Profession knowledge point catchup mechanics

[Athrogáte-stormrage]

Since we are getting into S2 of TWW soon, this is a great time to talk about the current profession knowledge point catch up mechanics, their shortcomings and what players would like to see to improvement on. I would encourage anyone who has an issue and a potential fix suggestion to post it below.

My primary issue currently is the time and gold sink the current crafting profession catch mechanic entails. Currently once you have gone through the one time knowledge point items and weekly knowledge point activities, your only way to “catch up” is through patron orders. A lot of these have long turnover times to generate new orders, or incredibly expensive mat requirements that just aren’t realistic for regular player daily consumption. (basically turning profession catch up into a wow token shill) I would very much like to see these patron orders generate faster, with more of the materials provided in the order especially when the player is significantly behind the curve on knowledge points in their chosen crafting profession.

Gathering profs are pretty straight forward…if you go out and use your gathering skill after you do the weekly activities, you have an elevated chance to get a knowledge point items up to a certain pre determined number of times while gathering. its pretty quick for mining, skinning, herbalism etc.

The folks who were grinding profs out every week will still have an edge on latecomers under the current system even if we persuaded blizz to speed the patron orders up or give us something in addition to patron orders to augment what is currently already in place. This wowhead post summarizes the current system and how to go about finding out what is available to you to “catch up” your prof with. https://www.wowhead.com/news/profession-catchup-mechanic-in-the-war-within-wowhead-economy-weekly-wrap-up-346-347616
thoughts?

[Kaladnei-khazgoroth]

Profession Knowledge not catching up

UPDATE: I have tracked my patron orders for a week and a half and I believe I know how to get your (totally not the # of catchup knowledge) to zero. Flickers (1 KP patron orders) are computed daily. Glimmers (2 KP patron orders) are scheduled and don’t care about any other value. The number of glimmers you get are set, but you get a different number of glimmers for different professions. Glimmers last 7 days so they can pile up (i.e. you can have them left over from previous “refills”) You ite…

Very useful post about the mechanics involved in getting the flickers to show up. Later update in the thread that informs that banking the glimmers has no use, so just delay the weekly crafting quest and the dirt search till Friday at least to get more flickers.

Personally, I find the streamer in that vid seem to really like the sound of his own voice. Not a lot to go on there. I do not need the history of catchups or his critics of catchups, give the info!

[Ellerina-proudmoore]

I started over halfway through the season, after being absent for all of Dragonflight.

I’ve not spent a ton of gold catching up, and I’m now at the point where I’m waiting days at a time for points from patron orders, meaning I am on par with most everyone else that’s kept up on it.

It’s not a token shill, it’s a matter of players not wanting to do the work to get the materials. Need a Profaned Tinderbox? Get to doing delves! Need Sunless Carapace? Get to skinning!

Players were given a more robust crafting system, but want to be lazy. No surprise.

[Solaria-uther]

@Athrogáte-stormrage

My primary issue currently is the time and gold sink the current crafting profession catch mechanic entails. Currently once you have gone through the one time knowledge point items and weekly knowledge point activities, your only way to “catch up” is through patron orders. A lot of these have long turnover times to generate new orders, or incredibly expensive mat requirements that just aren’t realistic for regular player daily consumption. (basically turning profession catch up into a wow token shill) I would very much like to see these patron orders generate faster, with more of the materials provided in the order especially when the player is significantly behind the curve on knowledge points in their chosen crafting profession.

thoughts?

Kaladnei linked to the other thread where the Flicker (catch-up) generation is discussed in more detail so I won’t touch on that directly.

Patron Orders that offer Flickers generate daily at server reset. Depending on your profession, and how far behind you are, you can see anywhere from 0 to 4 Flickers offered daily. If you are just starting a profession, those are 2-4 Flickers per day, or 60 to 120 Flickers offered per month. How much faster do want them to spawn? Especially since the longer the expansion goes on the longer the maximum amount of Flickers will be offered each day instead of the gradual decline the closer a player gets to ‘0’ that is experienced right now.

Materials can be an issue depending on how an individual chooses to address the cost issue. I let Patron Orders rot that will cost more than 1k gold per KP (my threshold of pain) every day. I also know that is increasing the amount of time it will take to complete filling the wheels, but I have also been at the point where I can craft everything likely to appear on my servers’ markets at R5 since November. A person starting now can reach that same point much more quickly and much more cheaply unless they mindlessly say “This is offered. I’m behind. I must do it!” While I do sort of agree that offering partial materials for a WO would be nice (3/6 Sanctified Alloy for Everforged Guantlets would be an example), I don’t see the difference in offered materials (and therefore cost to complete the WO) making a huge difference in player’s mindsets of whether they need to, or will, complete that particular Patron Order. Unless what you really want is for more Patron Orders to provide All materials?