wow Netherlight Crucible (Official Preview)

[Stan 5,022]

Blizzard has shared additional information about how the Netherlight Crucible works to clear up some of the confusion caused after yesterday's developer Q/A.

Patch 7.3 introduces a new way to customize your relics called the Netherlight Crucible. Each relic will have three tiers of talents. We made a detailed preview of the Netherlight Crucible here, where we show off pathing and all the different talents you can get. Unlocking slots is gated behind Artifact level that you increase by spending Artifact points. In Patch 7.3, all players will start at Artifact Knowledge level 41 and gain 1 level per week automatically without any research.

Blizzard (Source)

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 Ashbringerrelic 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!

[Matthyas 1]

So are the choices for row 3 traits still random on what you get or can you always select the trait you want for that row?

[Luchen 1]

3 hours ago, Matthyas said:

So are the choices for row 3 traits still random on what you get or can you always select the trait you want for that row?

"...your odds of having your favorite trait appear on a Relic you'd otherwise have discarded are actually pretty decent"
I think your question is answered here. Seems random.

[Tacos 0]

I can already see this having one major problem, everyone will be rolling on every single relic now.

[Zadina 923]

I still haven't 100% understood how it works, but I guess it's one of the mechanics that are completely simple when you see them ingame (just like Artifact Power and Knowledge seemed complicated before Legion launched).

Still, I see the usual Legion problem: you have to keep one Artifact high, thus making it more difficult to change spec or change class if Blizzard decides that they don't like your spec/class anymore. 

I also agree with what Tacos said. Getting a relic you already have and not giving it to a guildie, who might need it, just because you want to have better RNG in the relic reforge.

[Stan 5,022]

7 hours ago, Matthyas said:

So are the choices for row 3 traits still random on what you get or can you always select the trait you want for that row?

The choices for row 3 are random. It can be any Artifact trait that has more than one rank, with the exception of the one that's on the relic already.

Here I have a relic that has Weapons of the Elements. This means that Weapons of the Elements will never be present in row 3 of this specific relic. However, this doesn't mean it can't be in row 3 of the second or third relic (but only when they do not empower Weapons of the Elements like this one does. You can have the same traits in row 3. For example I have Wind Strikes on my second and third relic. But neither of those previously had Wind Strikes on them. 

You may also be confused about the Artifact level requirements for unlocking the rows/slots, so I try to explain a bit. Each row has a separate Artifact level requirement with the exception of the first one. Instead of unlocking Relic 1 Row 2 > Relic 1 Row 3, Relic 2 Row 2 > Relic 3 Row 3, it will be like this:

Relic 1 Row 2 > Relic 2 Row 2 > Relic 3 Row 2 > Relic 1 Row 3 > Relic 2 Row 3 > Relic 3 Row 3.

• Relic 1
  • Row 1 - Immediately after you unlock the Crucible
  • Row 2 - Artifact level 60
  • Row 3 - Artifact level 69
• Relic 2
  • Row 1 - Immediately after you unlock the Crucible
  • Row 2 - Artifact level 63
  • Row 3 - Artifact level 72
• Relic 3
  • Row 1 - Immediately after you unlock the Crucible
  • Row 2 - Artifact level 66
  • Row 3 - Artifact level 75

The first row is unlocked immediately, so once you have access to the Crucible, you can increase the ilvl of your Artifact by +15 ilvls Netherlight Fortification (+5 per relic *3, the effect stacks).

[Valks 2,373]

1 hour ago, Tacos said:

I can already see this having one major problem, everyone will be rolling on every single relic now.

Loot councils will have fun now!

[Bobbis 208]

5 hours ago, Blainie said:

Loot councils will have fun now!

Yay mine will take even longer than it already does...

[Valks 2,373]

22 hours ago, Bobbis said:

Yay mine will take even longer than it already does...

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse!