Blizzard looks to be going all out on overhauling the World of Warcraft experience in the upcoming new expansion, Dragonflight. As well as completely reworking the talent system and expanding the customisation options for races, the tenured MMO developer is expanding and improving the profession system. In a previous article, we talked about the addition of an Etsy-style crafting order system, and of quality ratings for various resources. They’re not stopping at that, however. You can check out the full details on Blizzard’s blog, but let’s run down the best bits.
Crafting stations have previously been something only certain professions have had to worry about. While Blacksmiths and Engineers found themselves tethered to the relevant shop in each capital city, Jewelcrafters and Enchanters lived the good life, crafting where and when suits their mood.
Not anymore. Most of the new Dragonflight recipes will require a special profession-specific crafting station, scattered throughout the Dragon Isles. The capital city will have a large profession hub, with vendors, an Auction House, and Crafting Order NPCs nearby. Thankfully for those forgetful souls who only realise they need to make Flasks for the raid at the last minute, Engineers will be able to make portable crafting tables.
In a major quality of life improvement, Blizzard will be increasing the stack size of crafted and gatherable items for Dragonflight. This is intended to offset the space requirements necessitated by introducing different quality materials. In Dragonflight, gathered materials will stack to 1000 (from 200), and crafted consumables will stack to 200 (from 20). A new dedicated Reagent bag slot should help with storage issues as well. In addition, Jewelcrafters and those on the Inscription path will no longer have to manually target a stack of reagents to prospect/mill, but can instead just click a single button in a new menu.
Profession equipment is being revamped, with dedicated slots for equipment like fishing rods and Blacksmith hammers – each profession has three slots, one tool, and two accessories. The accessories will provide profession bonuses, and will visually appear on your character when you perform a profession action, then will switch back when you enter combat.
Finally there’s recrafting – given that items can be made using different quality materials you might think that in order to improve crafted gear, you need to make it again. Recrafting solves that issue, allowing you to change the optional reagent used in making the gear and to raise the quality of the item. Recrafting will require Artisan’s Mettle, which can be earned from various profession related activities.
For more on Dragonflight changes, check out our articles on the ongoing adjustments to the new Death Knight and Hunter talent trees, or our thorough preview of the latest alpha build.