At BlizzCon, we learned of what Blizzard has planned for professions in patches as well as the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. We are not getting a knitting profession any time soon, regardless of what Penny Arcade says, but we are getting Inscription and a lot of love for our current professions.
What kind of love? How, what, when? Your questions are answered after the jump:
What kind of love? How, what, when? Your questions are answered after the jump:
All Professions
Overall, Blizzard says they will be providing recipes for items where there is a gap in itemization. So if there's not enough Boomkin gear to go around, for example, Leathercrafters will get recipes for gear to fill that gap. Their goal is to make crafted items more valuable to prospective recipients in order to make the professions better. They specifically are optimizing the gear for leveling from 70 to 80. Blizzard says that the items used to skillup should actually sell.
Speaking of skillups, Blizzard is looking into making it easier for high level characters to change their professions without having to "noob it up", so to speak. In development is a plan to not have to go kill wolves in Elwynn Forest if you change to Skinning late in the game, for example. Also, Blizzard plans to smooth out the progression from 275 to 300. It was purposely difficult to get those last points when 300 was the max, but now this added level of difficulty is unnecessary -- so those last 25 points before 300 will be easier to get.
Blizzard has declared camping vendors for limited quantity recipes as unfun and is going to stop it. (Captain Obvious strikes again!) All vendors are going to have the same "pool" of blue and purple recipes which will randomly appear on them. It will be random enough so that you won't be able to guess when to camp them and any vendor can be carrying a rare recipe from that pool at any time.
Profession Daily Quests will be added to the game starting in Patch 2.3. Cooking will be the first profession to get daily quests, but Blizzard plans to implement them for all of the professions.
The Burning Crusade added one third more recipes to the game. Wrath of the Lich King is going to add another third on top of that. But we're also going to be seeing some goodies for professions in Patch 2.2 and 2.3. I have marked next to an item if Blizzard gave an actual timeline for implementation.
Alchemy
- Alchemist-only potions! Woot! Overall, Blizzard likes the "Best in Slot" profession-only recipes and plans to expand them for each profession, and add them to Alchemy.
- Transmutes will change to a daily cooldown. You will be able to log on at any time of day to do your transmute and it will reset the next day like a raid instance.
- Discoveries that are considered "core" recipes will be easier to discover or be obtained outside of the discovery system.
Blacksmithing
- At least one new shield pattern is forthcoming at some point.
- Daily Cooking quests are going to be in Patch 2.3. These quests will not only give mats for cooking, but also randomly reward rare recipes that cannot be obtained any other way.
- New recipes for Melee Hit, Spell Crit and a fun random lightning damage one (Storm or Shockchops) -- the effects of which will change in the rain and/or near an ambient creature.
Enchanting- Enchanting will be able to create items that players can use to enchant their gear. These items will be able to be sold on the AH. Standing around town hawking your enchants will become a thing of the past, except perhaps for high-end, super-rare enchants.
- New Enchant: Executioner -- "juicy" armor penetration proc with an effect that is at least as cool as Mongoose
- Engineers will be able to produce more valuable gear that non-Engineers can use.
- Flying Machines are being added.
- If Blizzard can figure out how to remove the exploit possibilities, the engineered Portable Mailbox will return to the game. (It was removed during Beta.)
- Overall, Engineering is getting some "love".
Jewelcrafting- Jewelcrafter-only gems! These gems will be of purple value, but will be made of blue gems.
- New recipe: Steady Talasite -- Resilience and Stamina gem that will be implemented in Patch 2.2.
Mining
- Blizzard is looking into increasing the mining nodes and decreasing the respawn time.
- More mines will be added to dungeons.
Inscription
- New profession being introduced in Wrath of the Lich King.
- Inscription will increase the power of skills and spells and will be usable on others.
- Inscription may also add an extra component to a spell, for example, knockback on Fireball. The extent of the flexibility has yet to be decided on by Blizzard.
- Items will be created -- one developer said it wouldn't be scrolls but another developer said it would. These items will be able to be sold in the AH.
- Because eventually everyone will have all of their spells and abilities inscribed, there will also be a separate item creation component to the profession that has not been finalized yet.
