Patch 7.3 - Netherlight Crucible Preview

Posted 2017/08/24 at 3:03 AM by Squishei

This is an early news preview based on PTR testing. For our definitive Netherlight Crucible guide and links to Crucible recommendations for all specs, please visit this link instead.

Patch 7.3 HubNetherlight Crucible Talent Calculator. Unlocking the CrucibleKrokuunMac'AreeAn Offering of Shadowthird week of Patch 7.3account-wideRelics Tiers

The first tier of Crucible traits increases the item level of your artifact by +5 per relic, for a total of +15 item level to your weapon.

The second tier lets you choose between a randomly-generated Light and Shadow ability. This tier unlocks at:
Artifact Trait 60 for the first relic slot.

Artifact Trait 63 for the second relic slot.

Artifact Trait 66 for the third relic slot.

Artifact Trait 69 for the first relic slot.

Artifact Trait 72 for the second relic slot.

Artifact Trait 75 for the third relic slot.

randomly chosenArtifact KnowledgeTier 2 OptionsShadow

Master of Shadows: Mastery increased by 1000. Avoidance increased by 1000.

Murderous Intent: Your Versatility is increased by 1750 while Concordance of the Legionfall is active.

Shadowbind: Your spells and abilities have a chance to deal 166000 Shadow damage and heal you for 166000.

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 cause Torment, dealing 99000 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.

Holy

Light Speed: Haste increased by 650. Movement speed increased by 650.

Refractive Shell: Your spells and abilities have the chance to cause Refractive Shell, absorbing 200000 damage. Lasts 10 sec.

Shocklight: While Concordance of the Legionfall is active, your critical strike is increased by 1750.

Secure in the Light: Your harmful spells and abilities have the chance to deal 155000 additional damage and grant you Holy Bulwark, absorbing up to 77500 damage over 8 sec.

Infusion of Light: Your harmful spells and abilities have the chance to deal 116000 additional Holy damage. Your helpful spells and abilities have a chance to heal for 116000.

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 36000 damage over 6 sec.

Blizzard Preview

Blizzard

Argus presents new challenges and one last desperate bid to put a stop to the Burning Legion’s invasions of Azeroth. To face these challenges, the forces of the Horde and the Alliance have gained access to an ancient and powerful tool to help enhance Artifact weapons—the Netherlight Crucible.

The Netherlight Crucible is an ancient remnant of Argus that once served as a source of considerable magic. Though its potential power is thought by many to be a gift, empowering it would require great sacrifice…as well as a delicate balance of Light and Shadow.

During your time on Argus, you’ll work toward a new way to customize and enhance the power of your Artifact weapon. The Netherlight Crucible’s power is balanced with both Shadow and Light, providing powerful upgrades to your Artifact Relics. The Crucible will attune your Relics and soulbind them to you while unlocking access to 3 additional tiers of power. These tiers are unlocked by increasing your total Artifact level and are fully unlocked once you reach Artifact level 75.

The first of these is Netherlight Fortification which will increase the item level of your Artifact weapon.

The second tier offers a choice between Light power and Shadow power. Each of these powers is randomly chosen from a pool of 6 possible unique effects. This tier becomes available once your weapon has reached Artifact level 60 and your Relic slot has reached level 2.

The third tier offers a choice of a second Relic trait that correlates to the either Light or Shadow depending on which was chosen in the second tier. These selections appear within the tree and branch from your previous selections. To begin unlocking this tier, you’ll need Artifact level 69 and Relic slot level 3.

Attuning Relics

In the Crucible interface, an additional standalone slot can be used to preview a Relic’s potential traits. These Relics will display whether they can be attuned and will show as compatible with your Artifact weapon within the interface. Once attuned, these can be used to replace other Relics within your weapon.

The decisions you make in the tree allow you to choose whether to focus on third-tier traits that modify your class, or the unique powers that can be gained from the Crucible.

Comment by badaxLooks dope, would also be awesome to have a Netherlight Crucible calculator here on wowheadComment by axeurolHow the duck is that "dope" exactly? More busywork, more pushing people towards the necessity of farming that goddamn artifact power.
I hope that they're at least getting more money from people having to spend more time in game with these disastrous changes (talking basically the whole Legion expansion stuff), because they sure ass hell ain't making the gameplay more interesting.Comment by badaxI stated my opiniion, is that illegal now? no one's forcing you to do anything, and if you don't like it you can take your suitcase and go play something elseComment by axeurolYou've stated your opinion, I asked you to explain your opinion, is that illegal now?
Regarding playing something else: well that's the whole point now, isn't it? Whole guilds are quitting the game now "to go play something else", exactly because of these dumb changes they're putting out, that are forcing people to play constantly with no breaks to remain competitive with others who do so.
I have not seen ONE person who actually liked this AP-system they've made, and I've heard plenty of opinions on it. Is that really a way to go? Telling people "eat our slop or go play something else"?Comment by GalenTheGreyaxeurol, chill.

