Why doesn't Blizzard just remove professions?

[Djuntas]

And remove my AH playing? No thanks, I like all my gold tokens and store credit.

[Zulatomten]

I would rather they fix them and make them useful.

In addition, I'm generally against just removing stuff from the game just because it's pointless or someone doesn't like it. It does have a point for some and improving is always better than removing.

If everything that got a thread like this were removed there wouldn't be any game left.

So, no.

How whould one even do that.
Let's just focus on one proffession as example.

Blacksmithing. The only way i can figure out a way for blizzard to fix Blacksmithing(and all gear crafting profs) is to entierly remove item level restriction(as in it being locked to a specific Ilv).
Or to make that prof is the only way to get a piece in that slot.(As in Gear Crafting Prof can make items for the Chest, Legs, Shoulder & Gloves slot. and there whould be Extremly limited ways to get items elsewhere for those slots.

As it is now. As soon as a new "season/tier/whatever" comes around the gear from Mythic+ & PvP instantly makes all current crafted gear obsolete.

If you choose to go the toy/pet/gadget route it only benefits the people who already play the AH and make the prof worse for the rest.

[MoanaLisa]

How whould one even do that.

I'm fine with removing the ilevel restrictions and making the recipes a lot more stringent for high level gear. I'm one of those people that really doesn't understand why we can't continue to improve pieces up to raid-level gear. Lots of people don't raid but that doesn't mean they don't want nice things.

On a more meta level professions could just use a rethink entirely from the point-of-view of making it more of a Azeroth-in-its-entirety frame for materials, skills, etc. Why wouldn't it be fun to fight through a solo scenario to meet up with a world-class NPC crafter to get their assistance on raising a piece or a skill to a higher level. Why not have pieces that require several crafters working together in different professions to create something? Why not think about a crafting system that would make people think about crafting guilds? Crafting guilds as another driver of the economy could be kind of cool.

What's needed is to jump out of the rut that professions have been in and reconsider them as a more important part of the game that rewards patience.

I have no idea if that would be successful or not but professions suffer from a lot of the same problems as the rest of the game: too many years of just doing marginal variations on the same theme.

[Deleted]

Seems like these days Blizzard is making the wrong choice of what to do with professions every single expansion.

You need to be able to create 1-2 heroic pieces of loot from each crafting professions(that isnt alch and enchanting). THese pieces of loot could even be a small set a la Burning crusade to make them a little stronger then standard heroic pieces.

THe way they are now they might aswell remove everything but alch and enchanting as crafting professions.

[tkioz]

I must be in a minority of one because I actually like the Legion profession system.

Oh not the gating of recipes behind long-ass quest chains (ALCHEMY!!!!) but some quests and drops would be fine as it adds flavour of seeking out a master for training or a rare recipe last known to be in X location.

I really like the rank system, it gives you a tangible feeling of getting 'better' at your profession, though I don't like how you *get* the ranks with it being a random proc or drop. It would be much better if each recipe had it's own 'xp' style bar.

Lets say each recipe had seven ranks, once you learn rank one, making three items gives you rank two, making five more gives you rank three, etc. etc until you are at max rank in which case you not only have the cheapest version but you can also chose the affix you want (haste/mastery, crit/verse, etc) you want, though not the ratio.

I also like the idea of the obliterum system, just not how it was implemented. By having crafted gear being upgradable and simply raising the cap when a new raid tier comes out, it keeps the system semi-usable. It just needs a better way to actually do it, other than sitting at the forge mindless clicking a button for hours on end.

While I fondly remember the Wrath-era profession bonuses I can really see why they've gone away from that system, because you ended up with stupid things like Mages with Blacksmithing and skinning for the sockets and crit bonus. It was dumb af and I really doubt they'll ever do anything like that again.

Honestly what I'd like to see is something similar to the enchanting illusion books for other professions. Transmog stuff, you craft a transmog set using older materials that you can then sell.

[Powerogue]

I enjoyed the profession questlines and really hope they maintain those. It gave the professions a little more "character" even if most of the rewards from them are still mediocre.

I consider the WoD cheap mats allowing a quick push to legion levels to be a step in the right direction to make rolling a profession not prohibitively expensive as well.

