The Primary Professions Plan

Okay, this is long, and requires a quick bit of explanation. When I was working on my set of posts I took it upon myself to think up how I could realistically standardise all 14 professions so they had the same basic 'structure'. This document (which was all on paper for a while) is the result of my thoughts and was where a lot of subsequent ideas for professions came about. I thought you might be interested to see where my thinking was going. I made some notes too, I apologise in advance for overt flippancy...

I'll also do it in two parts or else it's going to become hugely unwieldy.  Part One therefore is the 10 main professions, Part Two will be the secondaries...
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The Basics:

Each Profession is divided into the seven different levels as it currently stands: Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Artisan, Master, Grand Master and Illustrious Grand Master. At the end of each 'phase' you are required to complete an Apprenticeship, which gives you access to the next. These quests reward you with an achievement and an item specific to your profession that 'evolves' with you. Every profession provides the student with a Storage Bag, a speciality tool or tools, a pet to accompany you (with specific abilities to help you with your profession) and a number of  'vanity' trinkets/bolt-ons to existing gear.

At Level 65 you are sent to an Alliance/Horde Capitol to visit the Azerothian Crafters Guild to begin your training in a Profession Specialisation. This training is not completed until you reach L75 and requires retraining every time you reach Maximum Level (so a retraining programme at L80, L85 and L90) to maintain your skills and abilities.

You cannot retrain a profession specialisation for 90 days. To do so requires a sizeable amount of cash and a contribution of raw materials specific to your new Specialisation to be donated to the Crafters Guild.

There is a Crafters Guild HQ in every major city (where you can pick up Secondary Professions Dailies), but specialist trainers only inhabit certain areas, forcing players to travel to learn the skills they require. Each month, the Guild sends its members a package of goods appropriate to their specific skills.

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Blacksmithing Specialisations:

• Weaponsmith: using metals and raw materials derived from Mining.
• Armoursmith: using metals and raw materials derived from Mining.
• Buckles, Bangles and Beads: slots to belts & necklaces. Universal keys for locks and chests. BRING BACK SHARPENING STONES.

Professionalism: Sockets to wrist and waist. Vanity Option = engraved bonuses.

[Please PLEASE PLEASE give BS-ing some love. Something more practical than just the Belt Buckle. They'd be too cool to make pets but they could make Guild Crests or summat ^^]


Engineering Specialisations:

• Goblin Engineering: Awesome already.
• Etherial Engineering (thinking portals, using pure energy for weapons)
• Gnomish Engineering: See Goblin Engineering.

Professionalism: Cogwheel Sockets. Vanity Option = tinkering bonuses (Nitro Boosts etc)


[As it stands, I'd say engineering is the one profession that has the mix of Fun verses Practical sorted. Give them a choice of one extra specialisation to come in line with everyone else and think about giving mailboxes and repair bots that can be made and given to everyone. Let the Engi's keep Jeeves but give him AH access anywhere :D]


Tailoring Specialisations:

• Armoursmith: using cloth and items gleaned from Blacksmiths and Leatherworkers.
• Cloak Manufacturer: Tailors become SOLE cloak makers in game.
• Bags and Threads: Tailors provide specialist bags. Provide Spellthreads to increase stats in ALL leg items.

Professionalism: Spellthreads for cloaks and wrists. Vanity Option = hand-sewn 'mascots' with + stat bonuses. 


[I'm really not sure that tailors should be able gather more cloth than everyone else, but I understand why the ability was introduced. Perhaps if they had more things to make than just cloth-based items. I'm going to address the issues of Specialist Cloth along with specialist Transmutes in my raw Materials post, so don't start asking about what I'm thinking there just yet...]


Leatherworking Specialisations:

• Weaponsmith: using bones, scales and raw materials derived from Leatherworking.
• Armoursmith: using bones, scales and raw materials derived from Leatherworking.
• Buckles, Bangles and Beads: slots to cloaks. Pet armour (all types of pets) Leatherworkers provide extension slots for Tailoring bags.

Professionalism: Increased stats to legs and wrists. Vanity Option = leather-made pennants with + stat bonuses (you can hang them from your mount! Work with me people!)