- While Blizzard says that Inscription "will not be like Enchanting or Alchemy", there is no word yet as to the mats required to inscribe.
I am pretty excited about the Daily Profession Quests and the Alchemist-Only Potions. Overall, I'm hoping that the changes to professions will mostly happen before WotLK -- but I'm impatient like that. Inscription sounds like it will be a pretty useful craft. What are you most excited about? What important profession change do you think is missing from Blizzard's plan?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
8-10-2007 @ 11:18AM
Lord of the Ming said...
This makes me want to make a engineering Alt...
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8-10-2007 @ 11:29AM
Ted said...
I for one am getting really irritated at more and more "selfish" profession abilities, especially when certain professions are almost like having a 4th and 5th talent tree... but as players we have NO clue which one is going to be the "required" profession in the next expansion.
Re-profession costs make switching a very expensive proposition.
They need to let us have more professions or significantly reduce the number of "selfish" special powers.
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8-10-2007 @ 11:30AM
Polarina said...
They are missing Enchanter-only recipes in Enchanting.
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8-10-2007 @ 11:33AM
Sylythn said...
I finally have a shot at turning a profit with Enchanting!!! :)
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8-10-2007 @ 11:34AM
Sylythn said...
@3 - Nope, all the Ring Enchants are Enchanter-only...they soulbound the ring to you when you cast the enchant.
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8-10-2007 @ 11:39AM
lucifer.cross said...
Thankfully, some engineering love! I can quit thinking about dropping it for something else now.
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8-10-2007 @ 11:40AM
PyroAmos said...
where are the BoP wands crafted from enchanting. kinda sad you can make 4 low level wands and then that side of enchanting dies lol.
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8-10-2007 @ 11:42AM
Aurdon said...
No love for Tailor?...well we did get some epic crafted items but so did Blacksmiths... I would like to see some more tailor only items that are a tad more useful then nets..
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8-10-2007 @ 11:48AM
innajunglestylee said...
A chance to make money at enchanting how? Selling +AP scrolls? Front loading several hundred gold for a +spell dmg bracers or mongoose scroll only to have somebody else put one up for 10g less?
I think that consumable enchanting scrolls will be of less use than people think -- rarer enchants will remain the province of trade channel, while trainer enchants will end up being like people who try to sell stuff they make leveling BS or LW. The main benefits of scrolls will be:
1) sending skill ups to friends instead of spamming them on a piece of gear for powerleveling ("here you go hunter, have 10 + AP glove enchants for your next few upgrades!")
2) enchanting gear for alts, which has been a bit frustrating in the past.
Otherwise, I don't foresee this as the moneymaker enchanters have been dreaming of. The real moneymaker was always selling mats on an alt, then getting a tip for doing the enchant. Lather, rinse, repeat.
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8-10-2007 @ 11:50AM
Chadwick said...
I heard the same about Inscription regarding scrolls. Although when talking with the developers and others "on the inside"(there words not mine) it was indeed scrolls.This would give the Inscription a "sellable" item.
Part of the questioning stemmed from the fact that they are adding more items an Enchanter can sell and they didn't want to repeat the "issues" coming from that.
Then a few of my fellow players decided that it could also be charms from diablo. Charms just sit in your bags and give you bonuses, etc.
We shall see.
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8-10-2007 @ 11:53AM
Milktub said...
Woot! Alchemist-only potions!!! I knew being an alchemist would pay off for something other than being "that guy who'll give you free Super Mana Potions if you group with him".
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8-10-2007 @ 11:55AM
Rob said...
I have to say it...
Everyone + Knockback/Knockdown + PvP = REALLY F'ING ANNOYING COMBAT!
I hope that's not a real effect you can add to your spells!
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8-10-2007 @ 11:56AM
Chadwick said...
@3 One "Blizz-type" ( I have no idea what these guys do but they all where wearing the fancy blizz shirts)hinted at enchanter only belt enchants.
@7 I asked about this and didn't get any real answer.
It just seems like they completely dumped the idea. I wonder if it is because they do indeed plan on coming up with other professions that would do this. Seems like a waste.(Same issue with staves and bows, etc.)
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8-10-2007 @ 11:56AM
FelisLachesis said...