Still, you're absolutely right that they have minimal value. I particularly detest the ranking system where, unless I get rank 3, I might as well not have the profession at all and just buy the damn things off the AH for cheaper. I want that system to die. Particularly for cooking. RNGesus must have something against me that I burned stacks upon stacks of bacon and other reagents for the entire duration of the expansion before I got that darn rank 3 lavish suramar feast.

I'd prefer if all professions had visible perks to having that profession again. I mean you've got engineering with the bank and mailbox which are nice, but the others...ooh I can make that buff last 8 hours instead of 2? The buff that really isn't that necessary so I don't spend the gold on it...?

I mean I get what they're trying to do, make the buffs a nice bonus without making them feel necessary for any form of raid progression but they feel too weak to justify leveling the skill. (though again, point in their favor, obliterum to get back some of your spent gold crafting profession items. good change.)

[dacoolist]

The crew on board for removing prof's I see You, but just know - it's what an mmo is kind of about: building up your stuff - selling/trading/being useful (hopefully lol)

I told my buddy that I think instead of stat balancing.. why not just have an item with +1 , or +6,075 MO BETTA' - see where I'm coming from.. You have stats, and weights, and balances to keep the mmo true to it's name. If you only had this or that was always better.. or removing everything from the game: The game would just lose it's fun and DIE imo..

This isn't Guild Wars 2, you don't just get everything the second you log in - IMO - It's oll' WoW

[HottyLGW]

I kind of like having food and flask buffs, just saying.

[tyrlaan]

Remove professions as they are now and bake the items into the loot rotations, weekly rewards, or just make stuff purchasable with the obscene amounts of gold we get these days?

Professions as they are now, seem to be generally denounced on my server (Wyrmrest Accord) as relics of a bygone era. They exist only because Blizzard thinks we need the nostalgic feeling of mass producing greens and blues for a week to be able to make 2 or 3 items or 4 to 6 enchants of value.

Obviously making professions matter requires effort and "resources" (whatever that means) on Blizzard's part which they certainly have no inclination to give at this point, so why not just do what they always do and "bake-in" professions into vendor items or special micro-holiday prizes?

If anything, I would LOVE to see professions mean something to our characters, but there are a LOT of things I would love to see that will just never happen, so in true blizz fashion, take the easy road and just put this system to death and move on.

Do you agree or do you actually find some meaning in these "professions" or, as I like to call them, a negative waste of time?

I sadly find them a waste of time as is, but I'd rather see them be improved upon than go away.

Some rough thoughts if I had my way....<cue dream sequence squiggles>

• Keep and enhance the quest and rank concepts from Legion, but don't get them tangled up in non-craft related grinds (i.e. having to sink 100s of cloth in a random vendor in Suramar may be fine on your main, but it's not compelling or fun for an alt)
• Meaningful catchup mechanics, especially since we'll be leveling allied race toons like crazy now. WoD seemed to do this pretty well.
• Actual relevant gear at max profession level. In Legion, by the time I could make max level gear, I could just do a few WQs and have better stuff. Profession gear helped me for maybe 5 minutes. Relevant doesn't have to mean raid quality, there's a healthy in-between that could be achieved. Possibly 2 tiers - max level normal dungeons and heroics.
• Competitive craftable raid gear with mats/recipes that come out of raid content
• Obliterate obliterum. Replace with interesting profession specific methods to enhance crafted gear (like adding a special mat or something). This could be the path to allowing professions to make relevant gear and even beyond. Also doubles as a way to make professions chock full of interesting flavor/lore stuff.
• Add interesting profession specific boons. Come up with a way to do this that doesn't make everyone be a skinner for the crit boost. Maybe provide a few options.
• More interesting profession specific items. War Drums are a good example of this.

[Kazuchika]

I enjoyed the profession questlines and really hope they maintain those. It gave the professions a little more "character" even if most of the rewards from them are still mediocre.

Yeah it sure was great doing a bunch of pointless quests and dungeons just so I could get flask recipes and then having to do them again on every alt I wanted that profession on just to benefit from the mixology perk.

