There is basically a psuedo catchup now
Theres the rep vendors who sell the +5/+10 profession things that didn’t exist at launch, theres way more patterns for knowledge points
If you just want that specific thing, then yea you can absolutely catch up to that, but no you shouldn’t be able to just make an alt and catch up with people who been doing the grind since the xpac came out
But for people starting out new characters on professions, those alts can buy those three. But again, I just don’t know if it’s enough to get into what they’re trying to get into.
That’s what I was thinking, too.
Not even remotely close. Its like 60 points out of 300-500+
While you’re progressing your profession you can buy things you need from other players until you reach the point where your mastery is sufficient to make everything you need. Then you can sell things to others who are progressing. Isn’t that part of playing an MMO on a conceptual level?
The problem with Rabul is that the NPC not a legitimate source of catch-up since you can only buy the items he offers once and the price is insanely punitive for a new character, or for a character that just started a new profession.
Have him offer a BoA item that is able to be purchased with Flightstones or better still Elemental Overflow (which would give people a reason to want to do Elemental Invasions again) and this matter would resolve itself.
Alternatively allowing the use of Profession Treatise Notes made by Inscriptionist without a cooldown would help their profession immensely, and promote a lot more traffic on the Artisan’s Guild / Crafting Orders page.
Devs will QoL this after S3.
“I trust their word as much as I trust the Moon to never to change it’s shape in the sky.”
-Native American Proverb
Yep, yep and yep… agreed. I am still feverishly working on my professions for 6 toons… we get a little boost from the ‘Zarelek Caverns’ quests… but… so my bestie hasn’t played in a long time, who ALWAYS played because there is just too much for him when he can only afford a few hours a night. He just stopped playing. There is just too much to keep up with.
The fact they haven’t had like an “increased rate of drop of Dragonshards” until you reach what the average knowledge points since launch is silly. They did it with Sparks of both types to be able to catch up on alts, same should be done with Dragonshards.
Or make Dragonshards drop at a high rate until your character has caught up to the amount of knowledge points a character would have assuming they did their profession quests weekly since DF launch.
Through ALL the past expanses I really try to make it point I will complete all of the requirements/learning of the profession. This does not seem possible now. Maxing out the profession in DF is very difficult.
You dont forget KPs, you forget only recipes and skill points when relearning Alchemy.
The catchup mech is called dragon shards of Knowledge . get out in teh world and open chests , kill things , kill dungeon and raid bosses . More of these drop for people with new professions and get less and less teh further along the tree you are . I have fully filed out my JC trees now , but changed from Inscription to Enchanting two weeks before the start of season 2 and am already 5 have 343 talent points . When I changed I was getting 15 -20 DSoK a week , now down to 4 or 5 .
You don’t need to make all the best items. You should be able to do one in short order.
Reading your post, I have a feeling you just dont know about all sources of profession knowledge.
If your 1st character has maxed reps, your fresh lvl 70 alt can have more than 120 kp on week 1.
Also, barter bricks can be boight for 100 supplies on alt if main has niffen renown 20.
Install tamas weakaura or profession knowledge weakaura and see what sources are you missing, along with 1st time crafts.
best thing to ever happen to professions , made them usefull and fun to do again . We also got catchup points from the caverns as you gained rep . Also forgot this one - the rep based talent points ones with teh factions are instantly buyable if you change profession ( providing of cause you have the rep which by now you should )
New players and Alts just coming into teh game now should never be in a position to instantly compete with a player who has been in a profession since day 1 . I absolutely hate Account bound stuff , makes no sense in a character based game . Want something on a character -EARN it on that character
Please please please bring your LW to my realm - we have a Huge market and hardly any LWers 
been farming them since day 1 - still havent got the lariat design , or teh Hourglass ring either dispite opening the chest every week. Thats fine , perfectly ok with that , its how the game works , I have had unbelievable luck in other areas ( resorcefullness proccing on crests and giving me a dracothyst 5 times for example )
they werent refering to that , they were refering to teh knowledge points you can buy from rep vendors at differnt points in teh renoun tree
How many points you get down there in the caverns for catch up?
got them early on , from memory was a +5 and a +10 at different renoun levels
Yeah, that really isn’t much of a catch up system.
The KP books earned from the five main Renowns are not, and never have been, a catch-up mechanic. They are a straight, one time per character, KP bonus or boost of a set amount. People are misusing the ‘catch-up’ term and confusing the issue with an incorrect association.
It will be interesting to see if Blizzard implements a KP catch-up mechanic in 10.2. I think they should, but am not really hopeful that they will do so. Dragon Shards of Knowledge are a farmable means of increasing KP, but they are not a true catch-up mechanic either.