Cataclysm Professions Preview Analysis

Video courtesy of Panserbjørne of Azuremyst-US.

While the Cataclysm updates to many of the professions are still deep in development, we wanted to share some of the work that’s been going on, as well as a high-level look at any lessons learned or changes to their underlying philosophies during the design process. Please be aware that not all professions have the same extent of information available right now, but each is receiving the same love and attention as the next. (Source)

Take heed of these teasers as you look forward to your new rank of Illustrious Grand Master!

Please enjoy!

General

• Perks will continue to exist across all professions, and will upgraded appropriately.

Keep this in mind if you are contemplating changing or re-rolling professions. The current bonuses will scale with Cataclysm stats.

Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, and Tailoring

• Many of the green (and possibly some blue) items made during the process of leveling these professions will contain random stats. In most examples, two stats on these items will be set, and two will be random. The idea with these items is to mix up the skill leveling items so you’re not just, for example, creating 10 pairs of boots that are all exactly the same.

Not a great change, however if you plan on equiping these crafted items it may benefit you a bit. But really, how many crafted greens/blues did you equip when leveling during Wotlk?

• Superior-quality items that require more materials than other recipes in the same skill range provide multiple skill-ups. For example, if a recipe takes three times the reagents, it will give you three skill-ups.

Good news for those that plan to powerlevel a profession during release or even throughout the course of Cataclysm. Crafting epic times will give more skill-ups than crafting green items.

• We didn’t feel like we were getting much flexibility from specializations, so they have been removed for all three of these professions. The intent was to help people diversify their profession to feel different from that of other players, but through other professions we’ve found systems that work better to this end, such as simply making recipes available that you can earn over time.
• To follow up the previous change, all items that required a specialization are now useable by anyone.
• Tailoring the high-end Cataclysm items will center around a single cloth type that can be crafted through five different recipes — each with their own material components and a long cooldown.
• All three professions will create their starter sets of PVP gear, which will be upgraded with new recipes every season. In general, these are meant to keep pace as an entry-level PvP set below whatever the current Hero Point set is.

An interesting addition where crafted PvP gear will scale with each season, however don’t expect these to be better than the sets from Arena/Battlegrounds. Possible profit potential during each new season.

Alchemy

• New elixirs will be about 75% as strong as flasks. So you can get more total stat points with two elixirs, but flasks will still be the best at giving you a single offensive or defensive stat.
• New unique material used by nearly all high-level recipes will be created by alchemists on a one-day cooldown.

Are we going to see the return of a primal might like item? Wotlk had something similar to this in the game files but was never introduced.

• New Mysterious Potion created with common materials restores health and mana in a massively random range, as well as sometimes granting the benefit of another potion. The health and mana range is from 1-20,000 and is able to crit. The minimum amount restored, however, is scaled upwards by the Alchemy skill, making it a great choice for alchemists to keep for themselves.
• All potions and elixirs now use the same basic vial type. Flasks still use a fancy vial.
• New Alchemist Stone.

Remember alchemist stones in BC? They were best in slot for a long time, we hope they bring this profession perk back.

Enchanting

In general, material component costs for most recipes are more moderate in how much they require, while the highest-end recipes will still require large quantities. The goal of this change is to make the leveling recipes more consistent and not create unintended roadblocks in getting to the higher skill levels.

An enchanter vanity pet is being added.

New Cataclysm weapon enchantment preview:

• Avalanche — Chance to deal Nature damage on melee hit/spell hit.
• Elemental Slayer — As expected, this enchantment helps players deal devastating damage to elemental creatures.

The return of Elemental Slaying, a vanilla WoW enchant that boosted attack power against elementals. This may have interesting uses like have two sets of weapons with these enchants on them for farming elementals. However it seems unlikely the bonus will be so great that players will carry two sets of weapons around for this purpose.

• Hurricane — A stacking haste proc.
• Heartsong — Mana regeneration through increased Spirit when chain-casting spells.
• Many more maximum-level enchantments are still in progress.

Engineering

• Engineering is still being designed, but expect new unpredictable gadgets to use on yourself or enemies. Toys, explosives, and even a new vanity pet or two. Oh, and powerful mechanical bows and crossbows in addition to guns.

An exciting change for Engineering with the addition of crafted bows and crossbows.

• In general, we want Engineering to remain a tradeskill mainly focused on creating fun or useful gadgets for the engineer, but we are exploring options for items that can be sold to other players for profit.

Although many players argue that this profession is not profitable, some of us have been know to make it work in our favor. Still the majority of Engineer’s aren’t making very much money and Blizzard is trying to change that.

Inscription

• With the large number of class changes coming with Cataclysm, many existing glyphs will see new functionality.

Whatever the changes, expect Inscription to be just as profitable as it is now.

• Minor glyphs are woefully uneven from one class to the next right now, so they’re a focus for us to clean them up and try to ensure that everyone has minor glyphs they’re excited about.
• New Darkmoon Cards will be added, with hopes they’ll all be as awesome as the Greatness card.

A new Greatness card means huge profits for players who take the time and money to put together these decks. You can pretty much consider this a gold sink in Cataclysm. Gold cap players I would assume will be keeping an eye on these and snatch them up quickly.

