The Future of Professions?

[Omaski]

Im not sure where I read this but I heard that in the near future Blizz was going to change up how professions work...A toon can learn all the gathering professions (mining, skinning, herbalism) but will still only be able to have 2 crafting professions.

I hope this is true because it lessens the need for profession alts...if anyone else has heard this can they plz confirm or deny this.

[Fabinas]

You probably read it as wishful thinking from the Blood Of Sargeras being BOP discussions. It will never happen.

[Z-Man]

By the time I complete my blacksmith or JC questline, all the armour I can make is totally useless. Like a waste of material to level it. I guess we all need pots and flasks, but the alchemy questline is pissing me off so badly, I stopped doing it (my own fault, I know).

Nowadays my money still comes from the Hexweave bags, I still collect the Garrison cache routinely every few days on my alts and buy fur.

I'm in the same boat. Legion is pretty to walk around in, but my factory is still back at the garrison. Most everything I can craft in Legion so far is worse than what I'm already wearing, and I'll make more money selling materials than I will from anything crafted. Blizzard has made it so there's no real advantage to having a profession, and also no real disadvantage to not having them.

[rayvio]

this was addressed in a recent interview

basically they said they're throwing ideas around but have no solid plans at the moment

[Kagthul]

Blizzard never ceases to amaze me with how badly they bungle things that they already perfected (or at least, if not perfect, had well in hand.)

Crafting is a perfect example.

in TBC, Crafting was useful, non-mandatory, but very useful (particularly to fill certain slots). The items were powerful, lasted a long time, but were time consuming to make and the really, really powerful ones were BoP.

Every expansion after that theyve gone downhill. Theyve basically thrown away a perfectly good system and replaced it with a non-functional one.

There are other examples (finally nailing PvP gear in WoD (not the entire PvP system, but the way the gear worked, scaling lower in PvE and higher in PvP), but professions are a prime example.

Blizzard needs to get over this change for the sake of change shit.

[logintime]

Blizzard never ceases to amaze me with how badly they bungle things that they already perfected (or at least, if not perfect, had well in hand.)

Crafting is a perfect example.

in TBC, Crafting was useful, non-mandatory, but very useful (particularly to fill certain slots). The items were powerful, lasted a long time, but were time consuming to make and the really, really powerful ones were BoP.

Every expansion after that theyve gone downhill. Theyve basically thrown away a perfectly good system and replaced it with a non-functional one.

There are other examples (finally nailing PvP gear in WoD (not the entire PvP system, but the way the gear worked, scaling lower in PvE and higher in PvP), but professions are a prime example.

Blizzard needs to get over this change for the sake of change shit.

100% Agreed. I don't know what happened to Blizzard in-between Wrath and Cataclysm, but starting with the latter expansion they began trying to reinvent the wheel with nearly every facet of the game, to middling results. Vanilla, TBC, and Wrath all iterated on each other, and the results were systems that were not perfect, but worked for most people.

Starting with Cata, we get thrown half-tested ideas, which are put through major adjustments through the patch cycle and then thrown out entirely with the next expansion. Professions are definitely a prime example of this- ever since launch, I've been wondering what they were thinking with their current design system. Is it really so hard to see what worked before and embrace that?

[Snes]

basically they said they're throwing ideas around but have no solid plans at the moment

They've been throwing ideas around with no solid plans for about a decade now.

[Cuppy]

Every expansion after that theyve gone downhill. Theyve basically thrown away a perfectly good system and replaced it with a non-functional one.

This.
I predict next expansion is even worse. It's so fucking sad.

[Deleted]

They should just make those books they are trialing in Legion useful for all professions. Possibly make them more expensive but then they restore all recipes that you have acquired before.

The benefits:
- Less need for profession alts, especially gathering "slaves"
- Perpetual gold sink implemented
- You still need to level / acquire recipes once, but not multiple times across different chars
- You can adjust to changes in professions without having to sacrifice rare / non-obtainable recipes any more

The downside:
- Some players might abuse the system, but that can be countered by the cost of the book
- Less need for profession alts might make people less inclined to sub through content draughts. Let's face it, they will continue to exist, no matter how much content is thrown at us in the beginning of an addon

[Accendor]

The BC system was nearly perfect. there never was a reason to throw it away.

[Sci Fi Samurai]

Armor crafting professions have always been the most annoying imo. This expac it's felt worse.

It felt good when I crafted a belt on my warlock tailor that was useful and he could actually use. Felt strangely bad when I got in a dungeon run that same day I replaced it after the first boss. :|

[ComputerNerd]

They should just make those books they are trialing in Legion useful for all professions. Possibly make them more expensive but then they restore all recipes that you have acquired before.

The benefits:
- Less need for profession alts, especially gathering "slaves"
- Perpetual gold sink implemented
- You still need to level / acquire recipes once, but not multiple times across different chars
- You can adjust to changes in professions without having to sacrifice rare / non-obtainable recipes any more

The downside:
- Some players might abuse the system, but that can be countered by the cost of the book
- Less need for profession alts might make people less inclined to sub through content draughts. Let's face it, they will continue to exist, no matter how much content is thrown at us in the beginning of an addon

It is not as simple as that, because of how they actually work.
Notice what they do and do not restore.
They only restore quest reward recipes, one-offs.
Not vendor, looted, trainer etc.

What you ask for would require a lot of work.

Quests are simply completed or not as far as those books are concerned, the same reason why the transmog UI can have quest rewards you gained and likely lost in some way years ago.

