which I strongly suspect belongs to Sylvanas, no other member of the Windrunner family is "infamous". Alleria is a hero in the eyes of everyone, and nobody gives a rat's butt about Vereesa.)3: Beast Mastery. If I had to guess, I'm betting something related to Rexxar. While I'm aware he's never used a ranged weapon in his life, he is by far THE beastmaster of the lore, so they could always invent that he always had a treasured crossbow or something.MagesAgain, not much room for speculation given that 2 of their 3 weapons have been revealed.1:Frost: Confirmed they're getting Ebonchill, Greatstaff of Alodi First Guardian of Tirisfal.2:Fire: Confirmed they're getting Felo'melorn from Kael'thas Sunstrider.3:Arcane: Best guess I can come up with is the Greatstaff of Antonidas, Archamage of the Kirin Tor. (Hopefully pried out of Jaina's cold dead hands. What? a man can dream >_>)PriestsThis is a tough one, there aren't that many famous priests in the lore. The most famous one (Tyrande) wields a bow, not a staff.Nonetheless here are the ones I imagine:1:Holy: Velen. Yep. Mister Über-beard is the holiest of holy priests.2:Discipline: Alonsus Faol.3:Shadow: Benedictus? I dunno. He was a traitor, but who says we can't use his weapon? That's the theme of this expansion isn't it? use the power of the bad guys against them.Warlocks:1:Demonology: Jeweled Scepter of Sargeras. Warlocks already are traveling to a Legion Assault World as part of their Class Hall, and the last time that scepter was seen, it was pried out of Ner'zhul's hands by none other than Kil'jaeden.2:Destruction: Probably Teron Gorefiend's unholy truncheon.3:Affliction: a sacrificial Dagger from Gul'dan.Paladin:1: Retribution: Everyone knows already its Ashbringer. its probably THE most advertised Artifact so far.2: Holy: The Gavel of Uther the Lightbringer.3: Protection: I'm putting my money on Turalyon's shield.Druid:Well this one is easy.1: Restoration: Malfurion Stormrage. He's been a healer several times and even in Heroes of the Storm he's primarily a healer.2: Guardian: Hamuul Runetotem. Almost all his appearances depict him as an incredibly hard to kill bear.3: Feral: Fandral Staghelm (What? after his betrayal he drops a staff that changes the appearance of feral druids to fire. His pre-corruption staff should change the appearance of normal feral druids.4: Balance: Broll Bearmantle. In all his appearances in the comic he always fought from a distance with magic.Shaman:1: Enhancement: Already confirmed that Doomhammer is the one. While I'm hoping Thrall doesn't die (nor gives up his hammer and we instead just use the one from Alternate!Orgrim from draenor) his hammer serves as the weapon for all enhance shammies. You wield the original on your main hand and an energy copy of it on your offhand.2: Elemental: I'm putting my money on an artifact from Muln Earthfury.3: Restoration: If they don't use Nobundo here I'm gonna be very upset. He deserves a bit of a spotlight.Death Knight:Well, there's absolutely nothing to speculate at all, every single one of their weapons were revealed. The only class that had this happen to them apparently. Lucky us I guess.1: Blood: Maw of the Damned An axe by a demon known as Gorelix the Fleshripper.2: Frost: Ice Bringer and Soul Reaper twin swords forged from the remains of Frostmourne. Which makes the second weapon forged from there, as Shadowmourne has a similar backstory.3: Unholy: Soulrend Not officially confirmed. But just one look at that picture in the front page of this article and that thing SCREAMS Unholy Death Knights. Come on it has a frostmourne-like horned skull on the hilt. It glows green just like Unholy DKs, and it has runes engraved on the blade.If this weapon doesn't end up as the Unholy spec's artifact I'm eating one of my shoes.Monk:1:Mistweaver: Sheilun, Staff of the Mists which used to belong to Emperor Shao-Hao.2:Windwalker: Probably Taran Zhu's spear.3: Brewmaster: Chen, SO MUCH Chen. His Brew Casket and Bamboo Cane with Sake bottle dangling at the end =PDemon Hunters:Not a clue. They're gonna be Warglaives. That much is certain. I can't see them wielding anything other than warglaives. Or..... at least onehanded swords that look like warglaives given that no new weapon types are added.
Do the guys with one-hand weapons (eg. fire mage) need to get their own offhand to supplement it?
ofc nothing for moonkins again ...
what we know series begin to raise and go on... gah!
