If you haven't heard, a thread on the official forums is being voted on for ask the devs on the topic of professions. They're taking hundreds of public questions and will answer a dozen or two of them later on. I sifted through a few pages and found some interesting ones that I'd like to see answered in depth. And of course, I found a few people that...ugh. People that just don't get it. See? I don't have to say moron every time I get annoyed. Wait, woops.
In any case, here's a few of the choice questions that I found with my own thoughts on them and a few that I pulled out just for the lol's. So you all get some gold theory and laughs today, aren't you lucky! It will be fairly long as there are a good number of interesting questions to be had and some seriously dumb one as well which is why I'm posting this on a Friday. But at the end of the day, it's an entry about a discussion, so it's meant more for entertainment and to be an "interesting read" more than anything else.
While you're reading it, think of how you would answer these select few questions if you were a developer, trying to balance use and fairness while catering to both socials and casual players. Not so much considering goblins though as we will always find a way to profit from a profession. Enjoy!
"Given that alchemists & herbalists have such a gigantic income (more so than jewel crafters, enchanters and blacksmithers) due to their unique ability to create disposable items, such as potions, flasks and elixirs."
Krakan
Undead mage
I had to start off with one of the silliest I found. Gems are consumables and so are enchants. Gear gets replaced, alts get gear, off specs and off off specs. There is more than enough gear to take care of. My weekly 100k+ profits say so. And as for alchemy being profitable, either you spend a dozen hours farming "for free," are on the luckiest server for an alchemist, or are simply clueless.
"Gathering professions are unattractive to both pve and pvp players .Do you have any plans on making them ither more fun ,moving them to a separate profession tier(and allow to have 1 with 2 craft professions) or merging them with the professions they are needed for - eg herb for alchemy and insciption ,mining for jc and bs ets."
Aprix
85 Human Warlock
This I think would be pretty cool, sort of like a tertiary profession. You get two crafting professions and one associated gathering profession. It would make deciding on profs a lot easier and make the leveling process streamlined a bit more I think. Would this be something you'd like to see? I mean I don't exactly farm a lot (at all) but it kills me when I see a line of 50 dead crocs and not one hunter in site or a string of rich ele nodes in a row. It would drastically increase supply of all materials minus ench mats and the gold wouldn't go to people that only speak binary.
"Are there any plans to make potions divisible into two types like elixirs? It can be annoying when you're unable to heal yourself under pressure because you had to add more dps to the target, and vice versa, so would it be possible to allow use of one restorative potion and one that grants a certain amount of a stat per fight?"
Maievs
85 Night Elf Rogue
Any love that alchemists get from Blizz the better I say. And this would be a massive boon to any guild that raids more than twice a week socially for the lulz. Since healer mana is very strict right now, and looks to stay that way, healing potions are amazing. In fact they have saved my life a couple of times to be honest. But then there are fights like Chimeron and the Ele council that throw that out the window. Big dps check and tons of strain on healers so you have to make a split second decision of "will I die? Will the extra few thousand damage mean a kill?"
That and it would make pot spec alchs a little bit more rich which is a great thing as I mentioned. I like that we have to make decisions on potions, but when you miss a prime time to use a dps pot (i.e. bloodlust, aligned proc bonuses) you can drastically lower it's value and you may not even need a healing pot the entire fight. Decisions are good, but when you choose wrong it's a near waste isn't so great.
"For a lot of the player base Archaeology is soul destroying. For some people having to complete over 1,000 artifacts to get the item they want is neither fun, nor casual (which was the purpose of this profession?). It is also gut-wrentching when you hear of someone who got the same item in less than 50 artifacts. Are there any plans to address this?"
Everybody
1-85 farmer/lore hound
Fuck that shit!
"Can we have an XXL JC bag? Those of us who cut gems for AH would have easier times with a 36-40 slot JC bag, as cut gems don't stack. Or just make cut gems stackable."
Ceriulun
85 Night Elf Druid
Dear god, how many times have I written this in an entry? Or times I said it in a comment? Seriously people, it kills me to see a 32 slot LW bag and a 24 spot gem bag. Who the hell has 32 different stacks of leather at once?
"Any plans about enchanting/disenchanting? I spent lots of gold lvling it. Yet it doesnt seem to give proffit,people just farm mats and dont give tips. Maybe give only the enchanter the possibility to dissenchant?"
