Something wild has happened during weekend.
Pre-Story
On Saturday I grew a bit tired of playing Survival Hunter. Mind you, I still think that this spec is something really wild and cool. It has interesting spec fantasy, it’s very mobile, and it’s quite effective in the field. Nothing wrong with the spec itself.
The only problem is that my hunter is a GOBLIN. There’s nothing wrong with it, but one of her hunter strikes animation looks pretty ridiculous. It looks like a ballet pirouette. Imagine her spear is a pole, as she raises it vertically and spins around it like a strip dancer. It’s supposed to be a strike. If I were her enemy IRL, I would plant at least three strikes while she does this stupid thing, all exposed.
And that, my friends, is ruining your gameplay at large. When you watch your toon fight, and your rotation is: hack, slash! (never gets old), hack, stupid, slash! stupid, stupid, stupid, hack… At some point it’s too much ‘stupid’ for you. It’s a solid reason for a race change: I did that already. An Undead warrior does flip-flops for 50% of battle. A warrior – performs – flip-flops. With all the plate armor and weaponry. It was so ridiculous that I changed her race to a Tauren.
So, when I realised that this hunter strike in goblin performance was pretty annoying, I considered a race change. There was a test-drive of a human in Survival spec – a test toon at another realm. Hooray, suddenly everything looks perfect.
And I’m glad she stayed a goblin – yet. Because this fuss also made me try some other stuff – another spec. Beast Mastery was never an option, I mean, the hordes of pets are not my thing. But Marksmanship – ooh, I played Marksmanship from the start and was forced to change to Survival with Legion changes. And now I read that Blizzard finds Marksmanship just in its place. Maybe it’s worth another try?
It was worth another try. I’m Marksmanship once again. I swiped the dust off my metal scorpion pet, and I’m having a good time just shooting things from afar. I tested an LFR, and I remembered why I loved playing a hunter: it’s a total relief and leisure time. Once I learnt the synergy between three main abilities, everything just started to crack under my arrows like chestnuts.
Sorry for the long introduction, but that brings us to a problem itself. Here goes:
How can I possibly make my Artifact weapon as cool as the “main-spec” Artifact weapon? I mean, you’ve been upgrading it since Legion launch, and now you want to change specs?
Two words, guys. Artifact Knowledge.
- Lizgun puts aside Talonclaw with 24 traits.
- She equips Thas’dorah with zero traits.
- She has her Artifact Knowledge at 16.
Guess what happens next? She goes for a pair of Suramar questlines. She does two world quests for artifact power – just ordinary ones. And she runs Trials of Valor and Emerald Nightmare LFRs.
It took her only half a day, and Thas’dorah has 24 traits now. Let it sink: HALF-A-DAY.
Now tell me Legion’s not spec friendly? :)
If you need to test if you have enough Artifact Knowledge level, here’s your tip:
- Complete an order hall mission for Artifact Power item and win a bonus roll.
- Now you have two items which give you artifact power: the main reward and the side reward which grants twice as much.
- Apply them to your artifact.
- If the bar will be filled with these items for at least 20% or more, you’re at the right place.
- If less, you need to wait for Artifact Knowledge orders to complete. Just not to waste your effort.
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Got this in the first evening:
Then I played two hours more in the morning, and it became 24.
Gnomecore 
That’s amazing. I was thinking of dropping one of those big AP rewards into my Balance spec (only used for old raid farming) and now I will. One can sure obsess on your Main of you let it … uh … obsess you.
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I just think of putting a “minor” AP item into the specs I never play. You could become addicted to 12 traits available AT ONCE and scheduling them :)
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