Professions: A Great Start That Needs an Overhaul While Maintaining the Base

[Azareia-dun-modr]

Beware: long text

I like the current professions system, as it requires players to spend more time on the crafting system than before. However, it lacks something that many players want, which is dedication to the crafting system.

To recap a bit of the current crafting system:

• Currently, it is “time-gated,” and gaining knowledge points requires completing weekly quests and farming some usable items that give a total of approximately 15 knowledge points per profession.

• We have the “craft orders” system, making it essential for other players to create crafting orders to make items, improve item levels, etc.

• There are also the “Dragon Shard of Knowledge” that allow gaining knowledge points and “Artisan’s mettle.”

While this solution is valid, it has positive, negative, and neutral points:

The Good:

• Limits the use and abuse of boosting professions with gold, giving a fairer treatment to players.
• Allows players with less time to keep up with more dedicated players due to weekly missions and limited knowledge-increasing items.

The Bad:

• Any player starting the game a few months after the expansion will be at an absolute disadvantage and, due to the “time-gating” system, cannot be on the same level as those who started earlier, even if they dedicate more time. This worsens as the expansion progresses.
• Clients don’t fully understand the crafting system, and crafters initially don’t either, but as they play the “crafting game,” they start to understand it, which is problematic as it creates confusion and situations of abuse.
• Public Crafting orders systems are being avoided due to lack of option to choose quality

The Neutral:

• The fact that it is “mandatory” for other players to make crafting orders is both good and bad. I think allowing the client not to have the materials makes the system more complicated for clients and creates situations of abuse by both parties.

Problems not directly dependent on the crafting system but on the game or external agents:

• Gathering is not worthwhile in the game due to bot abuse and the small amount of materials needed to level up crafting.
• WoW has always had an extreme abundance of materials. Due in part from the bots and from the low demand on gathered materials. This, in my opinion, is a mistake as it reduces the value of crafted items, and the prices of gathering materials plummet to the deepest abyss.

My solution: Crafting Overhaul with greater dedication and high demand for materials.

These changes are intended to make crafting more dedicated and dynamic, using the current Dragonflight system as a base, where leveling up is difficult but not “time-gated.”

Propositions:

• Only 1 character per account can have the “Crafter” title on the same server.

  • This eliminates the need to create multiple alts for crafting, allowing the player to focus on the profession and not on leveling up other characters.

• The character with the “Crafter” title can have all professions, but can only level up one profession at a time and can only start the next profession when they have reached a “milestone” of the previous profession.

  • This is important, as it creates a forced bottleneck, preventing players from boosting multiple professions at the same time.
  • Over time and with effort, the user can have all professions during the expansion.

• Increase the crafter skill level per profession from 100 to 2000, 3000 or 5000.

  • This may seem crazy, but it has a reason. The goal is to make the player spend more time and use more materials to level up the skill.
  • Skill requirements for quality will be adjusted to the estimated ratio (1:20, 1:30 or 1:50) to maintain them as they are now.

• Adapt crafting so that objects give the probability of raising profession skill points by materials used and not by recipe, or a combination of these.

• Divide the artisan guild faction into “sub-factions” for each specialty.

  • This will allow players to create specialty paths for each profession. If the player surpasses certain “milestones,” they can buy items that increase knowledge, as it is now, but they will have to raise the reputation to max for each profession to be able to buy those points.

• Repeatable missions from the artisan guild and/or faction/sub-factions.

  • Missions where the user will be required to craft multiple items from their profession.

  • This is as it is currently, but instead of requiring 3 crafts, it will require 40 or 50 and some items gathered from the open world. This mission will give 50 or 100 reputation points with the faction or sub-faction of the artisan guild.

    Example:
    Make 50 weapons/armor + deliver those 10 items gathered in the open world
    Upon completion, the user will get 50 or 100 reputation points with the blacksmith sub-faction of the artisan guild and 20 points of a new currency like "Artisan's mettle."
    

• Knowledge store by profession sub-faction

  • Upon reaching maximum reputation with the sub-faction of the artisan guild, the player will be able to buy the following:
    • Recipes of their profession
    • Items to increase the crafting skill in individual crafts
    • 1 Knowledge point for every 100 “artisan’s mettle.”

• Crafting orders system as in Shadowlands

  • The user must have the materials on hand to create the crafting request.

• By increasing the resources needed to level up the profession, the demand for materials also increases, thus making gathering an attractive profession.

  • This is good and bad.
    • Good because it increases market prices, making gathering an attractive profession.
    • Bad because it attracts bots, who, seeing more potential gains, will try to create an offer for such demand.

I know Blizzard tries to mitigate the damage bots do to the economy.What I propose to mitigate the number of bots is the following:

• New accounts must have a verified contract phone number.

• Gathering will be limited/mitigated by the limit of 1 profession at the same time if the initial profession has not been mastered.

• Missions with complex elements for bots to obtain the Gathering professions (Skinning, Herbalism, Mining)

  Mission example: Have the player, using "Dynamic Flying," pass through several randomly generated hoops in a nearby area, within a one/two-minute time limit.
  

What is the purpose of these changes?

Personally, I want Crafting to be a legitimate, fun, long-lasting, and dedicated path to enjoy the game in a more economic and social way.
Currently, the crafting system has improved a lot compared to previous expansions, but it is still limited by many factors such as demand, potential earnings, and the limitation of improvement by weekly missions or weekly usable items.

I want the system to allow the player to dedicate themselves exclusively to crafting regardless of when they arrive and to have a feeling of constant improvement.
Currently, the system allows you to improve the first/second day of the week, and the rest is waiting, looking at the horizon, not fun.

Some ideas could backfire or not be good at all, but i think some of them could help to improve the crafting system.

[Prettystrip-mirage-raceway]

IMHO, the only point I’d change is the catch up mechanics. As you said, if you didn’t get into profession from the start, you’re dozen of Knowledge points behind others. I’m fine with them being weekly capped. But if I start a profession now and I want to grind a week straight to catch up, I should be able to.

While, very creative, I feel like that overhaul you’re proposing is a bit too complicated. I think, it’d be easier to just make that the various caps are per account instead of per character. Meaninig if you have two trasmute per day, creating a new character won’t allow you to bypass that limit.

On the other hand, people pay to play and if they want to spend their time levelling new characters and skilling up professions, having a cap per account doesn’t seem fair.

I think increasing the skill levels and mats requirements won’t really fix the issue, botters will be botters. As long as the game allows for hyperspawn farming, multibotting etc, it’ll always have an impact on the economy.