Captivity
85 Tauren Priest
Yeah, look at my weekly reports and you can go cry. Thake a shower, wash off the shame, because you can't do it because you have failed.
"Will daily cooldowns become 7perWeek like Valors from heroics now?"
Melena
85 Human Priest
Not a likely occurrence, but this is a very interesting thought. If you could craft 7 truegold all at once and throw them on the AH all at once would you? I sure hope not, but a lot (90%) of people will. It would make for great flipping bargains and cause prices to swing heavily every Tuesday. This would mean that you have to at least be aware of this happening and then you can make some good money without any professions at all. More chances to make gold, more chances for the lazy and the stupid to, well, stay lazy and stupid.
"Are there any plans to allow a player to train more than two primary professions?"
Cyrogen
85 Draenei Shaman
The day that this happens is the day that 4,681 new bankers are born on every relm. /Hope
"Will there be any major quest chains or titles related to professions in the future?"
Isseit
85 Dwarf Paladin
This would be pretty cool I think. It would be pretty sweet to get a title or some such to have every BS or JC or Ench recipe in game. It would also make linking a profession easier to get a few oooh's and aaaah's from trade and pull out a few extra sales from people that want to touch your awesome. That and it would be wicked fun linking it in trade, or walking around with the title only to ignore/deny any requests for the service. Or just be an excuse to charge 400g to enchant earthen vitality teehee.
-insert 30 questions on epic gems, 10 on enchanting is terrible, 50 on get rid of the auto de because enchanters can't make money, another 6 on why is inscription so terrible at everything, and 20 more wanting goggles and alch trinkets upgraded-
"Make new dailies for every profession, maybe?"
Tumargran
85 Tauren Warrior
This I'd like to see only if it gave something more tangible than gold or profession currency. I'd like to see them give a random batch of materials for that profession or a chance at a bop recipe for a vanity item or a 346 crafted weapon that's cheap to make.
"With some professions, particularly Inscription, converting raw materials into items can be a very lengthy process. Inscription for example requires you to mill 4 times per stack of herbs to get pigments. You then convert these pigments into Inks, and then you can craft your item. Are there any plans to shorten this process?"
Almyna
85 Goblin Priest
This I believe was mentioned as something that Blizz wants to do in the future. Unfortunately I think you'll be raiding kara at 95 by then and I'll be long gone, but if this was implemented sometime soon... hoo boy! Every goblin siddenly gets triple their g/h by being able to either automate the process or cut it in half. Imagine if you could prospect 3,000 ore in a few minutes? Hell, I'd even be happy with prospecting an entire stack with one click instead of 4.
Thanks for stopping by!
Aren't there new profession bags incoming soon?
ReplyDeletehow about something simple like a title or ach for gold capping? While we may be looked at with a mixture of jealousy, envy, and disgust by our fellow players, we do take it seriously. While some people cap pretty quickly, it is far more difficult to cap than it is to get the Crusader title - dailies for weeks on end, hoarding tokens, etc. And you get 5 titles to boot. As opposed to grinding the AH where we have to watch our stock, watch the inventories on line, anticipate market conditions and changes, find base mats, etc. It's a profession in and of itself - it would be nice to get some recognition by people other than ourselves. Ah, the sad state of affairs that is goblinhood.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, lol at everyone who thinks 'chanting makes not gold.
ReplyDeleteSecond, JCs are getting 36 slot bags in 4.2! Rejoice!
Third, lots of good stuff here, Stok. I really like the idea of a tertiary (or, sub-secondary) gathering prof. I doubt it would be game breaking too. It's really easy to spin it as a way for hardcore PvP or PvE'ers to either "make some gold" or just supply their crafting professions. Getting the boosts from 2 crafting professions is great, but if you don't know how to make gold with them (prime example, engy) you're SoL. And for those of us who can make absurd profit without gathering profs, it's not like letting us use a farming prof is going to change anything. Mosty for those, as you pointed out, "ah dammit!" moments when no one's skinning TB crocs.
As for Arch, it is a fun-ish casual prof. It's only soulcrushing if you're really set on getting Zin'krok or whatever and don't want to raid for an equivalent. Making it faceroll removes the exclusivity, which is what's neat about it.
And finally, I think a blue did address auto milling/prospecting. It wasn't that they thought it was a bad idea or they're trying to limit us, I think the problem was they'd have to create separate new skills for *each* type of ore/herb. The looting function seems to me like it'd be a bit of a hassle to work around too.
