Think of the Fragments

Once upon a time, in the far away land known as Azeroth, a Death Knight named Sigil strode into Stormwind wielding a beautiful sword. It was the most beautiful sword that any of the townsfolk had ever seen. The Death Knight was proud, striding through the streets as if she was pretending she didn't have The Epic Sword of Epicness on her back.

"Where did you find that amazing sword?!" asked one of the onlookers.

Sigil stopped and looked at the man who had questioned her, with a smug pride that could not be hidden on her face. A hushed silence fell over the followers who had gathered to stare in awe at the awesomeness.

"Archaeology," was all she said.

And thus the craze was started. Word spread quickly through Stormwind, and once it reached the docks, the whole of Azeroth, and even the dying world of Draenor, began scouring the faces of their worlds for their own epic finds.

But the Titans were angry that the inhabitants of Azeroth were defiling their creations with mining picks and survey equipment, and did everything in their power to hide the loot from the Azerothians. In secret, they removed the magical properties of Archaeology that could lead heroes to a sacred "Path of the Titans," that would allow the heroes to access a direct conduit to a Titan's power.

It became clear that epic loot would not be as easy to find as it has been for Sigil, and the Azerothians turned on her. They sent her angry whispers and demanded to know how many artifacts she had uncovered before this find. They began to jealously resent her and The Epic Sword of Epicness, and all she had ever really wanted was a staff for her Shaman companion, anyway...

Heroes found nothing more than Dwarf baby booties and Troll teeth with dirty gold fillings, they began to give up hope, and blame fell onto the Titans for hiding their creations so craftily. The Azerothians began to write a proposal, to make it clear to the Titans that they had gone one step too far to protect Azeroth.

As Sigil had The Epic Sword of Epicness, she was charged with delivering the proposal to Algalon, the Observer.

Walking cautiously through Ulduar, Sigil could feel the eyes of all the heroes burning into the back of her head as she approached the Celestial Planetarium. Algalon was stood where he had always been stood, frozen in place by the coding imprinted on him by the Titans. He did not move as Sigil approached him, but his eyes followed her as she stood in front of him and his globe.

"A-A... Algalon?" she called out to him, weakly.

He could sense her intimidation, but could not react.

"Stand back mortal. I am not here to fight you".

"Algalon..." she started again. "By order of the... uh, Azerothian Committee for the Repurposement of Archaeology for the Prosperity of the Azerothian Community, or... ACRAPAC, we hereby order you to deliver this proposal to the Titans."

"Your actions are illogical. All possible results for this encounter have been calculated. The Pantheon will receive the Observer's message regardless of outcome."

"Uh... yeah. So, you'll do it?"

She held up the paper to his frozen face and watched his eyes scan the lines.

"I do what I must".

Relieved, Sigil carefully placed the proposal on top of the globe, and slowly backed out of the room.

"Farewell, mortal. Your bravery is admirable, for such a flawed creature."

And with that - the proposal was sent to the Titans for review.


ACRAPAC Proposal

Titans, think of the fragments. 

There are fragments everywhere being found and not being put to any use because there is nothing productive to use them for.

Archaeology does not follow the same logic as any of the other Secondary Professions you have created for Azeroth.

Cooking

Cooking allows you to make consumable items that restore health and mana, and provide temporary buffs, such as increase to Intellect and Stamina. It could probably most closely be compared to Alchemy.

The materials required for Cooking come from killing monsters, or fishing. This means that the profession can be a grind, but it leads to potential uses in all forms of endgame play and even while soloing and levelling. 

Fishing

Fishing provides you with the skill to gather fish and other materials that can be used by other tradeskills. It is most closely compared to a gathering profession such as Skinning or Herbalism.

Fishing is a grind, but you can choose exactly where you want to go. The fish gained can be used in Cooking and Alchemy, whilst at higher levels you can also fish up Elemental items such as Primal, Crystallised and Volatile Water, which can be used by most tradeskills.

First Aid

First Aid gives you the ability to create bandages that you can use to heal yourself. The bandages can only be used once-per-minute, and are interrupted by any damage caused to you while you are using them. 

The material required to make bandages is cloth, gained from killing monsters. Generally this can easily be levelled whilst you are levelling a character from the start of the game, but it can also be power-levelled by buying cloth on the Auction House, or grinding enemies of a level that drop the appropriate cloth.

All of these professions provide sustainable uses that can be utilised while soloing or in a group, whilst levelling or at endgame level.

Archaeology

Archaeology gives you the ability to survey digsites to find artifact fragments. All artifacts provide some kind of background information or "lore", whilst some can be used as high level gear, or vanity items such as pets and mounts.

Archaeology can provide a buff in specific dungeons if you have the correct Runestone to hand. Other than that, it is a grind across all the continents currently available in World of Warcraft in the hopes of discovering a handful of items that are potentially useful.

Archaeology is the only secondary profession that doesn't provide a sustainable use through levelling and endgame content for PvE and PvP players.

Suggestion 

We at ACRAPAC happen to be lore lovers. We find some of the lore fascinating, particularly for dragons (- still waiting on a development in the Nozdormu storyline, just FYI). We want Archaeology to provide some good juicy lore that you can't get from anywhere else. We want it to be making "shocking" discoveries about things in the past we know nothing about, or things about stuff we thought we knew, or even potential hints to future events that have yet to happen.

We think Archaeology has the potential to do that, if you shift the focus of the profession so that it has two modes. 

Survey Mode - This would be the "story" mode of Archaeology. The common artifacts you find are in a set order, or at least, in a more linear direction, and revolve around making a lore discovery related to the race you are working on. 

Excavation Mode - This would be the "crafting" or buff mode of Archaeology. Using fragments that you have discovered, you can make scrolls that provide temporary buffs similar to cooking*. Or that provide one-time-use utility like teleportation*.  

*ACRAPAC realises that these ideas are very similar to items already in game made by cooking or inscription. These are merely examples to illustrate how the system could work, and not expectations of a finished product.

TL;DR for Titans

There is nothing to do with common artifacts other than sell them for gold. Whilst this is being improved in the patch, there are many other more lucrative methods of making gold. These days, gold is very easy to get. 

Once we've found all the artifacts available:

- We are not going to continue doing Archaeology.
- We are not going to follow the logic "let's do Archaeology for that extra 10 gold."
- We are not going to care that Dwarf babies wore booties.

So please, guys. Think of the fragments. Won't someone please think of the fragments?