[Leatherworking, like the BS's, needs some serious love. The introduction of PvP gear that scales with expansion is a serious step in the right direction, and if that could be applied to more patterns lower down the scale... plus, we need more vanity items. If the Darkmoon Faire has me making toys for it once a month, why can't I do that myself?]


Alchemy Specialisations:

• Commander of Liquids: chance to create additional potions, elixirs and flasks.
• Commander of Solids: chance to create additional gems via transmutes.
• Commander of Gasses: chance to create extra Volatiles from the ether.

Professionalism: Alchemist only Trinkets and Potions. Vanity Option: Magical Familiars with + stat bonuses.

[Alchemy's popularity is easy to grasp: three masteries, all with tangible bonuses. The Transmute bonus, when it does proc, is beyond awesome, and frankly it should be the norm across EVERY profession. I'd like to see transmuting metals like Truegold taken away from Alchemists and maybe given to the Blacksmiths, because I think that actually Alchemy gets too much to do. Maybe some fo that needs to be redistributed elsewhere...]


Inscription Specialisations:

• Scribe of Glyphs: Chance to create extra glyphs when scribing.
• Scribe of the Darkmoon: Bonus to Darkmoon Card manufacture, plus special items derived from fishing off the Darkmoon Island.
• Scribe of the Ancients: Able to fashion rare trinkets from combining items found via Archaeology.

Professionalism: Shoulder Inscriptions. Vanity Option: Extra Minor Glyph slot, in which Scribe-only + stat bonuses can be added.  


[Scribes are woefully underused, and too much of what they do is tied to a system of milling that is mind-numbingly repetitive. As a result, I think they need some alternative avenues to pursue, and glyphs need to be far easier to produce. Watch now as Blizzard scrap the glyph system ^^ The whole Darkmoon Card thing needs to be better thought out, and not just limited to trinkets. Plus, we REALLY need to find something useful to do with Archaeology.]


Jewelcrafting Specialisations:

• Accomplished Lapidarist: Chance to cut better quality stones.
• Accomplished Jeweller: Chance to create jewellery (neck & finger) with an additional slot/better stats.
• Amulets and Wards: Chance to create additional trinkets/better quality items using items found via Archaeology.

Professionalism: +3 better quality gems in gear.  Vanity Option: Body Piercings for + stat bonuses. 


[Yes, I suggested body piercings. I also think that no-one really cares about necklaces and rings once you've maxxed out and that's so wrong. Blizzard have proved with the PvP gear it's possible to update patterns to reflect current iLevels, let's see it happen with rings and necklaces that AREN'T linked to BG's. Agaian, JC-ing has a great way to utilise Archaeology items: combine that green quality dig find with a special Ward from a JC-er = Nice Epic item. Is it REALLY that hard?]


Enchanting Specialisations:

• Enchanting 101: Chance to produce a second scroll when enchanting an item/creating a scroll.
• Wands and Wings: Wand production, head enchants. YES HEAD ENCHANTS. Chance to create second item when making first.
• Oils and Hexes: Special oils for +skills, not just magic users! Hexes to give + to damage, healing, major stats.

Professionalism: Enchants for rings, special Enchanting-only bonuses for cloaks. Vanity Option: give the enchanter a nice magical glow with a plus to a stat of their choice. They'll look lovely!


[Enchanting suffers from it's reliance on materials gained from levelling. Maybe it's time to add back some of those items that have been taken away [I'm looking at you, Large Fangs!] to help redress some of the balance and to keep some stability in the market. So, if you want a scroll with agility, you'll need something that's fast to enchant with too. Want Haste? Get some Volatile Air, that sort of thing. Stop taking out materials that give advantage to crafters!]

Skinning Specialisations:

• Master of the Land Beast:  Extra skins, superior quality items from anything on the Earth.
  
• Master of the Sea Beast: Extra skins, superior quality items from anything in the Sea.
  
• Master of the Flying Beast: Extra skins, superior quality items from Birds and Dragons and anything else wot flies.

Gathering bones, teeth, scales that can be used by Leatherworkers.

Professionalism: Critical strike increased. Chance to 'adopt' animals whose parents you mindlessly slaughter in your quest for skinning domination ^^
 
[The gathering professions need more balls, frankly. You gave us XP for gathering, which is good. Now make it about not just gathering skins, how about extras? We get Bloated Stomachs from mobs: how about bones? How about sharp teeth that can be used to make weapons? Make us want to specialise in gathering certain types of skin, so that a Rogue can put items to some uses and Druids can use others. The three strands of Leatherworking were great, back in the day. Maybe it's time to start looking back to specialisations based on class and spec...?.]