P.S. (or, second "finally") Some sort of optional side quest for our professions would be fun. I really liked the random drop JC trinkets, and it'd be interesting to see that carried through. Wouldn't even have to be something useful to making gold, maybe just a short quest line to get a BoP epic or a vanity pet/item (or a mount, but that might be asking too much). I'm a sucker for silly RP things like that. Brining professions in to the game as more than simply "that thing you have to make gold/gear" would be pretty cool.
@ Bobbins
ReplyDelete36 spot gem bags fool! I love it! 36 spot gem bags in 4.2!
@ Wahlmart
The most accurate thing they can do with a title for the gold cap is make X gold from auctions, otherwise you can just "rent" out a gold cap to anybody you trust with that much gold. That would lead to a ton of QQ from it. But there's also the problem of almost nobody gets a million gold from a single toon with only 2 professions.
@ Vince
I'd really like there to be a bit more interesting lore in archy, maybe throw in a cut scene when you get like 15 rares of Brann opening a museum or some such. I think that'd be pretty fun and would make it worth doing even fi you don't want anything from it.
As for the "de/mill everything" the thought they had to make it function is basically you throw all of the ore you want to prospect into a box, hit smush, and gems fall out. Sort of like a slot machine.Instead of hitting mill everything you'd have to manually select what to mill and then hit craft all.
This would be no different than hitting the Craft All button for borean leather, heavy savage leather, rugged leather, etc.
""Given that alchemists & herbalists have such a gigantic income (more so than jewel crafters, enchanters and blacksmithers) due to their unique ability to create disposable items, such as potions, flasks and elixirs.""
ReplyDeleteI LOLed when I read that one.
Making ore and herbs mass prospectable/millable would be disastrous, it wouldn't increase gold/hour at all, it would absolutely wreck it. The time required to extract and then craft all that shit, particularly glyphs, is a significant gating mechanism that prevents all but the most dedicated from doing it en masse. If you suddenly allowed ore to be prospected all at once, the price of ore would skyrocket and the price of gems would just crash so hard. Further, there would cease to be any profit in milling herbs as blackfallow would flood the AH and fortune cards would plummet in value. Glyphs would also just totally flood the AH and never sell since theyd be so easy to make and there are so few buyers as it is.
ReplyDeleteSometimes people just need to be careful what they wish for with these types of things. A wholesale change such as this one would render crafting professions all but useless. Meanwhile bots would roam free everywhere hoping to cash in on it all.
Also, tertiary professions would likewise be disastrous for crafters. The reason why is because you'd suddenly have a lot more supply but an equal amount of demand for goods, such as scrolls, gems etc. Too many people with access to the controls is not a good thing when the number of levers to pull remains the same.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with Chris on both points. In fact, I think 2 primary professions is almost too much! Blizzard stated in the past that they tied many professions together on purpose, in order to intentionally generate a trade community. It was never their idea that a player could do everything themselves. WoW has become too isolated already (due to dungeon queues, portals, etc), it makes me sad that we seem to constantly be asking for more isolation.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as for simplifying the milling process, I definitely agree. Just take the pigment out of the equation all together. Mill a stack of herbs, loot ink, not pigment. Creating ink is utterly pointless.
Awesome that we're getting new gem bags in 4.2, but I'd MUCH prefer the ability to stack our cut gems instead. Even if they were just in stacks of five. Enchanted scrolls, belt buckles, potions/flasks, glyphs, spellthreads, scopes, leg armors -- EVERY other consumable from EVERY other profession stacks. I've never understood why gem cuts don't. Just seems like an oversight that is long overdue for a correction.
As for daily cooldowns becoming weekly cooldowns, Dreamcloth is a bit like this. Granted it's five instead of seven, and the product is soulbound, but I think I prefer a daily cooldown. The flipping opportunities would be nice, as you say, but that's only if the weekly reset is actually on Tuesday, rather than a straight 7-day cooldown (like Dreamcloth is). I sort of hope they don't change this.
Profession quest chains and titles would be awesome. I'd be all over that, as questing is a part of the actual game play I still really enjoy. "Master Jeweler Meece" has a nice ring to it! A title for reaching 1M wouldn't work though, since gold isn't soulbound.
Fun post today, thanks Stok!
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