Aurdon: Spellfire/Primal Mooncloth/Frozen Shadoweave not enough? :) Unless you are a clothie, then these sets don't do much, but if you're not a clothie, why tailoring? :)
Anyway, this is what I wanted to comment about. From the article:
Blizzard has declared camping vendors for limited quantity recipes as unfun and is going to stop it. (Captain Obvious strikes again!) All vendors are going to have the same "pool" of blue and purple recipes which will randomly appear on them. It will be random enough so that you won't be able to guess when to camp them and any vendor can be carrying a rare recipe from that pool at any time.
So... basically... what you're telling me is, that it's no fun to look for limited quantity items, so you're going to make it even harder than before to get it? If it's not fun, why not just turn off the idea of "limited quantity" and just make the proper vendor sell unlimited amounts of an item?
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8-10-2007 @ 11:56AM
Sylythn said...
@9 - No, I don't expect to turn a profit on the highest level stuff, I'm just happy to get tips on that - they're so costly you can't really expect them to sell, and you either have to wait a LONG time to get all the mats, or purchase some of them yourself.
What i'm thinking of is the ever-popular +12 stamina enchant to boots. That's cheap as hell, quits giving skill ups really early, and I've always got more Arcane Dust on hand than I need. It's basically Enchanting's Armor Kit :) I could use up my massive stock of arcane dust by making and selling those things. It's not like I purchased the raw materials anyhow - so it's pure profit.
With any profession, the moment you actually purchase the raw materials to make your item, you've lost profit. But if you've got a surplus of gathered mats that didn't cost you anything, that can be turned into income.
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8-10-2007 @ 11:57AM
Zuty said...
So I take it that Flying Machines are confirmed?
~Zuty
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8-10-2007 @ 11:59AM
Paw said...
I'm liking the attention Engineering is getting! I picked the profession strictly to be able to play with all the gee-whiz gizmos and explosives. I never expected to make any money off of it. In fact, to this point, it has been a big hole in the ground I through my gold into. The opportunity to make items that I could actually sell is great news!
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8-10-2007 @ 12:11PM
Bart said...
Alchemist Stone should give +40% bonus to all potions/elixirs you use.
For example: Flask of Relentless Assault would not give just 120ap but 168ap.
Its not overpower because i would need to be wearing that trinket, loosing whatever great bonuses the old trinket gives.
And since pots cant be used on arenas, this would make this a PVE only ability.
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8-10-2007 @ 12:13PM
Paw said...
On my server, Smolderthorn, I don't recall anyone actually "camping" any of the vendors. If they ever did, it was before I moved there in November. If camping vendors was so much fun I suspect there would be people, I don't know, camping the vendors. I used the rare plans/recipes I'd get from certain vendors to make a few extra gold per week, but I never camped any of them. If I was passing through, I'd stop to see if they had said plan/recipe. In an ironic twist, this proposed new system of a rotating pool that a segment of vendors would pull from, thus causing random recipes/plans to become available will likely cause a rise in the value of said plans. If you don't know where to get it, you don't know where to get it when you want it. When you want it because it is time for you to learn it, you will be more likely to just buy it off the AH if it is available instead of shooting craps on which one of the vendors might be carrying it today. In a sense...Blizzard is going to make "vendor farming" much more fun...indeed...unless they make the rare plans/recipes BoP. That would squash that.
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8-10-2007 @ 12:23PM
innajunglestylee said...
Until they start charging us to list Dust/Shards/Crystals, It really makes the most sense to keep a constant supply of that stuff on AH instead of bothering with purchasing a scroll, enchanting it, then listing it on AH for a feee. Dust is fungible -- a +12 Stm to boots scroll isn't.
But I can see that one doing okay -- it's a slightly rarer recipe at a low cost. Still, I feel like that one is kind of a rarity among scrolls that will be worthwhile. Most of the enchants people really want are too mat intensive for me to bother putting them on AH and paying a listing fee over and over just so "LolpwnedyouatAH" can undercut me.
Anyway it's all pie in the sky til they actually institute it. And I'll keep sucking down my 20g tips for Mongoose every time I log in and have five minutes in Shatt/Org.
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