Woo.

Call me the buzzkill…

I’m here to remind you that soon, Professions will have higher limits, and new recipes.

So, in honor of our upcoming grinds, I’d like to take this moment to look back on the profession fun of days gone by, and give everyone a chance to weigh in on what they consider to be the most painful profession to gain useful recipes for, once you’ve hit the max.

What, you thought I was gonna talk about painful professions to level? Oh c’mon, that’s so last year.

“But Bear, in my day we had to walk uphill to farm ore, in the snow of Icecrown, BOTH WAYS!”

Get over it. Shake it off, you ninny.

No, let’s have fun debating what the most painful profession to get all the useful recipes for is.

As a person with, count ‘em, four max level Engineers, I’ll do my part and kick Engineering to the curb. It’s dead easy. There are only a couple recipes to grind for, hell maybe only the one, Jeeves, if you decide not to count the rep grind for the Engineering Chopper.

No, I’m thinking more along the lines of how you can whip up your Jewelcrafting to max in a few days of ore mining, and then be stuck for months as you do the daily Jewelcrafting Quest to get tokens to buy recipes. How many recipes do you need? The answer is, how many alts do you have?

Or how about Inscription, where you get to max and have fun making your Darkmoon Cards, only to realise you should’ve been doing not one but TWO daily researches, for both a Minor AND a Major. Have fun the next few months, and make sure you’ve got lots and lots of nice, tasty herbs to destroy. Oh, and don’t go on vacation, it’ll put you behind by a week.

Or how about everyone’s favorite, Enchanting. You grind and grind and grind your way up, and the higher your level, the more expensive every point is… and those Greens you used to sell for good coin get D/E’d straight down the drain to feed your voracious appetite for mats. And just when you’re nearing the end… they make your Disenchanting automatically shared among a group of four strangers. Ain’t those Blizzard cats some funny folks?

Every profession has it’s story, has it’s own hook for singing the leveling blues.

What I find curious is how some professions are damn expensive, but the only thing throttling your getting all the recipes is how deep your pockets go.

Enchanting? If you’ve got the money, honey, you can get the skills. Just dump all your cash into buying Greens, D/E, rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

Leatherworking? Technically, if you feel like buying enough leather to trade into Artic Furs, well, go for it. It’s silly, but not TOO bad. Well, okay, it’s bad. Just not as bad as it used to be. Now, it’s more like a sharp whack in the forehead with a rubber mallet rather than a swing in the nuts from a sledgehammer. It feels good, but only by comparison.

How about Inscription? That must not be too bad, right? Nope, if you want all the Glyph recipes, buckle up buttercup, you’re in for a bumpy ride. Every day, two new recipes, one Minor, one Major. That’s it, thanks for playing. Try our home game!

Jewelcrafting isn’t far off, either. Your Epic Gem recipes do indeed come from the daily JC quest, but Blizzard was almost fiendishly cruel in the upgrade patch. Now they dangle the possibility of leveling faster in front of you… if you, oh I dunno… just farm enough Titanium Ore to prospect. It leaves you feeling that you’re somehow being lazy if you DON’T turn thousands of gold worth of raw ore into dust.

Letting Alchemists transmute the Titanium BARS is almost grinding salt into a JCs wounds, isn’t it?

Oh, and I’m sure as bad as Blacksmithing is to level, there’s no crying at the end game leveling now that Miners can smelt Titansteel endlessly without regard for cooldown sillyness. Why, take an Alchemist making Titanium Bars, and an Engineering Miner farming the Primals and smelting Titansteel, and you’ve got a great combination to feed a leveling Blacksmith.

Not that any of us are so far advanced in the game that we’ve got multiple, or even ALL, max level Professions scattered amongst our characters. Oh, heavens no.

So, what’s your take? What do you personally feel is the most painful Profession to level once you finally hit those last few points and want to get cracking on making something useful?

Notice I don’t even mention the confusing hell that is Tailoring and cloth specialising and variations at end game, or the fun of tokens that is Cooking. :)

Gotta give Cooking a big thumbs up, simply from having so many easy to get to daily quests.

