The Netherlight Crucible and You

By Anshlun Updated: 2018/06/29

This Is A User-Submitted Guide!

Wowhead only updates official guides, so information might not be up-to-date.

June 26 UpdateArtifact Retirement questdoes notmaximizes your Artifact Power, leaving your Artifact at level 126 - Concordance of the Legionfall level 75this postUnlocking the CrucibleVindicaarBefore going any further, it is important to note that you only need to unlock the Crucible once per account, so you're not required to complete the questline on every character.An Offering of ShadowNow You're Cooking with Netherlight

In order to check the full questline, check the Argus Comprehensive guide.

To check how progressed your character is currently, check out our Legion Attunement tool.

How the Crucible Works

In the first tier for every relic, the trait is Netherlight Fortification, which increases the item level of your artifact by 5 per relic. The moment you unlock the Crucible you're able to pick this trait, regardless of the state of your Artifact Weapon.

After your first tier, you have two options, one random Void trait to the left, or one random Light trait to the right. As you can see in the UI, your tier 2 choices impact which tier 3 traits you can pick, so keep that in mind when choosing.
You cannot change the path of a relic after selecting it. The only way is to replace it with a different relic, which creates a new random tree of traits.

Void, then Void

Void, then Light

Light, then Void

Light, then Light

Tier 2 Traits

Master of Shadows: Mastery increased by 650500. Avoidance increased by 650500.

Murderous Intent: Your Versatility is increased by 17501500 while Concordance of the Legionfall is active.

Shadowbind: Your spells and abilities have a chance to deal 166000200000Shadow damage and heal you for the same amount.

Chaotic Darkness: Your spells and abilities have a chance to deal 60000 to 300000 Shadow damage and heal you for 60000 to 300000.

Torment the Weak: Your spells and abilities have a chance to deal 9900080000 Shadow damage over 15 sec. This effect stacks up to 3 times.

Dark Sorrows: Your spells and abilities have a chance to afflict the target with Sorrow, causing it to burst after 8 sec, dealing 133100 Shadow damage.

Light Speed: Haste increased by 650500. Movement speed increased by 650500.

Refractive Shell: Your spells and abilities have the chance to cause Refractive Shell, absorbing 200000300000 damage. Lasts 10 sec.

Shocklight: While Concordance of the Legionfall is active, your critical strike is increased by 17501500.

Secure in the Light: Your harmful spells and abilities have the chance to deal 155000135000 additional damage and grant you Holy Bulwark, absorbing up to 155000135000 damage over 8 sec.

Infusion of Light: Your harmful spells and abilities have the chance to deal 116000101000 additional Holy damage. Your helpful spells and abilities have a chance to heal for 116000101000.

Light's Embrace: When you take damage, you have a chance to generate Light's Embrace, stacking up to 5 times. Light's Embrace heals for 3600045500damage over 6 sec.

canInfusion of LightMurderous IntentConcordance of the LegionfallClass Guides for the CrucibleClass Guides

Vengeance Demon Hunter

Previewing a Tree

Take care, doing that binds the relic to you making you unable to trade it afterwards.

Unlocking new TraitsCrucible's Promise

Relic 1 Requirement

Relic 2 Requirement

Relic 3 Requirement

Tier 1

Tier 2

60 Traits

63 Traits

66 Traits

Tier 3

69 Traits

72 Traits

75 Traits

Blizzard ExplanationsPatch 7.3 Q&A

Q: Is the Netherlight Crucible supposed to be fully RNG on Tier 2 and Tier 3?
A: The artifact traits in your weapon have always been a steady form of progression. However, the relics you slot in your weapon is subject to RNG -- the loot might not drop or other factors.

Well what's a problem with relics? Relics point to a specific index and for each spec that can use that relic, that specific index will map to a specific trait. If a holy relic is a bad trait for one spec and they wanted to change it, that would change the relic for all the other specs that could use it, because of the way the index works.

They wanted to fix that with a system that gave relics a random second trait in 7.2, but it was pulled at the last second. This was supposed to help classes that were searching for specific relics but was determined to be too random. The Netherlight Crucible is slightly different; while it has some randomness, players will not be able to choose their worst trait because they simply won't pick it.

Q: Why is the Netherlight Crucible good, but Reforging bad?
A: Reforging wasn't great because of hit and expertise management -- e.g. when you got a ring and had to reforge 10 other items because of it. They don't think it was an interesting system, since if an item didn't have your best two stats, you simply just reforged to your best stats. In some cases, it was hard to evaluate upgrades as well.

