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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 4 of 4)
Blazing Rain Nov 18th 2011 12:13PM
The title of this article infers that archaeology is dead which, for my own experience, is woefully false. Could transmog make archaeology more popular? Of course, but archaeology is by no means dead.
Eyhk Nov 18th 2011 1:56PM
If it's not dead yet, can I kick it in the noggin with steel-toed boots repeatedly until it stays really really still, just to make sure?
Al Nov 18th 2011 3:03PM
If you don't, Eyhk, I will. I imagine there would be others willing to help.
Amaxe Nov 18th 2011 9:30PM
It's not dead yet...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGFXGwHsD_A&noredirect=1
Ominous Nov 18th 2011 12:49PM
Archaeology doesn't need saving.
It's a niche activity and fine as it is.
None of the items are game-breakers, but some of them are pretty cool.
There's no need for everything in the game to be important.
Such a massive game, designed that way, would be exhausting.
I like that I can work towards a few fun items, in down-time.
Improvements can always be made, however, and they'll be welcomed.
Blayze Nov 18th 2011 1:58PM
Archaeology isn't fun. It doesn't make me want to do it--it makes me want to *avoid* it, which means it's worse than if it just didn't exist.
Jestin Nov 18th 2011 1:00PM
What about making it more like inscription? We have tons of characters around the world from the Explorer's League and the Reliquary who are ostensibly digging for old artifacts. Why not include more specific archaeology-based quest lines where you have to find artifacts and then decide whether or not to get these organizations involved?
I don't know that another rep is the right way to go, but it would certainly add more depth than the tedious travel time and random distribution of dig sites. Plus, I know I'd like to see more fleshed out from each of these opposing archaeological pseudo-factions.
Blayze Nov 18th 2011 1:54PM
Archaeology needs either (a) a stacking chance to get a rare that increases every time you don't get one and/or (b) digsites for a given race completely *stop* spawning once you've completed all its artefacts at least once.
Preferably both.
lolikitty Nov 18th 2011 3:06PM
They said they had sort of fixed that right? Right. I have discovered all NE artifacts, and seeing 4 spots on my map makes me sad.
Blayze Nov 18th 2011 3:29PM
From what I've read, it's based on percentages.
Say the number of digsites for finished races goes down by 50%. Now look at how many Night Elf digsites there are on Kalimdor. Now back at me. Now look at the number of Tol'vir digsites.
Philster043 Nov 18th 2011 6:44PM
I initially avoided leveling my archaeology, seeing it as something I'd only want to do when I was extremely bored. I was right. I only just maxed out my main's archaeology which took about two weeks (during the Hallow's End event, when I was able to instanteously mount a broom to move from one spot to another more quickly).
I was happy at the end of my grind because I was able to get the fossilized raptor pet and fossilized raptor mount while leveling archaeology, and honestly, that's all I was shooting for - I didn't care enough about the rest. I've only touched my shovel again when I happened to be close to a digsite. Which happens often enough anyway.
I'm not sure that including transmogrification content will be enough to persuade me to come back to archaeology. I DID appreciate the neat gimmicky items that were fun to play around with (would've liked it more if they had bit of a longer duration, though) but again, I wouldn't actively grind out archaeology unless I had more of an incentive.
3 ways to improve Archaeology:
1) More digsites closer in proximity to each other to complete any given project. It makes no sense that fragments of any given Troll artifact would be in Stranglethorn and the missing parts are in the Hinterlands, anyway.
2) The ability to disregard a current archaeology project (would mean abandoning the fragments of the item you already found, and returning to 0 fragments so it would mean a digsite you just came to was for naught, and it'd also mean a random reshuffling of the digsites on the map - but I'd still prefer it to having to work on two or three more digsites for nothing I really wanted.)
3) More "excitement" in perhaps being confronted by angry Reliquary/Explorer's League members at the digsite. Maybe it'd be considered an annoyance by some, but it might help break the monotony of the task at hand. Plus maybe they'd be carrying more fragments that you need for the project, making it feel more worthwhile to kick their butts. They would be always be at the same level your character is - though you'll likely still be able to handle them without a problem.
It'd still be RNG-driven, it'd just feel considerably less tedious.
tulipblossom Nov 18th 2011 8:50PM
At first, I wasn't too keen on the idea of having more angry reliquary type mobs attack you, when you went to prospect a site. I totally agree that it would break up the monotony, but I feel like it would most likely annoy a lot of folks, even still. But, then you mentioned that they could actually drop fragments, in return. And, that sounds like a terrific idea, actually. It would definitely spice things up and give an incentive to be cool with that sort of thing, for those that might've been uppity about the idea. I think that's a great idea.