As you think about it… of all the many and varied systems Blizzard has implemented in professions to learn new recipes and advance them… which do you like the best? And why?

No really, why? If your answer is you like the hardest because you’re into pain, well, that might be fun to know. :)

And of course, that leaves us wondering… will any of the professions SWAP recipe leveling methods once Cataclysm comes to town? Will Blizzard decide they like one more than the rest, and just use that copy/paste?

Oooh, that fun and easy Engineering might turn into the white whale! Ahoy there, Ahab!

Hold up, don’t get too excited.

I ain’t hiring for the blog.

I’m not even hiring for anything game related.

I’m hiring someone for a real job.

Networking is one of the ways in which people are supposed to get good leads on positions that may be available. Consider this post as part of your network.

I have an opening for a 3rd shift Machine Maintenance Technician that I am looking to fill as soon as possible. This is a new position that has been created to fill my department’s growing needs.

The candidate I am looking for needs to be skilled, experienced and love what they do. Machine Maintenance Technicians are the investigative detectives of a production facility. People come to us with problems they just can’t solve on their own, and ask us to make all things clear and restore hope and order. Oh, and get things running again so we be making money.

This is a real posting for a position in my department. I expect to act this upcoming week on all initial phone screenings and begin arranging interviews.

If you are, specifically, a qualified and experienced Machine Maintenance Technician available for 3rd shift work in the Minnesota Twin Cities metro area, go to the bottom of this post to view the required qualifications.

If after reading the list of qualifications you feel you are qualified and experienced, and the position interests you, please email me at tigerlordgm@yahoo.com and I will send you the link to the posting.

All resumes are to be sent in following the link, the same as all others we are considering. Resumes sent in using the posting link will go directly to Human Resources, will follow our established corporate HR procedures, and the hiring process will follow all appropriate rules and regulations, local, state and federal.

This is not a method to bypass anything, it is simply an opportunity that is available for someone with the right skills and experience, and having been the subject of a layoff myself in the not-so-distant past, I want to make sure I do my part to get the word out. 

The window for sending in a resume will close on 5/7/10, so if you are interested, act now.

Read the rest of this entry »

This last weekend was a very strange one for me.

Out of the blue, without warning, I suddenly wanted to go fishing in game.

I’ve got no freaking idea why.

I still don’t understand it, and yet when I get home I’m looking forward to logging in and doing the fishing dailies for Dalaran and Shattrath.

It started innocuously enough.

Friday, I think it was, I decided to start doing the fishing daily in Shattrath every day, in the hopes of getting Crocolisk in the City. I’ve been told that the drop rate for the old Bucket pets from that one daily quest was drastically increased in a recent patch. Like, a 50% chance of a drop.

Suddenly, I’m logging in and hitting Shat to fish.

Hey, it’s not that bad. I’ve got a whopping huge fishing skill of something like 225 to start, but pop a +100 Fishing Skill Aquadynamic dealiebob on there and we’re good to go.

Fishing for pets, it turns out, is a gateway drug.

From there, I started doing the Dalaran fishing daily.

My cooking is already maxed with most of the recipies, including the Fish Feast, but I never made any fish recipies unless Cassie gave me the fish. I never fish. Ever, ever, ever.

Well, now that I’m fishing, my guilt comes rushing to the surface.

“You know, Bear, you’re a Fish Feast mooch. Everyone else brings a Feast to groups, and you never do. You’re not pulling your weight in Fish.”

Hey! I bring my own Blackened Dragonfin!

“Yeah, but when you’re healing, if nobody brings a Fish Feast, you don’t use food.”

But I don’t know where to get the fish. That’s a lot of fish.

“Oh shut up. What, you’ve never heard of Wowhead? Go find the maps, and go get some fish.”

Fine. /fume.

I did both dailies, and then started asking where in Wintergrasp people get those damn Fish Feast fish.

