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Weekly Legion Dev Q and Q

Legion Q&A: Professions – June 23rd 2016

by - 8 years ago

For their second in a series of Q&A sessions regarding the upcoming expansion, Blizzard hosted a Professions Q&A with Senior Game Designer Paul Kubit to provide more information about what’s changing when it comes to tradeskills. The answers provided are paraphrased with the actual responses. There was some additional discussion of the questions but the main portion of the answers to the questions are provided below. If you’d like to see the full session feel free to check it out on Twitch, the actual content portion starts at about 21:45 into the video available here.

There are a lot of concerns about obtaining Blood of Sargeras which Blizzard is working on making sure is obtainable and useful for all players instead of just a portion of the playerbase.

Q: Blood of Sargeras: What use is it to double gatherers? Why not make it BoA so it can be traded from gatherer characters? – Galateacyc

Blood of Sargeras is supposed to be a measure of how much you’re playing the game. It’s not designed to ONLY be for crafters. That’s how it has been in the beta but that is not how it is intended. It was just easier for gatherers to obtain it because of how it is being implemented. It will be available from other sources, we just haven’t added it to those sources yet. We are working on fixing it.

There are two problems at this point though. One is players want it but aren’t able to get enough of it. We are making sure there are more sources available (adjusting rewards to give more Blood of Sargeras from World Quests, available from dungeons/raids, random drops from characters in the world.

We’re also going to be more tuning for crafters to balance out costs between professions, Alchemy and Blacksmithing in particular.

The second problem: “I have a lot of Blood of Sargeras but nothing to do with it.” We’ll be looking at changes to allow players to trade Blood of Sargeras (for Obliterum in particular). We have additional plans for this we’ll share as we move forward.

As far as unbinding the item, since it can be used to purchase Obliterum and subsequently upgrade items, people would then be able to buy a full set of raid-equivalent gear for gold through tokens rather than having to play the game to obtain better items.

As far as not making it Bind on Account, we don’t want players to have to have a full stable of alts to play effectively. We love alts, we want people to play alts, but we don’t want people to feel like they MUST have a full stable of alts to be a high-level player. This happened with the farm in Pandaria and with Garrisons and we want to move away from that philosophy.

Q: Why are dual crafters at a disadvantage getting Blood of Sargeras vs Gatherer/Crafters? – Priestybrit

We don’t think that you should have to have a gatherer to get Blood of Sargeras. We do think Gatherers should get a bit of a bonus since they have more bloods to craft a smaller pool of items.

Q: Will there be any way to dump Blood of Sargeras (say at a trade in vendor) if you have double gathering professions? – Rennath

We are trying to find ways for double gatherers, possibly akin to Spirit of Harmony vendors in Pandaria. No firm decisions have been made at this point though.

Q: You guys talk a lot about class identity/fantasy, but what is being done in Legion to do the same for professions? – Valnoressa

A lot! One of the big goals of professions is to bring a lot more flavor into them. Instead of just learning at a vendor to craft an item you travel the world to find NPC’s who will give you a quest and if you return with the item they’ll teach you to craft. There will also be quests to craft certain parts of items in various places. Different professions having different factions to make your profession feel more fulfilling. This idea goes back to having to go to a Moonwell to make Mooncloth in The Burning Crusade.

Q: Is there a chance of engineering being given a mount to craft? Engineers really have nothing to sell from what I’ve seen thus far. Even the goggles we craft can only be worn by other engineers, it is extremely inconvenient. – Koffray

There are a lot of useful items from previous expansions that are still available. There’s also the Failure-Detection Pylon, an item which can be placed when pulling a raid boss and will resurrect players within a certain range if the group wipes. There are also a lot of toy/utility items players can use. A lot of effort was put into items specifically for the engineers to use. There’s an item which can be crafted and modules added to it to serve several different functions. None of this is to say items won’t be added in the future for engineers to craft, it’s still under discussion.

Q: Any chance some of the retired profession patterns (Naxx 40, Zul Gurub, Dire Maul Tribute Run, certain pattern drops lost in Cataclysm, etc…) will make their way to the BMAH? – Audaldas

Yeah. We always are looking at interesting things to put in the BMAH. We try to put things iconic to their time in the BMAH (iconic item from a raid vs a green quest reward). We do have a Learned/Unlearned tab in the profession pane which will not show items which are no longer obtainable.

Q: Can the recipe restoration books work for pre-Legion recipes? We’re being forced to drop professions with rare recipes we’ve had since vanilla to pick up gathering. – Triviacow

The intention is not to force people to drop professions to pick up gathering. Once the changes are all in the beta you should feel less forced to drop a crafting profession to get Blood of Sargeras.

As a crafter in Legion there are a number of quests which reward recipes. Once you do that quest it is no longer available to recomplete. If you drop a profession, select another and train, then change professions back to the original profession you cannot complete the quest again. Instead there will be items which allow you to relearn those recipes awarded from quests. Pre-Legion items may not be available from these items unless it is an item like the previous question, a rare recipe which is an iconic item. The intent isn’t to allow players to change professions on a whim.

