First of all, this list is just things I would like to see. They are things that would make professions more fun for me. I am not claiming it would make them better. I am not claiming it would be good for the game. I fully admit I might have terrible ideas. These are just things I think would be fun and make me happier to do professions. That out of the way, here we go.
Restructure quests.
I like the way we learn most of our patterns from quests. It made me feel more like I was learning instead of just filling up a bar. But the system could use a little tweeking. They pretty much said this is going to happen but here's how I'd like to see it go down.
At 110 and with the next rank trained you get a small quest chain, say maybe 3 long, one per zone. So you can rush out to get them done if you want or just work on it while you level up. At the end of it you get your base line crafts, the blues that help fresh 120s get into heroics cheap. I'm thinking maybe low level food for cooks, pots for alchemists and consumables for engineers.
At 120 you get another, similar chain. The end of this one though gets you the end game crafts. The gear that gets people into m0 and raids. This would be the max stat food, flasks and toys/pets level for cooks, alchs and engs.
Short, sweet, and you're done. Should still hold that sense of growth but not bogging you down or taking too long.
Restructure ranks.
I like the IDEA of ranks, but not the way it was put in. Here's some ideas on how I think it would work better.
Rank 1:Requires the use of a station. For every profession. You need to be in your capital city to make anything at rank 1. You just learned to work with this new material, learned new ways to make things, you need a little help.
Rank 2:Can be made anywhere. You've gotten used to making this one so now you can make it anywhere! No need to be at the station for it. Learned by crafting rank 1. You have a chance every time you make the item to learn rank 2, with a cap point so you will learn it after X number of crafts. You might learn it sooner with luck, but you will get it if RNG screws you.
Rank 3:For non-consumables you can make it with less materials. For consumables you make more. You're more efficient, you can get the same results with less materials, letting you make more! Learned...not sure. There's a part of me that likes the WQ way, but RNG can keep you from getting it too easily. Rep grinds for patterns are a pain for alts. I don't like the idea of patterns dropping from bosses, never have. The only other idea I have is to learn it like you do rank 2, only you need more crafts for it and a lower chance to learn it early.
Realm wide crafting storage.
I would love it to have all of my mats on the same server inside one large bank. 1000 slots sounds fair to me. Please note I am saying Realm wide, not account wide. I have issues with account wide. Namely the people with gold on a ton of realms. They'd end up buying cheap on 1 realm and sell high on another. Account wide mat storage would screw up realm economies hard. Only if they did a full merger of AH realms would this be acceptable to me.
Return specializations.
I LOVED specializations. I miss them. There were flaws with them back in the day but most of them aren't even a factor of crafting any more. Namely the idea of BoP gear. I would love for BS to get weapon and armor back. LW to pick between leather and mail. ETC. I think it would be fun to pick one side or another, help you pick your niche on your server.