Myrx came and showed me a spot, and next thing I knew, I’d fished enough to make 3 Fish Feasts in Wintergrasp.

But that ain’t enough. Oh, heck no.

Off I go again last night, after spending the day out and about.

I’ve got a bigger, more ambitious plan.

This time, I’m going to fish up 30 fish of each kind from where their pools spawn about Northrend, and make 15 more Fish Feasts. Ninety fish. Let’s go!

Grizzly Hills first for some Glacial Salmon pools. Done. Next!

Sholozar Basin for some Nettlefish pools. Done. Next!

Borean Tundra for some thingiemabobs. Musscl… scuttle… whatever the hell they are. The fish!

25 fish in, and BOOM!

I fish me up a Turtle Mount!

That’s right, yes I did. I got the Turtle Mount.

Me, the guy that has only one character that has ever fished, and that fishing skill after five years was LONG stalled at 225. And I only got that far because I felt silly that Cassie had maxed fishing skill in Burning Crusade and made it look easy.

I’ve got a Turtle Mount.

It’s almost embarrassing.

That didn’t stop me from riding it around Dalaran for a half hour last night, though. :)

He’s sooo cute!

I’d post a picture, but I’ve been told I need to do a movie. So I’ll do that instead, lol.

I ended the night with a fishing skill of around 314 – 315 and I STILL want to fish some more!

Where will it end?

What’s next… PvP?

I think I’ve gone crazy.

This will be a long post, because we’re in the middle of two holiday seasons here in the States, and that generally means people are sitting at work, over lunch, bored off their ass and waiting to go to New Years parties.

So I have three sections. I talk about Professions some more, I talk about Gathering techniques, and then I ramble on about readers.

I hope this provides you with some measure of distraction and enjoyment.

Yesterday, I spoke a bit about Professions.

My opening point was that everything you really want for PvE can be purchased somewhere, so you are free to choose Professions that you enjoy, Professions that excite you.

I approach my Professions, personally, as a means to both have fun, and to make useful stuffs for me and my friends. It also used to be a way for me to get advantages in playing my class in raids, but these days not so much. So while I absolutely appreciate that some folks look at your Professions strictly as a way to make money in the game, and I totally respect that, it’s not what I do. So you’re never going to get those protips here. There are plenty of other websites that are devoted to ways to make $$$ fast, and this ain’t one of them. My focus, now and forever, is on having fun in the game, as I see it.

Now, I do mention things here once in a while concerning making gold, Professions and stuff, because I would rather have more time to have what I think of as fun, and less time spent grinding or farming. Even though doing daily quests is a good way to consistently make money, I don’t like doing them because it requires I spend time grinding dailies that I could be spending doing fun things.

I do like farming for Ore and Herbs, though… because I love flying around mindlessly jamming to tunes, swooping in for loot and flying off. I find it relaxing. It’s almost evil, how much I enjoy just flying around swooping down on an Ore node or Herb frond, listening to music, for hours on end. Especially as a Hunter, since my pet keeps the mobs off my ass while I harvest.

But aside from my weird love of fly-farming (as opposed to fly-fishing, which just annoys me), I would rather spend my gold on things that someone else has spent their playtime getting and putting on the AH. I do not begrudge spending gold on what someone else farmed. They took the time to gather it, playtime that is quite valuable to me. They chose to spend that time farming. I didn’t make them. And since what I want is right there, at a price I can afford, and it saves me the TIME of farming it myself… well, buy it now and move along, little doggie. If the prices for items I want on the AH rise high enough that I think it’s approaching theft, ’cause it doesn’t take THAT much time to farm the bloody thing, then I’ll go get it myself. But if the price seems to me to be worth spending so I don’t waste precious game time doing my own farming, and I have the gold, then I will.

Because to me it’s not about making more money than anyone else. It’s about having enough money to do the fun things I want to do. Period.

If I have everything I want already, I don’t farm gold. Because I don’t need it. I’d rather play.

I walked into Wrath darn near flat broke, because prior to Wrath I had everything I could have possibly wanted.

