#1 - May 16, 2011, 4:06 p.m.
- Yes, especially considering they are some of our favorite things to add to the game. We can't promise that every profession is going to get equal amounts, but we definitely intend to spread them out more evenly, except for engineering. Engineers will always get more toys. :)
Archaeology is supposed to be about discovering, preserving, and honoring cultural items found, in order to learn from the past. Currently we don't do that. Instead we are forced to coldly vendor what we don't want. No donation to a museum, no return to the races of origin. Couldn’t we do something more important with these items? Can we expect more interesting stories with artifacts? Will you do something about this to make it feel like the player is getting something useful back, and perhaps remove a little bit of the random part of it so that it's more fun and focused? - Whitewnd (KR), Pusen (EU-EN), Unjoiner (NA/ANZ)
- Originally, we didn't intend to create items at all when you completed a normal archaeology find, but that didn't feel right. So now we have these items that still don't feel right because you can't do anything fun with them. We are working on a more thematic and interesting way to consume the artifacts you dig up. These include returning them to the museums (for the devoted archaeologist) and the option to continue vendoring them (if you wish to continue your career as a cold-blooded treasure hunter.)
Additionally, we plan to add daily quests, a deeper story, additional skill gains, and the flexibility to focus on a specific race.
Some players may not have noticed that all artifacts have lore associated with them in the journal, even the grey ones. Every bit of it is Genuine Lore, and verified by our lore masters. So were the Dalaran Coins, of course, but not those silly Romance Novels.
Have you ever considered creating daily quests for professions other than jewelcrafting? - Superpotion (NA/ANZ)
- We've mostly considered it for the secondary professions, since they are the most accessible professions to the most players. When we add another large chunk of recipes again, we'll evaluate each profession to see if dailies are a good fit.
Will professions at some point regain the ability to make upgradable items, such as the Weaponsmiths had in the Burning Crusade? It was quite a cool concept, and wouldn't be unfair if all crafting professions would gain at least 1 of those items. - Hydramith (EU-EN), Auryon (EU-DE)
- The concept of upgrading a piece of equipment is a very cool idea that we'd love to revisit, but not as a best in slot item. A crafted BIS item removes that entire slot as an interesting drop choice, and it strongly forces players into specific professions. For example, if there is a crafted best in slot weapon, you can bet a vast majority of players will feel obligated to take up blacksmithing, as was the case in the Burning Crusade. The profession perks, which are reasonably balanced, already add an incentive to take professions.
Will enchanters ever get the option to create wands again (maybe other caster items as well using a blank template weapon that could be made by blacksmiths), as they tend to be extremely rare outside of the a couple locations and the new ZA/ZG loot tables? - Flayre (NA/ANZ) [/i]
- In general, we want to add more fun themed recipes to enchanting like the magic lanterns. Concerning wands, we've been discussing several options, and most everything we could do with them is still on the table.
Will there be a way to distinguish profession nodes on the minimap for those that have two gathering professions? - Discordia (LA)
- That’s a good suggestion. We recently added the ability to see your target and focus target on the minimap, but the feedback we’ve received from players is that they clutter up the map too much. Coming up with unique icons that work with only a few pixels might be challenging. We’ll give it a shot though.
Will you provide a way to speed up the acquiring of glyphs usually acquired through research and glyph books? Glyph books (Book of Glyph Mastery) are hard to come by now that people spend so little time in WotLK content. - Furlqt (NA/ANZ), 에르네스트린덴만 (KR), Kånê (EU-ES)
- Yes. We will be changing the discovery spells so they can teach all possible glyphs, and the books will simply provide a no-cooldown method to do the same thing.
Are there any plans to make Archaeology more closely connected with other professions? Like make inscriptors able to create scripts of the night elves that would help with the fragments or something like that? - Алонжи (EU-RU)
- We feel like we can better tune and balance the archaeology experience if we keep it mostly self-contained. However, we've discussed additional methods for gaining fragments through dailies and potentially as rewards for turning artifacts. Nonetheless, it's quite unlikely that another profession will ever craft keystones or fragments.
Are there any plans to make Chaos Orbs BoA or even BoE? - Mommycow (NA/ANZ)
- Yes! They will be unbound in a future patch.
Do you have plans to make gathering professions more attractive instead of making them skills that you would be inclined to take up on one of your alts? - Nanahuatzin (LA)
- Yes, this is an ongoing goal. Specialized nodes and raid/dungeon drops for gatherers are a good start. Because gathering professions essentially pull currencies from the ground, we feel they are a valid choice for many players, especially those who want to be self-sufficient.
Are there any plans to change Original and Burning Crusade profession skills so that new players can skill up their profession skills more similar pace with leveling? Low level trade skill materials on Auction House are generally expensive for new players, and new players must feel they are stuck if they should left low level zones just for profession skill up, while they want to increase both of them at same pace. - Whitewnd (KR), Гаркара (EU-RU)
- Yes. Definitely. As we move forward, making sure older content has a smooth flow is a top priority. In fact, we have Top Men working on it. Top. Men.
Are there any plans to somehow change Archeology and Fishing, which have become notoriously tedious? Do you have plans to make archaeology more appealing, maybe with puzzles or something else? - Boîndal (EU-DE), Kalani (NA/ANZ), Käworu (LA)
- Yes. The dailies help with fishing skill gain, and we plan to add archaeology dailies as well. We've also discussed further incentivizing fishing in pools with faster skill gain.
We would love to add a puzzle mini-game to archaeology, and may do that one day, but we can’t make any guarantees. There are some other ideas floating around for moving between archaeology sites more quickly, and we've been brainstorming for rare random events when you are digging or fishing.
Our overall goal for these professions is that it shouldn't be too difficult to max out your skill, but catching every fish and finding every artifact should be a long journey.
Archive:
Ask the Devs - Answers #1 http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2228225718
Ask the Devs - Answers #2: PvP http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2267599521
Ask the Devs - Answers #3: UI http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2301722463
Ask the Devs - Answers #4: Armor and Weapons http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2353015977
Ask the Devs – Answers #5: Achievements http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2369681189
Ask the Devs – Answers #6: Guild Advancement http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2416158906
