Professions in World of Warcraft are a side feature that doesn’t have a tremendous impact on your gameplay but rather relieves major stresses players have. For example, Blacksmithing and Tailoring speed up the gearing process, Engineering might help you during intense PvP match-ups, and Jewelcrafting and Enchanting enhance your combat stats. The system was introduced with the launch of the original game back in 2004. Over the years, professions have been basically in the same state with only a couple of quality-of-life changes, like dividing them into expansions so that you don’t have to level them from Classic to Shadowlands to begin crafting your gear.
It would be an understatement to say that the professions were in desperate need of an overhaul. Thankfully, Blizzard Entertainment has heard our cries, and the Dragonflight launch on Nov. 28 is bringing major changes to the profession system. This means professions finally won’t be a waste of time that only benefits hardcore raiders and avid Mythic+ players, but it will play a huge role in your day-to-day WoW grind.
Here’s every profession change Blizzard is making in Dragonflight explained, including profession specializations, stats, gear, and other newly-introduced concepts like Profession Knowledge and item quality.
Profession specialization
Although profession specialization has, in one form or the other, existed in the game since its release in 2004 with, for example, blacksmiths having to choose between Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing, the concept is fully coming to life with Dragonflight. During Dragonflight, each profession will have four separate specializations they can opt into. You can unlock your first specialization as soon as you reach level 25 in your chosen profession. After that, you can choose two more professions when you reach levels 50 and 100, respectively. In simple words, you can choose three out of four suggested specializations and spec deep into that tree to receive benefits and bonuses tied to those specializations. For example, blacksmiths can choose from Armorsmithing, Weaponsmithing, Specialty Smithing, and Hammer Control. Although you can choose up to three specializations, changing between them is currently unavailable. So, study the specializations carefully and make wise decisions.
Profession knowledge
To get the bonuses each profession specialization offers, you’ll need to earn and use profession knowledge. Profession knowledge points basically equal to talent points that can be spent by clicking on the talent you want to use and applying those changes. Each profession specialization will have its own profession knowledge you can use to upgrade your profession specialization. To earn profession knowledge, you’ll need to craft as many items as can but bear in mind that you earn profession knowledge only when you craft items for the first item.
In Dragonflight, you won’t be spending your hard-gathered materials wastefully to level up your profession as soon as possible. Instead, you’ll need to invest more time and effort in leveling your professions. In return, the rewards and progress will be more meaningful. Gatherers will, on the other hand, find profession knowledge while gathering ores and herbs. Besides all this, you will be able to get more profession knowledge from daily quests related to your craft.
Item quality
With the release of Dragonflight, all lootable ores and herbs will now have three levels of quality. Crafted items and finished products, on the other hand, will have five separate levels of quality. The rule of thumb you can use here is: the higher the quality, the better the product. For crafted gear and weapons, this will directly translate into higher item levels and stats. When it comes to consumables, it will have a stronger effect. And for raw materials, this will mean that if you have higher quality ore or herb, it will directly increase the quality of the item that will be crafted from it. To increase item or material quality, you’ll need to level up your profession. On top of that, you can specialize in higher-quality materials, but it will cost you some other profession specialization points that might be more useful.
Skill difficulty
Skill difficulty in Dragonflight is a skill level you need to consistently get the highest quality materials or gear. Thankfully, you’ll have the skill difficulty bar where you can track your quality progress.
Customizing crafted items
As you’re crafting your next item, you can add special materials to imbue it with special effects. On top of that, you are able to customize secondary stats, just like we did in Shadowlands with Missives for our Legendary items. All you need to do is to have the necessary materials in your bag. Bear in mind that all these customizations will increase the recipes’ skill difficulty.
Profession stats
Coming into Dragonflight, all professions will have stats tied to them. For crafting professions, you can stack Inspiration, Resourcefulness, Crafting Speed, and Multicraft. While Inspiration will give you an additional chance to craft an item with extra bonus skill, Resourcefulness will reduce the number of tradeable reagents you’ll need to craft any item. Crafting Speed increases your crafting speed so you can craft more items in less time. Multicraft will be a handy stat for Enchanters and Jewelcrafters and it will give you a bonus chance to craft multiple items using the same materials.
Gatherers will, on the other hand, have Finesse, Deftness, and Perception as their main profession stats. Finesse will give you a bonus chance to gather more of the primary reagent. If this proccs while you’re mining, you’ll get, for example, five ores instead of the usual three. The second stat gatherers are getting is Deftness. Deftness will increase your gathering speed, just like Crafting Speed. Finally, Perception will increase your ability to spot rare reagents while gathering.
Profession gear
To get profession stats, you’ll need to get your hands on profession gear. In the top right corner of your profession window, you can see your profession gear. Typically, you’ll have three separate slots for your profession gear: a profession tool slot and two accessories. To get your profession gear, you’ll the essential materials and the required level. Most professions are able to craft the large majority of their gear on their own, but some will need help from others. For example, Blacksmiths can craft their own Blacksmithing Hammer and Toolbox, but they will need to find a Leatherworker to put together a Blacksmithing Apron for them. In the beginning, profession gear will be of Uncommon quality, however, you can upgrade it with better quality materials to Rare and Epic quality.
Recrafting
The biggest frustration most profession lovers had with the previous systems is the inability to reuse the old crafted items and materials. In Dragonflight, all of your problems are going away with the new recrafting mechanic. With recrafting, you can reuse an old crafted item and remake it for fewer material costs. You can recraft items to get a higher quality item, swap secondary stats, or even add special effects. Unfortunately, you’ll still have to spend your gold on rare quality materials since they can’t be reused.
Crafting orders
Basically functioning as an auction house, crafting orders will allow you to order an item you’d love to have. While ordering the item, you can include all the materials you already have and a fee for the crafter. Then, a crafter can pick up your order, craft it, and leave it for you to pick up whenever you’re ready. Luckily, you can get items that are binds-when-picked-up without the hassle of having to pick up that exact profession. On top of that, both you and the crafter can use binds-when-picked-up materials with no problem.
Profession bags
To not have your bag overflowing with various resources, Blizzard is introducing profession bags that will immediately store all materials. You’ll get a profession bag from a quest giver as soon as you get to the Dragon Isles, so it’s advisory you don’t spend your money on bags early on. If a 26-slot bag is not good enough for your gathering needs, you can order 32 and 34-slot bags from tailors.
Gathering
Since gathering is far different from crafting professions, gatherers will only have three types of quality that will upgrade over time as you get more levels. To have a challenge while collecting herbs and ores, the devs introduced the Empowered Nodes and Herbs mechanic. While gathering ore and herbs, a mob may spawn that will, when killing it grant you bonus loot or a buff. For mining there are five types of Empowered Nodes: Bloody, Hardened, Molten, Primal, and Titan-Touched. In a similar fashion, Herbalists will have Windswung, Bloody, Decayed, Frigid, and Titan-Touched forms of herb. There’s also Overload mechanic that will pop up in different forms and will eventually grant you various effects and bonuses. Skinners in Dragonflight won’t be able to just skin random monsters and get the same type of leather. Instead, they will have to gather different types of leather. For example, to get Flawless Proto Dragon Scale, they will have to skin Proto Dragons.