Now, there are lots of things in Wrath that I’d like, for myself and for Cassie. She has a Hunter and a Rogue that need lots of epics, I have a Hunter, a Druid and a Priest that need lots of epics, and so I am actually doing things to make money… only what money I feel I need, to get what I want.

I talked yesterday about enjoying Jewelcrafting and Inscription and Engineering, because I am delighting in being able to make things we can use, the Nesingwary guns, the Mammoth Cutter ammo, the scopes, the gem cuts, the epic rings, the scrolls, and the trinkets. And those things are not just for us, but my guildies, who do not take advantage of what we can craft, but what can you do?

As soon as I had made for myself and Cassie the epic Nesingwary guns, I started sending all my spare ore to my Jewelcrafter to prospect. I have something like 14 stacks of saronite ore in the bank now, and 20 titanium bars in the bank, because my JC has at least 10 of each kind of blue gem in the bag already, so I just don’t need any more right now to provide for future guildie needs… not that guildies ever ask for cuts.

I did not sell Dragon’s Eyes on the AH until well after I got what I felt were the most critical rare gem cuts for Rogues, Druids and Hunters. I only just got the Titanium Impact Band recipe, and made one for my Hunter, and I’ve got three Dragon’s Eyes in the bank towards one for Cassie’s Rogue. Once I have made a ring for her, I’ll save tokens to get the first of the two tanking ring recipes… and make the tanking rings too. I know a few JCs that have the recipes, but why not just get them myself? I don’t really need the gold right now, and I like being able to make the stuff myself, and for anyone in the guild that needs it.

I just don’t sell ore, I don’t sell gems, I don’t sell food. I don’t sell herbs, because what I don’t use in Inscription Cassie can use to make Flasks and Pots. We use it to make stuff, and if we don’t have to make stuff, I stockpile it against the day we DO need to make stuff, and if the stockpile is big enough? Generally, I stop farming it.

What I do, is make those things I don’t need that my Professions provide, that take only a little bit of time, and sell them. The Titansteel is made every single day. I farm the ore, I farm the Eternals, I store it in advance… and after 5 days I put a stack of 5 up for 1100g. That’s free money as far as I’m concerned. Once I’ve made some epic rings, I can assure you those Dragon’s Eyes are going right back up on the AH every day. Why not? Unless a guildie needs a ring, of course.

If a guildie said to me, “Could I use your Titansteel cooldown, I’m trying to save for a such and such…” I’d just send them the Titansteel itself. I tried to do that with Falromord, and he refused to take my bars.

The gold economy is a means to an end for me, I use it to fund having fun. It’s not the end in itself.

BUT! I darn well know there are some folks who LOVE the economy game, love playing the AH, love racking up insane levels of gold.

I have absolutely nothing against it. Not at all, I can totally see the fun in it. There is a joy to be had in manipulating market conditions, buying low and reposting to fair market value, or cornering a market and posting all at high levels and watching for those that lowball, grabbing theirs as well and posting high. Lurking to see if someone will catch on and try and bust your bankroll. On our server, Bankofzerg is famous for being the controlling force behind the Alliance AH economy. Has been for years. Is he a goldseller front? Is he a machiavellian overlord of gold? Who knows? But Bankofzerg is famous simply for the percentage of AH business traffic he controls. I hear his name dropped in random conversations all the time.

I just happen to see tons of other things that, for me, are even MORE fun in the game.

I know I do not do what is smartest to make the most gold. But I do try and make what gold I need to have fun, in the shortest amount of playtime, so I have time to do other stuff.

So when I talk about stuff like this, it’s not to brag about how much money I’m making. I figure everyone has the same capability no matter what Profession they happen to have at the moment, since everyone can choose to drop a Profession that ain’t working and take something else. Lord knows I have dumped so many maxed-out professions in my time for something else, that I wish there was an Achievement for having 5 or more maxed-level Professions on one character.