Mining Specialisations:

• Raw Materials: Bonus ore gathers when mining from nodes.
• Metallurgy and Alloys: Bonus items when manufacturing bars or alloys.
• Precious Stones: Bonus gem gathers when mining from nodes.

Gathering stone and materials for Blacksmiths, refining metals into forms to be used by Jewelcrafters.

Professionalism: Stamina Increased. Chance to uncover prehistoric creatures trapped underground for thousands of years who will adopt you as their God. (I'm sensing you're not taking this entirely seriously ^^)

[See above re: Skinning. Might be nice, as well as having a pet you can mine, to have larger stones that could be cut down by the JC's into multiples of the same stone. REALLY should bring back uses for stone as well, would be great to see this re-introduced into the Outland/Northrend/Cataclysm nodes.]


Herbalism Specialisations:

• Finding Flora: Bonus flower gathers when picking nodes.
• Practicing Pharmacognosy: Bonus healing items to use in First Aid.
• Green-Fingered Gardener: Bonus edible items to use in Cookery.

Additional materials (as we have) from plants to increase stats, for fun uses (different plant derivatives turn you different colours when swallowed?)

Professionalism: Haste buff. GIEF TRIFFID PET FROM GATHERING HERBS KKTHXBAIBAI. It can eat critters the same way the Crate does... :D

[I think Herbalism has the best deal of the three gathering professions, and really the benefits you get from it ought to be translated across all of them...]


Part Two will follow...:D

Now What?

Right, I'll kill Scourge over here, you farmers go that way...

Well, I've not quite done with the Professions Thang, there's one more post on that. Then it's my Three Year Anniversary (:O) on Thursday and I should probably think about something to celebrate that, really. My husband, who did a drive-by look at the site yesterday, remarked he's 'not a big fan' of my hastily-constructed 3 Year Logo. 'Well, you do better then' I challenged and it appears he will be today, so there might also be some graphical changes to the site as well... ^^

I have wanted to write about the Professions for a LONG TIME. Having finally gotten it all out hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for writing about the game, as I worried it might: far from it. There's a lot I have to say, I just need the right tools to get it all 'out here' and if you'll bear with me, I'll be working on that as the year goes on. It's not like I haven't got anything to do in game either (as I keep realising, hence why I'm in Western Plaguelands wiping out the Forsaken) so I'd expect some observations on that and other gubbins... there's always summat to do in Azeroth.

Needless to say, still the #1 Game of Choice. Not bad for a six year old behemoth... ^^

Honing Your Crafts : #5 : Moar Fun KKthxBaiBai!

100% More fun in this than all other professions? Discuss...

Five Ways to Improve Professions In Game.
#5 : Make all Professions as fun as Engineering. Yes, REALLY.

It seems quite a long time since we started this little expedition into the problems and issues with all the Professions: I've covered all the major issues I think need addressing, but I'm a realist. I know that it's highly unlikely that any of this may come to pass with the Coming of the Pandas, because there's just too much to fix in just one hit. Maybe we should just aim for one thing that could be changed for the better: making them more fun. If you want to highlight an area that gets the balance of practical and silly just about spot on, then you're looking at Engineering, because it is awesome.

Engineering is great looking gear, with practical gadgets to make any Azerothian traveller's life easier. Portable mailboxes! Repair bots!  Wormholes to other continents... yes, it has everything. It also has a set of fun additions to gear too (Nitro Boosts are FABULOUS, everyone should have a Parachute Cloak) which mean that the grind to level it is far less of a grind. Yes, it's still hard but you get a choice of  two flying/ground and a ground mount as a reward. There are awesome Engi-only pets too... and you can be either a Goblin or a Gnomish specialist. Frankly it has so much to offer, and there's the problem.

