The Heart of Azeroth and the Promise of Tri-Spec

In Legion, dual-specs were rendered obsolete, as we can now freely switch specs any time we're out of combat.

While in theory that means switching specs is very easy - and even easier with the elimination of Spirit and Bonus Armor, so that tanks and healers can use DPS gear - two factors stood in the way.

Artifact Weapons were one, though I think these were less of a barrier. Artifact Knowledge and the exponential math behind artifact traits mean that it's not terribly difficult to get a souped-up artifact weapon. You really just need to worry about getting the right relics. In that case, you will need to do some farming, though getting in the 890-ish range is pretty easy with Argus world quests.

The bigger issue, I think, is Legendary items. These come so rarely that even getting the ones you want for your main spec is pretty difficult (my Subtlety Rogue lucked out, getting his two best as drops 2 and 3, but my other characters have not been so lucky.) Not only does it take ages to catch up on off-spec legendaries, but you'll also feel disinclined to change your loot spec to another spec (to get, for example, good relics) lest you accidentally get a legendary on the wrong spec (while he's gone back to Guardian, my Druid was playing Balance for a long time with a pair of Guardian pants.)

The Heart of Azeroth looks like it might be a replacement for both the Artifact system and the Legendary system. You'll have this necklace that levels up, and it will grant you new traits for pieces of armor that you pick up.

We haven't heard every detail about it (I imagine it's a work in progress) but while a Concordance of the Legionfall-style grind doesn't sound terribly exciting, what appeals to me is the notion that it might be very easy to swap specs again, as you'll just be leveling up one item for all three (or four or two, if you're a druid or demon hunter respectively) specs.

So I imagine that you'll still need to get new weapons and trinkets appropriate to your spec, but that might be it. Mages and Warlocks will probably be able to go back to using just one set of gear for any spec. Blood and Unholy Death Knights might only need to use separate trinkets.

I'm eager to know more about this system, but we'll have to wait and see.

The Q&A is this evening, which is probably the last time at Blizzcon we're going to be hearing much about the new expansion.

No word yet on testing  - this is actually the first time since Mists that an expansion was announced before the final raid of the previous expansion came out, so we've still got a pretty significant chunk of Legion to go.

Still, the hype is real. Now we just have to wait roughly a year...