We've seen class revamps in the past, but Legion seemed to really went back to the drawing board on a number of specs, introducing new resource systems (and removing some old ones - RIP Demonic Fury) as well as creating a whole lot of new ideas and features through artifact traits.
Each artifact has one activated trait - most get it as the artifact's first trait, while some require you to invest a lot of artifact power (though at this point, and especially after Tuesday, it should be trivial to get to that level of power.)
The traits are variable in coolness and effectiveness, so I figured I'd talk about them here and look at which ones really feel like they ought to become baseline parts of the specs.
I'm not going to go into all the passive traits, except in places where I think they're notable.
We'll look at both how impactful and important they feel to the spec and also how cool they are.
Also, I'm going to stick mainly to specs I'm more familiar with, as I can't comment a lot on how much, say, the Feral Druid's artifact ability affects them.
Death Knights:
Blood: Consumption:
Consumption is odd, in that it is a potentially massive strike/heal that scales very well with the targets it hits, but given that Blood is all about big bursts of self-healing through Death Strike, the feeling of putting your health back up to full fades pretty quickly when you're being swarmed by lots of little dudes. Still, very on brand and has a satisfying animation. Maybe could be reworked to gain lots of Bone Shield charges (something that's tough to maintain when dealing with groups.)
Frost: Sindragosa's Fury:
My only issue here is that I don't think every Frostwyrm-themed ability needs to be named after Sindragosa. This has A+ cool factor, though I'd be willing to see damage go down (or maybe have it deal less to secondary targets) to get this on a 3-minute cooldown. Of course, if there's a built-in cooldown reduction like the artifact gives us, that might be fine. Frost needs a little more undeath in its arsenal, and theming that around Frostwyrms makes a ton of sense.
Unholy: Apocalypse:
This is maybe my favorite artifact ability. Army of the Dead is such an awesome cooldown, but having it only come every ten minutes means you don't get to see it very often. I think they could keep this exactly as it is and I'd be happy with it. Just make it baseline to the spec. (Also, I should mention that the Shambling Horror passive trait should absolutely be at least a talent. Shambling, exploding zombies is exactly what Unholy should be all about.)
Demon Hunters:
Havoc: Fury of the Illidari:
To be honest, this doesn't feel particularly on-theme or all that cool. I think having another baseline 1-minute cooldown ability would be good, but while I appreciate the damage (especially in AoE situations) I think we could stand to lose this in the next expansion without feeling all that bad.
Vengeance: Soul Carver:
This is actually a really good ability that also kind of serves as a bandaid for one of the flaws in the spec: Soul Fragments don't come off very consistently, and as such your Soul Cleave can have wild variation in the degree to which it heals you. Still, if you want to keep the unpredictability but use this to smooth things over when you need it, I say it's a keeper.
Druids:
Balance: New Moon/Half Moon/Full Moon:
While tied pretty strongly to the artifact itself (though not so much that it wouldn't make sense baseline,) the Moon Cycle spells are both super-cool (especially Full Moon) and also really help smooth out the rotation, allowing you to more or less only fire off empowered Solar Wraths and Lunar Strikes. I'd say keep it!
Hunters:
Beast Mastery: Titan's Thunder:
This is really strongly tied to the artifact, and while I personally love having my Dwarf Hunter wielding a titan-themed weapon, it's not terribly on-brand. We could stand to lose it.
Survival: Fury of the Eagle:
I'll confess I haven't played Survival for a while, but the way that this preserves Mongoose Bite stacks and lets you AoE-ize them is a pretty good piece for the kit. Of course, if Survival undergoes any major re-working (given that it's basically a new spec this expansion, I think it's worth doing) we might not really know how it would fit into a new rotation.
Mage:
Arcane: Mark of Aluneth:
While fine as a spell, it's not really all that necessary to the rotation. Giving Arcane some ranged AoE is not a bad idea, but it doesn't have to be this.
Fire: Phoenix Flames:
Getting more on-demand instant-cast crits is not a terrible thing for Fire to have. Is it strictly necessary? No, but I wouldn't mind seeing it stay.
Frost: Ebonbolt:
Giving us a guaranteed way to gain Brain Freeze is fun, though given that your Water Elemental and Frozen Orb can give you guaranteed Fingers of Frost, I don't think this is ultimately necessary. Still, fun to have something that hits hard (though we have Glacial Spike for that.)
Monk:
Brewmaster: Exploding Keg:
Cool factor is very high here. Honestly it works a bit like the old Dizzying Haze (I still remember in the Beta era when it was "Drunken Haze") I think Brewmasters need better ranged-pulling abilities (though I get that Keg Smash has a longer range than it used to,) not that that is what this is here for. Worth keeping, not devastating if we can't.
Paladin:
Retribution: Wake of Ashes:
In terms of cool factor, we're very high here. And having a way to quickly get up to 5 Holy Power is incredibly nice. Is it tied pretty directly to Ashbringer? Yes. Still, would not mind seeing it stick around. (I realize that the 5 Holy Power is actually from a separate passive, but the two elements of the ability are pretty strongly linked in my mind.)
Protection: Eye of Tyr:
As a short cooldown and little burst of AoE damage, it's nice to have. I don't think it's crucial to making the spec work, though.
Priest:
Shadow: Void Torrent:
Having a way to pause the loss of Insanity, especially at high stacks, is very nice to have. I think this would be a perfectly good baseline ability or talent.
Rogue:
Outlaw: Curse of the Dreadblades:
Obviously very artifact-linked, but given the RNG in getting an appropriate Roll the Bones result (incidentally, the 7.2 new passive that gives you a guaranteed two wins on your next Roll the Bones when you use Adrenaline Rush should absolutely become baseline) having a way to cycle through finishers quickly is really good. I love the change from Combat to Outlaw, and I'm totally on board so to speak with a ghost-pirate theme (my Rogues are Undead and Worgen, so spookiness is highly prized for both.)
Subtlety: Goremaw's Bite:
Again, very artifact-linked. I think that it's definitely not a bad idea to make it easier to get some combo points and energy regen, though that could be shuffled into other abilities like Symbols of Death and Shadow Dance.
Shaman:
Enhancement: Doom Winds:
Early on in the expansion, getting Maelstrom was a bit of a problem, and this helped with it. Still, it's not a terribly impactful ability and I'm not sure I'd miss it if it went.
Warlock:
Demonology: Thal'kiel's Consumption:
Obviously very strongly tied to the artifact. Man, I'm going to miss that skull when I move on to other weapons. It's nice to get a big burst of damage and incentivizes getting out as many demons at a time as you can, but I think the spec survives just fine without this.
Warrior:
Arms: Warbreaker:
While the shadowy appearance of this is very strongly tied to the artifact, the idea of applying Colossus Smash to multiple targets is a very obvious thing for Arms Warriors to be able to do. Keep it! (Maybe just changing the color of the spikes to a more earthy brown or grey.)
If you haven't seen your spec here, it's only because I haven't played it enough to really feel like I have something to say about it. Yes, I'm an altoholic (see the name of the blog) but even I have my limits.
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