Breakfast Topic: What do you want out of crafting?
by Alex Ziebart 
Jul 12th 2008 at 8:00AM
The Burning Crusade did quite a bit to make tradeskills useful. While some were more powerful than others, almost all of them got something pretty nice, even the gathering skills. Tailors and Blacksmiths got a bit of an edge in gearing up for higher content, Leatherworking drums are one of the single most desired crafted items around for raids, Engineers got fantastic goggles and a pretty cool mount, Herbalists can pick powerful consumables, et cetera, et cetera. This is a major step up from life in vanilla WoW, where any tradeskills except Herbalism, Alchemy and Enchanting were almost entirely worthless.Still, though, it kind of feels like crafting in WoW is... empty. The tradeskills are useful now, but I'm a strange fellow. The tradeskills need heart. They need flavor. I like my tradeskills having a larger effect on how you play. Leatherworking is actually a good example of this, from a conceptual point of view. I love the idea of drums having an active effect on things. It isn't just a passive stat increase that you equip or cram in your mouth. It's something you need to be conscious of, something you need to actively use. I don't really know how you could do this for all tradeskills, but I'd love to see more of it. No, those crappy nets don't count.
Another thing I'd like to see expanded from The Burning Crusade is location-specific crafting. Making my Spellcloth, Primal Mooncloth and Shadowcloth every few days seemed like an adventure, if a tedious one. Spellcloth was especially fun! You had to arm and prepare yourself before you hit the 'create' button until your gear was good. Fishing before The Burning Crusade was not nearly as useful as it is now, but I liked time of day and season having an effect on things. Stocking up on Grilled Squid in the appropriate season and using it to negotiate deals with rogues and hunters was great fun, I think. I'd like to see that come back in some form in Wrath, though maybe not as extreme.
What would you like to see out of crafting in Wrath? Are you hoping for something more dynamic, or are you a (wo)man of simple pleasures and all you need is a great big sword to be happy?
Filed under: Alchemy, The Burning Crusade, Breakfast Topics, Analysis / Opinion, Enchanting, Tailoring, Leatherworking, Engineering, Cooking, Blacksmithing, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jason Jul 12th 2008 8:14AM
How about a blacksmith that can actually repair his/her gear, like a blacksmith? Perhaps even the gear of others. Of course, at a certain cost.
Bloodfox Jul 12th 2008 8:29AM
Love that Idea! Makes total sence to me.
Also Want More Craftable Epix!
B.D. Martinez Jul 12th 2008 9:24AM
I think it would be great if you could smelt items or equipment into useable ore as well.
kunukia Jul 12th 2008 8:42AM
Signed for cooler crafting. Crafting is one of my main loves in game, and I especially like being able to share the stuff with my own alts, on those servers where I have no guild (except possibly my own). So I do not make one gatherer on a new server...I make 4 crafters, then I can make stuff for myselves.
I love engineering, totally my favorite.
Redrag Jul 12th 2008 8:49AM
Introduce some kind of skill into the process that effects the result of the crafted item, a few HP gained here if done well, a few Armour lost there if done badly.
i.e. Participate as the crafter, hammering on the anvil when you craft something, the more accurate your hammering the better item.
Could be seen as a mini game.
dan Jul 12th 2008 8:58PM
If I wanted to play a mini-game I'd be playing Mario Party.
bluegreen Jul 19th 2008 7:18PM
Redrag said "Introduce some kind of skill into the process that effects the result of the crafted item, a few HP gained here if done well, a few Armour lost there if done badly."
I like this idea. This would make the process a bit more interesting. Have a chance to fail or even great exemplary items.
Lashay Jul 12th 2008 9:03AM
I think calling them professions is a lie. At least concerning smithing, leatherworking, engineering, and tailoring. In many cases, the most desired items are BoP, so you can't sell them for profit, which is how a profession works.
in my opinion, the only professions are to take dual gathering and roll in the gold.
And can someone please explain this; an engineer creates and drops a repair bot, why shouldn't the engineer that created the machine get AT LEAST the exalted repair price, if not free?! The infuriates me so much, I mean,
W!
T!
F!
Slokomis Jul 12th 2008 10:01AM
"I think calling them professions is a lie. At least concerning smithing, leatherworking, engineering, and tailoring. In many cases, the most desired items are BoP, so you can't sell them for profit, which is how a profession works."
Completely agree, more items from each profession that are actually wanted but can be sold to other individuals.
Think of how much money a Leatherworker can make if he/she can actually sell Drums and they be used by non Leatherworkers. That is a profession.
Customability, it's been said before, allow Tailors/Leatherworkers/Blacksmiths to customize the color pallette of an item. At least for crafted items if not drops as well.
