Breakfast Topic: Is crafting useless?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Dec 24th 2006 at 8:13AM
In my experience, crafted items have usually been items you use while waiting to get a better item to drop. With a few exceptions, of course -- crafted resistance gear tends to be some of the best you'll find and there are occasional gems (the priest in me is still giddy with the memory of getting a Hide of the Wild crafted). But the majority of crafted gear seems to be inferior to what you'll find even in the 5-man dungeons, and the disparity only gets worse as you participate in higher-end content. And in the Burning Crusade, where green quest rewards will immediately begin replacing any blues you might still be lugging around, will the outlook for crafting improve? In short, is crafting worthless?Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Features
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sihada Dec 24th 2006 8:21AM
Crafting's not worthless, but it's much less important than in many other MMOG's. The now defunct Earth & Beyond had a superior crafting system; player-crafted items were usually of better quality than those dropped as loot. The incentive to craft and to excel at crafting was quite high.
Crafting in WoW is almost a mini-game. There are a small number of items that make it worthwhile to maximize crafting skills, but not many.
blkmasta Dec 24th 2006 8:58AM
I agree, the items crafted at such a level aren't good enough for use at said level, so much of the time, crafting is indeed pointless. That said, some crafted items are actually useful and aren't replicated somewhere else, like the Gnomish Universal Remote.
Devynista Dec 24th 2006 9:28AM
The current crafted items are not that impressive, but I think the items in BC will be worth making(at least short-term).
Argent Dec 24th 2006 9:22AM
weaponsmiths get some nice items in BC (expect everyone and their cousin to roll mace smith and run a round with a version of thunder, though -- it's the new TUF. literally.)
the enchant-on-rings thing isn't bad either. engineering has some fun (but ultimately worthless) toys and leatherworking still needs love. and lots of it (the armor patches don't really impress me.)
i think blizz kinda kills crafting by making so much of it bind on pickup/creation. f.e if i could get a hp/ or mana injector made, i'd help engineers out all the time.
Aaron Dec 24th 2006 9:32AM
It was worth it for my hunter, but only because it gave me access to shot that was better than what I could purchase when it became availible.
It's also nice if you are making stuff for your lower level characters, but only if you are an Alt-aholic.
Thijz Dec 24th 2006 9:54AM
I've had engineering a couple of times, just because of the goodies ^^
Lately i've switched to gathering skills tho, mining or herbalism combined with skinning, gotta love your income with that combo! :P
acariquara Dec 24th 2006 10:32AM
Far from it.
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=53480
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=51361
And the ever popular...
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=51361
acariquara Dec 24th 2006 10:34AM
Last one should be http://www.thottbot.com/?i=20016
Jason Dec 24th 2006 10:40AM
While crafting isn't as important to WoW as some other MMOs, such as Star Wars: Galaxies, for some things it's been indispensable. Resist gear has been given over to crafting. For a few classes, some of the better gear you can start off raiding in comes from crafting, namely hunters and shaman in some of the dragonscale mail. Beyond that, however, crafting has largely been useless.
However, Blizzard has been working to correct this, and it shows even more in the expansion. Leatherworking is getting newer armor kits, and a couple of them that I've seen are viable replacements for the ZG enchants. There's one that comes from Thrallmar @ honored reputation; it's good for 40AP and 10 hit rating. Not too shabby, if you ask me. Tailoring is also seeing the same love in the form of spellthread, although that appears to be focused more on caster stats, where armor kits are focused more towards melee stats.
As was mentioned above, Blacksmithing is seeing a big boost. Many of the BoP items are going to be outstanding, and I'd imagine you'll see many people who had two gathering professions dropping one for a crafting profession.
However, There are two crafting professions that have always been highly useful; Alchemy and Enchanting. Alchemy for easy access to consumables that give a good boost to your ability to grind, and I doubt there's a player in WoW who isn't aware of the benefits of getting a handful of enchants.
Sylythn Dec 24th 2006 1:13PM
My first two epics will be crafted - Robe of the Void, and Sageblade (the ultimate warlock sword). I'd hardly call that worthless. I used a lot of the tailoring recipes I had leveling up to fill out my gear, replace aging pieces and cut costs by not relying on buying AH pieces.
AcceptableRisk Dec 24th 2006 2:08PM
Tailoring is getting three excellent three-piece sets in the expansion. They've got what is, so far, the highest +damage seen on any equipment yet.
Ralex Dec 24th 2006 2:35PM
Of course getting things enchanted is useful, as are potions, a number of craftable items, and engineering is damn fun at times, but I think that almost nothing about *your* toon having a crafting profession is useful.
However, even without a guild to supply crafting "at cost", I'd argue that you're money ahead taking 2 gathering professions [herb/skin/mine] and just *buying* what you need. Except for a few ultra-rare enchants/items, the markups over cost you pay are easily made up by your gathering generated riches.
I do think Blizzard is trying to change this in TBC by making some of the craftable BOP items really good. I'm not so sure it'll change the basic economics of the decision though.
Jason Dec 24th 2006 3:18PM
@Ralex:
The catch, is that if everyone took your approach, then everyone would have two gathering professions, and there wouldn't be a market for anything that you gather, beyond vendoring it.
So, thinking of it like that, then clearly they're not useless. Does everyone need to take one? Certainly not; in fact, it makes more sense for a few people to double up on gathering professions, since that helps contribute more raw materials to the market, which will help keep costs on materials down. However, as you, I and many others point out, even resistance gear alone makes crafting professions worth taking.