I just love when the game wastes my time at every corner because they're determined to make you spend as much of your time doing utterly tedious shit as humanly possible

[Vorality]

I think professions were pretty good in Legion. Leatherworking, Tailoring, Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting have been pointless because tier sets and the inability to make the gear a high enough ilvl later in the expansion. With the removal of tier sets, hopefully this will make these professions have more of a use throughout the whole of BfA. Obliterum and primal obliterum was a nice thing as well, but again, eventually became useless. The warforging/titanforging system doesn't help crafting items either.

[cparle87]

[*]Actual relevant gear at max profession level. In Legion, by the time I could make max level gear, I could just do a few WQs and have better stuff. Profession gear helped me for maybe 5 minutes. Relevant doesn't have to mean raid quality, there's a healthy in-between that could be achieved. Possibly 2 tiers - max level normal dungeons and heroics.[/LIST]

900 gear in most slots, 935 for shoulders isn't relevant? Remember most people don't raid before you comment.

[tyrlaan]

900 gear in most slots, 935 for shoulders isn't relevant? Remember most people don't raid before you comment.

Hm... maybe I missed something between now and 10 months ago (took a break from the game)?

You need not remind me that most people don't raid, I'd have thought the thing you quoted from me would show I'm not focused on raiding

[Piesor]

As the game became more an more competitive professions became less interesting. Everything that gave players an advantage through professions was nerfed to the ground.
In the past Blizzard always tried to fix stuff that did not wotk for the players. Who had ever thought that they managed to revive diablo after the auction house disaster?

There's just so much untapped potential in professions. People just have to stop crying because there is one specific profession that gives the player a minimal overall damage advantage above other professions. I loved professions in TBC and Wotlk - had them maxed out on every alt. I also pushed professions while leveling with alts because it was fun!

In Legion only my main has maxed out blacksmithing only because of the mount. My alts didn't do any profession quests (except my flask slave). When I started new alts in Legion I didn't even choose a profession.

[cparle87]

Hm... maybe I missed something between now and 10 months ago (took a break from the game)?

You need not remind me that most people don't raid, I'd have thought the thing you quoted from me would show I'm not focused on raiding

Well, usually when I point out the gear professions can make people immediately post with (current X raid gives Y item level stuff that is Z item levels higher than the profession stuff, ergo it's useless) so I make a point to point it out whenever I talk professions.

[Kazuchika]

In Legion only my main has maxed out blacksmithing only because of the mount. My alts didn't do any profession quests (except my flask slave). When I started new alts in Legion I didn't even choose a profession.

Same. When a new alt hits 110 it's "here have enchanting so you can feed me shards from gear and herbalism because.. whatever just take it who cares"

How exciting Legion professions are!

[Morreh]

Frankly, it seems to me that professions may have just been best off being a tool to fill the toy box tab with.

I'm willing to bet there'd still be angry people making threads about 'the bouncy toy being clearly superior to the flashy toy'.

[kail]

No, just a heavily (like really heavily) rework is needed.

[Battlebeard]

Remove professions as they are now and bake the items into the loot rotations, weekly rewards, or just make stuff purchasable with the obscene amounts of gold we get these days?

Professions as they are now, seem to be generally denounced on my server (Wyrmrest Accord) as relics of a bygone era. They exist only because Blizzard thinks we need the nostalgic feeling of mass producing greens and blues for a week to be able to make 2 or 3 items or 4 to 6 enchants of value.

Obviously making professions matter requires effort and "resources" (whatever that means) on Blizzard's part which they certainly have no inclination to give at this point, so why not just do what they always do and "bake-in" professions into vendor items or special micro-holiday prizes?

If anything, I would LOVE to see professions mean something to our characters, but there are a LOT of things I would love to see that will just never happen, so in true blizz fashion, take the easy road and just put this system to death and move on.

Do you agree or do you actually find some meaning in these "professions" or, as I like to call them, a negative waste of time?

They need to make crafting relevant again. An example is to have Normal, Heroic or like Mythic raid crafting materials. If you kill a boss in lets say Heroic Antorus, you get a lets say "Argus Heroic Ore". With 5 or 10 or w/e Argus ore you can craft like a 950ilvl item, slot and armor type depends on profession. Same for like "Argus Mythic Ore" that give Mythic ilvl items with enough ores. This combined with more "traditional" crafting materials would be a good system.

Most professions rewards are completely useless to anyone who raids more than LFR...

[Sosua]

The also need to have Engineering make a Legendary like the rest