Hello!
As referenced in this post, crafting recipes that were discovered via a random research proc have been intentionally removed. In the original Mists of Pandaria, crafted Dreadful Gladiator items were not obtainable until patch 5.2 “The Thunder King”. Due to the way we develop WoW Classic expansions by starting with the code from the final patch (in this case, 5.4.8), this system was incorrectly hooked up at the start of MoP Classic, and we had to subsequently remove all iLvl 522 patterns that require Thunder King materials, as well as all Crafted Dreadful Gladiator patterns.
Please note: Even if these patterns were acquired by players, it was not possible to craft them, so no 522 item level items are currently in circulation in the game. These items will become accessible with the forthcoming Thunder King patch.
Impact on Players
Research procs were not wasted on these, and players did not learn any new recipes from crafts like Imperial Silk. For Leatherworking, Blacksmithing, and Tailoring, there was no research system in the original Mists of Pandaria until patch 5.2, so similarly in MoP Classic, there was no opportunity cost lost by using research procs before the Crafting Recipes were removed. There were no other patterns players could have gotten instead of the ones that were removed, and there are no more patterns to get now that they have been correctly removed.
To be as clear as possible: players that had recipes removed did not miss out on anything.
Considerations
Leaving these Crafting Recipes in at this early stage would have impacted the game in three ways:
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The Contender’s crafted set would have substantially lost its purpose and value, as the iLvl 450 items would be eclipsed by the 458 gear.
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The route to attain these items would draw interest away from activities like battlegrounds and dungeons. Part of the beauty of Mists of Pandaria Classic is learning and mastering your class by engaging in activities like PvP and dungeons.
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These items would have changed the flow of gearing for PvP: Contender’s (Crafted) → Dreadful (Honor) → Malevolent (Conquest). When The Thunder King comes along, the new route for PvP will be: Dreadful (Crafted) → Malevolent (Honor) → Tyrannical (Conquest). If the patterns were left in, we would have skipped a full progression step and circumvented the usefulness of Honor beyond purchasing the weapon and a few off pieces.
Impact on PvP
Early in Cataclysm Classic, a bug resulted in craftable items with extremely powerful end-of-expansion item-levels to be accessible from the start. Due to the substantial power imbalance this would create, these items needed to be removed. In MoP Classic, any iLvl 458 gear that was crafted is not egregious like that. Additionally, the crafted gear is very unlikely to be used for a substantial period of time, as players will soon get more powerful Conquest gear. Therefore, leaving in the game the small number of items that have been crafted poses virtually no risk of impact to character power.
“One piece of crafted Dreadful gear does not a Gladiator make” – Aristotle, probably
Dungeons
You may have also noticed that we mentioned dungeons above. Today, we’re turning the Justice → Honor and Honor → Justice conversion back on. This exchange will be available via the original Cataclysm vendors in Stormwind and Orgrimmar, at the conversion rate of 375 Honor for 250 Justice or vice versa.
As always, thank you for your feedback!