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Insider Trader: Not like it used to be
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Lately, there has been a lot of talk about vanilla WoW and the way things used to be. Now that experience gains can be shut off, players can actually move through some of this content the way it was meant to be experienced. Well, it won't be exactly the way it was, but it's as close as we're getting. Blizzard has also been implementing more elements from the old world. Naxxramas was a vanilla dungeon, and was redone to become the first raid instance of the second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, set back on Azeroth no less. In fact, soon we'll all be battling Onyxia once again, deep breaths and all!Professions used to be different too. Of course, most of the changes to the system have been for the better, but there were some elements that could be recycled for the future. Last week, Insider Trader discussed a new, more progressive direction for professions, including some of the ways that this could be implemented. This week I'll be shedding new light on one particular vanilla element that has been phased out, exploring ways in which it could be reborn.
Insider Trader: Progressive Professions
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Professions in The World of Warcraft are one of the many endeavors in which players can invest their time and efforts. Despite the fact that most players do indeed level them, and the fact that there is quite a bit of interest in them, people are often left questioning their value at the end of the day.Profitability and cost to level are two of the most frequent complaints against their chosen professions, but today I would like you to consider another reason: boredom. It is not that the professions themselves are inherently boring. It is more that, in a game where there are always new things to collect, new reasons to PvP or run raid content, new dailies and new factions, professions just can't compete. Most can be leveled in an hour or two at the Auction House, and once this has been achieved, the key items made, and the buffs applied to your gear, what else is there?
Insider Trader: Woodworking in the expansion?
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Ideas for a woodworking profession have been bounced around for years, but have previously been dodged by Blizzard. Although they assured us that they have plenty of ideas, they've always been working on too many others.Woodworking was not to be for Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King, but what about the upcoming expansion? Considering that Goblins and Worgen could become playable, it might be a real possibility. In late summer 2007, Nethaera posted a list of some of the things that need to be considered before they can even begin to implement a new profession. While it became clear that it wasn't going to work for Wrath, it seems a little more plausible now. Today's column will be dedicated to presenting the crafting community's Woodworking ideas, discussing their implementation using the (incomplete) criteria set forth by Nethaera, and speculating about its possible presence in the next expansion.
Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 keeps getting better
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.I love it when a content patch includes some professions love. As the details keep surfacing, patch 3.2 is looking better than ever. In fact, with the upcoming patch, Engineers will finally be able to drop their Gnomish and/or Goblin specialties ("for a fee")! This has been one of those issues, like ugly and buggy cat forms, that has dragged on and on. The materials for Jeeves have also been updated (get the schematic!). If you're wondering just what you should be saving, hop on through the break for that and other patch 3.2 news!
Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 updates and Engineering analysis
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Over the past few weeks, Insider Trader has been discussing and analyzing the changes to professions set to go live with patch 3.2: Patch 3.2 Profession Change Analysis takes an in-depth look at the early announcements. Patch 3.2 Q&A answers questions being asked in the WoW community. Recently, a rather large list of Patch 3.2 Engineering Changes was released. This week's column will be devoted to updating you on some of the newer changes, clarifying as many details as possible, and analyzing some of those juicy Engineering changes.
Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 Q&A
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Patch 3.2 has been shaping up to be a welcome event for professions in World of Warcraft. Soon, we will all have access to the next "tier" of gems and profession-unique buffs. This week, I will be devoting the column space to answering some reader questions. Pre-patch notes and Public Test Realm data can often create confusion, especially when we know that anything could change before we ever see it live. At the very end, I have included a bit of a spoiler, although I attempted to keep the details to a minimum and the wild speculation to a maximum. Are the new flasks for Alchemists only? - JoemamaThe new flask is called Flask of the North and can only be used by Alchemists with a skill of at least 400. This flask is clearly inferior to the Wrath raiding flasks because it is meant to be used in arenas. While it should give you a bit of a boost, Blizzard does not want everyone suddenly becoming Alchemists in order to compete. Of course, if you play the game primarily for arena, then you might consider switching if you haven't already. The most exciting changes for Alchemists will likely be the new epic gem transmutes and the fact that potions will stack to 20.
Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 profession change analysis
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Over the past few days, some upcoming professions changes for Patch 3.2 have been announced, and although they are not as detailed as they could be, several of the changes will have quite an impact. First and foremost, every profession-specific buff is being upgraded. This includes an Enchanter's ability to enhance their own rings, a Leatherworker's bracer enchants, and more. For a complete list of the current profession bonuses, check out Insider Trader's guide to Profession-Specific Buffs, parts one through three.These buffs also answer some of the concerns surrounding the upcoming Jewelcrafting nerf that epic gems might be introduced without a buff to the Dragon's Eyes, which, in combination with the fact that these gems will no longer be prismatic, would effectively squash the Jewelcrafting bonus.Jewelcrafters will also do well to note that they will be able to acquire epic gems by prospecting Titanium. Combined with a Blacksmith's two extra prismatic sockets, this powerful duo is one of the most popular profession combinations.In addition, Engineers will be seeing some welcome changes to their profession that may make it more appealing. Unfortunately, some of the details have not been made public, so the competitiveness of their self buffs, for example, remains to be seen.
Insider Trader: Profession-specific buffs part 2
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Last week, Insider Trader discussed the profession-only bonuses associated with Inscription, Jewelcrafting and Enchanting. This week, I'm going to walk you through the rest of them, and include a final summary and comparison at the end. Tailoring Perks Tailors have the ability to enchant their own cloaks. Other players can get cloak enchants from Enchanters, although the Tailoring ones are superior in many cases. Darkglow Embroidery: Chance to restore 300 mana on spell cast. There seems to be a 60 second internal cooldown, with a proc rate of 35%, which is equal to 25 mp5. Lightweave Embroidery: Chance on spell cast to increase your spellpower by 250 for 15 seconds. Swordguard Embroidery: Chance for melee and ranged attacks to sometimes increase your attack power by 300 for 15 seconds. There seems to be a 45 second internal cooldown on Lightweave and Swordguard, meaning that for 15 seconds out of every 45 seconds (+, if you don't proc it on the next hit, but they do seem to proc within a hit or three), you have the effect. This averages out to 83 SP, and 100 AP respectively, in ideal conditions. Depending on your luck with procs, the average decreases the longer it takes you to proc it again.For example, after 45 seconds, each spell has a chance to proc the effect. If you managed it at the 50 second mark, the average becomes +75 SP. Casters who are not Tailors can currently choose between Enchant Cloak - Wisdom and Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed. Wisdom grants you a measly 10 spirit, as well as a now obsolete 2% threat reduction. The +23 haste rating is nice, but provides neither mana nor spellpower. Enchant Cloak - Major Agility grants you +22 agility to cloak. Agility is inefficient to everyone except rogues, hunters, shamans and druid cats, who would get +22 AP from it as well as the crit/dodge/armor. In terms of attack power alone, the Swordguard enchant is the clear winner.
Insider Trader: Profession-specific buffs part 3
Mining Miners are given Toughness, an ability that at max rank, awards +50 stamina. This is a lovely bonus for tanks! A tank's talents will take this well beyond +500 hp, and stamina is also multiplied by buffs and talents such as Blessing of Kings (and not all stats are). This is also going to be helpful in PvP, where stamina is especially important. Herbalism Herbalists get Lifeblood, a self-heal, that at max rank, awards +2000 HP over 5 seconds on a 3 minute cooldown. This can be used in or out of combat, and the spell effect entails flowers sprouting up from the ground all around the character. It is difficult to gauge the actual benefit of this ability across classes and in different situations. In the last few seconds of a close fight, where it is you or them, even a small boost in HP could bump you up to victory. Then again, tanks benefit more from stamina due to talents that factor in your total stamina to then award you with extra stamina (Sacred Duty), increased power (Touched by the Light), and other benefits. It is also difficult to say whether an extra boost in damage might also be worth more than this small heal in a tough spot. Almost all classes find this ability helpful while leveling and soloing. Raiders will often use it to top themselves off or buy some time until their next heal. Skinning Skinners become Masters of Anatomy, and gain 32 critical strike rating, which is equal to 0.70% crit. This is especially useful to classes who have talents that boost stats based on your crit rating, increase your crit by a %, or where your crit rating actually grants you other stats, such as mana for holy paladins. The Skinning and Mining bonuses equate to about 2 gems worth of stats, and Lifeblood is all about how you use it.Conclusion and