As Wrath information is leaking from the alpha testing, we are seeing more and more glimpses into the expansion than ever before. This week, Insider Trader will be analyzing some of the changes and new abilities on the horizon for craftsmen. Because some people would really rather not know this information, I'm placing all of it beyond the break. It should be noted that none of these details are set in stone, and in fact, many will never make the actual expansion, or change significantly before it.
Still, it is interesting to look into Blizzard's process, as they expand and evolve the professions, and create a new one. A few of the changes indicate that they are indeed listening to some of the ideas craftsmen have put forth for what they'd like to see, and I think we should be excited about some of the developments on the horizon.
One of the major ideas that players have been tossing around is the idea that a tradesman could add a socket onto an existing item, and it appears that Blizzard is testing out that idea right now. So far, it appears that blacksmiths will be able to add a socket to weapons.
It is possible that each profession, specifically the armor-crafting trades, will be able to add sockets to weapons and armor. It is unclear whether we'll be able to do this for non-crafted items, although that sounds like something that would be right up the alley for your neighborhood engineer.
Hopefully, the sockets will not stand in place of armor kits or enchants, but rather, add another layer of opportunity for modification and personalization.
The alpha notes also do not indicate whether or not there will be item level limits placed on the socketing process. If there will be none, I think we'll see a huge change in the ability of twinks to tweak their gear. Because many of the Burning Crusade item modification kits, such as those made by leatherworkers, have no item level requirements, it stands to reason that this is indeed a possibility.
In keeping with the theme of frosty Northrend, there seems to be a fair amount of ice-related items, from enchants, to new types of ore. There are also plenty of new types of enchants being leaked, along with upgraded versions of old favorites, with modifiers such as "greater" and "exceptional."
Looking at some of them now, as it was when we were looking at Burning Crusade items prior to the expansion, the stats and abilities added by these enchants seem huge, and your average current raider trying to push their stats all the further would pay hefty sums to get at these pre-expansion.
It does give us an idea, however vague, of how much gear will be upgraded once we enter Northrend. They're also suggestive of the abilities we'll be needing.
For example, the notes include a Giant Slayer enchant, which is applied to your weapon, and gives you a chance to reduce the giant's movement speed, and do additional damage against it. Does this mean we'll be seeing a lot of giants, particularly in dungeons?
Unfortunately, none of the other professions have so far been covered in the leaked information, so we're left to speculate. There are a few enchants that seem designed to help you bite through frost, so it seems logical that crafted resist gear might be frost-specific. Of course, there is also a focus on damage to the undead, which should come as no surprise at this point.
Hopefully, when more information is released, we'll start to see more positive changes to professions as a whole, along with neat new things. I think it's important that the holes and the shortcomings are patched up, rather than simply being given a slew of new toys. The possible addition of the ability to install sockets on items is a step in the right direction.
Still, there are other changes that need to happen. Personally, I found that by the time I had the reputation to purchase a specific pattern that I wanted, I no longer felt that the materials required were worth the effort of a tiny upgrade, if it wasn't already a downgrade.
Another trend that many people have noticed with the Burning Crusade was the lack of useful, sought-after bind on equip crafted items that could be sold to other players. Many of the BoE patterns I've collected were blue resist gear, or required, at the time, that I either be wasting all the badges I could use to buy my own gear, or be running raids, in order to acquire the necessary bind on pick-up materials.
Not only does this hinder players from making money from their professions, it also misses an opportunity to help fill a hole in a class' itemization. For example, if you find yourself gearing up for Kara, with a pair of boots that really don't do the job, and no upgrades realistically pre-Kara that don't require a crazy number of badges, then it would be helpful if there were crafted items that you could find on the auction house, or direct from the craftsman.
I'd personally like to see each and every profession be lucrative, and so useful to several classes and specs, that people start to feel like personally learning all of them. Instead, many class guides will steer you away from leatherworking or blacksmithing, noting that there isn't much you'll want to craft for yourself, and of course, you aren't going to turn a profit after leveling it.
What changes are you hoping that Wrath will bring? If you've looked at the alpha notes, are you satisfied with the profession abilities listed so far, or do you find some of them to be inadequate?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-23-2008 @ 8:31PM
Jonathan said...
I would love to see enchanting create a BOE scroll instead of having to be directly applied to an item. I'm an alt-o-holic and I've worked hard to collect recipes for my enchanter but that doesn't benefit my other characters since they all reside on one account. If I could enchant a scroll and mail that or even sell them on the auction house it would make enchanting much more useful for me personally.
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5-23-2008 @ 8:40PM
Edboy said...
You fell on your head a while back didn't you?
5-24-2008 @ 5:04PM
Loadead said...
quid pro qui clarise. Quid pro qui.
5-24-2008 @ 1:18AM
Lori said...
It sounded like this is what inscriptions would do when they were announced at Blizzcon last year. But the recent Wrath info sounds like they will be something new entirely.
5-23-2008 @ 8:44PM
Mives said...
I'd love to see tailors/LW/BS being able to repair their respective armour sets.
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5-23-2008 @ 8:53PM
Grondosh said...
If I read this correctly then that means speccing Armorsmith wasn't a mistake after all.
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5-23-2008 @ 9:22PM
Tiforix said...
What changes am I hoping for? How about an elixir for casters that doesn't need Dreamfoil?! Can you belive that 16 months after TBC's release I'm still farming Dreamfoil?
In all seriousness, I'd love to see some more alchemist-only items, or versions for alchemists that are more powerful. The Mad Alchemist's Potion was a good step in the right direction. Hopefully we'll see some more stuff like that.
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5-23-2008 @ 11:51PM
Felthar said...
Alchemist-only items? You mean like the Alchemist's Stone trinket, and the awesome SSO buffed versions?