Q: Will we see the return of profession “buffs”? (extra socket, enchant, bigger gem and so on) – Tydeos

Kind of. Some professions will have them but they won’t be ways to outright increase the raw skill/stat of their character. They will be items like engineering boots which allow water-walking, barding from Leatherworkers for mounts which prevents players from being dazed while riding. Certain items (like the barding) will work for all players but will have an extended duration for Leatherworkers (1 hr vs 4 hrs). Not an outright buff but a perk for having the profession.

We don’t want people feeling like they MUST take a particular profession because it provides a buff. We want players to play the profession they want to play, not because you think it’s going to give you an extra .1% DPS in a raid.

Q: Will professions be able to create transmog sets? Would be cool to have leather workers craft a Warden transmogrifiable set for everyone to enjoy! – Yunariel

Yes, almost definitely. It is not happening in 7.0 because there will be plenty of opportunity for new transmog items in this patch and extra new sets would provide less value now than in the future. Maybe not in 7.1 either, but possibly in the future.

Q: What is the long-term vision for profession in the eyes of the developers? As someone not in Beta I can’t tell if crafted gear is supposed to supplement world/raid/dungeon gear, or be its own progression, or something else entirely. – Galred

For the second part, it’s not all that different than it has been in the past. Gear starts at ilvl 815 and can be raised to ilvl 850 which is equivalent of the first raid item level and the best obtainable at that point in the game. As other systems (raids/Mythic dungeons) unlock these items will still be useful but not as desirable to cutting edge players.

As for the first part, we haven’t sat down and started looking at professions for 8.0 yet so we can’t discuss long-term vision. It really depends on the context of the expansion, which will inform how professions should work. We DID like the system from Warlords where you can craft current items at profession skill one which is why it carried over, but we do have items which require maximum profession skill to craft as a reward for players who get their skill to that point.

Q: Will professions keep up with the raid tiers, in terms of the items they can produce or upgrades to items they provide? – Ranthae

We do want professions to compete throughout the expansion. The Obliterum forge allows us to keep crafted items up with raid items through the expansion in future patches.

Q: Any catch-up mechanics being looked at for fishing and archaeology similar to cooking in Mists of Pandaria? – Feraless

We don’t have anything planned at this point because we’re following the Draenor plan where there’s no need for those type of mechanics. You can fish in pools in Legion at skill level one and get fish, and there are no additional Archaeology unlocks at skill 800 so it’s not as important to get those skills caught up quickly.

Q: Can crafted relics be turned into Obliterum and can Obliterum be used to upgrade crafted relics? – Arwo

Yes and no. Anything crafted can be put into the Obliterum forge to obliterate. However, armor is the only item which can be upgraded with Obliterum. Relics item levels will be upgraded in a future build to make them more desirable/in-line with other crafted items.

Q: In beta currently when mining at low levels there are no “petals” for herbs nor “nuggets” for Leystone/Felslate. Will these be returning in Legion? – Elvine

No. It took up unnecessary bag space, and we changed the system to have a built-in ramp which says how skilled you are at gathering a specific item. There are quests which allow you to gain additional skill in gathering the item which increases the yield, so players are always gathering the same item, just different amounts depending on skill (potentially including Blood of Sargeras).

Q: Crafted gear is often used to fill in a gap in gear obtained by other means. Why introduce MORE randomness (i.e. item level) when the randomized stats, which can’t be rerolled this time, are already so frustrating to players? – Kaluulnaea

Randomness in item level will actually be dialed back significantly during the leveling process. Item level for crafted gear will now be fixed, though there is a chance for a +10 upgrade.

Since we have the Obliterum forge which allows players to destroy gear to use toward upgrading other crafted gear, we think players will be crafting more gear with random stats, so the chances of getting a useful piece goes up. Then players can keep the item they want, obliterate the others, and use the Obliterum to upgrade the item they want. The forge solves a similar problem to rerolling in a different way.

Q: Are there going to be weapon enchants in Legion? If not, why do DK’s keep runeforging? – PennyRush

Runeforging is a class mechanic for Death Knights, it’s not intended to be a profession equivalent.

There are no weapon enchants in Legion since the Artifact weapon essentially has different enchants. Proc enchants have been moved to Neck enchants. Also, weapon transmogs can be applied so the other purpose for them is essentially gone.

Q: Any plans to make united bank of reagents for all characters on a server? Sending reagents many times between alts is not fun.

That would be an awesome thing to add. There’s no plan at this time to add that but it is a great suggestion for the future. Mail system is functional but there may be a better way.