Why can't Tailors get cool stuff other than two pets and the carpets? Why shouldn't Jewelcrafters be able to make brooches and buckles with cool uses? What would be wrong in allowing Leatherworkers ANYTHING FUN AT ALL? (easy now dear) Would it be really that difficult to introduce a range of things to craft, wear and sell across all 14 primaries and secondaries that brought the fun and enthusiasm back into the Professions? There are hints of what could be already in place after all: the Turtle from Fishing, the Epic items from Archaeology, the Dragon Mount from Alchemy. In the very slim hope that someone from Blizzard has read my last five days of rambling and might be open to suggestion at this stage of the game pre-Expansion I say this: if you do ANYTHING to Professions in Pandaland, PLEASE MAKE THEM AS FUN AS EACH OTHER.

Some of us hope that, when all is said and done, it's never just about the End Game, or the Pet Battles, or the PvP, or indeed the professions: all of this makes the game what it is. The fun's been missing from a lot of these places for a while now and it's time to bring it back. The business of gathering and crafting's as good a place as any to start...

One Dwarf and her Claw!

Screenie or it never happened!

It's officially the hardest pet to obtain in my collection. Now I have it, I find myself thinking that actually, it was worth the effort. Still think they need to fix Professions though, and the last part of my Epic Series will be along later... :D

For now, I'll be here thinking what a great looking hand that is... :P

Honing Your Crafts : #4 : L2Professions!

Five Ways to Improve Professions In Game.
#4 : Stop treating Professions separately from levelling.  Encourage people by using them to play better.

It's not hard to get yourself optimised. Really, it's not...

I run a fair few LFG and LFR's in an average week. When I look at some people's gear I get a little sad inside: no enchants, no gems. Lots of PvP gear. Very few people eat any more, even fewer use flasks. Why is this? Are prices really that high on other servers? Those people who roll on inappropriately statted gear, do they simply not understand how to play their classes? I suspect part of the problem lies with the speed at which the average individual can now level: if your only real aim is End Game, then why worry about how to get there? Perhaps it's time to make Professions MORE of a part of the levelling process and not less, and to give people (via learning their crafts) a chance to understand how to use these primary and secondary skills to their advantage:

• There are two quests for every class at 20 and 50 for weapons. Why not do the same for Armour (with the optimal stats for each class, options for hybrids) to teach people what gear they need to be rolling on? How about quests to make food that when they eat it gives them better stats, in EVERY expansion area? Link these up with professions quests that promote people to make the same food and drink, and comparable armour pieces, and then (gasp!) suggest they visit an Auction House to sell them? There are a ton of 'how to' instructions from levels 1-10 but after that things go a bit quiet: nothing wrong with reminding people what they need to do along the way...
  
  
• One of things I enjoyed a great deal when I was learning Leatherworking the first time around was the prerequisite quests: taking them out made sense when the 1-85 grind became less about hanging around and more about sprinting to End Game. What might help to educate is if those quests were reintroduced but at different levels, linked with my proposed 'Specialisation' quest at L65. This is another great way to teach people about how different stats are required for different classes.
  
  
• I'd like to see more quest rewards of gems, enchants and especially glyphs. This might pique people's interests as to what other 'enhancements' are available for their gears and make them investigate the options. I also think that instead of simply offering raw gems from vendors it might be an idea to provide precut gems (with lesser stats than JC-er versions) instead, actively pushing people onto the path of gemming.
  
  
• On that point, it's probably time to make Faction Vendors easier to find and to send people to them in both Northrend and Outland... ^^ Perhaps wearing a faction's tabard could start a quest line that sends you back to them when an items you could use in a profession is available?
  

It's often the case that people level themselves first and then go back afterwards to level the professions they're told on the Internet are the best for their class at 85. It might not be an idea to start telling people more in game what is good for them so they can make more informed choices for themselves, and to start that process from the moment they roll a character. After all, every day can be a school day if you're given the encouragement to learn...

I'll Be Back...

with part 4 of my Magnum Opus, after this short break.

There may have been squeeing when this popped... ^^

The last time I saw a Rare Solve in Archaeology it was #20 to give me my Professor title. ELEVEN MONTHS AGO. I have dug every week, without fail, since then and seen nothing.

Seriously Blizzard: FIX THIS PROFESSION.

Honing Your Crafts : #3 : Token Gestures

That's a lot of Cooking Awards. Like you're surprised...

Five Ways to Improve Professions In Game.
#3 :  Standardise the Token System. Points should also equal materials!

