While I understand that there are lore reasons for the artifact weapons losing their powers (the whole deal with the sword of Sargeras), I do not feel like the artifact weapons not working like they used to for new characters starting out on Legion content is good, or makes any sense in regards to how old content is handled. When questing in Pandaria (or Stonetalon Mountains for that matter), Garrosh is still warchief. When questing in Northrend, Arthas is still alive and shows up at several occasions. By questing through the continents (in the order they were released) you can get a sense of what was happening at the time and who did what.
Therefore, it makes no sense to me that when you reach level 98 and get started on Legion content, your artifact weapon does not work like it did during Legion, with the reason being that this and that happened at the END of Legion. It also makes it so that Legion content (which could have been an exiting time to try out new artifact weapons and traits on alts) is less enjoyable to go through, especially for those of us who know what we are missing.
My issue is not about balance, it’s about consistency in how lore is handled, and variety of gameplay. I would feel more inclined to level alts through Legion content if I could explore the artifact traits I missed by not playing that particular class/spec during Legion.
But it was an end game system that you werent meant to really get traits on until 110 and post 110 were not meant to have.
How could it be changed so that you get to level it?
I do think it is a lore issue when my artifact weapon on new alts says its powers have been sacrificed cuz sword of sargeras.
Also it does not need to be changed just because its a max level system. You can lock xp at 110 if you wish to explore the artifact traits, which is what I want to have as an option.
The artifact weapons would be overpowered for the BFA content. As a 110 can access BFA, imagine how easy the content would be for them with a fully stacked Legion artifact weapon.
I do agree that perhaps they could keep the traits grayed out but not tell you why until you reach the end of Legion, for people who want the lore aspect of the game.
I don’t like this change either, although I understand it, Blizzard did this because those powers (+artifact traits) could not work with class spells/talents anymore.
Anyway I’d love if they’d give artifact weapons some power which they could take from legendary items and make it available up to level 115 like the others so basically turning Artifact weapons into legendaries, it would not require great amount of work and it’d definitely be a welcomed change also without the risk of balancing issues.