Ask the Devs #7 – Professions - Answers
Originally Posted by Slorkuz (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Welcome to the answers thread for our World of Warcraft "Ask the Devs" global Q&A. These answers are in response to the round #7 questions, which can be seen here: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2037905341

If you have to ask a question on the Firelands you'd like answered please visit the Ask the Devs #8 Questions thread here: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2098312571

Will you add more non-combat, or purely artistic, or stat-free, or random effect toy / fun / flavor items to the profession of my choice? – A multitude of players from all regions

Yes, especially considering they are some of our favorite things to add to the game. We can't promise that every profession is going to get equal amounts, but we definitely intend to spread them out more evenly, except for engineering. Engineers will always get more toys.


Archaeology is supposed to be about discovering, preserving, and honoring cultural items found, in order to learn from the past. Currently we don't do that. Instead we are forced to coldly vendor what we don't want. No donation to a museum, no return to the races of origin. Couldn’t we do something more important with these items? Can we expect more interesting stories with artifacts? Will you do something about this to make it feel like the player is getting something useful back, and perhaps remove a little bit of the random part of it so that it's more fun and focused? - Whitewnd (KR), Pusen (EU-EN), Unjoiner (NA/ANZ)

Originally, we didn't intend to create items at all when you completed a normal archaeology find, but that didn't feel right. So now we have these items that still don't feel right because you can't do anything fun with them. We are working on a more thematic and interesting way to consume the artifacts you dig up. These include returning them to the museums (for the devoted archaeologist) and the option to continue vendoring them (if you wish to continue your career as a cold-blooded treasure hunter.)

Additionally, we plan to add daily quests, a deeper story, additional skill gains, and the flexibility to focus on a specific race.

Some players may not have noticed that all artifacts have lore associated with them in the journal, even the grey ones. Every bit of it is Genuine Lore, and verified by our lore masters. So were the Dalaran Coins, of course, but not those silly Romance Novels.


Will professions at some point regain the ability to make upgradable items, such as the Weaponsmiths had in the Burning Crusade? It was quite a cool concept, and wouldn't be unfair if all crafting professions would gain at least 1 of those items. - Hydramith (EU-EN), Auryon (EU-DE)

The concept of upgrading a piece of equipment is a very cool idea that we'd love to revisit, but not as a best in slot item. A crafted BIS item removes that entire slot as an interesting drop choice, and it strongly forces players into specific professions. For example, if there is a crafted best in slot weapon, you can bet a vast majority of players will feel obligated to take up blacksmithing, as was the case in the Burning Crusade. The profession perks, which are reasonably balanced, already add an incentive to take professions.


Have you ever considered creating daily quests for professions other than jewelcrafting? - Superpotion (NA/ANZ)

We've mostly considered it for the secondary professions, since they are the most accessible professions to the most players. When we add another large chunk of recipes again, we'll evaluate each profession to see if dailies are a good fit.


Will enchanters ever get the option to create wands again (maybe other caster items as well using a blank template weapon that could be made by blacksmiths), as they tend to be extremely rare outside of the a couple locations and the new ZA/ZG loot tables? - Flayre (NA/ANZ) [/i]

In general, we want to add more fun themed recipes to enchanting like the magic lanterns. Concerning wands, we've been discussing several options, and most everything we could do with them is still on the table.


Will there be a way to distinguish profession nodes on the minimap for those that have two gathering professions? - Discordia (LA)

That’s a good suggestion. We recently added the ability to see your target and focus target on the minimap, but the feedback we’ve received from players is that they clutter up the map too much. Coming up with unique icons that work with only a few pixels might be challenging. We’ll give it a shot though.


Will you provide a way to speed up the acquiring of glyphs usually acquired through research and glyph books? Glyph books (Book of Glyph Mastery) are hard to come by now that people spend so little time in WotLK content. - Furlqt (NA/ANZ), 에르네**린덴만 (KR), Kånê (EU-ES)

Yes. We will be changing the discovery spells so they can teach all possible glyphs, and the books will simply provide a no-cooldown method to do the same thing.