Q: How much of the new Artifact Power will work in 7.3 PvP?
A: The first trait from the Netherlight Crucible, Netherlight Fortification, on each relic will work in PvP, but that only equates to a fraction of a percent upgrade since it applies before the scaling. The remaining traits will not work in rated PvP.

Blizzard

Hey guys!

So, after yesterday's Q&A, it's become apparent that there's still some confusion about the Netherlight Crucible and how it works. We've been keeping an eye on your discussions about the topic, and wanted to give some explanations where we can, as well as open up a thread for any additional questions you may have.

Q: How do the Relic "talents" unlock?

A: As your Artifact increases in level (by spending Artifact Power), your Relic slots will level up as well. When you first unlock the Crucible, you'll have access to the first additional trait (a +5 increase to your Artifact's item level) in each slot. The second row unlocks at Artifact level 60, 63, and 66 (for the left, center, and right Relic slots respectively), and the third and final row unlocks at Artifact level 69, 72, and 75. This should all be pretty apparent when you look at those slots in-game, but may not be showing clearly via datamined info.

Q: What did you mean by "it can't double roll a trait"?

A: Just that you will never be able to upgrade a Relic to increase the same Artifact trait twice. If your Relic already has a bonus rank of Wrath of the Ashbringer on it, that trait will not be one of the three options presented in the bottom row of the Crucible's upgrade tree.

In other words, there's no risk of having your Wrath of the Ashbringer relic be "ruined" by not rolling a second bonus to Wrath of the Ashbringer, because that could never have happened in the first place. However, if you get a relic without Wrath of the Ashbringer, there's now a chance that it'll gain it from the Crucible.

Additionally, those three options will always be unique; it won't, for example, give you the "choice" between Deflection, Deflection, or Deflection. Aside from making sure you always have options, this means that your odds of having your favorite trait appear on a Relic you'd otherwise have discarded are actually pretty decent.

Q: How do the ranks for the first two rows work?

A: There are no such ranks. We think this is coming from some confusion about how the Netherlight Crucible is showing up in datamining, versus how it actually operates in-game. Once you've unlocked a row in the Crucible, you just select the option you like, and that's it - there's no additional leveling up of those options beyond that.

For those peeking into the data (or anyone else who might be curious): this is because of how we built the system to allow the unlockable effects to stack between each relic. It's just a subtle behind-the-scenes optimization on our end.

Hopefully that will help clear the air about how the Netherlight Crucible works, but we're sure you have more questions, so ask away and we'll do our best to answer what we can! We'll aim to provide an update sometime next week. Thanks!
TLDR:

Before the patch, if you get a relic that doesn't have the trait you want, you throw it away.

After the patch, if you get a relic that doesn't have the trait you want, you can plug it into the Netherlight Crucible and maybe get it anyway.

That's about all there is to it!

Blizzard

Okay, here's a first pass at some answers. Thanks for all the discussion so far.

Q: Why are you adding this system? What’s with the RNG?

A: The Netherlight Crucible (aside from being an important part of the 7.3 storyline) is intended to help with an issue with Relic availability that players have been reporting for some time now. As Ion explained during our last Q&A, there are technical issues with the way Relics were built that limit which bonus traits can be available from raids. This has caused a number of raiders to feel as though their best bet is to run Mythic Keystone dungeons constantly in the hopes of having a Relic with their ideal bonus trait drop (and Titanforge for a high item level).

Those who were following development of Patch 7.2 may recall an earlier take on an improvement for this issue, where we experimented with adding a single, randomized second bonus trait to Relics. Ultimately, we decided that was the wrong approach, and wanted a system that put a little more control in players’ hands. So, while the Netherlight Crucible does still have an element of randomness, it presents you with several options to choose from.

To be clear: we believe that having some element of randomness is important. Our goal was not to simply allow players to choose the precise bonus traits they wanted (you already do that, more or less, when spending Artifact Power). We still want there to be those exciting moments where a Relic gives you a great outcome. The Netherlight Crucible is intended to make Relics more valuable on average, not to make all Relics be equal value.

Q: Will I be able to trade Relics with other players to see who gets the best options at the Crucible?