Q: Fishing: Why isn’t the artifact part of the start? Seems better to have a low power version you increase while you skill up (could still limit it to 700+). – Maurise

The fishing artifact may or may not exist…but if it does, we deliberately made it difficult to find because there is something interesting about having things in the game which are hidden. That being said, don’t believe everything you read in datamining. It will take some fishing to get it, so we want it to be special. We want to maintain some fun items that are difficult to find for fun.

Q: Are there any plans to make Archaeology less tedious? Specifically finding rare solves from older content. – Zyliros

In Legion, Archaeology works a bit different than in the past. The core profession remains the same, but one system change is you now get feedback when you’re standing on the item rather than having to survey multiple times within a small space to find the exact item. You can explore with your feet.

There are fewer random projects in Legion (5 per race) instead of many different ones. In addition, rare solves are ongoing stories (quests) starting in Dalaran at level 110 instead of rare solvable items. These items can be a few different things and will be available for a few weeks at a time.

We don’t want to make rare solves from older content to be too easy so they remain special for those who have them already.

Q: “Gem chips” are only used in Cooking one recipe in Legion. Will they have a use within Jewelcrafting since they are obtained from prospecting ore? – Elvine

They’re really just a flavor item for one very fancy recipe. They do also provide an informational advantage as well for Jewelcrafters. When prospecting they indicate the color of the next gem you’ll prospect (yellow, orange, etc). Jewelcrafters can then determine the type of material they want to prospect to get a high value item vs a low value one.

Q: Will cloth-drops from humanoids be back in Legion? As a tailor with no Barn it felt very tedious to obtain in WoD. – VikzeLink

Yes. Humanoids drop cloth. Numbers are still being tuned but humanoids and humanoid demons will drop it. Tailors also passively obtain more cloth than others from those drops.

Q: Why are there no bigger bags being added with Tailoring this expansion? – Maurise

There are no bigger bags deliberately. We’re looking for other ways to reward tailors. Legion bags will be 24 slots but will be cheaper to make than others of larger size. The intent is to allow players to catch up with bag space. We’re hoping with transmog you won’t need as much bag space.

Q: Why are skinners left at a disadvantage regarding personal nodes and multi-tap enemies, while Miners and Herbalists gain full benefit from these new enhancements? – Adreaver

We have a new system which allows multiple people to gather from the same herb/ore node. If one person gathers a node it disappears for them but is still available for others briefly before disappearing. This prevents the issue of multiple people in a party trying to mine the same node and only one person getting materials.

Skinners have always been able to “make” their own nodes by going to an area where they can kill and skin corpses so this isn’t as big an issue. We may look at adjusting this in a future patch but for now the mechanic will remain the same.

Q: Are there any plans for more experienced crafters to craft better stuff than novice crafters (e.g. higher chance at Warforged, ability to choose secondary stats, etc) instead of just creating more stuff? – Galateacyc

No, there are no plans at this point. We have talked about it but haven’t made any changes yet.

Q: Is Jewelcrafting going to be relevant again in Legion? How many sockets on average can we expect on items? – Karatechopz

Gems did move so the profession is still relevant. You can expect at least as many sockets in Legion as you saw in Warlords, possibly more. We’ll try to make sure we have gems on certain high visibility, deterministic places. Crafted rings and necks all have guaranteed gem slots on them so you will be making your own market by selling rings/necks.

Q: Have you considered changing gathering professions to secondary? – Kriana

We have this discussion almost every expansion in terms of super high level changes to expansions. We’ve made a lot of changes this time around and we want to see how that works out before making any other changes to these professions. We want to be careful because that takes away from the fantasy of the miner or the herbalist like in Warlords where everyone could have a mine or garden to gather from.

Q: With future patches in Legion, will there be profession specific questlines and new patterns added? – Varata

Absolutely yes. We want to add more cool stuff. We already have some online which will be expanded in future patches. Scribes in particular can craft items which will allow players to be more effective against certain bosses. There will be opportunities for other stuff in the future as well.

Q: Are there any plans to introduce new professions in the near future? Or is the focus on solidifying the existing professions? – Skaramane

Maybe. No plans at this time but it’s something we have talked about, or changing the way they work (splitting, combining, etc). Are there any you’d like to see?

Q: With the removal of the glyph system, what do you see as the function for Inscription in Legion? – Reythe

The glyph system isn’t gone, just changed dramatically. What used to be minor glyphs are now the only type of glyph. They work different, and are now applied as consumable rather than just learned and known forever. Now, if you want to switch back and forth between red fireballs or blue fireballs you have to use a consumable item to swap back and forth. There are also other items which are useful (runes to be more effective against bosses or change talents in the field). We’re also looking at a way for players to craft their own Steamy Romance Novel.

That’s pretty much it for this week’s Q&A session. Next week’s session will be focused on PvP Q&A with Brian Holinka so be sure to get your questions in! Also, let us know what you think of the changes coming in Legion and how you think they’ll work out compared to Warlords of Draenor or other expansions.


posted in Warcraft Tags: ,
Timothy Prine

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