Are there any plans to make Archaeology more closely connected with other professions? Like make inscriptors able to create scripts of the night elves that would help with the fragments or something like that? - Алонжи (EU-RU)

We feel like we can better tune and balance the archaeology experience if we keep it mostly self-contained. However, we've discussed additional methods for gaining fragments through dailies and potentially as rewards for turning artifacts. Nonetheless, it's quite unlikely that another profession will ever craft keystones or fragments.


Are there any plans to make Chaos Orbs BoA or even BoE? - Mommycow (NA/ANZ)

Yes! They will be unbound in a future patch.


Do you have plans to make gathering professions more attractive instead of making them skills that you would be inclined to take up on one of your alts? - Nanahuatzin (LA)

Yes, this is an ongoing goal. Specialized nodes and raid/dungeon drops for gatherers are a good start. Because gathering professions essentially pull currencies from the ground, we feel they are a valid choice for many players, especially those who want to be self-sufficient.


Are there any plans to change Original and Burning Crusade profession skills so that new players can skill up their profession skills more similar pace with leveling? Low level trade skill materials on Auction House are generally expensive for new players, and new players must feel they are stuck if they should left low level zones just for profession skill up, while they want to increase both of them at same pace. - Whitewnd (KR), Гаркара (EU-RU)

Yes. Definitely. As we move forward, making sure older content has a smooth flow is a top priority. In fact, we have Top Men working on it. Top. Men.


Are there any plans to somehow change Archeology and Fishing, which have become notoriously tedious? Do you have plans to make archaeology more appealing, maybe with puzzles or something else? - Boîndal (EU-DE), Kalani (NA/ANZ), Käworu (LA)

Yes. The dailies help with fishing skill gain, and we plan to add archaeology dailies as well. We've also discussed further incentivizing fishing in pools with faster skill gain.

We would love to add a puzzle mini-game to archaeology, and may do that one day, but we can’t make any guarantees. There are some other ideas floating around for moving between archaeology sites more quickly, and we've been brainstorming for rare random events when you are digging or fishing.

Our overall goal for these professions is that it shouldn't be too difficult to max out your skill, but catching every fish and finding every artifact should be a long journey.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Ask the Devs #7 – Professions - Answers started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 76 Comments
  1. Neurotoxinx's Avatar
    Originally Posted by Slorkuz (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
    Will you provide a way to speed up the acquiring of glyphs usually acquired through research and glyph books? Glyph books (Book of Glyph Mastery) are hard to come by now that people spend so little time in WotLK content. - Furlqt (NA/ANZ), 에르네**린덴만 (KR), Kånê (EU-ES)

    Yes. We will be changing the discovery spells so they can teach all possible glyphs, and the books will simply provide a no-cooldown method to do the same thing.
    THIS made me so happy. About time, too; I was kind of left in the dust, making my scribe after Cata.


    Originally Posted by Slorkuz (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
    Are there any plans to somehow change Archeology and Fishing, which have become notoriously tedious? Do you have plans to make archaeology more appealing, maybe with puzzles or something else? - Boîndal (EU-DE), Kalani (NA/ANZ), Käworu (LA)

    Yes. The dailies help with fishing skill gain, and we plan to add archaeology dailies as well. We've also discussed further incentivizing fishing in pools with faster skill gain.

    We would love to add a puzzle mini-game to archaeology, and may do that one day, but we can’t make any guarantees. There are some other ideas floating around for moving between archaeology sites more quickly, and we've been brainstorming for rare random events when you are digging or fishing.

    Our overall goal for these professions is that it shouldn't be too difficult to max out your skill, but catching every fish and finding every artifact should be a long journey.
    *point!* Look, me! rofl

    I dunno, I'm a little disappointed by this answer, personally. Why does catching fish have to feel like a long journey? I don't get it.
  1. Deployed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shambulanced View Post
    "Open discourse" with devs is pointless if they don't say anything of worth. As someone in the thread said earlier, "this all seems like common sense." But then, it is a rare currency these days.
    Sad fact, common sense is relative. It's affected by education, experience, social interaction, research, luck, learning from mistakes of other's etc etc. What is common sense to one person will not be common sense to another.

    For example, if I wrote "I learnt something today", some misguided American may correct me by saying "It's learned, not learnt, learn to spell". He would be wrong because it's cultural. He has never come across an Englishman before and therefore would not know. It's common sense to me, it's common sense to anyone that has ever spoken to a limey before, but it's not common sense to him, and to humiliate him because of a lack of experience is actually unjust, no matter how funny it is to watch him squirm out of their mistake.

