So, at the moment professions were changed to feel more “rewarding” with the crafting of the legendary items. However there are a few problems with this revamp. the main one in my eyes is that there are professions that you constantly must use on your day to day, and those that you very rarely need.
Example: Alchemy is very useful on a daily basis. assuming you do m+ content or raiding you are using at least a few flasks a day along with various potions and oils.
Enchanting and JC are B tier here. You can re-enchant your gear and re-gem it according to sims or if you get a new piece of gear.
Blacksmith is tier C. you need it for your legendary item but once you buy it you don’t really need anything else from them.
at the end of the day the “best” professions to have as an M+ player are alchemy and engineering. Alchemy gives you access to 2 hours of flasks which is the only bonus you get from professions right now. Engineering gives you access to personal portal, combat ress, belt enchants, personal glider and an auction house in oribos if you’re a poor sap with no longboi.
In raiding environment it’s even worse. no one uses the engineering CR really and most of the belt enchants are irrelevant. Alchemy is still great though.
none of the other professions brings anything special to the fold and in many cases are just not worth learning.
So here are some of the thoughts I have on how to make professions more interesting and useful.
For starters, I am going to focus mostly on M+ content and raiding.
One of the main issues currently with the system of M+ is just how strong the meta comps are compared to other comps. things like mass roots, trents, combat ress as utility are very impactful along with 5% spell dmg buff and so on.
professions should help bridge these gaps to allow more players to join content. I got into groups on my hunter solely because I had Combat Ress on him.
Lets break down my suggestion per profession:
- Inscription:
Bring back scrolls to fill in gaps in buffs. Int buff, Stamina Buff, 5% magical buff, 5% physical buff.
Bring back the old glyph system instead of the hot mess of conduits (I am not going to get into this one, since it’s a different topic but i’ll leave a link to a different post about the problematic systems of Shadowlands as an expansion)
- Leatherworking:
Remove armor kits. it’s not interesting and not fun to use or track.
Revert the drums nerf and make drums work the following way:
Gives 25% haste for 40 seconds. If the drum user is a leatherworker it will give 30% haste for 40 seconds.
Add 3 new drums that share the same fatigue cooldown. instead of giving 25% haste these will give 25% crit/vers/mastery.
This change opens up a lot of room for interesting comps.
- Blacksmith:
Create Auto repair for people to be able to repair their gear. works inside dungeons and raids. can be used by non-blacksmits as well.
Will be able to sell items that will add sockets to your gear.
These will be colored and only specific color gem can go into these.
Red sockets can be added to main piece gear such as chest, pants, head, shoulders. 1 per item.
Yellow sockets can be added to smaller parts of the gear such as wrists, gloves, back, belt and boots. 1 per item.
Green sockets can be added to jewelry such as rings and necks. 1 per item.
Meta Socket can be added to weapon - Unique. can only add one meta socket.
- Jewel Crafting
revamp gems in the following way:
Red gems = main stat (int/str/agi) can be places in red sockets only. Note that the stat itself is determined by your spec. Holy paladins will not have to regem their whole gear if they want to play ret.
Yellow gems = secondary stats (Vers/Crit/Haste/Mastery) Can be placed in Yellow sockets only.
Green Gems = minor stats (speed/ XP gain/ Rep gain/ Avoidance/ Leech/ Armor) can only be placed in green sockets.
Meta gems = Created by combining all colored gems to make a big impressive gem to be added to your weapon. options for bonuses for such gems can be things like “+5% Crit dmg” or “Increase weapon damage by 5%”, “Auto attack dmg increase by 10%”, “attack range increased by 5 yards”
Additionally Jewelcrafters can create idols that will be placed on the ground for an effect.
Blue idol - Regen 2% mana every 2 seconds for 20 seconds.
Green idol - Restore 2% HP every 2 seconds for 20 seconds to the entire group.
Yellow idol - Reduces 150 dmg from each incoming attack up for the next 10 seconds
Purple idol - Drains life from the closest friendly player for 10 seconds. once charged it will explode dealing aoe dmg split between all enemies.
As you see, there is a lot of room to play around here.
If a jewel crafter uses an idol, the effect will be 50% stronger. Idols share cooldown and only one idol can be used per fight.
- Tailoring:
Creates banners that will be placed on the ground. Banners have a 10 minute cooldown.
Speed banner - players within 40 yards of the banner will move 15% faster.
Valor banner - Players within 8 yards of the banner will receive 10% less damage
Health banner - Players within 20 yards of the banner will receive 10% more healing
Tailors using banners will give 50% more of the buff.
- Enchanting:
Can now create different type of augment runes increasing secondary stats instead of main stat. let main stat augment runes still be achieved via LFG and mission table content only.
- Engineering:
the focus on this profession is to add utility… so let’s add utility.
Black hole trap - works like druid vortex. shares cooldown with other devices.
Polarity field - a device that will switch between positive and negative stats. positive will work like binding shot. rooting enemies in place for 5 seconds. negative will work like ring of peace. not allowing enemies to enter. 3 min cooldown. every time you use the item it will change polarity.
Camouflaged mini bot - a device that will shroud your party allowing you to sneak past enemies unnoticed. shares CD with other devices lasts 10 seconds
Flash grenade - blinds all targets in 5 yards for 3 seconds. breaks upon dmg. Shares CD with other bombs
Pepper bomb- forces all targets to sneeze, knocking them down for 0.5 seconds. Shares CD with other bombs
Smoke bomb - works like rogue smoke bomb, preventing spells and abilities to be cast from the outside in and forces ranged mobs to get into melee. Shares CD with other bombs
Portable Portal station - tear a rift that will allow party and raid members to travel to their favorite location. or not.
Soul fetcher - Fetches the soul of a party or raid member, summoning them to your location. requires 2 people to cast.
Stem Cell replicator - upon use lose 50% of your max HP to create a health stone. (could not think of a name for the health stone)
Those are just examples of how we can make professions more interesting. the idea is that you don’t have to have the profession in order to use the item, but you will give and receive better stats if you are. the numbers should probably be tuned to avoid a horrible scenario in which you see “Looking for ventyr tailor” in the LFG tool.
Hope to hear your thoughts and really hope someone from blizzard will reply to this.
