We've all been throwing out ideas on how Archaeology could be improved and expanded probably since beta, but a year late it hasn't changed, improved or grown. Ultimately it's just a giant time-suck grind to keep players mindless clicking away for tchotchkes and in the end it didn't provide a rewarding playing experience. I can't think of another part of WoW's gameplay I've completely given up on and abandoned. I grinded to Professor on my main, most of it done in the first month of Cata in hopes of getting that epic Dwarven staff. After I obtained an equivalent level weapon my desire to continue waned to just casually digging as I tried to finish all the achievements. Though I trained in it on all my alts I haven't spent any time leveling it on them and I still level fishing and cooking on all of them for example! There's just no reward in casually pursuing archaeology and working on it hardcore in that vain attempt to get one of it's most desired rewards takes it to the top of the most grinding activities in game. I've spent thousands of gold on keystones as I tried to complete artifacts in hopes that the next one would be THE ONE! Even the artifact sell value bump a few patches in couldn't make a dent in reimbursing the gold I've invested in Arch. They dropped the level requirements for the sub-level 85 gear items to actually make them better than the heirlooms your alts probably already have and thus worth using for several levels. The fact that this didn't dawn on anyone at Blizzard until months after Cata's release really demonstrates how poorly Arch was initially thought out and implemented. Wow! I got a level 60/70/80 epic... that my heirloom will be better than as soon as I ding another level... Archaeology needs a grand, Darkmoon Faire sized makeover before I go back to digging in the dirt.

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