Lots of people are very confused by recrafting and why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t
The reason for this is explained in a burried post on the bug report forum. Manthius does a good job of explaining it on youtube for us.
Short version is that if the original craft was done with lower level mats they will have to recraft the item 3 times before it will actually improve in quality.
It took a crafting expert 3 attempts to make a video explaining this and I feel that this is the most awful piece of anti player design I have seen in a long time. Good luck explaining this arcane garbage to customers who will get rightly angry when the first 2 recrafts do nothing.
I foresee a lot of accusations of lying and scamming against crafters who are telling the truth about their abilities because this is so obscure and opaque.
It also confirms to me that the whole materials quality aspect of the crafting redesign is useless. Only the best materials should be used at all time for anything other than throwaway skill up crafts.
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The whole system had a lot of promise, but in the current implementation it’s just a mess. Having 3 tiers of materials just clutters up inventory and results in unclear crafting outcomes if you place work orders (at least on realms where people are actually placing work orders…). Making recrafting work like this is just going to annoy and confuse a lot of players and further erode confidence in the crafting system.
I’ve more or less given up on it for now. Hopefully Blizz will be able to fix it over time, but for now I’m just using it as a way to make things that my own characters need as opposed to trying to guess what might be popular with others and then finding out I guessed wrong.
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Looking at the self satisfied tone the designer took when giving hints about the recrafting mechanics https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/en/wow/t/skill-bonuses-missing-in-recraft-items-in-crafting-orders/1439962/7 it really makes me think that there is somthing structurally wrong with the development process.
If I was in that team I would listen to someone explain that convoluted system and be asking critical questions like:
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Why do we need this system?
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Why is recrafting once with max level materials not an acceptable solution?
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How does this make the crafting minigame more fun for both the crafter and the customer?
I am sure that a well functioning design team would ask these questions and modify the recrafting system as a result. The fact they did not do this even when at the conceptual level before sending for coding suggests fundamental failures in the design process.
Specifically they should be using what in web design are called Personas to test the design at an early stage. This is where you use profiles of typical users such as the Expert craft goblin, the dude who is a completionist, the casual crafter for friends and family and Most importantly the non crafter/gatherer. You then ask how each would understand/interact with this system and this allows you to spot design issues and friction in your designs.
recrafting does not take as many materials. Say it takes 15 alloys to make a shield, and I use all rank 1 for 200g each for it. Rank 3’s cost 3k each, so a difference of like, 42,000 gold. A recraft only costs 1/3 +1 or 2 depending on how many were originally required. So you could make a shield with 15 rank 1 mats, get a 3 star. Then use 6 rank 3 mats for a 5 star?
That makes no sense. The total cost should be less if you craft outright with 3 star. This upgrade would require 15 1 star, and then 18 3 star to get it fully upgraded. So its 3 more but you can do it over time.
The system makes sense, its just not explained well at all.