wow Artifact Knowledge Cap Lowered to 40

[Stan 5,240]

Yesterday's hotfixes lowered the Artifact Knowledge cap to 40 (down from 50). CM Aerythlea posted some insight on the latest change.

TL;DR

• Artifact Knowlege cap was lowered to 40, but overall Artifact Power gains were increased
• Artifact Research Compendium: Volumes I-VII will now provide AK level 40 (up from 35), which should make the process of getting Concordance of the Legionfall less daunting on alts

Blizzard (Source)

Hey all!

Thanks for the discussion so far! I'd like to provide a little more additional insight here on this change as well as a change to highest Artifact Knowledge Compendium.

The Artifact Knowledge cap was raised from 40 to 50 late in Patch 7.2's development as part of a desire to increase overall AP gains. However, after 7.2 launched, we realised it would be better to increase base Artifact Power gains instead of relying on Artifact Knowledge (which takes time for players to research and can make gains earned in the interim not feel as meaningful).

Since 7.2 we have deployed several hotfixes that have increase AP gains in certain areas, one such example is the Elite Strike missions available while the Command Center is active. Now that these changes are live, the acquisition of AP is faster overall, so we felt that 40 is now an appropriate cap for AK and isn't as daunting a prospect to reach.

We also wanted players to have a solid stopping point for AK research, at which point they will have more freedom to focus on their alts.

To that end, the item Artifact Research Compendium: Volumes I-VII is being changed to grant Artifact Knowledge level 40 instead of level 35. As before, it will be purchasable in the Order Hall by characters who have reached AK 40. This means that players will be able to immediately catch-up to the AK cap on alts once they have access to this book, which should make the process of getting to Concordance on alts less daunting too.

As always, we welcome your feedback on these changes.

[Nazamber 38]

Do you know if this adjusts the percentages to reflect the lack of 10 levels or is this literally just capping at 40 and keeping the original percent? Just curious, because I definitely felt the increase from 33 to 37 was only like 250K increase each level.

[CrimsonVow 1]

4 minutes ago, Nazamber said:

Do you know if this adjusts the percentages to reflect the lack of 10 levels or is this literally just capping at 40 and keeping the original percent? Just curious, because I definitely felt the increase from 33 to 37 was only like 250K increase each level.

From what I gathered, they just cap it.

[Nestar 0]

11 minutes ago, Nazamber said:

Do you know if this adjusts the percentages to reflect the lack of 10 levels or is this literally just capping at 40 and keeping the original percent? Just curious, because I definitely felt the increase from 33 to 37 was only like 250K increase each level.

as the Blue post clearly states, 

'we realised it would be better to increase base Artifact Power gains instead of relying on Artifact Knowledge'

so they ARE changing the scale. its NOT just a cap :)

[Thorosofbeer 3]

24 minutes ago, Nazamber said:

Do you know if this adjusts the percentages to reflect the lack of 10 levels or is this literally just capping at 40 and keeping the original percent? Just curious, because I definitely felt the increase from 33 to 37 was only like 250K increase each level.

In this case they are just capping it. They may adjust the base value of AP a bit more, but they don't want people going over AK 40 at least for now. I like this change as it'll make AP plateau after ToS giving time to catch up alts and other specs.

[Arkpit 101]

1 hour ago, Nestar said:

as the Blue post clearly states, 

'we realised it would be better to increase base Artifact Power gains instead of relying on Artifact Knowledge'

so they ARE changing the scale. its NOT just a cap :)

I feel that is strange since it feels they are going against what they said themselves about it before:

"We wanted to ensure that players of all playstyles, as well as alt characters, would view the Concordance trait as accessible. However, between the additional Artifact Power gains added in 7.2 and others that were hotfixed in after the patch released, we’re now well ahead of that mark. Knowledge 40 now seems more than sufficient for players to reach Concordance"

Sounds like they wouldn't want to increase it anymore but oh well.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Arkpit

[Cimegs5088 3]

I don't think it would be much different in terms of ap gain between the old 50 and new 40 due to the new increase of base ap.

The quality of life change is definitely a welcome one. 

