Like this thread and comment if you want to see professions make a comeback and be made rewarding and worth investing in.
I mean, there are plenty of other great games with there own economy that manage to incorporate professions and keep them relevant during the course of an xpac. There’s no good reason for professions to be in the sorry state the currently are. Blizzard is simply slacking.
I just came back after not playing since BC-Cata and outside of Cooking and Fishing professions are in dire straights. And Fishing is questionable. In addition to making crafting AND gathering professions rewarding, the following list is things that also previously felt good to me, “back in the day”.
*Bring back First Aid as a skill and make it relevant. This might be a wild opinion but every class doesn’t need a self-heal or Leech.
*Bring back more item slots to be enchanted. In addition to rings and weapons maybe two more like gloves and boots.
*Bring back leatherworking Leg Armors and Inscriptions Shoulder buffs.
*Bring back blacksmiths being able to create gem slots in belts.
Bring back Engineering tinker slots. They were similar to enchants and maybe share some of the same spots as other professions like legs/boots but could have helm tinker be it’s exclusive thing.
The power level of these bonus slots and enchants don’t have to be insane, just make them nice, small little boosts that feel good to flesh out when gearing.
We let Blizzard get away with a Lot for being a subscription based game, it’s time to hold them accountable for a fully fleshed out game.
Bump!
11 Likes
Might want to research what’s coming for professions in Shadowlands before trying to “hold Blizzard accountable” for anything. 
2 Likes
I don’t like too much exclusive stuff that works in combat in professions, but enchants are great, adding sockets too.
But biggest thing I would do is add the specializations for crafting back with even more than 2 if possible per crafting professions. Like armorsmith, weaponsmith, the alchemy specialization etc.
Reworking gathering professions to make it also more proc based/minigame based. A mix of Legion special procs that spawned animals/mobs and some new minigames that would give a lot when you get those.
Both with talent trees that you can get xp on from crafting/gathering wqs, crafting/gathering dailies/weeklies or even professions events in Thorgast. That would make it more easier to gather/craft and maybe with some special perks like a blacksmith that would be able to repair his own armor.
3 Likes
I don’t like combat power tied to prof. Makes it such that you MUST have this combination of profession to set your character up.
SL is good in a way that they are making legendary bases Boe so you can buy them.
In addition, BFA professions are fine. I made millions using them. I really hate Silas and how random it is, but it actually served to keep prices unstable and allowed everyone to make money from it. Which imo is a pretty positive things at the end.
1 Like
I used to love hunting down profession patterns and farming and stockpiling materials to make them.
I also miss the little boosts in stamina and criticals that mining and skinning used to give.
6 Likes
I do like professions as they are and I do get value from them (Alchemist Stone, bonus time on flasks, fishing to make raid feasts, guaranteed slotted 470 gear that I can corrupt)
With that said since your suggestion is to buff them I am all for it! It’s only to my benefit if they decide to do that. 
2 Likes
Some of that stuff is already on alpha shadowlands and professions never were useless. Even now that 400 ilvl gear sells well, it is mostly just that there are too many people in the market trying to sell it on some servers.
The biggest problem with crafting is everyone can build their own horizontal monopolies with alts.
To really fix them the legacy professions would need to be left as is and moving forward it would have to be 2 profession max per server. Across all alts. That way a true interdependent crafting economy could be built.
But would the current players really want that?
Well so far, the little we know about isn’t ground breaking by any mean… The more I learn about Shadowlands, the less I am excited for it. Professions have bean meaningless for a while in WoW
2 Likes
Crafting can become interesting for crafters when there’s basicly rare patterns, specializations and/or timegated ressources like alchemy often got.
I don’t think stopping people from getting their professions up on their alts is doable, but clearly if specializations are a thing and that you add like I said in my first post basicly a talent tree for crafting, getting your alts up to the same level as someone that mains that profession isn’t gonna be easy.
That was kinda the point when you needed to level up professions from old expansions to do the new one, it would cost a lot to level them before to make them interesting unless you leveled them yourself.
Man, i don’t at all.
Back then, All profession provided some kind of performance boost. and that little bit of crit or whatnot was what mining/skinning provided. And they were significantly inferior to something like JC, which allowed you an extra socket or something of that sort, resulting in the fact that if you are doing serious content, you have to take that option.
I didn’t back then. I believe i had herbalism. and i just have to accept the fact that i suck a little more than my peers who did have it.
I don’t want to go back to that period.
Ya it can be done that way.
But to be of any use you have to be able craft BiS items. BiS items are soul bound. If your BiS comes from soul bound crafted items then professions aren’t a choice but a required gear leveling mechanic.
A theme park MMO with power progression through soul bound gear and no item decay really isn’t a proper foundation for a robust crafting system. Consumables and mogs works, but gear crafting will never be a good fit.
It doesn’t have to be a bis item or even gear, mop was really sucessfull with it’s mounts (even relevant today). I feel Thorghast will need crafted items to craft legendaries. But yes soulbound gear doesn’t make sense, it should never have been a thing.
I just want crafted gear to have a unique appearance again. I’m sick of pouring resources into leather working just to make leveling gear. Not even a recolor.
No.
People who want to produce their own crafted equipment rather than rely on the AH already need 6 characters. The last thing we need is to inflate that number even higher with specializations.
And that’s the problem with gear crafting and this type of game. You remove soul binding then you need to add item decay and you need to change how power progression works. Other wise people can just buy end game mythic raid gear and be done. The power progression is in the gear not the character.
If you put the power progression in the character and not the gear then a level 1 and level 120 hunter can both be effectively using a 19-25 damage bow, the 120 having skills and abilities that add significant multipliers to the damage. And that bow can decay over time and you just buy another one. Making gear a consumable and gear crafting an actual profession.
Also, a leveled up crafter can make a really expensive 22-27 damage bow that doesn’t have to be soul bound because it doesn’t really provide that much of a boost to the level one character, but the 120 with huge multipliers it makes a big difference.
But this just isn’t that game.
I think the sacrifice of alts being as relevant as mains is worth to make professions more relevant. It would also not stop you from crafting most stuff, just not some of the endgame stuff or more efficiently, like alchemy specializations were.
But yea having decent tmog on gear is always interesting too. Crafting or not, tmog wasn’t BFA high ground.
I have explained this before basicly, there can be 1 or 2 piece really good from professions heroic or mythic quality, or cap it like wod to 3 crafted pieces at the same time. No matter people will buy carries also, I feel buying a craft is a way better avenue than buying a carry and should be encouraged. Boe from raids should also be boe patterns to encourage crafting more too. (You basicly can already buy some pieces of raid quality gear with boes)
Might want to do a little research on professions in shadowlands… Heard they’re making an amazing comeback and will be very useful!
1 Like
So far what we know is crafting is gonna be relevant for legendaries. And you will be able to customize more crafted gear. I don’t think we know anything much more. It seems to be heading already better than BFA without the scrapper at minimum, but we don’t know that much.
2 Likes
And then you’re back to the problem of it either being a profession required to min max your toon or being able to buy progression through gear.
One BoE Pattern for BiS gear drops for one crafter and boom, the slot is maxed out for the server.
Or
You need to have to profession to get that pattern to get that gear.
Dont worry, professions seem to scale to ilvl 165(upgraded from ilvl 100) in shadowlands atm.
Normal dungeon gear is 170 in shadowlands.
So completely useless as always