When Blizzard introduced the now infamous Badger of Justice system back in TBC, those of us permanently blighted by the RNG breathed a fairly sizable sigh of relief (and were grateful they didn't have to solely rely on DKP any more to gear up, but that's a completely different story for another day) However, the system isn't perfect. When the Dalaran Cooking Award was introduced in Wrath Blizzard showed us that tokens for professions were here to stay, but this has simply made the system look more like a succession of different ideas bolted onto each other, which (let's face it) it is. Tokens have the potential to totally revolutionise Professions and Crafting, but not as they currently stand. It's time for some standardisation!

• We need ONE KIND OF TOKEN FOR ALL CRAFTING. You earn a Crafting Token from quests from L1 onwards. The same tokens are earned for Daily Quests in Shatt, in Northrend and in Azeroth. If you want to make recipes only usable at certain levels, give them a level requirement. The wonderful Chef's Hat, for instance, locked forever in an expansion zone most people can now level in 48 hours, requires 100 Dalaran tokens. If we had a new system you could simply buy it at L65 if you had the tokens to afford it. Most importantly of all, convert all those spare tokens to the new system. If you're concerned some people might be at an advantage if you do, make it 10 Dalaran Tokens = 1 Crafting Token, so at least those people have some return on their investment. [*]
  
  
• Justice Points and Conquest Points need to buy more raw materials. The introduction of Enchanting Mats for JP's for instance is an absolute master-stroke. I ramp myself up to 4000 JP, go buy 10 Essences @ 400 points each, and off I go again. What would now be great would be to see other materials being available for purchase. As it's also possible to buy these materials for Honor, what might be nice would be to introduce some PvP only items (perhaps to link in with the production of PvP gears?)
  
  
• What happens when you're max level, you've learned everything, you've done all the Crafting Achievements and you start stacking up Crafting Tokens? Let's see the option to purchase some vanity items with those spare tokens. If Blizzard are concerned that people might simply stockpile the Tokens for gain 'down the line' then set a ceiling on the number you can hold at any one time.
  
  
• The Darkmoon Faire's a great model for helping those who have difficulty levelling their professions to do so once a month: how about having the same model in place with professions? Have the option to spend tokens on increasing your skill as well as buying recipes or items you need to craft with. While you're at it, why not make Crafting Tokens purchasable for Justice, Honor and Conquest Points to boot?

[*] So you use the same token for Fishing or Cookery as you'd use for Jewelcrafting? Wouldn't that give an unfair advantage to a JC-er who did the daily fishing and cookery and decided not to spend them on the named professions? I think people should be able to choose how they use their tokens. If they decide to devote extra time to do two daily quests, should they not then have a choice as to how they spend those tokens anyway? If you make it all about a single currency, it gives the individual more flexibility as to how to spend, and they are more involved in the the decision making. I don't see how that can be a bad thing.

In the end, if Blizzard are looking to make the game fun, they could do a lot worse and look at the number of spare tokens clogging up people's banks. Those that have a financial value (like using Crusader's Seals for pets to sell) don't stay in a tab very long. I think it's high time the same was true for Professions and Crafting: give those hours of hard work in previous expansions a real value and make one token fit all :D

We Interrupt This Blog...

... for a large shouty rant on behalf of the Wee Dwarven Lassie Archaeologist, who joins us live from Uldum:

Current Tol'vir Solves. This isn't fair.

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??????????

Archaeology can NICK RIGHT OFF. All I want is the CHUFFING PET!!1!!!!1!!1. JUST HOW HARD DOES THIS HAVE TO BE!!!11!!1!!1!111!!1!!


*cough*

We now return you to your normally scheduled broadcast...

Honing Your Crafts : #2 : The Same Materials

Some of us just don't have the heart to throw ANYTHING away... ^^

Five Ways to Improve Professions In Game.
#2 :  Use More of the Same Materials, not Less. Make them drop where people play most!

If, like some of us, you were crafting in Vanilla, you'll remember the single biggest stumbling block to your task was the materials. If Blizzard wanted to make summat hard to craft, they'd make the mobs hard to find. I can remember the sheer joy when AQ and ZG were introduced for the first time and we were presented with new recipes from vendors that required skinning of specialist mobs to take place INSIDE AN INSTANCE, and then the realisation that I'd have to fight (potentially) 19 other people to get them [*] Striking a balance between accessible materials and rarity is something Blizzard have struggled with over the years, but of all the 'factors' involved in Crafting, this one is actually far better than it was when the system was introduced. I still don't have enough Dreamscale for that hunter chestpiece, even now...

