So today me and some friends decided to test out aspects of the new leveling system on the PTR, specifically how professions, crafted gear, and consumables would be handled.
Let me just say, this build is so out of whack. It can’t possibly be what Blizz is launching Tuesday, can it?
Just some glaring examples of issues:
I’m a new player. I finish Exile’s Reach and go to BFA. I decide to take Herbalism and Alchemy as my professions as well as level up Cooking.
I can’t use any of the potions or flasks until I’m level 40??? To get stuff I can use, I have to level up Vanilla alchemy. But I’m in Zandalar. How do I get the mats? I have to go back to old zones (which as a new player I know nothing about).
So let’s try cooking instead. I train in cooking and zandalari cooking. I can’t use the food until I am at least level 20. I can’t afford the mats to make the food or learn new recipes, because the prices of the ingredients on the vendors are still geared at max level player, not at fresh toons. Just to make one item of food would use up almost all of my gold.
I could not use Chromie Time to see if these discrepancies are riddled throughout all of the expansions or not, even though I already have max level toons both in retail and on the PTR.
So, my mage then goes to lern the Zuldazar portal since he will be spending his time in Zuldazar leveling to 50. But no one changed the prices of the teleports and portals. SO it would cost a new player 75 gold for the Zuldazar portal which is the one they need, and less gold for the old portals to places they will not be leveling. It makes no sense. And what level 11 fresh newbie character would even have 75 gold?
The continued lack of thought and insight into professions on Blizzard’s part across all aspects of the game continually disappoints me day after day, year after year. At this point it feels like they spend more time trying to come up with ways to keep people from making money than they spend actually thinking about how to make professions work well in the first place.
Hate to break it to you, but you have to be level 100 to use BfA flasks potions right now. Alchemy hasn’t been particularly useful for leveling characters for quite some time now. It has nothing to do with any “lack of thought and insight” or whatever other nefarious motivations you want to invent, but rather the fact that leveling is generally easy enough so as not to require potions or flasks.
How much gold do quests award for low level players going through BfA zones? Even if the cost is prohibitive, mage ports/teleports aren’t exactly must-have abilities for leveling. Someone just starting out can do just fine with flight paths and a hearthstone.
But if you think they’ve overlooked something, the testing phase is the perfect time to let them know. I’m sure you submitted suggestions through the in-game interface on the PTR before coming here to start this thread. …right?
I think they should make professions more like breath of the wild. They need to stop tying professions to the expansions and just make them universally useful. When a new expansion and new mat comes out it should augment or replace older mats but not completely invalidate old recipes.
The point is not that we are level 100 now. The point is you go to BFA as level 10. If you are supposed to experience the expansion as you level from 10-50 then the crafting systems need to be reflected in that experience. Especially since all new players will be forced to do BFA.
What you are saying is you agree with devs that players should be trained not to care about most parts of the game that are actually really important at max level, then suddenly start to care after they’ve been kicked in the teeth so many times they have left the game.
OP: Devs aren’t into making details coordinate different expansions. They don’t do professions. They don’t do alts. Perhaps, as veteran players often say (and the only devs we know of as players are indeed veterans) they have convinced themselves that the game “throws money at” leveling players, even though changes to professions have made it impossible for a new player to earn enough gold while leveling to buy flying even now.
Alchemy, enchanting, and jewelcrafting are pretty big end-game professions. If you feel kicked in the teeth because they lack utility while leveling…I honestly don’t know what to tell you. “Stop being a drama queen” immediately comes to mind, however.
The benefits of the level squish for new players will probably greatly outweigh minor crap like this that they may have overlooked. For people leveling alts…well…I can’t remember the last time I actually needed to use a non-experience potion while leveling.
And after you personally have succeeded in convincing new players that there is no reason whatever for them to do professions, they’re going to turn around and start churning out cheap stuff so you don’t have to buy tokens to pay for your flasks?
You mean like, after they reach the point where they need to buy flight but CAN’T because they don’t have enough gold?
Devs want each expansion to be a mini-game with zero connections to previous expansions. And you’re here to help them do that.
Honestly with the removal of most enchantments (Which I keep hoping they’ll revert but know they never will) most of the other professions aren’t actually that great past early end game. At least, not that I’ve seen.
Leveling squish has issues- yeah. These… these aren’t really it.
JC has not been good for a looong time now and enchanting can make some gold. The only good proff you named would be Alchemy.
Maybe i am an outlier but in any MMORPG i have played crafting was not a minor portion of it. Self sufficient is what i strive for or being able to help friends with my crafts.
We all know Blizz has troubles with Professions and they have bedded the pooch more times than i can count on a hand. Lets hope there minor over site does not strand the newer players they are trying to corral.
Why are you so insufferably rude and patronizing? Nearly every response you’ve posted on this thread has been snarky.
The gear you have and the mobs you fight in BfA are NOT conducive to the kit you have a lower levels. As a warrior leveling through BfA at lvl 20, I would have found the ability to USE a fracking HEALTH potion incredibly useful and it would have saved me from death multiple times.
This is so much of what is wrong in this game and it’s community. So many veteran players, like you Ms. Wigglytuff, are dismissive and rude to people who have questions or voice concerns from a “new player” prospective. If all you want to do is sound and act superior to other players, maybe keep your toxic opinion to yourself.
So much this! My husband just finally started playing for the first time despite my attempts to get him into it over the last ten years. We are having so much fun playing together but it’s incredibly frustrating that he can’t cook or use potions or literally do anything with any profession until he’s lvl 40ish. I just don’t understand how that can be conducive to a good experience for new players. Furthermore, he’s a mage and I’m a warrior so there is zero healing happening between us. It would ROCK if I could actually drink one of the health potions he makes.
I think it’s safe to say that once all the bugs and balancing have been worked out of the new leveling system, professions will have to be looked at adjusted.