    In regards to this, players have short memory spans (people saying that Cata's raiding is the easiest raid content to date, for example) and just don't remember what happened and when or why with previous expansions. There are also players that just don't follow game development as closely as others, as identified by people asking why there is a static logon screen for the PTR or why the Dungeon Journel uses Grim Batol as a background image (they don't automatically think "placeholder").

    Examples of lack of common sense regarding development techniques are to be found all over the place. This websites community is no less lacking in that department as that of the official forums, or any other fanbase community. The many will bring down the perceived knowledge of the few, and no matter what those few do, some people just will not learn.
  1. Prothall's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by VanishO2 View Post
    Did Frozen Orbs all became unbound after the change in WotLK? Don't remember.
    From what I recall, Frozen Orbs were unbound from day one.
  1. xxdrew's Avatar
    they should work with popcap games on whatever they want to implement for a mini puzzle for archaeology.
  1. Dad's Avatar
    http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...8312571?page=4

    Post number 63..
  1. Shamslam's Avatar
    Got a chuckle from the "random events" they are considering. Takes me back to my Runescape days...
  1. Izzyasha's Avatar
    soooo.... everyone getting fun little perks for their professions... wasnt that engineers jobs to have all the wicked fun stuff at 0 gold making ability? apparently blizzard is phazing out engineering slowly... no more bomb rotations... no more bgs perks that everyone else gets to keep their stat boosts... <.< madness... Stop giving people neato cool stuff we e ngineers have gotten the short stick.. revolution!
  1. Sabaka's Avatar
    This is what my take on all the answers was:

    "Will professions at some point regain the ability to make upgradable items, such as the Weaponsmiths had in the Burning Crusade? It was quite a cool concept, and wouldn't be unfair if all crafting professions would gain at least 1 of those items. - Hydramith (EU-EN), Auryon (EU-DE)

    The concept of upgrading a piece of equipment is a very cool idea that we'd love to revisit, but not as a best in slot item. A crafted BIS item removes that entire slot as an interesting drop choice, and it strongly forces players into specific professions. For example, if there is a crafted best in slot weapon, you can bet a vast majority of players will feel obligated to take up blacksmithing, as was the case in the Burning Crusade. The profession perks, which are reasonably balanced, already add an incentive to take professions."

    we had much success with profs in BC because it made them unique bc of the bop item crafting... ppl liked it too much so we're not putting it back (and we want to lose more subs!)

    "Will enchanters ever get the option to create wands again (maybe other caster items as well using a blank template weapon that could be made by blacksmiths), as they tend to be extremely rare outside of the a couple locations and the new ZA/ZG loot tables? - Flayre (NA/ANZ) [/i]

    In general, we want to add more fun themed recipes to enchanting like the magic lanterns. Concerning wands, we've been discussing several options, and most everything we could do with them is still on the table."

    crafting wands which are good is too smart! we at blizzard like to make the bis item drop from trash (lol @ some casters in paragon and other progressed/active guilds using a blue wand after 2months of raiding 5nights a week-- thats balanced?)

    ^seriously why even have professions anymore at all? u should just have everyone pick a bonus racial when they make their toon and be done with it.. uve taken away all that is unique and awesome about every profession, good job


    "Are there any plans to make Archaeology more closely connected with other professions? Like make inscriptors able to create scripts of the night elves that would help with the fragments or something like that? - Алонжи (EU-RU)

    We feel like we can better tune and balance the archaeology experience if we keep it mostly self-contained. However, we've discussed additional methods for gaining fragments through dailies and potentially as rewards for turning artifacts. Nonetheless, it's quite unlikely that another profession will ever craft keystones or fragments."

    no, do not confuse archeology with other professions! archeology is like fishing, it is a useless time waster that we put in the game to try to get more playtime from ppl who are bored bc this content is terrible


    "Are there any plans to make Chaos Orbs BoA or even BoE? - Mommycow (NA/ANZ)

    Yes! They will be unbound in a future patch."

