WoW Forever Professions Overhaul — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] So the other day I made a video talking about how WoW Forever has completely changed gold making and after spending even more time playing the beta, looking through the professions,

[00:12] looking through the new systems and generally trying to figure out what Blizzard has actually done here, I think I may have undersold it because they haven't just changed gold making, They've changed professions themselves, and I don't mean they've just added a few new recipes or moved some profession trainers around.

[00:34] Blizzard has added over 600 new recipes across the different professions and level ranges. They've changed existing recipes, they've tried professions into the new camping system,

[00:46] They've tied them into the new legacy system and professions are now being pushed at you while you're actually levelling your character. And because of that, I think professions in WoW Forever are going to be considerably more important than they were in normal classic WoW.

[01:06] Now, obviously, before we go any further, this is the beta. Things can change. Numbers can change. Recipes can change. systems can be altered before the game actually comes out. So we're looking at

[01:21] how WoW Forever works right now but there is already enough here that I think we need to talk about it because one of the first things I noticed while leveling West Lightborne Druids is that the game was actually giving me professional

[01:35] objectives. I had quests telling me to get mining up to 20, herbalism up to 20 and and first aid up to 20 and I actually completed the first aid one while I was leveling so immediately the game was doing something quite interesting. Instead of professions just being

[01:51] this thing that you remember exists 20 levels later and then go back and train, Forever is actively saying you've got a profession, go bloody use it. And this isn't

[02:05] just something I've seen with my skyborn either. Very early in the game there is also a quest that can give you a manual to learn either herbalism, mining or skinning provided you've actually got

[02:18] room for the profession. So Blizzard very clearly wants gathering and crafting to become part of the leveling journey as it were and that becomes even more obvious when you start looking at camping.

[02:32] Camping is basically an extension of the old cooking fire, except instead of putting down a tiny fire and then forgetting it exists, you could actually create a campsite where players can contribute profession-based objects.

[02:48] Those objects can provide bus, vendors, repair services, profession facilities and other bonuses. And the really important part for us is that the different professions have their own things

[03:02] that they can contribute. So let's start with herbalism. Herbalism can eventually create a greenhouse and the greenhouse can actually grow herbs over time from seeds that you plant in it obtained through nodes.

[03:18] And later on you've got the seed hybridizer and that can multiply seeds or combine them into rarer tiers. That is very interesting to say the least because herbalism isn't now simply run around

[03:32] the world, find herbs, pick up herbs and then sell the herbs. You've potentially got another production system attached to the profession. You're gathering the herbs, you're gathering the seeds and then you've potentially got

[03:46] a method of creating more resources through your camp Now combine that with some of the other systems we going to talk about in a minute and Herbilism starts looking extremely strong Mining has something very similar. Mining eventually gets access to the rock garden and the rock garden

[04:03] can actually spawn a common mining node over time. Then at the higher tier you've got the molten foundry which is required for certain recipes. I would assume something along the lines

[04:15] of Darth Ironore or the new one of Pyro. Again we're no longer simply talking about running around hitting copper veins, your profession is actually giving you additional infrastructure.

[04:28] Skinning gets its own interesting stuff as well. At one of the higher tiers, Skinning gets the field guide which grants track beasts much like a hunter. And then eventually you've

[04:40] got the trapper's workbench which contains a trap and track beast is especially interesting from a gold making perspective as well because what are you actually looking for when you're farming

[04:54] leather or beasts you need to find the beast you need to kill the beast and then you need to skin the beast so if your profession itself starts helping you find the thing that you're trying to

[05:06] farm that's already improving the farming process. And there is another part of this that makes mining, herb licking and skinning particularly interesting. The legacy system. Now this isn't a retail style profession specialisation tree. That's an important distinction to make.

[05:23] The legacy system is a wider character progression system and one that its branches is specifically based around professions and there are perks inside that tree that directly affects how

[05:38] efficiently you gather and craft. For example, Bountiful Harvest increases the amount of scarce materials that you discover through mining, herbals and skinning one that I found recently was literally the item of pyrite. Working overtime increases your chance of

[05:55] getting profession skill ups and you can actually earn legacy progression by reaching profession milestones as well, including getting trade skills to 150, 225 and 300 for the first time.

[06:08] So now you've got another layer. You take herbalism. Herbalism gives you the actual gathering profession. The camp system gives herbalism things like the greenhouse and the sea hybridizer. Then the legacy system can make your gathering more productive. And this is

[06:24] exactly why I'm saying gold making has changed. We aren't looking at one isolated system anymore. the systems are starting to stack on top of each other and then we've got fishing. Do not ignore fishing. I know fishing isn't exactly the most exciting activity in the world.

