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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Could transmogrification save archaeology?
by Matt Clerico 
Nov 18th 2011 at 8:00AM
Ah, archaeology -- a secondary profession with so much potential in theory, and the mind-numbing death of many hours of playtime in reality. I was originally really excited about a global scavenger hunt as a downtime activity, but after skilling it up, I lost interest. Piecing together tons of vendor trash in the hopes of my next find's being a rare became just another grind for items.
Now that the Cataclysm expansion is winding down, I've been thinking about where archaeology could grow from here. Certainly there will be more toy-type items and account-bound epic gear to chase after, but what else could this profession bring to the game?
It occurred to me that with the coming of the transmogrification feature, digging around Azeroth could be made interesting again. Instead of adding a number of gray-quality artifacts to sell for pocket money, why not have the common finds be transmoggable art pieces? Think gray-quality versions of gear, good only for costume unlocks. What better way to bring old stuff back to the present than by having us literally dig it up? It could work as an avenue to bring back discontinued tier looks (imagine digging in Eastern Plaguelands for pieces of original Naxxramas raid gear) or even open up items that never were before available to players (like a giant totem skin for two-handed maces, so you can look like a tauren warrior from Warcraft III)!
Where else do you think archaeology could go? What do you think we could be digging up in the next expansion?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Nina Katarina Nov 18th 2011 10:43AM
You could also put in stuff that gives minor rep gains for some of the older reputations. Nothing near what completing AQ20 or AQ40 or Molten Core, but enough that people working on obscure older reputations might sink a day or so into archeology now or then.
Or make the Reliquary/Explorer's League actual reputation grinds.
Eyhk Nov 18th 2011 1:51PM
It's all a good idea until you actually go out trying to complete your set, but Blizz's Laws and Algorithms of RNG dictates that you will get every single other gray item multiple times until you tear your hair out and then some, and when you are just at the point where you couldn't care less it will finally drop. Any good idea needs to be coupled with a complete redo of how Archaeology works.
Orrdeath Nov 18th 2011 8:28AM
I really like archeology, I don't care if I get epics to do it or not. I think it has a fishing feel. Its an excuse to get out into the world and enjoy the changes that were made with cata. Really take in all that little stuff that gives the game life. Like a house in the middle of nowhere with some npc's just hanging out.
The best thing I got in archeology is the valkyr drinking horn. Or the one that turns you into amber.
I feels it's more about the experience than the end reward of a few epics that will be replaced in a patch. I wish there was more writes story on each item. Like when doing the well read achivment. Those books will tell you the story of Azeroth if you care to take the time to read them.
Orrdeath Nov 18th 2011 8:31AM
Written stories**** (it's early)
Zaet Nov 18th 2011 8:32AM
I wish u could turn in gray items to the Reliquary or exploreres league for currency, and then change that currency for blue and purple arqueolgy items.
DeathPaladin Nov 18th 2011 8:35AM
While Archeology could benefit from more rewards, what it needs more is a revamp of how it works.
I'm personally okay with how the profession works once you are at the dig site, but it needs some changes on how those sites spawn at the very least.
For example, it's nice that there is a much smaller chance of getting sites of a certain race once you collect all the rares. But that's little comfort when you are in a situation where you are missing, for example, Tyrande's Doll for NE, the Turtle Shell for Fossil, Zim'rokh for Troll, the Staff of Thaurissan for Dwarves, and numerous Tol'vir rares, which results in dig site spawning still being completely random because you are unable to focus enough on a race to speed up getting that last rare.
There also needs to be retooling of where the sites spawn. If preference is given towards other nearby dig sites, there would be a smoother progression with less travel time. Imagine if you could reasonably expect to go from Thandol Span to Greenwarden Grove to Dunwald Ruins to Ironband's Excavation to Uldaman in one stretch, instead of Zul'Mashar to Twilight Grove to Ruins of Thaurissan to Gurubashi Arena to Felstone Field.
Noyou Nov 18th 2011 10:17AM
Yep. They need to take out the random factor to the digsites. I think if they just make it where you get 3-6 artifacts per zone per day, that way you could just go and work every zone. Maybe they could do a reset, once you hit every zone on one continent, it could restart again. The other thing is maybe make a vendor where you can trade artifacts of one race and get another. like on a 2-1 or 3-1 exchange rate. I think if they do those 2 things, it will help things be less grindy and less random.
Gendou Nov 18th 2011 8:36AM
Archaeology is Inception-levels deep of frustrating the way it is currently set up.
On the first level, there are the random locations of the digsites, along with the random number of fragments gained from each digsite. This first level parallels the other time-consuming and frustrating profession, fishing, in having random spawn locations (much like pools) - however, Archaeology compounds this by having the 'pools' spawn in different zones, sometimes requiring a several minutes of travel time to get to the next 'pool.'
At the second level, there are the random rewards. You might be working toward a shiny epic caster ring or a rare mount, or you might be working toward another 5g gray item. You have no control whatsoever over what your reward is for the hours you spend working on Archaeology. This second level parallels the randomness of certain rewards like the turtle mount, or the rat pet, or the magical crawdad pet.
At the third level, there are the random types of digsites. You might be working toward a Fossil reward and get twelve or more Night Elf digsites in a row. This becomes ridiculously compounded when working on Tol'vir rewards, as your chances of getting one of the required digsites is significantly lower than any other type of digsite. There is nothing in any profession that parallels this third level of frustration. At this point, we've gone three levels of frustration deep.
