I know not all people like to go gather the mats for there Crafting Professions and then there are those who prefer just having the gathering Professions. I think I feel even if one is not big into Crafting or big into gathering; would it be a big thing if they were to make Gathering some where between a Main Profession and a Secondary Profession even if we could only choose one of the gathering professions. While were on the topic lets talk skinning; its much like the cloth for Tailoring where where theres a few paterns for otehr professions that require them but there is no gathering profession for Cloth. Cloth Gathering is integrated into Tailoring so why not have Skinning Integrated into LW could even have it where the ‘scraps’ is whats looted much like non-tailors get a reduced cloth drop rate compared to tailors. When it comes Enchanting I know its not a Gathering profession but its like Tailoring in that it doesnt have gathering profession to go with it but its one of those profession that requires other professions to be systainable so in the instance where if we could have 2 Professions plus 1 Gaterhing I think Enchanting should be allowed to be picked up as the Gatehring professions if the toon were to also pick up say Tailoring and LW.
While I would love gathering professions as they are to be baked into their respective crafting professions, I do NOT want to see Skinning end up working like “Northrend Cloth Scavenging”. Tailoring is the only profession that does not have a reliable source of mats. You get a piece of cloth every few mobs verses skinning where you get at least one skin per one kill. If anything, I would either separate out Cloth Scavenging as a separate gathering profession so Tailors can reliably get cloth or fold it into Skinning and allow the “skinning” of humanoid mobs for cloth.
Cloth always ends up being more plentiful than leather as anyone can cloth, but only a few can skin, even though it isn’t a 100% drop chance.
Back at the farm in Pandaria, you could grow crops that would produce leather, cloth or enchanting mats. If only you could use this for newer/older expansion mats, it would somewhat meet the needs of OP’s goal.
I wouldn’t mind baking cloth gathering into the skinning profession, enabling it to feed two professions rather than one. Though I doubt it will happen anytime soon.
However, extra profession slots and free access to gathering has been asked for repeatedly since nearly the start of the game. The reason we are limited to two professions though is part of good game design whereby we have to make a choice (gathering or buying materials from a 3rd party). By allowing every player to have the gathering profession related to their crafting professions, we lose that choice and the consequences of it. We also lose the fact that as a multi-player game, we have to interact with other players.
they rolled the Bandages of First Aid into Tailoring and the First aid pots into alchemy partly due to it becoming an irelavent secondary profession whil still allowing people to craft them if they had the appropriate priamry profession. I wont go as far as to say Skinning itself is irelavent just having it as a profession makes it irrelevant due to LW priamly being the Main Profession that uses the mats. All those who have looked at the Profession Patterns knows that each Profession has Patterns that require mats thats normally used for other professions like BS needing Skins or cloth, or a Tailor needing Skins to craft something from Vanilla or TBA content. I wouldnt even mind if Blizz were to have it where only Tailors can get Cloth since thats the Main Profession that needs them but for those few profession patterns from older content. Granted this would make mats more expensive since then only tailors would get Cloth and LW would be able to skin.
Blizzard said “No”, for the last 14 years. This is one of the longtime dead issues.
I can appreciate this position (“longtime dead issue”), but Blizzard has certainly shown a surprising and recent willingness to reopen such issues - just look at Classic.
I think the profession system in general needs re-examination. I liked Legion’s approach, with the embedded quest lines, but I don’t like them as gating. I like feeling as though there is a story to learning a new culture’s/expansion’s resources and craftables and as though there is a story to your mastery of your profession (and a choice to not master it if you don’t want the hassle).
I look at gathering professions and I wonder if there’s any true value to keeping them separate from the crafting professions they supply. What benefit is there to having “Mining” separate from Blacksmithing? Why shouldn’t it be bundled together?
However, I do see some issues (and some duplication) with gathering professions that supply multiple crafting professions - how would herbing work if it’s feeding both scribes and alchemists? Same skill ranks and quests, or some new elements?
