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Insider Trader: Rounding up 2.4 profession changes, part 1

Amanda Miller
Updated ·8 min read


Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

Following last week's round-up of some of the most important professions-related add-ons, this week we will begin rounding-up the upcoming changes to professions with patch 2.4.

From changes to old recipes and talents to the addition of novel recipes and reagents, you'll be able to easily find out what's new with your chosen professions. Where applicable, I will include updated information, including materials lists for the new crafted sets.

Of course, given that nothing has yet gone live, all of the details are subject to change. MMO-Champion has posted an updated materials list for many of the epic patterns that will be dropping in patch 2.4, and the mats lists I will be providing will be based on that, and not on what might be shown using the Wowhead tooltips. As information becomes set in stone, and Wowhead is updated, the mouse-overs will appear correctly.

For the detailed scoop on your characters' livelihoods, follow me through the break. For other news about patch 2.4, visit our Complete Guide.

Crafting Materials
As of patch 2.4, [Primal Nether]s will become BoE instead of BoP, which will allow the crafting of epic armor sets to be more available to casual players. In fact, even the new [Sunmote]s will be BoE. Many of the new recipes that will become available with 2.4 will require these materials, so plan on either doing some farming, or haunting the auction house for deals. Ideally, you'll be able to strike up a deal with a friend or guildmate.

There will also be some other prominent reagents that will be popping up in 2.4 recipes, along with primals, leather, familiar gems and ore. From the Black Temple:

Mining
Mining is the one gathering profession that is a necessary companion to three crafting professions, unless you have a moneybags character, or begin as a settled-down level 70. Although potentially very profitable, it can also be annoying and time-consuming to level.

In December we reported that Blizzard intended to remedy this in patch 2.4 by adjusting the ore in leveling areas, to ensure that a miner has ample opportunity to skill-up during the natural leveling process. At this point, the official patch notes report that the skill-up potential when smelting has been increased.

Whether you mine for profit, to forge weapons and armor, to prospect gems, or to build kooky inventions, you will soon be able to level this profession more smoothly and easily.

Miners will also be able to smelt a new metal, usable in, among other things, the new blacksmithing sets debuting in patch 2.4. [Hardened Khorium] will require 3 [Khorium Bar]s and 1 [Hardened Adamantite Bar].

The book that will award this talent, called the [Study of Advanced Smelting], drops from trash mobs and bosses from the Sunwell Plateau, and will be bind on pick-up.

Blacksmithing
There will be two new sets available to craft, consisting of a breastplate and a pair of gloves, one set for healers, the second for DPS. In both sets, the gloves are BoE, although you will need [Primal Nether] as well as [Sunmotes] if you intend to craft a set.

The materials to make both pieces of the Sunblessed set for healing, [Plans: Sunblessed Breastplate] and [Plans: Sunblessed Gauntlets], are as follows:

  • 20 [Khorium Bar] + 24 more if you intend to smelt your own [Hardened Khorium Bar].

  • 4 [Hardened Adamantite Bar] + 8 more if you are smelting the [Hardened Khorium Bar].

  • 8 [Hardened Khorium Bar] if you are buying the bars already smelted, and not providing mats.

  • 35 [Primal Life].

  • 15 [Primal Water].

  • 6 [Primal Might].

  • 6 [Primal Nether].

  • 6 [Sunmote].

The materials to make both pieces of the Hard Khorium set, [Plans: Hard Khorium Battleplate] and [Plans: Hard Khorium Battlefists], are as follows:

  • 20 [Khorium Bar] + 30 more to be used in the making of [Hardened Khorium Bar].

  • 4 [Hardened Adamantite Bar] + another 10 to be smelted into [Hardened Khorium Bar].

  • 10 [Hardened Khorium Bar] if you are purchasing the bars and not providing mats.

  • 22 [Primal Fire].

  • 12 [Primal Air].

  • 22 [Primal Shadow].

  • 6 [Primal Nether].

  • 6 [Sunmote].

Although you will have to wait until after the patch drops in order to gather your Sunmotes and your [Hardened Khorium Bar]s, the rest of the mats could be scrounged up ahead of time.

Are you looking to maximize your blacksmithing? Check out our guide to the final stretch!

Engineering
While patch 2.3 made a concerted effort to enrich engineering as a profession in terms of utility, fun, and even profit (or a recoup of some losses), patch 2.4 so far is a bit of a disappointment to engineers.

There is one positive change on the horizon; a cloth version of the famed [Rocket Boots Xtreme] called [Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite], will soon be available, providing 196 armor, increasing damage and healing by up to 35, and requiring an engineering skill of at least 330. The plans for the new boots will be dropping from Mechano-Lord Capacitus.

Unfortunately, everyone's favorite boots are also being nerfed. The stamina buff they once afforded has vacated the building, and activation of the speed-increasing "use" will result in a drop of a flag in Warsong, Eye of the Storm, and Zangarmarsh.

For more on the fame of these boots, including flashy stunts and footwork, be sure to watch WoW Moviewatch: A use for Engineering and WoW Moviewatch: Rocket Boots, part 2, as well as a video of a troll flying from Tempest Keep to Hellfire Peninsula.

In more minor changes, the level requirement for the [Craftsman's Monocle] has been removed, and the stun doled out by bombs and grenades will henceforth be considered an Incapacitate affect, allowing them to be effective against those immune to stun effects.

There will also be recipes available for all of the upgraded BoP engineering goggles, the absence of which has been a sore spot for some time. The materials are mostly primals, meaning that they will not be overly expensive or impossible to make.

If you are looking to maximize your engineering skill, be sure to check out our guide.

Fishing
Patch 2.4 is ushering in big changes for fishing. With several new daily fishing quests set to go live, there are lots of fishy new activities and loots ahead.



As a reward for your daily quest, you will be given a [Bag of Fishing Treasures], which may contain any of the following:

In addition, it looks like there will be some novel fish on the Isle of Quel'danas. The lootable [Bloated Giant Sunfish] may contain greens, while the drinkable [Luminous Bluetail] can rev up your mana, although it does share a cooldown with other such consumables.

Next: Part 2 covers the other professions >>>