Windshadow alone has been a maxed Enchanter and a maxed Tailor in Burning Crusade, a maxed Engineer (twice), a maxed Miner (three times), a maxed Herbalist (once and holding), and now almost maxed in Inscription. Six maxed Professions for one toon, and that in Burning Crusade terms.

Windstar was a Engineer once, dropped it, and is one again.

Do you know, neither my Hunter nor my Druid can make the Mote Extractor, because once you drop Engineering, you can’t do the quest that gives you that recipe again?

Fortunately, Mote Extractors don’t bind, you can mail them around your toons. Whew!

Now, I know you may not enjoy your Profession for it’s own sake, you may have it for a money making enterprise. You may expect certain things from your Profession, and in the new game, you may feel disappointed that you’re just not getting what you want out of it.

But may I humbly suggest, and this is just me talking, but if you currently have a Profession or two that you hate, that you actively despise, a Profession that has you cursing Blizzard, that has made you bitter and whose rewards seem meager and vile, a Profession that does not meet your needs in the game…

CHANGE THE DAMN THING!!!

Okay, moving on.

A few thoughts on Gathering 

I mentioned yesterday that I have, amongst my two flying characters, Herbalism, Mining, and Engineering for mote farming.

I’ve talked about it before, a long time ago, but I think it bears a refresher course.

I find it convenient, when playing, to sometimes set aside time just to farm. Dedicated time spent cruising to tunes, following a routine, swoop in and grab dat Herbage, and move-move on-on.

To facilitate mindless farming, I use an entire suite of various addons, each providing me something the others cannot alone.

The litany of addons?

Cartographer (for the base map that I use, compatible with QuestHelper, Routes, and all addon marking.)
Fubar 3.5 (for easy access to my RoutesFu menu.)
Gatherer
GathererDB (provides a comprehensive database of all nodes of Mining and Herbs on Wowhead. Very complete. Import this into Gatherer.)
GatherMate
GatherMate_Sharing
GatherMate_Data (I use the GatherMate suite of addons, with all Mining and Herbs shut off, to provide me with my updatable Cloud nodes for Engineering farming.)
Routes
RoutesFu

Routes is a truly remarkable addon, and it still works great. It is completely compatible with Cartographer farming data, Gatherer and GatherMate. When you set up a new route in a zone, you can select exactly which data, from what addon source, you want included in the route… and then you can choose what color to make the route. You can shut some off so as not to clutter your screen or minimap, or you can make them all different colors so you can see what is what and leave them all up there. You can certainly mix and match, such as Mining and Steam Clouds for a Mining Engineer, for example.

I personally use Gatherer as my source for Mining and Herbalism node routes, because GathererDB is an incredibly complete source for nodes and I like the Gatherer interface, and GatherMate for mote Clouds since it grows it’s database and learns as you find gas clouds of your own.

I also go into each addon and turn off node marking, since the route lines themselves serve as markers for me. I have found that with so many addons, sometimes the node markers can actually obscure the golden dot of the node itself. Slows ya down, trying to figure out if that is really a node there or not on the map. Can’t be having with that!

 

As you can see from the picture I’m using as an example, I have three routes setup in Sholozar. I have a green route for farming Adder’s Tongue, a red route for Steam and Fire Clouds, and a light blue route for Ore.

See? Isn’t that awesome? A nice route right there on your minimap that you can use to follow and look for nodes.

Now, you might ask yourself, “Isn’t he shooting himself in the foot by posting this? Isn’t he afraid of more competition?”

Well, no, I don’t think so.

And that brings us to talking about you, my readers. The few, the proud… the demented.

First, for one thing, ain’t that many folks read this blog. I mean, c’mon, it’s nice to think so, but there are a lot of servers, and the chances that more than 3 or 4 people on any one server read this blog are fairly remote, I’d think. You’re not gonna crush an economy by sharing gathering tips with 3 or 4 folks on a server.

For the other thing, I have noticed that I have two main groups of folks that seem to read my blog.

