Patch 7.2: New Artifact Traits

MMO Champion has published an extensive list of new Artifact Traits to be released in Patch 7.2. There appear to be four brand-new abilities for Restoration, including:

  • Deep Rooted (Rank 1): Your Heal over Time effects automatically refresh when their target goes below 35% maximum health.
    This seems pretty similar to Cultivation. I suppose this would be useful in cases where you need to ignore your tank in favor of raid healing?
  • Joy of Spring (Rank 1): Efflorescence’s healing increases by 0% every 2 sec.
    Presumably, this won’t be 0% in actuality.
  • Eternal Restoration (Rank 1): Increases the duration of Essence of G’hanir by 1 sec (up to 8 additional seconds at Rank 8).
    Depending upon the eventual strength of Joy of Spring, this is probably going to be my favorite of the three new abilities.
  • Infinite (Rank 1): Placeholder ability.

The full list of additional ranks — and speculation about what these changes may mean in terms of artifact progression — after the break.

Restoration View All Specs | Skip to Additional Thoughts

Additional Thoughts

It isn’t clear whether the abilities being granted additional ranks will be acquired by spending Artifact Power or being unlocked via new relics (which could, in theory, grant more than one rank to an ability). According to comments on MMO Champion, Blizzard previously stated in a Developer Q&A that, “they will refund all AP past 34 traits.” Doing so would allow players to prioritize higher ranks of existing abilities when respeccing their Artifact, but — as the new abilities would be purchased with the currency now available in game — would have the side effect of encouraging players to grind AP in anticipation of the patch, an activity which Blizzard has repeatedly stated they hope to discourage.

I’m most curious how these changes will affect the acquisition of our hidden artifact ability, G’Hanir’s Bloom, which currently requires players to first unlock every other artifact ability before it can be acquired. I can’t imagine they would “take away” this hard-earned +5% to healing until all twenty-nine new skills have been acquired, but it does feel a little inelegant to have a second, “gated” tier of abilities. One solution would be to make G’Hanir’s Bloom unlockable as soon as you have unlocked all other gold-framed abilities instead of requiring all other points to be purchased. There are currently three of these abilities — Power of the Archdruid, Dreamwalker, and Tranquil Mind — but I’m guessing that Joy of Spring and Deep Rooted might also fall into this category. However, if this causes me to lose access to G’Hanir’s Bloom, I’m going to be a very thorny Druid indeed.

G’Hanir Druid Wallpaper by Frenone

7 thoughts on “Patch 7.2: New Artifact Traits

  1. I saw that Dev Chat and at the time Watcher did not know how it would work. I thought the discussion was directly on the Paragon traits when he shrugged and wondered about the AP refund.
    I will be thorny as well to lose a hard-earned across-the-board percentage boost to all of my healing. Still, 8 ranks suggests a full point in each and a huge “time spent” investment.

    1. Good to know. Thanks!

      On a related note, have you had any luck acquiring the hidden Restoration artifact appearance, yet? I’ve been farming those two plots diligently without success and — having stacks of everything already — have been destroying the other rewards.

      1. I feel terrible since you asked with my answer.
        I transmogged my artifact to a glowing staff on Day One and walked away not concerned about chasing the hiddens at all. Ugh, maybe I should look into them more.

        1. Apparently my post was the kick-in-the-pants that the loot gods needed, because I literally got the drop I needed last night! Finally! Now to design an outfit to coordinate … I’m thinking Heroic Dreamwalkers from Naxxramas…

  2. Your note on Cultivation isn’t really accurate. Cultivation is without doubt the go-to talent for almost all druids, even for tankhealing since it helps out with mastery stacks. It’s even especially powerful for tankhealing due to the power of mastery when healing few targets.

  3. I have been using Cultivation mostly because it’s free but I did like that it helps out with mastery. However, it only seems to be useful if I’m laying lots of hots and depends on other healers as well. In 5 mans it is great, though I sometimes feel like I am still playing as if I have SotF because I have to stop myself doing a WG after every swiftmend. With them building it into the weapon a little with deep rooted it’s an indication that it’s a very popular choice and I look forward to trying it out in 7.2.

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