Is this really how to fix professions?

Community General Discussion
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I’m looking at the list of changes coming next. As a longtime blacksmith (I know, weep for me), we get a hammer that repairs one item of gear on a 1-hour CD and has a chance to proc “Indestructible” when making gear.

My take: Keep the hammer, Blizz.

This will be the first xpac I don’t max out both professions on this toon, and that goes back to when I first walked in the game many moons ago. The grind that now accompanies crafting professions (or the expense to bypass them) has made them jokes, really. With the amount of work it takes to max-level a crafting spec, we should be crafting BiS or near-BiS pieces, not things we out-level on the first raid tier. Or, make things cheap as hell to learn/make and have them simply be a transmog/alt-gearing solution. As for the Indestructible proc, that may end up being 1-2 pieces of gear in a set, tops, and you still have to repair everything. If you want to make this useful, let the blacksmith repair all of his own gear, for free, on a one hour CD with that thing.

Either way, I’m kind of done with it. There is some kind of meta going on here where any convenience item is either removed or becomes an _in_convenience item. There is flying, and now there are portals.

You know it’s bad when BlizzardWatch is openly slamming the game multiple times a week. Probably because, if I had to guess, their staff writers are like us – getting older, less free time to burn doing boring tasks over and over in a game that is supposed to entertain.

I don’t know how to fix professions beyond what I just wrote. Same things others have suggested, and Blizzard is determined to go in a different direction. It is what it is.

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The engineering helmet is BIS for both my DH and warrior for any fight that’s not pure patchwork. You can craft them up to ilvl 415.

The new items coming out aren’t exactly exciting but the professions are already as good as they should be.

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Get another corehound pattern drop like in NH with a different color and bam, Blacksmiths everywhere.

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Feel like you are better off with gathering professions this time around. In Legion bags, enchants, potions were good gear didn’t feel like it was worth it most of the time. Bad as WOD was at least you could make some nice epics and even use them at 91.

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Being able to make 415 gear isn’t good enough?

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This is what happens when a lawyer who has never done professions decides he has fresh, new ideas to make crafting useful to wannabe mythic raiders who don’t know anybetter.

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I will assume its RNG from higher dungeon/raid for mats

Not all do this for a start. Legion and prior at least did not cut off the non raid crowd. Some stuff like primal sargerite was even a mission table reward.

If like other high ends the stats may suck from RNG. the concept of its not the ilevel its the stats is not dead. I have chars I have turned down a +10 upgrade. Crap secondaries.

It also took months of complaining to get this. For some they “fixed” this after many have left the professions lol. Lots went gathering.

And many thinking long term have fears of 9.0. And this all being repeated.

Why many I am sure are eyeing alchemy if not there already. Alchemy is the one profession they cannot break. they can’t…they need the flasks to flow. If they did half the crap they did to other professions the flasks would not flow. And there goes raid/dungeon into a bad spot potentially.

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Be glad you’re not a tailor

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Personally I think it’d be cool if professions became unique sources for cosmetics. We see this some with glyphs and mounts and such, but since blizz seems set on letting the gear be so easily and quickly replaced it’d be cool to see them lean more into the collectible side of things.

Like xmog you could only get from specific professions. They could use it to introduce higher res versions of older armor sets (updated versions kinda like Tomb of Sargeras tier sets).

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How are they already as good as they should be? They’re called professions, not hobbies. As it stands, the crafting profs allow me to make a couple of high level items (most having random stats), and sone starter gear for liw level alts.

I’ve crafted far more items for expolsum than i have for personal use, let alone selling. I mean this is an RPG . . . well it’s supposed to be. The only way to separate yourself from orher crafters is to farm mats more efficiently, or get lucky early with rare drop recipes.

We have zero progression in terms of skill, and our their impact on how we interact with various game systems are so rare and niche as to border on the absurd.

LFD should have a role for professions that removes you from the loot table, but allows you to gather rare mats.