ComparisonAs you can see, for most of the professions, the benefits and stat increases are approximately equal. Let's use spell power to demonstrate this: JC: +39. Enchanting: +38. Inscription: +37. Tailoring: 250 SP for 15 seconds of every 45 seconds+. This averages to +83 SP in ideal conditions (meaning, it procs on your next heal after the cooldown is up). In fact, it will likely always be under, though somewhat near, this ideal. A more realistic average is +75 SP. LW: +37. Blacksmithing: +38. Engineers: +18 and a parachute. Alchemy: +37. As you can see, the profession bonuses are basically equivalent, and this is true across each stat. There are some exceptions. As I noted earlier, the Engineering enchants are not only meant to increase your stats, but also combine your gadgets, absorbing them into your everyday armor. Without this absorption, the only way to use them would be to take off your super special raiding/PvP gear in favor of a piece of gear or trinket that you carry around for special occasions. Because of this convenience, they seem to eat up itemization points. Still, there are several that are still worth taking, even over other options available for that slot. The Tailoring enchant noted above is currently being debated as OP, and may be subject to tweaking in the future. It is also worth noting that because this is a passive proc, it is not always going to be utilized. You might proc it near the end of a fight, for example, or when you're topping someone off between pulls, and waste most of the added spell power. Each week, Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness. Check out part 1 of this Guide to Profession-Specific Buffs!
The Queue: Change we can believe in
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.No no no. I'm not being political here.The change I'm talking about is changing the game. We can all believe in changes to WoW because we're all reading a big flashy World of Warcraft news and information site. Namely change about Wintergrasp, audio settings, mob behavior, and craftables.Except changing Paladins. They don't need any change. /snickerMK asked..."I was wondering if there's been any noise coming out of Blizzard regarding fixing Wintergrasp?"
Insider Trader: Inscription from 100 to 200
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Last week, we began the journey towards becoming a Grand Master Scribe. Starting with the basics, we discussed how to reach skill level 100, along with some general tips and strategy, and there were many helpful reader comments.Today, we will continue from skill level 100 to hit 200, which will place you partway through what a level 20 is capable of training. When herbs are mentioned, clicking on any of the links will take you to a Wowhead page showing you where you can find them. If you feel you need more background information on inscription tools, milling, or research, check out last week's column to brush up on the fundamentals. Otherwise, pass on through the break!
Manaprincess reopens store, offers sale to WoW Insider readers
Our good friend and talented WoW crafter Manaprincess is back, and she's gone from Etsy to break out into her own World of Warcraft crafts store at manaprincess.com. She's got the usual Hearthstone key charms, as well as the WoW soaps up there, and a new section of "potion pendants" -- Health, Mana, or Rejuv potions to wear around your neck, just in case. And she says that all the items have been redesigned, so even things you've seen before may look a little different.And as a thank you to you WoW Insider readers for all your support, she's having a sale just for you: from now until August 31st, you can put in the code "wowinsider" without the quotes at the checkout screen to get 25% off your entire order.Manaprincess is definitely one of the best vendors in the crafting community, and it's great to see her up and running in a brand new store. If you're looking for some fun WoW-related gifts or crafts for yourself, her store is definitely one of the places to look.
WoW tipping etiquette and social networking
While catching up on my reading, and perusing Kestrel's blog this morning, I came across a post examining some of the fundamentals of tipping when dealing with a craftsman or asking to have a lockbox opened. By nature, tipping is a controversial topic, even in a virtual world. There are only loosely defined guidelines, the gesture is optional (or is it?), and it is all about communicating and exchanging with politeness and respect. Before we can determine how to go about tipping, we need to have a clear picture of if and under what circumstances tipping is appropriate. We have previously discussed some of the situations in which this is debatable, including: When you are dealing with a player who is leveling their crafting or lockpicking skills, and you are providing the materials, in essence, you are already helping them out; the exchange is costing them nothing, and they are gaining a skill point. If you are purchasing an item for a fee of Xg plus materials, then the fee may also be said to contain the tip, or stand in place of it. Kestrel points out that if the person volunteers to travel to you, this is tip-worthy behavior. This might then complicate the above two situations.