    Yes! They will be unbound when they are useless in a tier or two, so you can gear up your alts faster! this is world of alt craft!


    call it QQ if u want, its the truth, sorry
  1. Venant's Avatar
    - A crafted BIS item removes that entire slot as an interesting drop choice

    What the heck is this supposed to actually mean? What is the definition of an 'interesting drop choice'?
  1. Snes's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by wiIdi View Post
    the problem with archeology is this: Archaeology is endless grind and 99% of the rewards are craptastic and completely useless. That's why it isn't fun. In case you want to improve this profession, you have to realize the fact that
    - story as reward doesn't work and
    - cosmetical or fun items as reward don't work either
    Agree with above except for bolded, sort of. Cosmetic items would be fun if you could actually use them in BGs/raids and didn't have like a half hour cooldown for an effect that lasts 15 seconds..
  1. donogh's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Venant View Post
    - A crafted BIS item removes that entire slot as an interesting drop choice

    What the heck is this supposed to actually mean? What is the definition of an 'interesting drop choice'?
    This means that if, for example, blacksmithing made a BoP BiS tank shield, then all people of the class(es) for which it is BiS have to take that profession for the BiS item and then don't give a shit about any tank shield that drops. This then makes Blizz say "well, why bother making any boss drop tank shields since all tanks will be blacksmiths for that shield anyways." Assuming that all tradeskills make nothing but BoE items, well that means that the BiS tank shield makes Blizz even less interested in making drops that look interesting since everyone knows a blacksmith or can just buy one off the AH.
  1. themightysven's Avatar
    I like how when I finally have a question about the next topic it's unavailable in my region.
    Anyone in Europe wanna ask where in the Endgame progression they are aiming for the firelands grind to be?
    i.e. it's currently 85>normals>Heroics/profession>Zandalari>Normal Raid>Heroic Raid. with purchasable gear of 360ish it would seem to skip the normals through normal (tier 11) raid.
    So is it rocket ship progression, or hard mode dailies?

    ---------- Post added 2011-05-16 at 04:48 PM ----------

    oh, and the way to fix arch:
    if it's grey we should be able to finish it in one dig site, flying up and down Kalimdor to complete a nightie is tedious, doing it to complete tyrande's doll is worth it
  1. Unferth's Avatar
    AND DREAMCLOTH!!!!!!!!!!!

    PLEASE, please make Dreamcloth not soulbound. One of my alts is a tailor, and I would absolutly love it if I could sell Dreamcloth.

    ---------- Post added 2011-05-16 at 10:04 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Venant View Post
    - A crafted BIS item removes that entire slot as an interesting drop choice
    What the heck is this supposed to actually mean? What is the definition of an 'interesting drop choice'?
    They want us playing, grinding raids and dungeons to get BiS epics. The more epics you buy or make, the faster you get gear, the faster people get bored and cancel till the next content update.

    Obviously the idea is to keep playing for the longest time possible, BiS epcis with low drop rates from hard bosses keeps people playing longer.
  1. usiris's Avatar
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Will you provide a way to speed up the acquiring of glyphs usually acquired through research and glyph books? Glyph books (Book of Glyph Mastery) are hard to come by now that people spend so little time in WotLK content. - Furlqt (NA/ANZ), 에르네**린덴만 (KR), Kånê (EU-ES)

    Yes. We will be changing the discovery spells so they can teach all possible glyphs, and the books will simply provide a no-cooldown method to do the same thing.

    worst fucking thing blizz has done in a very long time
  1. Almighty1's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shambulanced View Post
    I'd tend to agree. I think the problem here is that they talk a lot about what they're thinking about doing, not what they're actually working on. It's all fine and great to have a bunch of guys sit around a table and write down ideas on a whiteboard, but I think in the long run players want to know what's being done and what they will see soon as opposed to 5 months from now. 5 months from now, everything could change. But something that is slated to be released in a month or two probably won't.

    And a lot of us are kinda gun-shy after the whole Path of Titans fiasco.



