I’ve been playing WOW for a long time–since 2005-- and while the game as been entertaining, from the beginning I’ve felt that the crafting system could have been better. That’s not to say it’s terrible, it’s just not as “good” as it could have been.
I was encouraged to see that a small fix is coming in Shadowlands. However, an improvement, what’s been revealed will still not give us the basic tools to really improve the current system.
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Why not give players the ability to select the appearance of the final product before they craft it? You can transmogrify things now in BFA if you don’t like the look, but why not allow crafters to select the appearance in the making process? Have a list of standard appearances from which one can choose (doesn’t have to have the appearance of elite objects).
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Allow crafters to change the color of items both current and ones they are making from the original color to one that they choose. I really hate clown costumes–armor/clothing that doesn’t match. If City of Heroes could make a complete color chart for costumes why can’t WOW? This game has 100x the resources and money that COH had.
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Allow crafters to set the secondary attributes of the items…they’re already doing that in Shadowlands but this could be done using the "of the _____ " form by using different materials.
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Fix the logic problems in the system.
–Why can’t you make tailoring items of the same type at the same level? example: Mageweave robes, gloves, belts, heads, boots, legs have a stupidly spread out range in terms of level. By the time you get to your last item of that type, the first item is mostly obsolete. If you’re going to make an outfit of a particular type, have the recipe’s all available at the same skill level.
–Let players set the level of the item they are going to make; and their success dependent on their crafting skill in their profession.
–Let materials determine the color of the item crafted. Cheap common materials create whites, better materials create greens, even better material create blues, and so on. Example: linen / wool = white, silk = green, mageweave+=blue, etc.
–The materials for metal working make little sense. Copper was almost never used for making weapons and armor. The proper progression for weapons should have been: Stone, Bronze, Iron, Steel, Hardened Steel, Damascus Steel, Triple Forged Steel (Tolkien), Mithril, Thorium, etc. Stone was used until Bronze because it held a razor sharp edge and copper dulled quickly and was too soft. Almost no weapons or armor are made of steel in this game. Steel should have been the average material for most weapons and armor…At least for higher level greens.
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Fix the level gaps in the crafting of items.
–Every appropriate level range should contain examples of each item players would use. Example: every 5 to 10 level range should have examples of all the weapon types-- daggers, one-hand swords/maces/axes, two-hand swords/maces/axes, pole arms (spears/halberds/etc.), fist weapons, bows, guns, thrown weapons. You shouldn’t have to wait to level 40 to make a fist weapon or spear.
There’s a lot more that could be done, but I think the above would make a good start at moving things in a better direction.
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There’s a TON of work that needs to be done across most of the professions to make them meaningful or even interesting.
JC / Inscription are downright insipid.
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I’ve been a JC since BC. I’ve seen this profession hits its prime and now be cast to the side as pointless.
Not sure if the OP suggestions are going to do much to enhance the use of professions though. Just because you can specify the qualities doesn’t mean the gear is going to be worth a ton more. Leveling the professions used to mean something, now it’s just a vendor game.
Tarfnae, you are right to an extent about the importance of crafting vs. drops. Crafting should be meaningful. In Classic it is meaningful. In BFA, not so much. I believe the problem is that Blizzard move it’s philosophy of design off in the direction of drops over crafting. This led to an “Arms Race” so to speak. As weapons and armor became more important for endgame progression they by passed what could have been an important inclusion of crafting.
My feeling is that the type of PVP, and Raiding becoming the endgame skewed every other part of the game.
My philosophy is that the gaming experience should be mixed. Not all theme-park and not all open world; but a mix. The theme-park to date has dominated, and that affects end game content. Theme-parks have limited lifespans because as players run through the content, designers must come up with new content. Open worlds have players generating their own content. There are lots of activities that could add interest that way and would extend the useful life of expansions. I would hope that they will get around to some of those design decisions eventually.
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I like the idea of the crafter using dyes, which are already in game, to add a specific color to what ever is being crafted. the issue with this and any other crafting changes is apparently Blizzard has determined that the core of players left, do mythic content and or PvP and rarely, if ever, craft. they just buy what they need period. the crying of unfair by that group saw the removal of buffs for those that did craft or gather. Blizzard evidently felt that losing the rest of their base would be a bad thing after 6? 7? 8? 10? million paying customers quit after LichKing and took their BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR and spent it else where. Blizzard made great headway in making crafting pointless in Legion and took further steps in BFA to make it even more pointless. Who, besides the designers, will buy crafted 370 items when bethnic are 385 and time walking are 410?
NOTHING any of us say in the forums will change their pandering to the PvP-mythic group. Blizzard-Activision didn’t seem to notice or miss the mass quitting and loss of income back then, so they certainly will not notice or miss a couple hundred thousand people quitting over crafting while they pander to what they see as their remaining core audience.
on a side note, stats are so bloated, my mage 450 item avg has solo’d BFA 5 mans and legion raids. My guess is the designers were-are the 98 lb weaklings who have an unconsummated need to be strong and virile and VIOLA! bloated stats so they can over power everything.
second side note: unless you really want to unlock flying, 99% of content is pointless.