The Burning Crusade did quite a bit to make tradeskills useful. While some were more powerful than others, almost all of them got something pretty nice, even the gathering skills. Tailors and Blacksmiths got a bit of an edge in gearing up for higher content, Leatherworking drums are one of the single most desired crafted items around for raids, Engineers got fantastic goggles and a pretty cool mount, Herbalists can pick powerful consumables, et cetera, et cetera. This is a major step up from life in vanilla WoW, where any tradeskills except Herbalism, Alchemy and Enchanting were almost entirely worthless.

Still, though, it kind of feels like crafting in WoW is... empty. The tradeskills are useful now, but I'm a strange fellow. The tradeskills need heart. They need flavor. I like my tradeskills having a larger effect on how you play. Leatherworking is actually a good example of this, from a conceptual point of view. I love the idea of drums having an active effect on things. It isn't just a passive stat increase that you equip or cram in your mouth. It's something you need to be conscious of, something you need to actively use. I don't really know how you could do this for all tradeskills, but I'd love to see more of it. No, those crappy nets don't count.

Another thing I'd like to see expanded from The Burning Crusade is location-specific crafting. Making my Spellcloth, Primal Mooncloth and Shadowcloth every few days seemed like an adventure, if a tedious one. Spellcloth was especially fun! You had to arm and prepare yourself before you hit the 'create' button until your gear was good. Fishing before The Burning Crusade was not nearly as useful as it is now, but I liked time of day and season having an effect on things. Stocking up on Grilled Squid in the appropriate season and using it to negotiate deals with rogues and hunters was great fun, I think. I'd like to see that come back in some form in Wrath, though maybe not as extreme.

What would you like to see out of crafting in Wrath? Are you hoping for something more dynamic, or are you a (wo)man of simple pleasures and all you need is a great big sword to be happy?

Tailors rejoice! All of that Spellcloth and Primal Mooncloth you've been sitting on isn't going to go to waste! Well, maybe. Shadowcloth, nobody likes you and you smell. Please go away. ...Just kidding!

Tailors are going to get two different sets, Sunfire and Eternal Light, each consisting of a robe and a pair of gloves. The former is a DPS set, and the latter is a healing set, naturally. They're loaded up with red sockets, and the socket bonuses are a pretty clear cut boost with no need to dance around to get them. The gloves of both sets require Sunmotes, so keep in mind that you probably won't be able to make these right away. The Sunmotes are likely drops inside of the Sunwell instances, potentially the raid zone. We can hope otherwise though, right? Luckily, the Sunmotes seem to be the only especially rare material required. The rest is just fairly mundane primals and cloth.

It is a bit strange that there is no new Shadowcloth set, but it's possible we simply haven't seen it yet. I have my doubts Primal Mooncloth and Spellcloth specced tailors would be the only ones recieving anything new in this patch. Sure, the pieces aren't tied to those specific specs, but Shadowcloth tailors want to put their transmute to good use, too!

Stats and materials after the jump, courtesy of our good friend over at MMO Champ.

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

If you're a clothie, you've probably already figured out that you are going to need to take up tailoring at some point, if you're really serious about your gear. In fact, many players would argue that tailoring is mandatory for the serious cloth caster. There's no denying that the BoP tailored sets – Frozen Shadoweave, Primal Mooncloth and Spellfire – are some of the best items you can get ... And of course, since they are BoP, you must be a tailor who is specialized in that cloth type in order to use them.

Despite knowing all of this, I persisted in taking up herbalism and alchemy on my new shadowpriest recently, figuring I could always drop one or the other and powerlevel tailoring later ... Only it's later already, and I know I need to start the inevitable process
of slogging through my four-day cooldowns if I want to get my Frozen Shadoweave any time soon. (Actually, I'm trying to decide whether or not to rely on PvP gear for DPS and make the Primal Mooncloth set for my healing moments, or if I should go right for the Frozen Shadoweave – but that's a topic for a different column ... or the comments section!)

So if you, too, foresee a BoP tailored set in your future but aren't yet a skilled tailor, join me after the break for a tour through the top 1-300 guides and more tips for the final stretch from 300 to 375.

Today I made my first two pieces of Shadowcloth. It's quite an accomplishment for my level 62 warlock, with the somewhat dangerous trek out to the Altar of Shadows. As I was feeling the roaring winds of the air elementals snap at my behind as I rode, I began to wonder if I shouldn't have chosen one of the other two paths instead.

It's a lot of work to jog on out to the Altar, and you take your life into your hands every time you do. Somehow the three disciplines seem somewhat uneven. Had I chosen Mooncloth tailoring, my travel time would include a small jaunt out to the Cenarian Refuge and a dip in the Moonwell.