The majority of readers are incredibly nice, come from all walks of life, and mostly seem to have two common bonds; a love for and enthusiasm for the game, and an appreciation for the same weird sense of what passes for humor around here as I have.

Druid love is optional :)

Then there is the other group. The ones that come here to bitch about theorycrafting and jump on my and anyone else’s mistakes in comments, and stroke their own egos. I keep hoping they’ll leave us alone, to be honest. And with my not posting a ton of theorycrafting, with my leaving WoW Insider so as to stop drawing some of the immature fanbase they seem to cherish and nuture in their comments in the quest for greater pagehits, I think that group has begun to die out.

See, I think of those of you who have stuck with the blog as my friends, peers, fun folks to hang with and geek out together and generally feel free to be just as flaky as me. Not, as some people seem to think, as master and servant, teacher and student. No, you are fellow travelers along the road of geekdom. I ain’t here to educate, just to share and write and have fun.

Because that’s what we are, fellow travelers sharing our joy and enthusiasm for the game. I don’t write for ANYONE except you.

I try not to be judgmental on any aspect of the game we play. I’m judgmental on lots of stuff, but not on that. And there is a good reason for that.

Everyone’s got different interests, different backgrounds, different priorities, different ways of enjoying playing the game. I don’t see any of them as being inherently better than the others, or having more validity or being more important aspects of the game. Some undoubtedly take more effort, preparation or time commitments than others. But time is something that some folks don’t have available for such things. It does not mean that people who DO spend the time are better than those who do not, or vice versa. Not to me. They are both just playing the game as their lifestyle and interests permit them to. Period. Raiders, no, I do NOT think your playstyle is more special or important than roleplayers. Nor do I think that you are better players than those with a more casual playstyle. You may think so, but I do not share that opinion. Nor do I think that people who love PvP are less important or deserve less respect than people focused on PvE. Nor do I think people on PvP servers are more leet than those on PvE servers. It’s not better, it’s just a different emphasis on aspects of the same game.

And no, I do not think that those people who spend hours on theorycrafting the math behind why things work in the game are special or better than other folks, or smarter either. OMIGOD, not in the slightest. Because in truth, anyone can do so. There is nothing unique in the ability to manipulate numbers. It takes time to gather data, a definite investment in time and effort, and I appreciate those who make that effort to share some guidance on how things work, and choose to provide tips based on research to help folks that have not made that effort to better succeed in the game. I just don’t think doing it makes someone better or smarter than other players, thank you very much. The majority of people that play a video game for entertainment just choose not to spend hours gathering data and doing maths. That’s not part of the playstyle they enjoy. Some folks do; again, everyone enjoys different parts of the game.

I do laugh hilariously at folks that make calculated assumptions, known in professional circles as scientific wild ass guesses (or SWAGs), and then spend time deriving detailed mathematical models for how things will change based on those SWAGs… and then rant about it. It’s a subset of the genre that really amuses the living heck out of me. Yes, I am petty in this regard. It’s a weakness, a defect in character I choose not to work on.

But I don’t judge people based on what kind of game, what kind of playstyle they enjoy. Why the heck would I?

I just judge people based on how they treat other people, on how they act. I reserve the right to rant at those I personally perceive to be asshats all day long, but never on how you like to play the game.

When I had the pleasure to meet some readers last November, I asked what they enjoyed doing in the game the most… not to judge them, or to decide who to talk to. I wanted to know because I only play a narrow part of the game, and I love talking to people that play different parts of the game I never experience. It’s fun. It’s geeking out on enthusiasm for the game, and I love it.  

Those are the readers I love, the readers I try and encourage, the vast majority of kick-ass nice folks I wish I got more of a chance to chat with in the comments and via email.

You know, the folks who are probably only reading this blog while at work, over a lunch break in between webcomics, and comment from work, and when they get home are too busy actually doing stuff and having fun to post a comment.

