Blizzard
As many of you have noted, Patch 7.2 will be introducing several new traits to Artifact Weapons. I'd like to clarify how these traits will unlock so that you can best prepare for them.
After Patch 7.2 is available, players who have an Artifact Weapon of at least rank 35 will be able to further empower that Artifact through a short quest chain. Completing this quest chain will consume any ranks beyond 35, increase the overall power of your Artifact Weapon (to ensure that losing ranks 35+ isn’t a downgrade), and unlock access to the new 7.2 traits. Any Artifact Power spent on traits beyond 35 will be refunded and you’ll immediately be able to spend that refunded Artifact Power on the new traits.
Note that any Artifact Power tokens acquired before Patch 7.2 will not be usable on an Artifact Weapon that has had its new traits unlocked. If you’ve already reached Rank 54, feel free to use any tokens you earn between now and then on alternate specs; there is no need to stockpile those tokens for Patch 7.2. We’re also planning to apply a hotfix in the near future that will allow the current Artifact Power tokens to be sold to vendors. 