    Pretty much this, re the whole Q&A. They make no money while leveling (in terms of crafting. Gathering is always profitable, even if it's just a small amount), the gear crafted is now pretty dated/useless compared to the updated (relevant) quest rewards (at least until you reach Outlands/Northrend where the stats are laughable thanks to stat/gear overhauls), and the items crafted are great, but if they require raid materials then you're likely to get a replacement slot item while raiding for them. Making Chaos Orbs BoE will essentially crush any market that's still going on crafted epics (and further trivialize them) given the ease of obtaining said orbs.
    Most professions are useful "past the self bonus" in fact if you are least bit creative you could make some nice gold out there. The only profession that is literally completely useless past self buff would be ENG

    Lets compare some profession "re-sale items" shall we (items, services created by professions that can be sold for profit)

    Chanting - DE, Enchanting items or vellums, selling raw mats
    JC - Prospecting for others, Gem Cutting, Selling raw gems
    Inscription - Glyphs, DM Fair Decks
    Alchemy - Flasks, Pots, X-mutes
    Tailoring - BoEs, Bag upgrades, Spell Thread (not to mention the extremely OP Self Bonus it provides for casters)
    BS, LW - Leg Armor, BoEs, Belt Buckle

    Eng gets NOTHING... o sorry forgot the gun scope which is currently cheaper to buy in ah then cost of mats. The glove tinker is ok but its exactly on par with every major (non-gathering) profession and is a self buff. The helm is a good starter but pretty useless once you can get some real epics. The parachute cloak is fun i guess... but very situational and has become an instrument for idiots to pull neff with. The boots are not usable in BG and completely unreliable = useless in any real situation. Thats pretty much it. We can only craft 1 lousy bop epic and get reduced fall speed on 2 min CD. Doesnt seem fair at all. I guess i can somewhat understand the BG boots nerf, although its nothing compared to druids... kitty dash with flag pop into travel form = is OP as hell and that is perfectly allowable in BGs. Repair Bots - kind of useful but not crucial, most raids have at least one person with repair mount which can be popped outside after a wipe or a repair vendor located few min away. Bottom line is blizz pretty much flipped Eng "the bird" I really wish i didnt dump so much gold on leveling ENG
  1. Azrile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Deployed View Post
    And they almost never will. It has been explained over and over and over again, they will not intentionally announce things unless they know for certain that they will be in the position to fully follow through, and by that time it's almost ready for the PTR.

    We all know the examples of things that they began work on, but then got shelved/cancelled/reworked. Instead of being "nice pieces of information that excite us" they become "broken promises! Where's my moose!?"

    Stop holding your breath for these things to be meaningful. If there's ever an interesting answer for you, it'll be with a question here and there. Without a doubt, we will never see a FULL AtD with worthwhile questions, let alone answers.
    The problem is that the people who always screamed ´but you promised us a pony´ greatly outnumber those of us who understand the realities of budgets and dream lists.
  1. tusker's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by usiris View Post
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Will you provide a way to speed up the acquiring of glyphs usually acquired through research and glyph books? Glyph books (Book of Glyph Mastery) are hard to come by now that people spend so little time in WotLK content. - Furlqt (NA/ANZ), 에르네**린덴만 (KR), Kånê (EU-ES)

    Yes. We will be changing the discovery spells so they can teach all possible glyphs, and the books will simply provide a no-cooldown method to do the same thing.

    worst fucking thing blizz has done in a very long time
    I'd ask you to consider taking a step back and seriously think about what you're saying, and maybe consider in the grand scheme of things, realize this is almost an insignificant change.
  1. Azrile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Venant View Post
    - A crafted BIS item removes that entire slot as an interesting drop choice

    What the heck is this supposed to actually mean? What is the definition of an 'interesting drop choice'?
    An interesting slot choice is.. you know, when you constantly have a tank drop after the first boss of a heroic because that is the boss that drops the slot item he needs. I can´t tell you how many times I thought about dropping groups after the first boss of LCT because he had my bears weapon. And earlier than that, I remember the first boss of HOO dropped a particular item for my moonkin spec... of course it also dropped from the 2nd boss of ToT that everyone skips. I wish the devs would revisit that whole system... but yeah, what he is basically saying is that if you can craft it, it will be a wasted item slot they can´t use for boss drops.
  1. Bub's Avatar
    Nothing 'bout engineering....
  1. Phalax's Avatar
    Regarding the second question,

    " Will you add more non-combat, or purely artistic, or stat-free, or random effect toy / fun / flavor items to the profession of my choice? "

    ..I think it would be a cool idea if Blacksmiths could add purely cosmetic armor pieces to ground/flying mounts they enjoy to give them some extra flair.

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