Jason Jul 12th 2008 9:15AM
Crafted items need to be viable. If you think about it every item in the game has been made by someone. Crafted items should be better than anything that drops in any instance. I'm not saying easy to make but they should be good.
Less BoP so that these items can be sold.
Clevins Jul 12th 2008 2:43PM
This isn't as positive as it might seem. The dps cloth I can tailor is better than anything in Kara, gruul or Mag. It's as good as and depending how you mix things, better than much T5 gear.
The problem with that? I could care less about most of the drops. Especially since my weapons are all badge gear that's not beatable until T6 or Sunwell. So... yes, I raid... but that tingle of "will it drop?" when a boss dies is replaced by... "Can we finish up loot please?"
No, loot isn't the main reason to run instances... but it is A reason and when you have crafted gear, you find yourself less interested, especially after a place isn't a challenge anymore.
RogueJedi86 Jul 12th 2008 9:33AM
More heart? Sure. Give us more fun items that aren't necessary for having top gear. Take engineering. The goggles were nice, but all it did was bring in all the min-maxers who'd only get to 375 engineering just to use goggles. What about the World Enlarger? That's the spirit of Engineering(Gnomish to be specific). It shrinks you for 5 minutes on an hour cooldown. It's not about kicking ass, it's about having fun.
Also, those Comfortable Insoles pictured are another great example of fun items. Min-maxers spent months trying to figure out what sort of bonuses they gave, but in the end, it was just for roleplaying-style fun. I like items that do that. :)
Cademus Jul 12th 2008 10:03AM
Perhaps I missed it, but you said alchemy and enchanting were almost entirely worthless. The 2.4 Alchemist stones are some of the best in slot items for some classes (Healers, Ret Paladins, etc) and Enchanting became one of the most important tradeskills as soon as TBC launched. Granted it was important in pre-BC, but I believe as the player base has expanded, so has the need for high-lvl enchanters. Everyone who DPS's has Mongoose or Executioner enchanted on their weapons, or atleast would like to, and probably has most of their gear enchanting.
As for actually improving crafts, I agree most stuff should be able to be sold, however it has to be gear similar to the Ragsteel sets from Blacksmithing and the Heavy clefthoof sets from Leatherworking. If Engineers were allowed to sell epic goggles or blacksmiths were allowed to sell epic weapons, it would defeat the purpose of those specialities having gear equvalent to stuff that drops from raid bosses. I wouldn't be fare to devalue PvE raid items (which would require a group of 5,10,25 people) for items which require gold and/or material farming.
Snailking Jul 12th 2008 10:08AM
..."This is a major step up from life in vanilla WoW, where any tradeskills except Herbalism, Alchemy and Enchanting were almost entirely worthless."...
You DID miss it.
lrn2read
Snailking Jul 12th 2008 10:08AM
..."It's something you need to be conscious of, something you need to actively use."...
I've -avoided- tradeskills that will just add more and more buttons to an already crowded user-interface filled with micro-managing every corner-case skill my character has.
I prefer passive tradeskills/items *exponentially*.
Dunwich Jul 12th 2008 10:15AM
I'd like to see Engineers be able to "skin" Mechanical mobs for parts, like how Miners can skin certain elementals and giants for vendor trash and the occasional worthwhile item.
Also, I'd like to see either Brewing incorperated, perhaps as part of Cooking? That'd be great.
Baluki Jul 12th 2008 1:33PM
Heh, that'd be cool. They could call it "Scrounging".
I thought it was really cool that they let me (as a miner) mine rock-based creatures. Of course, killing rock creatures is hard for me as an elemental shaman (nature-immunity...crap!) but that's another issue.
I too would like to see Brewing in the game. I can make my own food thanks to fishing and normal meat drops, so why can't I create my own drinks? I'm tired of having to buy water or bug the local mage.
JDM Jul 13th 2008 2:21AM
Not that it is a craft of its own but...
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34834
Schlanman Jul 12th 2008 10:20AM
Personally, as a lifelong Alchemist, I'd like to see two things: Increased rewards for being an alch, and the violent, horrible death of the "discovery" system. I must be one of the horror stories of months with only one flask discovery, and flask of fortification doesn't really help my rogue. Does any other profession actually have to pray to the random number generator to make their most powerful/expensive items? Other than drop tables and rolls, I mean.
On the first point, all I'll say is that mad alch's potion and the improved stones are a step in the right direction.
Eternalpayn Jul 12th 2008 11:13AM
LOL. "Other than drop tables and rolls." You just dismantled your own QQ.
Personally, I'm working on getting my Primalstrike set, and I don't have any real complaints with leatherworking. If you get all the mats yourself, you do have to buy some from a vendor, but you still make a gold minimum vendoring what you make. Even more if you AH it.