Burning Crusade Profession Rumors
by Elizabeth Harper 
Sep 5th 2006 at 3:35PM
World of Raids has some interesting information on professions in the expansion. But are they accurate? Well, I'm a little confused by the listed alchemy specializations - which are very unlike existing profession specializations in the game, which tend to open up new, specialized patterns. (A "potion master" will be able to sometimes produce two potions instead of one, when crafting potions. A "transmutation master" will sometimes get greater results from alchemical transmutations. And an "elixir master" will be able to sometimes produce two elixirs instead of one, when crafting elixirs.) Further, some of the enchants strike me as strange - a +4 all stats enchant for a ring (doesn't that seem... somewhat overpowered?), a +30 healing enchant for bracers (there's already a +24 healing enchant for bracers, and the added +6 seems quite minor). However, take a look and decide for yourself!Filed under: Herbalism, Alchemy, Engineering, Enchanting, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brad Sep 5th 2006 4:56PM
Let's assume it's correct. You state these things are overpowered, I'm inclined to disagree. Everything has to scale with the new level 70 cap. Naturally more enchants would be available now. If the game had started with a level 70 cap and a 375 profession cap, I highly doubt people would be yelling "overpowered" as they are now.
Lori Sep 5th 2006 5:05PM
Please, please find a rumor about enchanting scrolls, coins, whatever to allow enchanters to sell other than standing on the AH bridge, spamming the trade channel.
elizabeth Sep 5th 2006 5:12PM
I'm not saying they're all overpowered, but am specifically stating that +4 all stats to rings seems fairly extreme. Right now in the game you can get +4 all stats to chest, and this rumor suggests that there will be a +6 all stats to chest in the expansion. But even taking the +4 all stats/ring enchant in the context of the +6 all stats/chest enchant, it seems like a very large stat addition for a ring (especially considering that you can wear two rings, and thus have two such enchants).
Of course, we're missing some large pieces of infomration here, as it concerns balance - namely the difficulty in aquiring the enchant pattern and the materials required to do the enchant itself. And... you never know - Blizzard has surprised me before.
Duwanis Sep 5th 2006 5:19PM
Bleh, my comment about Dexterity/Brawn being bogus names seems to have gotten eaten. No matter.
@Lori - they've already said that they see nothing wrong with the way enchanting works and don't plan on adding sellable items. Although it's possible that they'll change their mind, Blizz seems to stay pretty firm when they say something like that.
Brad Sep 5th 2006 5:34PM
At the same time, this information is from the alpha stage of the game, so I hope everyone is taking all of this with a large portion of salt. Elizabeth is correct in noting we haven't seen everything, many factors that lead to balance are missing, however we can point to a couple things:
1 - 25 man instances, and the difficulty setting. For all we know, these enchants are the rarest, appearing only at the highest difficulty setting for the top tiered instance. (And wouldn't it be interesting to see a "bop" enchant? Much like Robe of the Archmage is a bop tailoring item.)
2 - Extensive world pvp. There are no team number caps here. Limitless player versus player. This is bigger, better, more competitive battles than anything we have seen before - more so than Silithus and EPL - they are partly designed around the idea of world pvp.
Either way, we'll have a better idea once beta is released. And even then, there's no sense in anyone getting worked up over these things.
Lori Sep 5th 2006 5:41PM
@Duwanis - But there are already inconsistencies. Leatherworkers can sell armor kits to increase an items armor rateing while enchanters must personally install the shield equivalent. And blacksmiths must personally install spurs. It will be intresting to see if jewellcrafters will be able to sell jewell kits or will they need to make the modifications, themselves. I don't read all the forums but I have never seen Blizzards logic behind enchanting being the way it is.
Bloodfeast Sep 5th 2006 7:15PM
As for the marketability of enchanting... When I started, I was more PvE oriented, and conversely, I took enchanting more for myself than as a moneymaker. Now that I've hit the endgame, I find that it really wouldn't kill me to be able to make more money for repairs and so on, but I just can't bear to flop about in the Undercity all day spamming trade chat, and then travelling to someone to provide their enchant. I just haven't got the time or patience, which is a failing of myself, more than the game, I'll gladly admit.
The concept of being able to sell items infused with a "charge" of an enchant isn't too crazy, but it's not perfect. It works nicely for the arcanums that are provided as rewards for the libram quests - and you can even use them to enchant another player's gear, even though they are soulbound. Ideally, this could be done with limitations - but in this scenario, there is potential for people exploiting this to become freelance enchanters without taking the profession itself, simply reselling these items for a markup, thusly causing the economy on these items to skyrocket and marginalizing the concept itself.
In a perfect world, they could fall back on lore by creating a services based auction house (stay with me here) run by the goblins. I'm envisioning some enormous ENIAC-like machine in which you list your price for the enchant, provide your mats, and then the enchant becomes available for browsing. A user could then browse the enchants available at their own discretion, purchase the enchant, Enchant-O-Matic takes a cut, and everyone's happy.
But it'd have to be run by goblins. I ain't crazy about goblins, but man do I hate gnomes.
As for the rest of the list.. There are a few neat things (Critter Enlarger + my new Disgusting Oozeling might just be awesome..) that jump out at you, but it seems like more of the same old stuff. I know it's difficult to stay true to the profession and still be creative enough to appeal to everyone, but a lot of that stuff is just so.. none of it especially makes me want to run out and get it.
But then, they're just rumors. Maybe Blizzard will surprise us yet...
Duwanis Sep 5th 2006 10:28PM
@Lori - I'd dig up a forum post but I'm on my way to bed, and it's been a good month or so since I've seen a blue response. But this was recently asked and answered specifically for enchanting - they don't view the lack of easy marketability as an issue. "Working as intended," while a bit stereotypical, is the practical essence of what they said.
I'm not saying it's the right way to do things - I personally think they need to open it up a bit, if for nothing other than clearing up all those ridiculously hard-to-read messages that flood Trade - just noting that they don't seem to have that in mind.
CM Sep 12th 2006 3:11PM
Brad:
There is at least one BOP enchant out there: the Smoking Heart of the Mountain trinket.
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=10516
Can come in handy. I wouldn't necessarily mind more of the same type of things -- maybe BOP rings or other trinkets. Of course, I'd probably have to farm faction for months to acquire the pattern so that I could make the trinket or ring once for myself, but that's the way this tends to work. May as well not complain about it.