However, especially when levelling, finding the right mats is still an issue, and it's my second issue with the crafting model. Surprisingly, I'm not after Blizzard removing those hard to find items: far from it.

• A leatherworker's going to need to skin a mob to level: a miner will need to hit a vein, a herbalist pick a flower. Make sure, when they do, that the mob/node drops additional items that are needed by the other professions. It could be a flower part to help level First Aid, for instance: if miners can harvest gems to help Jewelcrafters and that gem can be sold on the AH, the same should be true of all the items you can 'harvest'. Make EVERY item you are able to pick up be worthwhile, and not simply at low levels. I'd like to see stone re-introduced to high level mining nodes and patterns introduced to utilise it, and extra items from skinned mobs.
  
  
• Give professions the chance to use more items in construction and not less. Although I appreciate the simplification of many recipes as areas become 'obsolete' or are 're-imagined' (Strat and Scholo, I'm looking at you) it is a shame to see an item simply taking two herbs to make (plus a vial) or some leather and thread. There are plenty of opportunities in game for items to be purchasable with tokens (see point #3 tomorrow): why not use the model of the Engineering Chopper as a positive example? Place items on vendors around the world for cash, and Crafters could go and buy them: make them class only or BoP if you're concerned they could be exploited via the AH.
  
  
• Anyone fishing in Tol Barad or Darkmoon island right now will tell you what a treasure trove of awesomeness the Sealed Crates have become. I quietly cheered when Freya was given the Alchemists Cache in her loot table: what about more Package Love? If Blizzard can use the Darkmoon Artifacts and have them drop of specific mobs in specific Dungeons (with the addition of your Dungeoneering Guide) what's to stop the same happening for professions? That skinning knife you got when you completed your first Apprentice quest, how about that allows you to collect certain items from mobs you skin in 5 mans? When you mine that ore in the 5 man, you could receive a special Geode... you get the idea.
  
  
• Making the current top end Tailoring Cloth BoP is a blessing for some and a curse for many others, especially if you never get the patterns you need to create updated gears. That needs to change, especially through the process of patches. Although I appreciate the value of making certain patterns only drop in 10/25 man, I think Blizzard might be wise to consider creating an interim level of craftable gear that drops only in LFR. If we're going to be sensible, that would also correspond with an interim level of gems and a 'key ingredient' (Essence of Minor Destruction, anyone?)
  
  
• While we're on Tailors (and Alchemists), I'd like to see a rethink of the way their materials are handled. I'm not sure making Alchemists the only people who can produce Truegold is a good idea, and that it is the backbone of so many recipes seems odd. Is it not possible for ALL professions to get a Truegold-style material, and for patterns not to simply require the same base group of items to make?
  

In my ideal crafting world, everything would be recyclable. Any item that a crafter made would have by-products, and they could either be re-used on their own or be combined with other items to make materials another crafter could use in a separate profession. The AH would be full of crafters both selling their wares and their by-products. Maybe it would be possible, as we do with leather and metal right now, to make 'thicker' versions or composites of items using those that are more regularly occurring with the rarer drops. Perhaps those giblets that I got from skinning could be used by someone with a Deep Sea Fishing specialisation to catch a special shark. Maybe that plant stem could be crushed by a First Aider to make a HoT Salve.... let's use more materials to make crafting fun, not take them away because people think it's 'too hard' to find them. Just make them drop off the mobs people use most to level. Make them drop from dungeons if people are simply using LFG to go from 1-85, from BG's as well.

Most importantly, if so many people are enjoying LFR as a way to see content, give them some crafting love to go with it.


[*] Okay, so there were never 20 skinners in a ZG 20, but you get the idea. If only the concept of the 'only drops if you have an item in your inventory *thing* had existed back then... ^^

Honing Your Crafts : #1 : The Same Template

A Worgen's Work is never done... ^^

Five Ways to Improve Professions In Game.
#1 : Standardise the Process.