5-23-2008 @ 9:33PM
CursedSeishi said...
Hmm, my main is a jewelcrafter, and one thing that would be interesting to see is a continuation of the statues I loved to stack as I leveled. They were one of the best soloing tools I've used in my opinion. Nothing like throwing one down and having your stone buddy throwing you a great channeled heal ability, though I think they could be attacked, not sure lol.
Another interesting thing to see would be a way to alter the color a gem needs, even if it could only be done for yourself.
Something else, that could really be expanded, is the prismatic and such gems. It would be interesting to see an epic prismatic gem that could be crafted through several blue cut gems or the like. The Brilliant Glass was a great first step, and I hope they do something more.
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5-23-2008 @ 10:32PM
B.D. Martinez said...
You know I was tossing around my head since my main does blacksmithing, but I would love to have the ability to smelt items in to useable metal bars. The way that you can disenchant items for enchanting why not to the same with armor or cloth. I just think that would be great from profession progression if you ask me.
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5-24-2008 @ 12:01AM
Erthshade said...
One thing I'd like to see, and I admit this is minor: give each of BS, LW and Tailoring the ability to change leg armors between kilt and pants for the appropriate class of armor (mail, leather, cloth... not plate. Plate kilts make no sense at all).
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5-24-2008 @ 2:16PM
RogueJedi86 said...
Paladin Tier 2 is a kilt, and it looks damn good, one of the best-looking armor sets in the game. Plate Kilts can work. :)
5-24-2008 @ 12:51AM
p0larb3ar said...
how about some rep items for BS that isn't resist gear,
or some rep items for BS and Eng that are useful and can be sold. And one more thing, some BS gear that isnt for DPS, give the tanks and healers some love.
I'd love to see some crafted shields, or some healing maces/ tanking weapons. that dont require you to spend 1000g for the plan and then another 1000+ for the mats.
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5-24-2008 @ 12:53AM
Balius said...
I'd love to see crafting professions getting a boost, up to and even surpassing raid drops. Before you go insane, let me explain: if a blacksmith, for instance, could only get certain blacksmithing regents from raid instances, there's no reason the item created from those regents were not on par with the drops. Moreover, since the item would be specific to a profession, and require multiple drops from potentially multiple raids, it's reasonable then to reward the player with a stronger weapon or armor than those that individually drop within the instances the materials came from.
Its disheartening to know that 375 levels of leatherworking becomes a set of drums if you take up raiding.
I'd also think that making dyes and things to color armor would be interesting; People get certain enchants just for the glows, and I've heard people complain about characters in mismatched armor (especially while leveling and before tiers). Even if dyes were disabled for certain levels of clothes (so Blizzard can keep palette swapping to make Arena gear), or if color was an optional addition upon crafting, I think people would be happier. (I understand it wasn't included originally to avoid being seen as copying Ultima Online, but UO is pretty well forgotten). Mismatched armor doesn't bother me, but it would help somewhat for RPing and there's a demand for it everywhere.
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5-27-2008 @ 3:57PM
Rob said...
They already did this for pats in T5/T6/sunwell. They all require stuff that only drops from the instance, and the gear at the appropriate level. usually its a BOP recipe and BOE gear, or visa versa. You really dont see that stuff on the AH because of the mats requirements. I think its a great idea and a strong incentive to keep one crafting profession.
I think the main issue with crafting (I do LW/enchant) is that they are all absolutely useless until outlands (where right off the bat you have great enchants/gear sets that arent replaced). For example for enchanting you have +26 AP gloves/bracer, those are best in class for dpsers like hunters. For LW you have 4 set green patterns which are as good as quest rewards or better (esp with set bonus).
They could really make crafting much more viable by having enchants be able to put onto a paper or something that you can sell on AH (as mentioned at blizzcon last year), and increase the item level for crafting to make it on par with quest rewards that you'd get around that level. Typically when you level LW you are 10-20 character levels behind, ie the stuff you need to make a item comes from a level 50 mob, yet the item is level 30 or 40.
But the main thing: Stupid people pricing items for *less* than it costs to make, even end-game stuff. Example: riding crops. Can't sell them for more than the cost of a primal might, people complain high and low. So we end up taking a 20g hit every time we make one of these.
5-24-2008 @ 1:10AM
Lori said...
Also, make it so set items can be crafted and worn at the same level. The Shadoweave set starts at tailoring level 215 with the robe and ends at level 245. Being able to wear it starts at level 38 and ends at level 44. Before you can finally wear the whole set, it's time to start replaceing items with better ones.
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6-27-2008 @ 5:02PM
Descentia said...
I agree with Lori...THAT is irritating!
5-24-2008 @ 2:15AM
Tran said...
Give Engineers the portable mail terminal again! It was in the BC beta iirc but didn't make it through to live, and with Northrend supposedly being bigger than Outlands that's a long way from a mailbox, and I somehow doubt that the Timbermaw are going to make use of Azerothian mail...
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5-24-2008 @ 3:02AM
Euphorion said...
I'd love to see engineers get a utility belt that gives them a third trinket slot that can only be used for their gadgets. I love my Goblin Rocket Launcher, but it's hard to justify keeping it equipped when there are so many more functional trinkets out there.
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5-24-2008 @ 3:22AM
ErsatzPotato said...
"The Shadoweave set starts at tailoring level 215 with the robe and ends at level 245. Being able to wear it starts at level 38 and ends at level 44. Before you can finally wear the whole set, it's time to start replaceing items with better ones."
You can cruise to Hellfire wearing that gear. My BC 'lock did. Pre-BC it was truly great gear, one of the few ways to get +dam, and of even fewer ways to do it without rare drop patterns (dreamweave), pre-raid.
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