God bless you, keep it up. :)

Anyway, I think we’re alone now. There doesn’t seem to be anyone around. I think we’re alone now… the beating of my heart… Gah! Okay, hold on, gotta get that song out of my head…. /cry. Quick, someone cue up some Ramones, I wanna be sedated after that.

There. Sorry.

Now, with this blog being, essentially, as asshat-free a zone as I can possibly make it and still have a free flowing exchange of ideas…

You’re my friends. OF COURSE I want my friends to get the most benefit out of their farming time. Of course I do! What am I, Ebeneezer McDuck over here? Hoarding the Ore and Herbs? Mine! Mine, I tell you!

Nah, I want you to go out there and farm what you want to farm, as efficiently and quickly as possible, so you can get it done and move on to playing! And if the farming happens to be what you like best, well, you probably already use those addons and far, far more.

Just do me a favor, and don’t go broadcasting it to the heavens. See, the gold farmers undoubtedly already know all about it, but maybe that jerk that wants to fight you for each and every single Titanium node, whether you have already started mining it or not, doesn’t.

So instead, just share the addons with your friends, and make sure everyone you know that’s a friend of yours is getting the most out of their gathering professions, and do your bit to compete with the goldfarmers on a level playing field. And hope that the Titanium node jerkoff doesn’t know about that sweet mining spot in Icecrown where you always find that one overlooked node.

Have fun, and I’ll see you in game!

First, before all the incredibly cranky people twist around what I’m saying, allow me to be clear about this; I think that the new system of acquiring Profession recipes is 99.5% better than the old way. Okay? This ain’t a QQ. It’s a discussion. A musing. A rumination.

So when you read what I have to say, keep in mind… I’m talking about that teeny, tiny little 0.5% amount of annoyance.

So, if life is so rosy, what is there to be annoyed about?

Well, let’s recap.

In old WoW, for our Professions, speaking entirely in general terms, we knew going in that when we chose a Profession, we were going to have to level it up by making lame stuff that won’t sell. If we were lucky, we’d make stuff we could have Disenchanted, or we’d have one or two items we could make while leveling that would be in demand at the Auction House, or might be useful for a day or two.

For the most part, we knew going in that the recipes we learned from the trainer were crap.

At the uppermost levels of the Profession, the trainer would have some recipes that might be useful, especially if you weren’t a raider. And there might be some tasty stuff that cost a fortune in mats that only the person with the Profession could use, BoP.

And we knew that the bulk of our recipes from then on out came one of two ways; as a lucky BoP drop in an instance or raid, or as a random BoE drop that we’d probably have to pay a fortune for on the Auction House.

Yes, some always came from a particular mob you could go spend some time farming, but for the most part, if you wanted to really be a solid practitioner of your Profession, you had to drop a ton of gold, raid your ass off, or both.

This, of course, left non-raiders screwed.

How many people here, with a Profession you invested time and effort and money in, had to search in Trade chat for someone with the same Profession, just to get that enchant or crafted item or gem cut you really wanted to help your DPS or Heals or prepare for raiding?

How many people ended up having to go to the Official WoW Realm forums asking to be given a name to hunt down, looking for that rare person from raiding guilds that both knew the recipe and was willing to craft it?

I know I certainly did. Several times.

I always tipped very well, but the fact remains that I had to go find someone else who had a recipe I knew I would never have the chance to see.

Fast forward to now.

Almost all, if not all, recipes come from either the trainer, or from doing some soloable activity. It may take time, it may take a lot of time, especially for those with a random chance like Transmutes and Discoveries… but the only thing standing between a player and maxing his/her Profession and collection of viable recipes is time and individual effort. Not raiding progression, not random World Drop recipe chances in the AH.

Now, you can have your Profession, and be in a small comfortable guild of friends, and have that satisfaction that comes from being the person all your friends can go to for the enchants they want. Or the Blacksmithing items. Or the Gem cuts. Or the Potions or Elixirs. Or the Cloth. Or the Epic Guns and ammo. Or the leather gear.

Damn, that’s a satisfying feeling, isn’t it? To have a Profession, and be able to make what people want?