And for alchemists trying for a particular recipe that exists only in a particular urn from a particular kind of digsite, well... you just got lost in limbo. Sorry.
Helston Nov 18th 2011 8:58AM
You DID max out archaeology on your toon with alchemy and not any of your other toons, right?
Gendou Nov 18th 2011 9:18AM
@Helston: I have Archaeology maxed out on my druid alchemist (525, all but one achievement).
I have also partially leveled it on my shaman alchemist, as well as on my death knight. In both cases I gave up early on in the grind because of the frustration and the lack of a workable goal that wouldn't be better and more easily achieved on my druid.
I am currently working on leveling Archaeology again on my priest because I want the pets for the pet achievement, which is an achievable goal, albeit a time-consuming one.
Gendou Nov 18th 2011 9:20AM
@Helston: I have Archaeology maxed out on my druid alchemist (525, all but one achievement).
I have also partially leveled it on my shaman alchemist, as well as on my death knight. In both cases I gave up early on in the grind because of the frustration and the lack of a workable goal that wouldn't be better and more easily achieved on my druid.
I am currently working on leveling Archaeology again on my priest because I want the pets for the pet achievement, which is an achievable goal, albeit a time-consuming one.
Luke Nov 18th 2011 9:54AM
Yeah I'm still hunting for that blasted Vial Of The Sands.
Sometimes, RNG sucks.
Ice Nov 18th 2011 10:46AM
THIS is the reason why I dont want archeology to "get better rewards" unless its total revamp of the system...
I really would hate if all cool looking items would be "archaeology only" like lets say Sentinel glaives.
At the same time I want arch to be better and it to evolve..
but then again I dont because of the major FLAWS it has. Yes the desinged features became flaws to me. Rng on top of rng with spice of rng is just annoying.
Unless its actually desinged better so that each "race" has cool looking item set thats not super rng to get..then sure. I would love to look like Night elf Sentinel from WC3 or heck..warden.
Amaxe Nov 18th 2011 11:16AM
I did it on my main (who is not an alchemist).
Of course I've only seen one canopic jar anyway so odds are good I wouldn't have got it.
But this shows another stupid point with Archy. It is only meaningful for one profession to level the skill (which I did not know at the time). It would be better to take the BOP off the recipe, but make it like the other epics: that you can only get it once. Or it could be good to add other recipes for other professions
Luke Nov 18th 2011 2:38PM
I think there may be a solution in here, and Amaxe brought it to light.
What if every archeology race had something similar to canopic jars, and those jars or buried treasures or what have you could contain a random interesting profession recipe or other item that's bind on equip (or at the very least boa for Elune's sake)? This would take some of the soul sucking out of the RNG by giving us more chances to find something useful.
Daedalus Nov 18th 2011 8:43AM
I love this suggestion; it sounds like just the thing archaeology needs.
I don't think the gear should replace grays, though. However, it does seem like this could fill in something archaeology really seems to be missing: something that's rarer than grays but not as rare as blues and purples.
Plus, if you make them BoE, you could add something else archaeology is missing: a potential revenue stream. (It kinda has this now, with some of the races' fragments, but it could use something else...)
Flaminturkey Nov 18th 2011 8:47AM
Of all the nitpicks I have about Cataclysm (which has been my least favorite of the expansions by far), the letdown of archaeology has been the worst I think. I was excited about it initially, and saw great potential for keeping the game interesting. The items and lore are quite awesome, but.. the sheer grind and need to spend more time flying between dig sites than digging made me unable to stomach leveling it up all the way. Fishing was always dull, but not tedious, and kept a pretty good pacing of reward, however small. Archaeology, however, requires far too much travel time for a relatively casual player, and just really missed the mark for me.
thawedtheorc Nov 18th 2011 9:01AM
I believe you are on to an excellent idea. The pieces could just be ancient yet unique.
My only complaint about it, as you said, there are way too many gray items. I believe I am on my 6th one in a row on one toon. UGGG
razion Nov 18th 2011 9:07AM
To me, the reward is not the problem that archaeology has--it's the traveling. It certainly isn't locating the node pieces or combining pieces or even the RNG of finding nothing--all of that I've dealt with before in other incarnations of the game, and they're things I'm used to (and to some degree, even expect). But no, it isn't really the 'traveling' so much as *how much you have to do it*. It's fine if I dig through Darkshore and then hop to southern Silithus. But it isn't so cool when my next dig is back in Darkshore. And then in Tanaris. And then in Eastern Plaguelands. And then Westfall. And then back in Darkshore. And then once again in Silithus.
For me, if time spent traveling is greater than time spent surveying, I just can't be bothered. I'd rather delete my main professions and level two crafting professions several times over before I resort to the prior.
They can give me any incentive in the world that they can try to, but I will not be touching it until they can convince me it is an activity I will do for the sake of doing it.
Fishing I like--because fishing I can sit around and sort of meditate with. But all the traveling it requires seems to suck all of the zen out of it for me.
I'm sorry archaeology, I want to love you and I want this to work, but you have to change if you want this to go all the way... to 525.
MattKrotzer Nov 18th 2011 9:39AM
I keep hoping they'll follow through on the idea they mentioned about allowing people to focus on a specific type of archaeology, which would limit the travel.