by Magistrate - 8 years ago     show comments

In our continuing detailed recap of World of Warcraft: Legion at BlizzCon, we look at Senior Game Designer I Paul Kubit’s presentation on Professions. We cover profession world quests and characters, UI improvements, crafting ranks, the new Obliterum Forge, and much more.

Key Points

• Crafting UI has been updated to show more relevant information, recipe ranks, and known and unknown recipes
• Gathering nodes are no longer exclusive and now allow everyone to gather from them before they expire
• Professions will have questing and characters associated with them
• Recipes will have 3 ranks with varying crafting speeds and required materials, and the ranks can be acquired out in the world
• Recipes will be purchased from trainers, as well as gathered out in the world–some are very hard to obtain
• Some recipes will have unique on-use effects or class-specific traits
• Crafted items will increased in item level by applying Obliterum from the Obliterum Forge
• Jewelrcrafters: all your high level crafted rings and necklaces will now have a gem slot
• Inscriptionists: major glyphs are gone, minor glyphs are now consumed when applied to skills, you can now craft Vantus Runes which can, among other things, increase damage to a raid boss for a week straight
• Cooks: will be able to craft bacon
• Fishing and First Aid: changes seem to be incoming, but they were not discussed at length

The team’s goal for Legion Professions centers on giving crafters and gatherers more to do than ever before. The biggest ways to see this are new Profession quests, new ways of acquiring recipes, recipe ranks, and the Obliterum Forge.

Profession Questing

To get players out into the world, exploring, and generally doing more than just buying all your patterns from a single trainer, the primary Professions will start a little different from previous expansions.

To start, you’ll land in Dalaran and head to your Profession trainer. You’ll still learn some new recipes from them, but they’ll then send you out into the world to solve problems, meet new story characters, and explore the fantasy of your Professions.

To illustrate, Kubit uses Tailoring as an example. Tailors land in Dalaran and meet their trainer, who attempts to make a basic robe using the new Legion cloth type. Unfortunately, the cloth crumbles apart with the trainer uses, and you’re sent out into Azsuna to find someone who knows how to use the Broken Isles cloth.

You will encounter a character named Lindris (unsure on spelling), a Nightfallen (read more about the Nightfallen in our Suramar zone coverage).

Over the course of your questing experience, Lindris helps with the sowing problem, teaches you new patterns, and you discover some new things about him and his people, such as their extreme hunger for magic which gives him an uncanny interest in magical city of Dalaran. You’ll also discover why his people were exiled and how they became so good at Tailoring.

In addition to learning recipes from trainers and quest characters, they will also come from various world content activities, including, presumably, drops. Some of these may be difficult and prestigious to acquire.

Gatherers will also benefit from the character-centric Professions experience. Miners, for one, will encounter a character named Rethu (spelling unsure), the ghost of a Highmountain Tauren (read more about Highmountain in our zone preview). Rethu, and other NPCs like him, help you learn how to more efficiently gather new materials, like Leystone.

Recipe Ranks & Updated Crafting User Interface

Recipe ranks and old crafting UI

Recipe ranks add more to do after collecting initial recipes. Ranking from one to three stars, each rank makes the recipe faster to make and require fewer materials, essentially making you a more efficient crafter. Recipe ranks are acquired out in the world, some being very hard to get.

New Legion crafting UI

To go along with the new ranks, the crafting UI has received a facelift:

• Recipe details shown in enlarged panel on right
• New favorites section allows you to pin commonly crafted recipes
• Recipes are sorted in two tabs on the top–learned and unlearned; unlearned recipes give you details on how to acquire them
• Recipe ranks are shown with stars next to each Legion recipe

Obliterum and the Obliterum Forge

While recipe ranks increase your crafting efficiency, Obliterum increases the item level of your crafted items. Obliterum is a new material that comes from deconstructing crafted items at the Obliterum Forge.

When players reach level 110, they will receive a new quest to construct the Forge in Dalaran. Visually, it was inspired by Demon Hunters and Legion‘s demon-centric theme.

Obliterum enhancement gives crafters something else to do with crafted items that they don’t need besides putting them on the Auction House, vendoring them, trading them, or disenchanting them.

Unique Crafted Gear in Legion

Legion crafted gear won’t just be a “carbon copy” of raiding gear, as we’ve seen throughout Warlords of Draenor and other expansions. Instead, recipes may have interesting new features.

For instance, a recipe for Engineers creates a helmet with an on-use gun strapped to the top. Jewelcrafters create necklaces and rings with a guaranteed gem slot, which they can promote their gems with.

Additionally, some crafted items might have class-specific benefits, such as the Warrior on-equip stat shown above which gives a 15% run speed increase while Enraged.

Other Profession Changes

Inscriptionists will see heavy changes in Legion. Talents, PvP Talents, Artifacts, and Artifact Traits, among other systems like Valor Upgrades returning tomorrow, bring a lot of customization already. Because of this, Major Glyphs will be gone in Legion.

Instead, Inscriptionists can expect to make big cash on new Vantus Runes. Runes provide big buffs, such as the 10% buff versus the Emerald Night raid boss Xavius pictured above.

The buff lasts for a week, is attached to a consumable, and can be traded through the Auction House. So, if a raid team is struggling with a specific boss, a raid leader can encourage team members to all purchase a specific Rune–meaning big rewards for Inscriptionists. They’ll also still be able to make the Darkmoon Faire trinkets.

Minor Glyphs are staying, but will no longer be learnable by users. Instead, they’re consumable items which are applied to skills. While only one Minor Glyph can be used on a skill at a time, players can use as many concurrently on other skills as they’d like. Since they’re consumable, Inscriptionists can expect to make them (and sell them) repeatedly.

Archaeology will focus on an expansion-long campaign all over the Broken Isles where players will collect many new toys, pets, on-use items, and gear.

Cooking will center on Nomi, an NPC from Mists of Pandaria, who will “join your entourage” and provide new recipes. Additionally, we will be able to cook bacon for the first time in-game.

Fishing and First Aid will have new content tied to them besides the obvious. Specifically, the team wants Fishing to feel more exciting, not like an experience that encourages you to AFK while you cast reels. First Aid will obviously offer new bandages, and Kubit seemed to imply there will be more to both of these Secondary Professions than what he is able to talk about at this point.

That wraps up professions. Stay tuned for Legion itemization with Lead Game Designer Matt Goss!