Equipment crafting professions can be quite intimidating and inconvenient because of the complexity of the crafting process (infusions, missives, embellishments, reagent qualities, etc.) and the back and forth needed between crafter and client. I’ve already had quite a few people simply ghost me after I mention all the things they need to know and what might happen with inspiration and costs, probably because they feel it might just be too complicated.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like the new profession system, as it brings some much needed diverstity in an 18-year old crafting process, I just think that the interactions between players for crafting orders and such definitely need to be streamlined.
Here is my (probably way too specific) idea for a rework of the existing system, so buckle up:
- Make most (if not all) epic-quality gear items BoE and auctionable.
- Give the buyer, instead of the crafter, the ability to put optional materials in their crafted gear.
- Add an “upgrade potential” property to crafted gear that quantifies the amount and power of optional materials that it can receive post-craft.
First, by making crafted gear BoE, not totally unlike the way they were in previous expansions, crafters would have an easier time putting their product on the market. This would fix one of the main issues with the current system by allowing people to actually sell their stuff, and not having to wait for someone to request your services. My main concern with this idea, however, would be Primal Chaos and Spark of Ingenuity costs of crafting, which I assume could be linked to the crafter as an effort to limit bloat on the auction house.
Now, you might ask yourself: how would such a system not be pay-to-win, with people having the ability to simply buy their way out of grinding - and deserving - high level gear? This is where my 2nd and 3rd points come in.
My concept for an Upgrade Potential system would be the answer. Like in the current iteration of crafting, equipment recipes would have a crafting difficulty, which could be considered as the “baseline” for that piece at a given quality. Crafting an item at a higher skill level (from the crafter’s specialization, tools and materials, just like how it works currently) than the item’s baseline, would grant it a higher Upgrade Potential that could be shown on the item’s tooltip. From there, any player getting their hands on the item would “socket” their hard earned optional materials into the item as long as the item in question has enough Upgrade Potential for the total value of the optional materials. One would simply aquire a piece of gear with enough potential to fit all of their chosen optional materials. Applying any of these would bind the piece of gear to the user, of course.
I know this probably seems a bit complicated, so here’s an example:
I craft a Primal Molten Greataxe (300 Difficulty) with 280 Skill (when factoring in my skill and materials, of course) and I get an Inspiration proc (let’s say, +60), so the resulting item would be 5-star (280 + 60 = 340 > 300). With a 300 baseline at 5-star and a crafted skill of 340, my Primal Molten Greataxe would have 340 - 300 = 40 Upgrade Potential. Next, someone buys my item, and can now fit up to +40 worth of optional materials into it. In this case they could slot in a 3-star Missive (+15) and a 3-star Blue Silken Lining embellishment (+25), or even opt into using their Primal Infusion (+30), but without any other materials, as the remaining 10 Upgrade Potential would be too low to afford it. With this logic, different items with different Upgrade Potential would fill the auction house (or even trade chat), and buyers would buy whatever fits their needs.
All of this would also apply to items crafted at lower qualities, their baseline would simply match the skill level at which that quality is guaranteed. For example, a 4-star Primal Molten Greataxe would have a 239 baseline, which is its current threshold for a guaranteed 4-star craft. Crafting it at, let’s say, 299 skill (and thus failing the 5-star) would actually grant it 299 - 239 = 60 Upgrade potential. This would be equivalent to crafting an item in the current version of the game with too many optional materials for the crafter’s skill, which would also result in a lower quality item.
Recrafting orders could still complement this system by allowing crafters to simply update an item’s Upgrade Potential as an alternative to directly buying a new, higher potential one, on the auction house.
All in all, the interaction between crafter and buyer would be limited to the crafting of the base item of variable Ugrade Potential, which would simplify it greatly, while keeping the customization aspect of optional materials. The current complexity of it would become the responsability of the buyer instead of the crafter. Crafting orders as they are could also stay in the game, their main purpose being to allow the use of the client’s soulbound meterials specifically, so that non-crafters can, just like in the current version, use them on the gear they order. Alternatively, if making crafted epic items BoE would be too drastic, it could remain a Crafting Order exclusive, but with the mechanics mentioned above.
To be honest, this is idea is probably way too specific to be fully considered as an actual update, but I just thought I would post it here since it came to my mind.