Also, I love your suggestion that we be able to disregard current projects and even shuffle around the sites on the map. I have this problem the most with Tol'vir and Night Elf sites. I understand that the Tol'vir ones are meant to be more rare, but it's pretty draining when you can spend hours doing so many night elf sites in a row, get one Tol'vir site to pop, and then bam, twenty more night elf ones. :(
So, being able to shuffle the sites around on the map sounds like a fantastic idea to me.
Philster043 Nov 18th 2011 10:04PM
I think Blizzard would unfortunately see my solution as making it a bit too easy for Tol'vir sites to pop. I think they intend for these to seem more "rare." So if they were to incorporate my ideas, I think they'd still make it so that only the certain race's digsites that you had just abandoned would be reshuffled.
But I'll take it - if we can at least make the current project feel more worthwhile it'd still be worth it in my opinion.
tulipblossom Nov 18th 2011 8:02PM
What a terrific idea! I love the thought of digging up transmog gear, as a way to liven up Archaeology. I still love archaeology just as it is, mind you. But, I certainly wouldn't mind a little added spice and this would tie in so perfectly with transmogrification, plus, I really do think that some people who shy away from Arch right now, would think the grind a bit more worth it, with such a change.
I'd love the Malefic Set from Hyjal Summit, but if I had the opportunity to farm pieces, even recolored pieces, through archaeology, too, that would be fantastic. I could either run the raid with some friends or if I don't feel like doing that, I could focus on the arch grind.
I think that Archaeology is a really promising profession. I can see it changing and tons of new ideas being added, in the future. And, I can't wait to see what we'll all dig up in Pandaria!
I haven't had a chance to read through all the comments, so I apologize up front if anyone else has mentioned this idea, but I think it wouldn't hurt if along with our grey items, we were also able to dig up some gems. Even if they were sort of rare, it would just be a little more fun if instead of a grey item worth 20g, we could also occasionally dig up a nice gem to either sell or have cut for our gear. Nothing that would put miners and JCs out of business, of course. But, just a nice incentive for those archs out there who spend all their time digging.
Also, I hope that we'll see an influx of new pets come MoP, for Archaeology. I'd love to see pets and mounts, actually. Those are some of the items that really drive me to keep digging and I'm sure it's the same for many others.
dctaylor13 Nov 19th 2011 1:30AM
I like it as downtime, but it DOES have the potential to be awesome. A couple of suggestions from this Professor:
1) I hate the mounting and dismounting at a digsite. Once I fly about the site to find where I can dig up an artifact, make the others no further than yellow. It's fun to run around a bit and see things, not so fun hopscotching around.
2) You don't have to increase the RNG, but once you get a rare that's BOP, let it come around again as a BOE! That would sure increase my enthusiasm for Arch~
zazumel Nov 20th 2011 1:44AM
Great idea! I think Blizz should think about replacing a dud like Jon LeCraft, the guy currently in charge of professions, and hiring YOU! Professions in general have been lackluster for quite a while now.....we need new ideas like this in the game.
RavenJet Nov 21st 2011 2:50AM
What I hated most about archeology was the extreme randomness. The original theory - it would give items that while not BiS was close enough that it should not be unusual to see somebody wielding one in an top-end raid... that was perfect, but the execution utterly failed to achieve that.
Take staffs, there are two major staffs available from archeology, both ilevel 359 (which was pretty good and even now is not that bad if you have nothing bad). The dwarf one being a caster staff, the uldum one being a healer staff. I spent months trying to farm that caster staff for my lock... I gave up, then I got the uldum one on my first dig in the zone !
After reforging the spirit to crit it became my weapon for quite some time until I replaced it with a masterwork elementium spellblade + offhand.
Mind you - I miss the days when the best spellpower enchants were on staffs giving them just enough of a bonus to make staff-wielding the weapon of choice for casters. I always did prefer staffs.
The thing is though - that randomness made it a useless grind. If I'd gotten the caster staff I would have been ecstatic, now just a few levels later that uldum staff is a relic lying in my bank - the only time I use it is occasionally for battlegrounds just to enjoy the whispers "where did you get that awesome looking staff I've never heard off !"
Meantime I kept my frostscythe despite it being the worst geared holiday item in history just so I can transmog my next staff (whenever it may come) to actually look good.