When you look at your Professions window in game, it all looks rather well thought out, doesn't it? The truth's quite a long way from that, of course, because the sheer amount of information you'd need in one window to accurately represent exactly what each of these skills gives you is staggering, hence the large number of add-ons that have developed over the years to assist any erstwhile Crafter to keep abreast of what they are doing. It would probably be easier if every profession followed the same template too: some have specialisations, some don't. Some Primary professions benefit from parts of Secondary professions and vice versa, but there is a lack of consistency. What is needed as the first step in any reorganisation of the professions is some basic rules, that cover all the professions. There are the bones of this already in place, and this is where we begin.

The seven levels of Profession Mastery!

As we stand, there are seven levels of mastery in all 14 professions: Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Artisan, Master, Grand Master and Illustrious Grand Master. Sadly, this is where the commonality ends in many cases, and my first desire for improvement is to build on the structure that Blizzard already has in place. Let's use it as our foundation and build upon it. For the purposes of this article I'll use Skinning as an example of what could be done, but I have ideas for all professions in this regard, which I'll list in a separate post.

• Introduce an 'Assessment' Quest that rewards you with the next level of mastery. For instance, to become a Journeyman Skinner you are asked to track down three specific mobs and skin them for a 'superior quality' hide. Let it reward you with an item that is useful for your profession: maybe a storage bag, in this case perhaps a +5 to skill skinning knife. Make levelling more interesting with incentives that don't need to be bought, but can be earned.
  
  
• Give EVERY Profession Specialisations back, even the gathering and secondary ones. Everyone gets a chance to have a base set of abilities but can further specialise down one of three paths. This will allow for consistency across all 14, and help people understand that when you get to (for example L65) it's time to go see your Trainer to begin your Specialisation training. Make them last a couple of levels too, maybe you won't finish your specialisation training until you hit 70, even 75. Don't make them so people have to go into dungeons, use the Game World as your backdrop, but use the incentive to level as the incentive to keep crafting.
  
  
• Don't penalise people for not rolling a specific class: the Worgen skinning racial is great, but why can't all skinners have it? Would it not be better to offer those kind of 'incentives' to those who complete their training in a particular profession? Perhaps (as Blizzard can track the number of beasts you have skinned) it might be a 'bonus' once you'd reached a specific number of items harvested or crafted?
  
  
• Give Professions the ability to become future proof. My skinning bag I earned when I became a Journeyman increases by 4 slots every Mastery I gain. That knife increases skinning by +1 every X levels I grind. The items I started my life with stay with me throughout my journey and retain their usefulness even when I am maxxed.
  
  
• Give everyone an ability like the one Tailors and Jewelcrafters possess: you gather/create more the higher level you become, you have a chance to gather/create a superior quality item from time to time. Ideally the system that is in place with Scribes and Alchemists for a 'daily research' spell is one that could work for all the professions, allowing the Crafter a chance to learn additional patterns/abilities over time once the 'standard' run of abilities is learnt. Perhaps specific spells could be attached to certain zones: for instance, as a Skinner I could go to the Darkmoon Faire and and learn their method of skinning dragons. This would allow a specific item to sometimes drop from dragons when I did.
  
  
• Give those who have excelled in their abilities titles to show for it. Completing my Specialiation in Skinning gives me the title 'Skinner of Birds', telling other people that I am the person to approach if they are looking for special feathers from rare birds to complete their items. Make every specialisation worthwhile to pursue and with tangible rewards that can be used by other Crafters to create items as good as those you would find in a five man dungeon.
  
  

Above all else however, if you give a basic ability to one group of crafters, make sure all of them have the same chance. Make it so if you have to explain crafting to someone the same rules apply to every profession, regardless of whether it is primary or secondary. The biggest single issue in my mind with the system is probably what many people consider it's biggest strength, that it's not sterile and homogenised but each system has it's own unique quirks. Although this is makes things interesting, I think it's only to a certain point, and redesigning the system could still retain this if done sympathetically.

I've got a list of what I came up with as potential specialisations for ALL the professions, which I'll post later to give people an idea of where my thinking is coming from. Needless to say I find this to be my biggest single issue, and the only way I can see to remove it is for Blizzard to go back to the drawing board, in much the same way as they will be forced to in order to deal with stat inflation...