At the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the third expansion of the title, Blizzard included a new secondary profession titled Archaeology. Using this profession, players would journey to survey sites around Azeroth and excavate for ancient pieces of a bygone age.
As time has moved on, this profession has continued to see a variety of updates, with each expansion adding archaeology sites and new artifacts to the new zones. Using archaeology, players have been able to get some unique lore items as well as a myriad of other rewards.
However, it hasn’t been flawless, and the majority of players have a tendency to overlook the profession. Given that there are few tangible rewards beyond some toys and lore items, with a handful of exceptions, players are quick to discard it.
It seems that Blizzard has decided to do the same. Today, in an interview with Judgehype, production director Patrick Dawson revealed that there would be no updates to the archaeology profession in the upcoming expansion.
This doesn’t mean that archaeology is being removed as a profession! Rather, the zones in the Shadowlands will not be filled with archaeology activities. Previous expansions that have featured the content will still continue to do so, there simply won’t be any additions.
The removal has been met with some mixed reviews, as much of the player base generally ignores the completely optional profession. Whereas primary professions that help to gather and craft sellable and usable items are extremely useful, archaeology serves as more of a side activity.
Because of this, it isn’t a profession that needs balancing like others with craftable items, or one that can negatively affect a realm’s economy like mass-farmed gathering professions can. Serving as something that helps some players and harms none, many are confused as to why it won’t be updated.
It also seems like a massively missed opportunity given that players will be exploring an entirely new and extremely mysterious realm that they haven’t had a chance to visit yet. Archaeology items would pose an excellent glimpse into the timeless realm of death’s lore that we can’t explore through quests.
After the announcement, many fans voiced their displeasure on the forums and pitched a rework instead of ceasing updates. Many seem to be in favor of rehauling the system into a sort of minigame rather than a travel-and-click gathering profession.
Others, however, are perfectly fine with the relatively-low impact the lack of updates will have. Many have even gone far enough as to advocate the removal of the system, as it doesn’t provide a tangible enough accent to gameplay.