In terms of stopping point, they really should look at the necessity of the concordance traits. I know from their point of view the gap between having no point in it and max point in it is small, the fact that it's a proc means it's subjected to RnG, and that small gap to the max potential means that it become some sort of measure of how good a player is, outside of organised raid where people know and trusted each other. Imagine organising a pug raid on say mythic gul dan and two players with different amount of points in the concordance traits, one with single point and another maxed out, it is understandable for the organiser to take the higher point invested one due to the fact that he doesn't know how well both play. My point is, irregardless of how much it influence the final decision, it is unevitably a selling point in its own in an unorganised environment. It's just the same as ilvl conundrum, for example, I had over 900 Ilvl but i knew that's the highest Ilvl u can piece together, in fact, there are still slots where piece as low as Ilvl 865 still able to increase my output over my 920 gear due to the superiority on the major secondary stats.

They really need to phase out the concordance traits, they  need to und that the ap grind has so far been one of the major reason for all top guild that quit raiding, and as far as I know, nobody around me actually fancy the idea of it. Mind you, players I knew in game are hardcore raiders in the past and still strive to be the best as they can be every expansion, even though they're not raiding as much as they once were.

that is something they need to actually put a realistic stopping point and let player move on to alt or secondary spec. (Mind you, to max out one artifact pre concordance is already a time consuming grind, but to grind out all the utilities non dps traits just to access this dps related paragon traits? It just kill off any hope of levelling another artifact if you're a perfectionist or nomadic pugger)

i don't like the idea of the paragon traits. Really.

[Karma 0]

So, if I had more than 40 AK levels, and we're capped for the moment at 40, do I get a refund of the overage as to apply it to other alts? 

[Mallicor 0]

31 minutes ago, Karma said:

So, if I had more than 40 AK levels, and we're capped for the moment at 40, do I get a refund of the overage as to apply it to other alts? 

You cant be. I started the day the patch came out and im still like 2-3 levels off so no one can already have AK40.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Mallicor

[Sharknad0 67]

4 hours ago, Karma said:

So, if I had more than 40 AK levels, and we're capped for the moment at 40, do I get a refund of the overage as to apply it to other alts? 

That is impossible. You are no higher than 38 right now, probably 37. I don't even think 38 is currently possible, but I did not start new orders immediately and missed at least 36 hours total so far, so maybe. I just know you haven't hit 40 for sure.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Sharknad0

[Jperry21 16]

22 hours ago, Sharknad0 said:

That is impossible. You are no higher than 38 right now, probably 37. I don't even think 38 is currently possible, but I did not start new orders immediately and missed at least 36 hours total so far, so maybe. I just know you haven't hit 40 for sure.

I... I think that guy made two accounts to talk to himself...

[Darkjester79 47]

This is annoying to be sure but I understand not wanting to rely on AK for AP.  I just hope they figure out the ratio before it causes too much trouble.

[edrac 0]

I'm currently at 38 with 3 characters. But here's the message when you try to get further:

"Why can't i research Artifact Knowledge?"

"We have reached the maximum artifact knowledge available to us at this time."

I submitted a ticket to see what's up, here's part of the response:

"The Development team wants all player to be able to explore and find all the secretes out on their, which is why you are not able to give out game play hints." Got some links which led me here, but apparently to get to 40 will require more than just going to your class hall.

Does anyone know how to get past level 38?

Edited May 29, 2017 by edrac

[Xaroset 0]

Im 39... with 40 on the way. Didn't have to do anything for it. You are prolly 38. with 2 on the way.... thats why you cant research anymore... bc that would put you at 41

Edited June 4, 2017 by Xaroset

[edrac 0]

Doh! Of course I had two more in the queue! I guess I got confused by the message and forgot about the two. It's too bad there's no way to know how much more time before they pop.

[Valks 2,375]

On 6/4/2017 at 9:48 PM, edrac said:

Doh! Of course I had two more in the queue! I guess I got confused by the message and forgot about the two. It's too bad there's no way to know how much more time before they pop.

You can check it in your order hall summary window. It will tell you how long until you can pick it up.