Cataclysm Miscues: IV: Professions

This is the forth in a series of posts about the little things that cataclysm messed up on this expansion.  These little things are things that mostly go unnoticed or are easily overlooked because they are usually not game breaking but they do leave you having that feeling of something being off.

Past posts:
Cataclysm Miscues: I: Healing & Mana Potions
Cataclysm Miscues: II: Hemet Nesingwary
Cataclysm Miscues: III: Targeting

Professionally Speaking:

Profession this expansion are filled with those little "what?" moments.  The little things that I am talking about in this series of posts.  All things that you might like to see fixed but it doesn't really stress on you.  Many of them you might not have even noticed because there is so much going on otherwise.  Me, I noticed and I went, what?

Inscription is the king of the what? this expansion.  Every profession has something that is considered its main gig.  Leatherworkers work with leather, blacksmiths work with metal, jewelcrafters work with gems, you get the idea.  Scribes write things with ink.  Things like glyphs and scrolls.

One problem with that this expansion is there are no glyphs and scrolls now count as an elixirs, what?, there really is not much of a reason for a scribe to actually inscribe anything.

By not even making some sort of vanity type glyphs to fill in something they can do being it is their main thing they left a profession that makes glyphs without their focus.  What do you think would happen if a leatherworker had a whole expansion that never made any gear with leather?  That is the same thing as a scribe going an entire expansion without making new glyphs. This leaves inscription as a great big what? this expansion.

Alchemy is another one of those professions that has left people wondering this whole expansion, what ever happened to their bonus.  Every profession gets a bonus of some sort that equals 80 (or 81 in the case of JC or +120 in the case of mining) but that 80 has been elusively absent from this entire expansion.  They can use their extra special flask for 80 at least but that does not work with the normal flask, so when raiding they get the normal +300 a flask gives and not +380 like they should, or do they?  Some say it just a tooltip error and others swear it is not.  Either way, it leaves people saying, what? If the bonus is not being given or if it is a tooltip error it has never been fixed this entire expansion.

Jewelcrafting is another profession that left us scratching our heads collectively with all the new numbers for gems thanks to blizzard changing the value of stamina when compared to other stats basically.  The uncommon gems where a base 30 for all stats and 45 for stamina, the rare gems where a base 40 for all stats and 60 for stamina and the epic gems where a base 50 for all stats and 75 for stamina.  With that information we can safely say that stamina has a bonus value is 1.5 times what all other stats are now.  All stats are no longer equal.  This alone is one of those things that could make you feel a little off.  At least they kept it a steady 1.5 times across the board as proved by mining being +120 stamina and not +80.

To make matters worse when it comes to numbers, based on the way they released the epic gems this expansion the jewelcrafters join alchemy in the group of professions that got screwed out of their +80 bonus.  When epic gems where added there were no new epic jewelcrafter gems added. 

If you had been using 3 +67 agility gems, effectively giving you +27 x 3, which is 81 when based off rares, the effective bonus was now +17 x 3, which is 51 based off epics.  Sorry jewelcrafters, the once best profession in the game for bonuses is now one of the lesser ones.

Not to get into if they should or shouldn't have added new JC patterns for the bonus, but I do understand how it was a damned if you do damned if you don't type of situation for them.  If you do add them then all jewelcrafters, even if they do not raid, effectively get 3 epics for the cost of a chimera eye and if you don't you screw over the profession bonus for jewelcrafters.

The addition of epic gems and how they did it this expansion hurt jewelcrafters, miners, and alchemists.  Another thing that people might find a little baffling.  Jewelcrafters lost their bonus, miners now had an almost useless collection of pyrite ore and alchemists who routinely make a fortune transmuting epic gems lost their major money maker.

Another small change, which I did not mind but surely left some people wondering, is the crafting materials dropping from raid bosses only which was a change from what people had gotten used to toward the end of wrath. 

Things such as living ember and essence of destruction should have also been purchasable from the valor vendor as well as drops from raid bosses.  This is not a question of raiding, this is a question of professions.

Many people have profession mules, that all they do is learn their profession to make stuff for personal use or for sale.  Many people have non raiding alts that end up with valor that has no use.  From a profession standpoint having items like embers available for valor is a god send, it is a money maker.  It is something missing this expansion that could make people scratch their head.

Having the crafting items more readily available would have helped tailors, blacksmiths, leatherworkers and basically anyone wanting to gear up an alt pretty quickly with BoEs.  The change in attitude with how you attain these items effectively hurt those three professions.

What about poor herbalism which totally got left out this expansion on the +80 stat thing like its counterpart alchemy.  Sure, lifeblood does give an on use 480 haste for 20 seconds but with a 2 minute cooldown you would need to remember to use it every two minutes exactly to get the same benifit of +80 that every other profession gets without having to click an ability constantly.  All things being equal, this one doesn't always seem as if it is.

All professions could have entered a new phase in the game, one where it seems they want more people to have more access to gear with a little effort. 

They could have easily added new personal trinkets to alchemy each raid patch and made the previous level one no longer BoP.  They could have easily added new personal helms for engineers with each raid patch and made the previous level ones no longer BoP.

Is there a real reason that dreamcloth is still soulbound for tailors?  It would be a major money maker for them if it where not and it would allow people to buy and sell them one at a time instead of as just the finished item.  It doesn't make a great deal of sense for them to be soulbound and is one of those what? things.

How come the alchemy mount, which takes an alchemist a lot of time and effort to get the recipe for, is not BoP? If it is not BoP then why are the flying machine and flying carpet still BoP?  Either sell all flying mounts or sell no flying mounts.  The fact the alchemy mount is BoE still has me wondering what?.

It seems that the things they changed left people with the feeling that something was a little off and the things they could have changed that people would have loved they left alone.  No matter what profession you are there is something about how professions where handled in this expansion that left you scratching your head and saying what?.

There are a lot of things in professions that moved us from our comfort zone, perhaps it is just change, and change is not always a bad thing but people like things they are comfortable with like I mentioned in a previous post.  Personally, when a profession that is designed to make glyphs has no new glyphs to make for an entire expansion I begin to feel there is something off.

So if you are playing cataclysm, like it or not is irrelevant, and you ever felt like some things just did not seem right then perhaps this is one of those things you subconsciously noticed.  While not game breaking (unless you are a hard core raider that wants your +80) all professions are some of the miscues of cataclysm.