I down for this though, it's a good way to make artifact leveling more intuitive and customized, rather than just "level up the same tree twice."Comment by Camberwelltroll, dont biteComment by badaxI don't see you making any suggestions, you just complain, that's it, I don't know why you though, what would you like to do in the game? nothing? or have everything brought up to you on a platter? I think that the AP gathering system is good, but could use some adjustments, for example lower the AP requirement or increase AP gains from items, gathering AP is good but making it into a grind is not.

troll, dont biteComment by solithaLooks dope, would also be awesome to have a Netherlight Crucible calculator here on wowheadComment by Camberwellare we getting a 4th and 5th relic slot with this? do we put extra relics in it, or just drag relics over from our current weapon?Comment by badaxLooks dope, would also be awesome to have a Netherlight Crucible calculator here on wowheadComment by axeurolFirst of all, why the hell should I think of ways to make the game more fun? They have a full staff of people who are paid for this, and this is what they come up with.

And oh, I have a suggestion: remove AP completely. Relics and the whole artifact tree in itself are pretty fine: they allow to customize your characters (we'll ignore the fact that the customization really doesn't mean anything more than "get an inferior item and grind for a better one, as is designated by theorycraft", because it worked fine for years) and give you some sort of endgame progression. However, the means to acquire those points in the artifact tree (farming AP) is bad. It's just a mindless grind, there's no fun in it.

They have a system with artifact knowledge that is now given to you over time, that same idea could be applied to artifact traits. Basically, instead of getting to farm AP faster every week, you just get a new artifact trait every week. Or every three days, or something like that. Endgame progression, no grind.

But wait, you say, what do I do in the game then, if I only have to log in every X days to get a new trait? Well, that's the thing: if there's nothing else to do in the game other than to grind AP for a new trait, that's kind of a @#$%ty game now, isn't it?

And it's not to say that there isn't stuff to do ingame right now, I'd say there's too much stuff, and the gameplay itself is pretty fun. But the whole AP grind is literally just cancer that makes the whole experience worse without adding any fun to it.Comment by JimbrooksSettle down Axeurol. If you don't like thing that's fine. Move on.Comment by sinangelusI still don't get this obsession with "random" in this expansion... Why not just let us pick whichever shadow or light ability we like the most or matches our character's playstyle?Comment by KeydiamIf I remember correctly only the first tier is active in PvP, right?Comment by DarkAviatorSo, as way too often, they don't listen to negative feedback and go on with something. I simply don't get why they didn't stop at the 2nd row or made the options for the 3rd row variations of those of the 2nd row. That wouldn't lead to those drastic power differences between relics which we'll see in the coming weeks.
This thing is so overcomplicated that they even fail to explain it in their official preview.
It already has me collecting relics which are currently worse than the equipped ones, but which might be better with good 3rd tier options. Why? I'll leave that explanation up to someone who's better at English than me.Comment by SoeroahI like AP, and I like this concept. It's a good way to push our power up without ilevels. Legion's had the most power growth over the last expansion than any other because of the artifacts, which means it's easier to farm older content closer to current than ever before (and also makes Timewalking easier, so hopefully Black Temple TW groups won't suck ass once the Crucible starts adding a bit more power). My only annoyance is having to actually use the tokens, and that I can't imagine us not sliding backward in power unless they bake all artifact traits and stat increases into our characters at level 111.Comment by Gogeta1990Just looking at that picture in the preview should point out why this whole crucible thing is BAD design.

It's a ret pala and on his third tier he rolled:
* Blessing of Protection cooldown reduction
* Shield of Vengeance cooldown reduction
* Zeal critical strike chance increased

These are the THREE WORST traits you could possible roll.

If this was a relic he got on a guild raid group through loot council, guess what?
It'll instantly be vendored because he rolled ^&*!ty tier 3 traits and it's not an upgrade anymore.

The only people who benefit from this are LFR and pug raiders who use personal loot.
Also, people will never trade relics anymore, even if they're not an immediate upgrade.
Because they'll want to take them to the crucible and see if they won the jackpot on the slot machine.Comment by Greensmower1I like AP, and I like this concept. It's a good way to push our power up without ilevels. Legion's had the most power growth over the last expansion than any other because of the artifacts, which means it's easier to farm older content closer to current than ever before (and also makes Timewalking easier, so hopefully Black Temple TW groups won't suck ass once the Crucible starts adding a bit more power). My only annoyance is having to actually use the tokens, and that I can't imagine us not sliding backward in power unless they bake all artifact traits and stat increases into our characters at level 111.Comment by Joker1313Ridiculous design...Comment by SckootsLoot in Legion goes something like this:
"Roll the Bones" until you "Surrender to Madness." Then you die. Horribly. Left lying on the floor with everything you don't need and nothing you actually want.