Moving forward into the expansion, crafting will prove even more worthwhile, simply for some of the bind on pickup patterns. I've seen several that are on par with anything you can get from the top end of Arenas, or Karazhan. I'm certain that as you progress through the endgame raids, you'll find more that are the equivalent of anything you'll find in there as a drop, as well. IMO, Blizzard has expressed their intent to move in this direction with a few patterns that are currently in game; Sageblade, Titanic Leggplates and the Lionheart Helm are 3 of my favorite examples.
Tibbsy Dec 24th 2006 3:44PM
Depending on what stage you're in with your character(s), crafting can be more or less useful to you and others. Let me explain:
I just rolled a character on Bladefist, a server that has opened up less than 2 weeks ago. As it stands, there is still no one with a level 60. I immediately chose leatherworking and skinning. I KNOW that with a new economy, there aren't a lot of green items in the auction house - the player-driven economy is currently reliant on player-made goods. The armor that I make is pretty much the best armor you can get for its level, and because of low supply costs, I can make a healthy profit rate on these goods. The same could be said about Tailoring and Alchemy - the products that come from these professions are pretty much the bulk of the items that will be available in the auction house. And players need them to survive.
Though I agree with many players that all crafting professions could use a healthy bump in the higher levels, I can't ignore some really solid pre-dungeon sets: Black Dragonscale, Devilsaur Leather, Volcanic gear (for fire resistance). They aren't the best items you can get, but they are solid items for their level. My rogue had the 2-piece Devilsaur set for a long time, and it was well worth the effort to craft them. My warrior, with the help of my friend, is now geared out with some of the Enchanted Thorium items and I think they're wicked pre-raid tanking items. Again, player-crafted.
All in all I feel like the crafting professions could use more items that would compete with or be superior to random drops and even some dungeon drops. But that said, there are some really awesome crafted items. And I look forward to BC to add to the crafters' menu of goodies.
thingy Dec 24th 2006 5:10PM
I rather disagree. To me, crafted items are items I wish I had 5-10 levels before I got my skill high enough to learn that pattern.
paul Dec 24th 2006 5:15PM
why bother getting sageblade when you can get the HWL dagger now. if you don't want to PVP you could get the mageblade form MC.
Jem Dec 24th 2006 5:17PM
One of the major uses I found for crafting came from a friend having smithing. It wasn't so much that he could deck me out with good items, a few 5 man runs can net a lot of blues that are better for a lowbies, but that he could give me items across say, a ten level span, that would provide extra motivation for me to level.
I found that knowing that next level I could use that wicked one handed mace, or finially upgrade my poor quality belt, really made grinding out the level easier or just my me more eager to jump on and play.
Klingsor Grailhunter Dec 24th 2006 9:26PM
Crafting non-armor/non-weapons (consumables, upgrades, containers) is the only viable crafting activity in the game. There are so few craftable weapons or armor that matter that they are largely irrelevant. Read through the above responses, and it's clear people are really straining to cite viable examples.
The yardstick for viable crafting is SWG in its first (classic) form. WoW simply is not in the same league.
goody24 Dec 25th 2006 12:27AM
Have to agree about SWG. As buggy/Laggy/unbalanced the game was, the crafting system was great. People would wait in line to get particular crafters gear and equiping one would almost be a status symbol. Having experimentation to increase the stats on crafted items was pretty amazing so a dedicated crafter could not only go above looted items, but other crafters.
Also being able to have a vendor/shop with your crafted gear was pretty cool as well.
Samidare Dec 26th 2006 6:35PM
"I rather disagree. To me, crafted items are items I wish I had 5-10 levels before I got my skill high enough to learn that pattern."
Pretty much it. I know there will be some changes with BC. But i've been playing since beta. Other my dawn's edges and some resist gear...most of the items I could make where not up to par. Or where only good for twinking alts.
The pattern drop rates suck, and/or you have to take a raid or group into some instance to have a hard packed snowballs chance in hell in getting it. I mean, nothing better then going into lbrs just to kill 6 mobs that could possibly drop a tailoring pattern. Bind on pickup no less...
I loved alchemy and enchanting. But even some of those recipes are just crazy. Crazy enough to make them not worth it. Between the gold farmers taking up most of the resources. Having to farm items to even disenchant. Btw getting 1-4 dusts/essences/nexus shards from an item... but only one large brilliant shard from an item, is BS. I can turn light leather into medium, and medium into heavy. But I am stuck with a bag full of shards and dusts that i can't use for a half decent enchant or even vendor.
If you are on a pvp server, you will really under stand why even potions other then mana or healing go unused most of the time. Even in raid situations. Someone "accidentally" aggros Vael in bwl. I have seen hours of herb farming go down the drain in an instant.
Even things like engineering are good on paper. But limited in game. Other then in pvp, there are few uses for the items you can make. Even worse if you are a class that cannot get out of combat such as a rogue or hunter. If they made a slot specificly for engineering items it would be more feasable. Giving up eye of the beast/toep/zhc etc for a trinket with a 20 min cool down is kind of pointless. Especially with the change of no gear swapping mid combat.
Hopefully TBC will bring some nice changes to trade skills. But unless they do some serious revamping and or allow people to do more then two trades (i soo wish they would), I see the usefulness of them being as limited as they have always been.