Fundamentally, I like the crafting/gathering distinction from a RPG perspective, but nothing is being truly done with that perspective, so the separation feels cumbersome rather than a “choice that matters.” Maybe when professions offered additional perks (skinning gave crit, mining gave stamina, etc), that could be more effectively argued, but today? Especially after leaving Legion’s model behind? I think I’d rather see mining/smelting rolled into blacksmithing, especially given the treatment of stuff like Demonsteel, Truesteel, Lightning Steel, and Balanced Trillium over the last few expansions.
If you want, you can be independent and leveling mining with blacksmithing (or engineering, jewelcrafting, etc…). No need for a third profession.
If you are looking to make gold, feel free to pick two crafting professions, just understand that it is YOUR choice to do so, and if that choice didn’t matter and wasn’t meaningful, no one would be asking for free gathering professions on top of it.
And of course, you can always just ignore the profession system altogether or pick two gathering professions for when you are bored. Lets face it, Blizzard really dropped the ball with meaningful crafted items in BfA compared to WoD and Legion.
With how Inscription has been gutted by the Removal of things like Glyphs. I think the only thing it really has going for it still are the DMF cards with maybe some small perks here and there. Which to me is almost like how First Aid had become before the profession was removed and the patterns were given to Tailoring or alchemy. IF Inscription has become about as redundant as First Aid did I personaly only see 1 thing that can be done if something isnt added to it to replace the whole Glyph system that I feel was that professions gold maker, which is give all the patterns to Alchemy. If that were to happen then minus well also have Herbalism part of it as well then in which we would only have Mineing left in the game if they were to put Inscription and Herbalism as part of Alchemy and Skinning part of LW.
Glyphs are still in the game even if you choose to ignore them. While the selection in BfA isn’t optimal, Legion glyphs are still extremely profitable.
On the topic of First Aid, I liked how it was handled in Legion, with the random zone quests - but to continue on its own, I think it would have required greater depth as a profession. With potions and soulstones, I just don’t see people using bandages. Heck, outside of feasts for raiding, I rarely see people use cooking buffs. I think the variety (bandages, splints, balms) is nice, but without making them useful/useable… “meh.” First Aid might be better following the model of Legion, where certain skill levels enable you to unlock otherwise-hidden quest opportunities.
Glyphs are in the game, but do acknowledge that they have been radically (some would say ruthlessly) cut back. Whereas armor and weapon crafting professions could have a solid niche of providing leveling gear and reasonably unique transmog, Inscription could have allowed greater cosmetic (and maybe even utility) customization of spells. I think Inscription was over-pruned and that kills a lot of the enthusiasm for it. Ok, Darkmoon Cards… but what else does Inscription offer a player in terms of everyday use or gold-making?
Agree that the scroll picks are just stupid wastes of pigment and the rep scrolls, while an interesting idea, were never going to be all that profitable or useful. Both those categories of crafts are likely the justification for cutting back on new glyphs in BfA despite the numerous un-used ideas for customizations, that should be easily coded in the existing framework.
The only reason I personaly can think of as to prune something as much as Inscription was and barely given anything new for an expansion is to see what the player base really would want when it comes to that profession and see if they be worth investing time into implementing.
I see it as poor planning on Blizzard’s part. They released the expansion before it was ready based on the timing of some suit that has no idea what is involved in making a good game. And it impacts all of the professions, not just inscription.
It is unrealistic for Blizzard to release the amount of glyphs every expansion that were introduced in Legion. Still, 3 druid glyphs at the start of BfA is not a “culling to see what players want”, it is a failure on their part to finish developing the game before launching the expansion.
Alternatively, if you think of BfA as an extension of Legion rather than a stand-alone expansion, then the three new glyphs in 8.0 are really just the 7.4 glyphs we would have seen. The new glyphs in 8.1, the equivalent of 7.5 glpyhs.
The battle scrolls are like flasks, too bad they are not used as much as flasks are. I use them all the time, even when soloing.