Disappointed there's so many staff weapons for casters. I'm so sick of using a staff, and would love to see some more caster swords and wands making a return. It would be very easy to do for a Mage - Frost gets a dagger, Fire the sword and Arcane a wand (and conjured OHs for all). Then people really would look truly different instead of all using the same 2h (or mogging it to the same one they've had for the last 4 years).
I main a Enhancement Shaman and I am not very excited about any of the Doomhammer variants. Hopefully the Resto ones are better. Super excited about Ashbringer though.
Aluneth is almost assuredly the priest staff, the runic script on the effects are the same used by greater heal, a certain other priest spell, and close to the scripts formly used in holy priest spell effects, its comfiguration is remenicent of anethema and benidiction so it is most like the discipline and shadow staff, with holy priest most likely getting mace and offhand (because they read hymns, and are the classic "cleric"). However the argument for Arcane mage is solid as well if its the pve and pvp staff as arcane blasts hand particle script(when you get to see it) is similar runes.I am wagering however that arcane mages will get a WAND and be the "wanding spec" again because a lot of people are still cheering for wanding, it would also be pretty fantasyHedging my bets that Warlocks will beaffliction: dagger, because rituals and blood and what not, with a fetish offhand. You could squeeze a wand in as there is some famous hexing ones. (The majority of wands tend to be shadow damage, could make an argument for shadow priest too).Destruction: Sword, definitely a burning demonic script skull laced sword, all the famous destruction warlocks use staby sword/red mage style.Demonology: definitely staff, most likely in the vein of "felpuppy on a stick" as most demonology warlocks used more or less living abberition staves.HOWEVER keep in mind affliction and demonology are getting completely overhauled/remade, not much comment regarding destruction but they may get some modification as well.Druid:Restoration: one of the millioms of famous druid stavesFeral: released alreadyBalance: most likely the elusive fist weapons. Dont see any druid spec getting a mace, it is just not the druid style.ShamanEnhancement: Doom hammerResto: possibly axe and board because hints at tank spec?Elemental: runic fist weapon dual wield (because).RogueCombat: swords obviously because Riposte, could go maces if blizzard wanted tp be punny.Subtlety: definitely garroting fist weapons, their overhaul was also hinted at for next expac, and thematically this is what garona and other famous subtlety rogues prefer (kidney shots, sap, garrotte, etc all require fist weapons/barehand), could go maces because bash heads, but makes little sense compared to fist weapons,Assasination: obvious.Monk:windwalker: well fist weapons would be REALLY obvious here, but it will be staff/polearm most likely, unless no other spec gets fist weapons.WarriorArms: 2HProt: mentioned alreadyFury: dual wield staves i bet hahahahahahhaahPriestDisc: Staff very tiny possibility for that one wand.Holy: mace and offhand (plenty of famous ones)Shadow: Dagger or Staff most likely, small possibility for wand. Most likely one of the famous shadow staves from recent or long forgotten lore.MageArcane: VERY strong possibility for wand and offhand because books and a few famous wands, but most likely a purple crystal stave or arcane rune staff or something like AetishDemonhunter: Dps: Obviously warglaives as that has already been shownTank: hmnn unknown since we dont know what non warglaive weapons there are.Hunter: all mentioned already, also yay for survival hunter parry raptor strikes again yay! Best spec in vanilla!PaladinRet: mentionedHoly: 2H mace because there is so c'thun damned many famous holy paladins that roll around with honking 2H maces! Literally 40+ many visible in WoD, would also resolve holy survivability and shift them to being able to do something than soak damage in pvp.Prot: really tough, some solid maces and swords to choose from, and loads of famous shields.
Only weapon we get, sounds amazing.Instead of just grinding for a weapon that is totally better, the weapon changes and levels up as we do.I really have high hopes for this, i love how wow is really trying to focus more and more on the player being an integral part of the story and the last hope, rather than another random quester
if you watch the release video around the 14minute mark there's a screen shot of different weapons, one that loos like a pally mace not sure if its tank or healer's and there's also a rifle which I'm guessing is going to the bm hunters. but neither are listed on the post
I'm fine with everything else, but Ashbringer, Doomhammer, and Frostmourne as artifacts is pretty lore-breaking. It's never gonna stop bugging me. I also DESPISE the idea of keeping the same weapon the entire expansion. That means there will not be any new weapon models besides artifacts the whole way through, and the idea of everyone having the same weapon is really bad. We need variety!Why can't artifacts be a form of endgame progression. Just like Garrisons were intended to be optional and end-game, Artifacts would be much better off like that. It'd give you something to do and it wouldn't be made a mandatory feature that's shoved down our throats.
I really hope Frost doesn't go dual wield only.
Survival Hunters are just melee with pets ? yes please!