Dear Blizzard – Professions July 11, 2012

It’s not too late.

I see what you did with Cooking. Allowing level 85+ characters to power-level the profession with vendor purchaseable items is genius. Making each recipe from this method grant 5 skill points. Genius. No longer will my high-level cook be a character I rarely play. Now every character can make their own foods!

But why not share some of these genius ideas with the other professions.

Not the waiting to level 85 part. Because some of those items we craft on the way up are useful. But why do I have to make so many of them?

I recently switched the second profession on my main from Herbalism to Jewelcrafting. He hadn’t been stopping at herb nodes since early in Cataclysm, and since I have two other characters who are Herb/Alchemy and another Herb/Inscription, a fourth herb gatherer wasn’t that useful.

But as I’m leveling up this new skill from scratch, I’m making a glut of things that are just being turned into dust that I’m offloading on the AH. I realize that if I was crafting along with leveling, I’d be able to use more of it, but frankly you’re always going to be making at least four of every Green/Uncommon-quality item for each one that you equip. How does this make sense? Especially as we approach the point where we will need SIX HUNDRED skill points to reach the maximum?

A while back, Blizzard introduced the ability for profession crafting of some kinds to give multiple skill points, but outside of Inscription it was rarely used. The other professions only benefitted on items that were Blue quality or higher, and those items usually had a so much higher material cost that it isn’t always economical to make those.

So Blizzard. Please. Please make levelling professions nicer. I’m trying to decide what my Pandaren Monk is going to pick as professions, and outside of gathering I don’t know if I want to do this slog again.

Oh, and while you’re at it. Enough with leather scraps.