It’s freaking awesome.

BUT.

But there is that 0.5% annoyance.

What could it possibly be?

Why, I’m glad you asked. I’ll be happy to tell you!

It is the lack of something to satisfy the Primal Collecting Urge.

I have a bit of the collecting bug. That means that, while I do enjoy the acquisition of something, I love the CHASE, the pursuit, the planning, the stalking, and the pounce on that item even more.

Not that kind of stalking. shhh.

I get an item, and I’ll enjoy the glow for a moment, bask in the warmth of a successful operation… then file it away and move on to the next pursuit.

With the current design of Professions, that Primal Collecting Urge is going partially unsatisfied.

The daily pursuit is still there. The leveling. The acquiring of items needed to do dailies or perform transmutes. Recipes to gather tokens to obtain.

But that small part of the chase, the rare as sin recipe drop, is mostly gone.

For small pet owners, we’re talking about knowing that, somewhere out there, is the Emerald Whelpling. And someday, someday you are going to plan out your hunt for that Emerald Whelping, and spend a number of days if necessary, but that baby will be yours. Oh yes, yes it will.

But not today. Today, you have other things to do. Busy with quests, or real life.

But in your heart, the Emerald Whelpling hunt is lurking… biding it’s time. Waiting for the day. ANTICIPATING the day.

If you’re not a collector, you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about.

Now, I DO NOT want to change things so that there is a single recipe that is the ‘best’ recipe for any purpose that relates to raiding or PvP, that comes from an exclusive style of content. I don’t want to see any rare recipes that drop from 25 man high end raids or really high Arena rating that you’ll end up trying to get crafted in the Trade channel.

What I’d like instead, are rare vanity drops from regular or difficult content, hard to acquire recipes… that do not have an effect on raiding capability, and also would not take the place of a regular raid item. Drops that you can solo. A hail mary drop, that you can actively plan on hunting ‘when you have time’.

There are so many things that could fill that category, of vanity drops.

Would you like to speculate on some possibilities? I know I would.

The rules would be simple. It can’t be something that would materially affect, in a positive way, raid progression or PvP victory. And it should if at all possible be something that would only benefit the one that picked it up. The Profession version of the small non-combat pet.

My idle imaginings include….

Engineering recipes for neat new mechanical pets. What in particular? Hehehe… one word. “Mechagodzilla”

Tailoring recipes for dyes. A dye you could create that, when applied to a piece of gear, tints that gear slightly towards one shade, or changes one part of the flare towards that color. It would allow you to tint your gear towards one unifying color scheme, to make mismatched pieces blend together better.

Another Tailoring possibility that already exists is a parachute you could use like a spell, and once used, you could scavenge it for cloth scraps the way Engineers could when using Targeting Dummies.

One last Tailoring idea from me… war banners. War banners in the style of Japanese Samurai frmo some of my favorite movies, that would be mounted on a pole rising from the character’s back, proudly displaying the tabard colors of the player’s guild waving over his head.

How about Enchanting, where you could create new vanity Wands… like a wand that had limited charges, but could turn someone into a Frog or a Bunny or another specific change. Not more costumes… real shapechange wands. Mess not with the affairs of wizards, dontch’a know. What, do you WANT to be turned into a frog? Of course, they could NOT be used on an enemy NPC, or when in Combat.

Another Enchanting possibility is quite simple… auras. Some enchants continue to sell well, even though their combat benefit is negligible, sinply because they have pretty glows.

So formalize it! Make Enchanting recipes that don’t have any real in game effect… they just provide neat glow effects, or sparklies, for weapon or gloves or helm or cloak, etc etc. Similar, I think, to the Embroidery concept, I’d think.

I’m just curious… am I the only one that feels this way? That even though it’s really darn awesome the way things are now… I wish thre was still the stupid rare drop chance waiting out there, somewhere. Keeping the anticipation alive.

Even if you don’t agree, let me know… use your imagination, what neat non-raid or PvP affecting craftable recipe drop would you love to see?=