I think WoD did one big thing right with professions, good crafted gear that is competitive enough to be worth crafting.
That was achieved by having the equip limit so you didn't go all crafted.
The removal of that limit means to prevent going all crafted and avoiding gear acquisition from content, it now isn't competitive.

Legion I think did one big thing wrong.
How ranks were implemented.
Currently a player with a lower rank can't compete with one with higher, because there is no good reason from the view of a buyer to go with a lower rank.
I think that ranks should have been a superior result for more materials,
So that someone with a lower rank doesn't just have an outright inferior version, but just a lesser variety.

I think there is a merit in a specialisation differentiating what a player can offer.
The problem is how to implement that in armor crafting professions.
Weapon craftings can specialise more easily then one producing only armor.

I would like to see a profession transfer between characters as a service.

[netherflame]

As a developer I just want to put a few things to light because in concept this is a simple change but the reality is that they will be overhauling the profession system in order to accommodate this.

Professions:
*- Individual profession grouping
Alchemy
*Archaeology*
Blacksmithing
*Cooking*
Enchanting
Engineering
*Fishing*
Herbalism
Inscription
Jewelcrafting
Leatherworking
Mining
Skinning
Tailoring
*First Aid*

Currently the system seem that it is built like this.
Per Characer
first aid
cooking
fishing
Archaeology

Pick 2 Per Character
Alchemy
Blacksmithing
Engineering
Enchanting
Inscription
Jewelcrafting
Leatherworking
Tailoring
Mining
Herbalism
Skinning
---------------------------------
They will have to move to this

first aid
cooking
fishing
Archaeology
Mining
Skinning
Herbalism

Pick 2
Alchemy
Blacksmithing
Engineering
Enchanting
Inscription
Jewelcrafting
Leatherworking
Tailoring

Changing the structure will mean they have to change how 3 professions are classified so they don't fall into the pick 2 category, they should be able to reuse the code to swap those over without too much hassle. Then they will also have to figure out how to handle that in the professions UI which will probably be where a majority of the work will be since it will need a new layout as well as a new set of art assets to display those.

This is all pending how the old code is written, best guesses say poor is probably being generous, and if they are going to do anymore changes to those professions themselves. Functionally I hope they don't touch the interworkings of the professions as they work fine IMO.

[ItachiZaku]

in TBC, Crafting was useful, non-mandatory, but very useful (particularly to fill certain slots). The items were powerful, lasted a long time, but were time consuming to make and the really, really powerful ones were BoP.

In BC, I was 100% PVP gear and crafted gear. I only got to roll for gear twice cuz I took care of myself as much as I possibly could (not so much anymore). Even through The Eye, i wouldn't roll for gear cuz it'd break my set bonus or just wasn't as good. Those days are missed a bit.

[iky43210]

I hated BC crafting. First got to kill raid bosses for small chance at getting the pattern, then you got to farm more raid bosses or trash for materials that you also have to convince the raid that you deserves them over others. All for crafted gear that were worse than raid drops

The funny part was most pvpers were dumping their savings for that stun since they have no way to get the materials, and yet those maces were useless in pve.

[Aleax]

Not fan of Legion professions, except maybie archeology which is a secondary, because there is a support for it this xpac.

I dunno about the recent devs talk, but what I would like though is an ui which memorize my past professions, so when I am bored and come back to the profession I previousy had, everything is like always, such as the plans (devs talked about it when GC was still in the dev team), and maybie the profession level, - give it a week cd before being allowed to switch professions you leveled, so there's no abuse.

[Deleted]

In Legion, Blizzard made proffessions...PROFFESSIONS. Meaning you can longer be a casual crafter that occasionaly makes something. You actually have to focus on your crafting if you want to develop it. AH camping, alt gatherers, the works. If you know you cba with this, just get double gathering proffesions.

[Marrilaife]

In Legion, Blizzard made proffessions...PROFFESSIONS. Meaning you can longer be a casual crafter that occasionaly makes something. You actually have to focus on your crafting if you want to develop it.

Nope, they actually made it a lottery as everything else in this expansion. Imagine if real life professions worked like this... "Oh sorry Bob you were a surgeon for 10 years but Tom procced his "brain surgery rank 3" on the first year of medical school, now he's more valuable and paid more than you are, but dw, keep at it for another 10 years maaaybe it'll proc"

[Spicymemer]

Crafting has become far too uniform.

There isn't unique profession perks.
Crafting levels are expensive or very time consuming to acquire.

I believe each armor class should have their own crafting profession by default.
Cloth, Leather, Mail, Plate would have Tailor, Leatherworking, Leatherworking, Plate respectively.

Then there would be 2 profession slots for each player to choose, they may even take another armor specialty profession.

[Sencha]

Blizzard never ceases to amaze me with how badly they bungle things that they already perfected (or at least, if not perfect, had well in hand.)

Crafting is a perfect example.

in TBC, Crafting was useful, non-mandatory, but very useful (particularly to fill certain slots). The items were powerful, lasted a long time, but were time consuming to make and the really, really powerful ones were BoP.

Every expansion after that theyve gone downhill. Theyve basically thrown away a perfectly good system and replaced it with a non-functional one.

There are other examples (finally nailing PvP gear in WoD (not the entire PvP system, but the way the gear worked, scaling lower in PvE and higher in PvP), but professions are a prime example.

Blizzard needs to get over this change for the sake of change shit.

Fully agree with this.

Worst thing is a full team was dedicated to revamp profession in Legion and the result is just... laughable at best. They just needed to copy what they had done in TBC.

And why did they trash profession specialization?