Since Blizz seems to think we need catch-up mechanics every tier to make them accessible, we should be able to craft and sell level appropriate items which currently would be 370, or even 385 since that rains down fron the sky as it is.

After showing some sort of proficiency in a given profession, i shiuld be able to obtain the ability to determine what stats an item gets and/or add tertiary stats.

I could go on, but I’ll leave it there. Sorry i went all ranty on you. Just don’t understand how anyone could say professions are ok.

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anybody want to link that infamous 1977 Johnny Paycheck song ?

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The blacksmith hammer really should be able to repair all items for one hour. Kinda useless to just be able to repair one piece. Whats that save ypu, like 15 gold?

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I quit doing professions when they started making it mandatory to have to do stupid quests. I thought in MoP having the bind on pickup essence thingies were dumb, but it’s just gotten worse and worse going forward from there.

I wish they’d go back to how it was with each profession providing some unique perk. As it stands, I’d rather chew on glass than bother with working on my professions.

I have “master of all” too, I stopped around WoD. Zero motivation.

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haha, yea. BS got royally shafted with the new prof patch. RIP.

Now take a look at what Alchemists are getting. Proving once again which is the objectively superior prof.

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I’m surprised you stuck with it for as long as you did. WoW has always had some of the worst crafting in the MMORPG world, and was the worst even before WoD turned them into a laughing stock.

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Its not RNG at all.

Its “complete any mythic 0” to have a 100% chance at the 15 of the item needed for 385 gear. (tidalcore)

Its “kill bosses LFR/N/H/M raiding, to get 20 the item needed to create 400 item” (breath of bwonsamdi)

Its “kill bosses if LFR/N/H/M raiding to get 200 of the item needed to create 415 item” (breath of bwonsamdi again)

You get more of the breath of bwonsamdi the higher in difficulty you go. 1x per boss for N, 10x for H, 20x for M.

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These look pretty stupid across the board.

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I’m still a bit upset that they completely screwed low level Blacksmithing, too. Turned all the Strength Mail into AGILITY Mail, instead of Strength Plate. Yeah, plate wearers get nothing craftable until level 40. But for Mail wearers? They added new patterns to Leatherworking, in addition to the armor they basically stole from Warriors and Paladins.

Yeah, doesn’t really matter in the long run, but it was still stupid.

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Actually, Legion was the first expansion I didn’t fully complete my professions. The star system was tedious and I frankly couldn’t see the advantage of it. BfA is worse, though - they actually put high gold costs on the 3rd star. Now, while 1,000g may not seem much to some players, to anyone with limited gold and limited time to make more, it can be a real drain on the finances. Especially without the input from mission tables.

I have quite a few ideas how to fix (or at least put on a tornique) for professions to stop them entirely going down the drain into oblivion and ultimate removal (Yes, First Aid, I’m looking at you).

  • When were professions last really fun? MoP, that oft-maligned expansion. Consider how crafting professions worked back then. Now, that was fun time to be a fan of professions.

  • Give all crafted gear items (and I do mean ALL) the chance to proc to current cap level (if from an expansion earlier than BfA) or proc to a level similar to Warforged for the current expansion. Give it a fancy name to differentiate it. It may even be a fairly small chance, but at least it would provide incentive to indulge in crafting. (Yes, this would need work to remove or alter stats that are no longer used, like Spirit or PvP power, etc).

  • Allow gear crafters the ability to make pvp (REAL pvp) gear or special gear sets. Make those abilities a specialised line that has to be researched and learned and improved. Have it available from Day 1, Level 1 of the game. It can be complex and many-layered and take effort to achieve from ingame activities. I wouldn’t care about that at all. Like the Master abilities of an Alchemist, your character becomes a Master Crafter or an Honorable Crafter, depending on what line you want to follow.

  • Consider allowing characters to have more primary professions. Perhaps 3? That way you could gather with one and craft with 2.

I could go on but hey, they ain’t paying me for this!

(Although if they did, I’d even consider moving to California…)

:australia::upside_down_face:

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Professions are dead and Blizzard has given up on them. If you want them to be relevant again play Classic.