• We’ll be adding more major glyphs as well, but in the hopes of making them as balanced as possible, we’ll likely wait until after the expansion ships to add any for the new abilities in Cataclysm.

An indication of another “glyph rush” where these new glyphs are released and become in high demand while scribes make a huge profit on them. Keep an eye on the new herbs and inks you will need for the new glyphs!

• New and more desirable off-hand and relic recipes will be added.

The keyword being “desirable”. This could mean profitable BOE off-hands and relics. The current off-hands created by scribes are only ilevel 200 but they can be proftiable in the right hands. Currently other ilevel 200 BOE epics are profitable as well but it depends on the server.

Jewelcrafting

• Some gem colors have changed! Hit is now blue. Mastery and Dodge are yellow. Intellect is now red. These simple changes have created a much more diverse matrix of gem cuts.

Diversifying the gem cuts and colors may mean that reds won’t cost significantly higher than greens.

• New Jewelcrafting dailies will be introduced.

There are players that are unhappy with how new Jewelcrafting recipes are obtained, however those of you who have access to these recipes first will be able to make a profit. It seems like if you want to be ahead of the competition you are going to have to do the JC daily everyday and buy the new versions of damaged necklace’s.

• Many cuts are being added to support the new Mastery stat.
• Some new Cataclysm jewelry recipes have completely random properties, and can sometimes create superior and epic versions.

This feature reminds me of the profession in Aion. The randomness of it can make it very profitable if you spend the time and money into it. So far this seems specific to jewelry recipes. They can “proc” into blue or purple items. This may mean crafting a blue quality ring may have a change to turn into an epic quality ring. In my short experience with Aion’s profession system is that it requires a lot of materials, money, and tries to obtain the higher quality version of what you just crafted. However it does pay off in the end since not many people “proc” that higher quality item and so the item is in high demand. This will be up to Blizzard to create the proc rates and how good the higher quality version is.

• Jewelcrafters will have some fun new (and potentially lucrative) vanity items, including fist weapons, rhinestone sunglasses, monocles, and stardust (sprinkle on players for entertainment).

Some players just don’t get the vanity aspect of this game, but there are plenty that do. Just look at how many people paid real money for the mount and Lil XT pet. Jewelcrafting will be even more profitable it seems like. Possible vanity items could be used for bank alt and RP purposes. The addition of BOE fist weapons is also an interesting change.

Herbalism, Skinning, and Mining

• All Cataclysm herbs have the chance of containing Volatile Life.
• There won’t be a new Lotus equivalent in Cataclysm. Alchemists will use the more reliably-found Volatile Life to create the new high level flasks.
• “Heartblossom — Named for its deep red color, this delicate flower grows close to the ground, and always in pairs. If one blossom is taken, the other flower begins to wilt immediately and dies soon after. It is considered very unlucky to disturb a Heartblossom without blessing it first.”
• Savage Leather, the basic Cataclysm leather, can be gathered from most creatures found in the expansion areas and can be converted to Heavy Savage Leather at a 6:1 rate.
• Pristine Hide, the rare Cataclysm hide, can be found when skinning creatures in the expansion areas, or be converted from Heavy Savage Leather.

Savage Leather -> Heavy Savage Leather -> Pristine Hide

• Obsidian is the new common mineral found when mining in Cataclysm, and can contain gems, Volatile Fire, and Volatile Shadow.
• Elementium is the new uncommon mineral found when mining in Cataclysm, and can contain gems, Volatile Fire, Volatile Water, or Volatile Earth.
• Pyrite is the new rare mineral found when mining in Cataclysm, and can contain gems and Volatile Fire.

Cobalt -> Saronite -> Titanium is now Obsidian -> Elementium -> Pyrite

• Previous Elementium Ore and Bar used for classic quests will be renamed to Elementium Ingot and Hardened Elementium Bar.
• We like the gathering perks as they are; not a game-changing bonus but something themed and fun. But as all tradeskills are in the design stages these are still being discussed to a degree.

Cooking

• Cooking is still in the early stages, but we plan on continuing with daily quests, feasts, and some fun new recipes.

It seems like the they might stick with the daily quest and “northern spice” route to level cooking in Cataclysm.

• We liked the cooking dailies that had players picking up items that spawned in the world near the quest giver, so most if not all new cooking dailies will work similarly.

First Aid

• Bandages will have a short cast time and put a heal over time effect on the target for 8 seconds. This effect is broken by damage.

After reading through hundreds of responses to theses professions, the bandage change came up the most. This will add new dynamics into PvE and PvP. A short cast for any class for a 8 second hot sounds great, at least a lot better than how bandages currently are.

• Three new bandages! That’s right: THREE!

Bandage preview:

• “Dense Embersilk Bandage” Heals for 34,800 over 8 seconds. Requires 3 Embersilk to create.

Please remember that 34k HP may or may not be very high compared to Cataclysm heal pools.

Fishing

• Lots of new fish and other fun items to catch! Fish are still used to make premium food.

Look for fishing to be profitable again if it is required for the best raid buff food.

• New fishing dailies.

Given the history of what fishing daily’s drop, there will be new vanity pets and items here. Maybe even another Stormjewel like item. Who remembers seeing them for 1000g?

What are our readers thoughts on all these new changes?