Artifact is the highest level of item quality in World of Warcraft, above Legendary. Before World of Warcraft: Legion, artifacts were only speculated about, as no such items had ever been available to players in the released game to that point.
Legion artifacts[]
- Main article: Artifact
Artifacts are a special type of weapon introduced in World of Warcraft: Legion, and the only weapons players would wield over the course of the expansion.
Players can acquire these new weapons early in the expansion's run, and the weapons grow in power alongside them. Artifact Power can be earned by engaging in most types of play, and can be spent to unlock a unique tree of traits, enhancing abilities. Players can also obtain relics and use these to upgrade the artifact itself. Artifacts also come with an extensive range of visual customization options.
There is an artifact for each class specialization, 36 in total, plus an additional one for 
Fishing. Obtaining each artifact involves a unique questline to seek out these powerful weapons.
With the release of patch 8.0.1, the artifact weapons can continue to be used as normal weapons, but all traits added to the weapons were "burned away" and disabled.
Pre-Legion artifacts[]
Prior to Legion, artifact was the item quality above legendary. Though none of these items were obtainable, a handful did exist in the game files (primarily as GM gear). They used the color gold to denote their quality; this color was later reused when heirlooms were introduced. This caused a few interesting issues where some references to artifacts had not been removed. For instance, trying to mail an heirloom to a character on another account would return the error message, "Artifacts can only be mailed to your own characters."
- Artifacts couldn't be obtained by players and couldn't normally be linked.
- Prior to World of Warcraft's initial release, artifacts were planned to use the color red.[1][2]
- According to an older version of the Item Basics page on the WoW website, the names of Artifact-quality items were planned to appear in red. A listing for Artifacts no longer appears on this page, however the red-linked version still exists in archive form under the dates Jul 15, 2005 through Jun 15, 2007.
- The web color code for artifact itemlinks was #e6cc80.
Blizzard statements[]
Re: Artifact? | 2007-10-15 14:26 | 
Eyonix
Re: Legendary and Artifacts | 2006-09-30 17:56 | Tseric
Perhaps when the level cap gets a little higher and that next step in itemization is needed.
List of artifact items[]
[Martin Thunder], weapon
[Martin Fury], shirt
[Alex's Ring of Audacity], ring
[The Twin Blades of Azzinoth], artifact single item version of set. Not to be confused with the player obtainable [The Twin Blades of Azzinoth].
- [Warglaive of Azzinoth (Left)], weapon
- [Warglaive of Azzinoth (Right)], weapon
- [Tigole's Trashbringer], weapon
- [Frostmourne], weapon
- [Remornia], quest item
References[]
- ^ Eyonix 2007-10-15. Artifact?. Archived from the original on 2007-10-15. Retrieved on 2009-06-14.
- ^ WoW website web archive Jul 15, 2005 through Jun 15, 2007.