A: No. Previewing a Relic at the Netherlight Crucible will bind it to your character and remove the ability to trade it. This is because those trait options don’t actually exist on the Relic until you attune it to the Crucible, in a process similar to enchanting a piece of gear. It also prevents raid teams from feeling like they need to send everyone who might be interested in a Relic back to the Vindicaar before continuing.

Q: Will the Netherlight Crucible work on Relics acquired prior to 7.3 release?

A: Yes. However, keep in mind that it will take some time (likely several weeks) to unlock the later stages of the Netherlight Crucible, where the additional bonus traits come in. We don’t expect that stockpiling Relics prior to 7.3 will give any real advantage in practice.

Q: Doesn’t this just mean I’ll want my best two traits on each Relic now?

A: For the hardcore min/maxer, yes, there will still be a “best” outcome for your Relic configuration. However, there are now more Relics that can achieve that state (as Relics with your second-best trait can now roll your best trait at the Crucible), and you’ll encounter fewer “bad” Relics along the way.

Q: Why do I have to go back to the Netherlight Crucible to upgrade my Relic? Didn’t you want to get away from mechanics like that?

A: Players often compare this to the old Reforging system, and our dislike of having to visit a vendor after each and every upgrade. That hasn’t changed. The Netherlight Crucible only affects Relics – you won’t need to visit the Crucible every time you pick up a new pair of boots.

Comments

Comment by aznballer735

can you replace a relic after you choose one

Comment by Tombsv

I have a feeling all my relics will get the damn "pet gets more dodge" trait -_-

Comment by GorgothNZ

terryn007 that did the Affliction guide is a legend the layout and calculations they have done is freeking amazing. Cant uprate it enough

Comment by Candlelight

Will we be able to use the Netherlight Crucible on already-socketed relics?

Comment by Alcasczar

So this looks like more RNG to potentionally make our character that might be doing good to be doing bad if we get a bad roll on a certain path? this is really confusing and the guides so far aren't helpful explaining how this works.

Do we use relics that are banked? should we have been banking relics? What about the current relics in our weapon now, what happens to them or is this a completely separate thing that stacks with it or a complete replacement?

Comment by Vger

Once you unlock the Netherlight Crucible on one character, you can use it immediately on your alts (at least, those that have unlocked the Vindicaar), even if those alts haven't actually finished powering the Crucible.

Comment by Credanas

Seems totally unworthy for pvp.

Comment by Lucidic

I think your section about the void and light powers should have been named Tier 3, not Tier 2. That was confusing me for a while.

Comment by cgilm2526

Just to clarify and if I understand this correctly. The tiers arent connected to the relics themselves right? For example, if I have unlocked Tier 2 of a relic and replace said relic, the new relic will have Tier 2 unlocked correct?

Comment by Enkin

These new relic traits works in pvp situations like arenas, rbg, bg ecc... ?

Comment by sidhebane

This is not just alt-unfriendly, this is massively dual-spec unfriendly. This raises the "base level of utility" ie "The point at which you've unlocked most of the useful stuff" from Concordance 1 (artifact level 52) to Concordance 15 (artifact level 66) - PER SPEC. And that's not even "maximised" (requires concordance 24/artifact 75).

The marginal benefits (benefits of each extra point) of Concordance have been pretty minimal (Note that at the previously mentioned Concordance 15, you've only just barely doubled the strength of the proc, from 4000 to 8200, at the cost of billions per point), but this may be going too far. Fine for single-spec players, but on even a basic two-spec character, like tank/dps or heals/dps, this is daunting.

Comment by Shadowloot

So the traits are randomly generated when a relic becomes soulbound?
I was looking for an addon that would tell me the crucible traits of a dropped relic in order to decide if it really is an upgrade for me.
So this is just awful in a raid-group.
What this means is that I should always press need for relics that I can use with my class even if I already got the exact same one with the same item-level already because there is a slight chance that when I go to the Netherlight Crucible to inspect the relic and it becomes soulbound a set of traits is randomly generated that are more benefical.
And if not it is still soulbound and I can no longer trade it.

Why the heck aren't these traits generated on drop for the item and displayed in the tooltip?
World of Randomcraft, next level of annoyance.

Comment by czeshirecat

What impact does the level of the artifact have on the crucible? There doesn't seem to be any difference between a level 910 or 740 at first glance when looking at the benefits. Or am I not looking closely enough?

The Netherlight Crucible and You

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