[06:41] You literally sit there, cast your fishing rod, trick a bobber and repeat that until you begin questioning what you're doing with your life. But fishing has historically been very good for

[06:53] gold making if you're willing to actually collect the data and work out which fish are valuable. I did exactly that back in classic. I went around different zones sat there fishing,

[07:05] recorded what I was catching and worked out what was actually worthwhile and forever has made fishing more interesting. The legacy perk called lure master which gives you a

[07:17] chance to catch an additional fish while you've got a lure active. Then through camping you've got the fishing rack which allows you to catch uncommon fish for a period of time and eventually

[07:29] the fishing hut which allows you to catch rarer fish. That has immediately got my attention because fishing is a secondary profession It isn consuming one of your two primary slots So theoretically you have your mining and herbalism or whatever combination you decide to use and still have

[07:50] fishing running alongside it. Which brings us nicely onto cooking. Cooking has had a surprisingly big change. Blizzard has changed crafted food so that it can provide stat bonuses as well as an experience bonus. So food isn't simply something you use because you're running

[08:08] out of health. It's now something that players leveling their characters may actually want to keep running for the additional experience benefit. And from a gold making perspective, that matters because if a consumer will give somebody an advantage while they're leveling,

[08:25] people have a reason to continue buying it and there is also a legacy perk called Master Chef which gives cooking recipes a chance to create an additional result. So now you've potentially got

[08:40] buy ingredients, cook food, have a chance of creating extra food, sell the food to players who want the stat bonuses and the leveling bonus. That's a proper little economy right there.

[08:52] Cooking also controls the campfire itself. The basic campfire can support up to three additional camp features, which the improved versions eventually support five and then ten.

[09:05] So cooking has gone from something that a lot of people might casually level on the side to being tied directly into one of Forever's new major systems. And then we've got first aid.

[09:17] First aid is another one I would not ignore. In normal classic you've basically got your bandages and things like anti-venom. Forever has expanded that. We've already seen things like tourniquets from removing bleeds

[09:31] and even healing potions appearing within first aid as well. First aid can also create its own campsite objectives starting with the first aid kit. Again, secondary profession.

[09:43] It doesn't use one of your primary slots And that means when we're eventually working out the best overall goal making setup, we cannot just look at two professions anymore. We need to consider two primary professions, fish and cooking first aid, your legacy choices and the things your camp can actually produce.

[10:04] Then we've got the traditional crafting profession, alchemy can create fermenter for producing certain reagents, and later an alchemy laboratory which is needed for certain recipes. blacksmithing can put an anvil and eventually a master forge required for higher level crafting.

[10:24] Leatherworking gets the tanning rack for producing certain reagents and later the sewing machine for recipes that require it. Tailoring gets the spinning wheel for reagents and eventually the loom. Engineering is also interesting. Engineers can create a reagent box. Then there's a repair

[10:43] which allows people to purchase reagents and repair their gear and eventually there is the arcanist's workbench for recipes that specifically require it. The enchanting has one of those ones

[10:55] that I really want to test properly the arcane salvager. The description specifically says that it enables more efficient dish enchanting. Now what exactly more efficient means in practice

[11:07] is something that I want to physically test rather than just guess because depending on what it actually changes that could have some very interesting goal making implications and later

[11:19] enchanting gets the arcane forge for recipes that specifically require it and this is where the more than 600 new recipes become particularly important We not simply talking about all of these systems being added around the existing classic professional recipes Blizzard has said that there are more than 600 new recipes spread across the professions

[11:42] and level ranges while existing recipes have also been reworked and advanced blueprint recipes can even come from dungeon bosses. That means that professions potentially have value throughout the entire game.

[11:55] You might be leveling, you might be gathering, you might be crafting, you might be doing dungeons looking for a blueprint, working on your legacy progression or creating things for a camp and all of those systems are feeding into professions.

[12:10] There are legacy perks that go outside the obvious gathering bonuses. Performance bonuses can improve rewards from profession supply, create turn ins. Bartering reduces the amount of gold you spend at vendors, and dedicated study can increase

[12:26] your lowest trade skill, eventually changing its reward once you're eligible. Trade skills are maxed. So when I said the other day that WoW Forever has changed gold making, this is a massive

[12:39] part of what I was talking about. The progression system isn't sitting separately from the rest of the game anymore. is being woven into leveling, it's being woven into exploration, camping, and into legacy

[12:52] progression, and even into dungeons. And it's obviously going to feed directly into the economy once players start working out which materials and which recipes are actually valuable.

[13:05] Now there are still a lot of things we don't know. We're in beta, we don't know what the finished economy is going to look like, we don't know which recipes are going to become the big sellers. We don't know exactly how valuable some of the scarce materials are going to be and

[13:22] there are systems like the Arcade Salvager that I specifically want to test before I start telling you exactly what they're worth. But I think one thing is already fairly obvious. If you're planning

[13:35] to play WoW forever and you're interested in gold making I would not leave professions until level I would start working on them while you're leveling because the game itself seems to be designed around encouraging you to do exactly that.

[13:49] And there is another rabbit hole that I've now fallen down into while researching all of this because professions are only one part of the equation. The different races have completely different racial abilities.

[14:02] The different classes have different abilities that can help with farming, travel, tracking and killing mobs. And when you start combining race, class, primary profession, secondary profession, camping and legacy perk, you can potentially start building characters specifically around

[14:19] different types of guild making. And there are some combinations that already look extremely interesting. So that's what I'm going to be testing next. We're going to look at races, we're going to look at classes, we're going to look at

[14:34] which professions actually make sense for different farms. eventually I want to answer one question. If you were creating one character specifically to make gold in WoW Forever, what should you actually make? But for

[14:47] now I'm going to keep digging through the beta, keep leveling the professions, keep collecting the data and as we learn more I'll keep bringing all of that back here. So if you're interested in gold making in WoW Forever then I will see

[15:02] you in the next video which will be soon. Thank you.