How To Make Professions Not Suck

So, Wow Insider posed a good question today, How would you change/fix professions in WoW?

       And that is a wonderful question.  I presently have every profession in the game maxed with the exception of Leather working/skinning.  That will be fixed when my Monk finally gets to max level however.  (As a side not, leveling leather working so far has been the worst profession grind in my opinion.)  With Warlords of Draenor, professions will get another 75 point kick, if they stay consistent.  That means if you start a new character that is 675 points of professions to work through to max any given profession.  That is a little daunting.

      So first I would suggest adding in profession quests.  Cooking has one of these, so does fishing.  Imagine however if you had a daily/weekly quest you could take based around your profession to gain +5 or +10 points for completing it.  Only one or two points if it's a daily.  I know we have a monthly +5 we can get from the Darkmoon fair, but with that being just once a month it doesn't feel like that big of a kick up.

      Second I would add more meaningful/fun items.  I have two engineers.  I wouldn't mind having more.  Why? Engineers are like freaking Batman! You get belt rockets that help you to run on water, a glider attached to your cloak and other fun toys like rocket boots etc.. that you can play with that gives your character a nice flavor.  It however has the save disadvantage a lot of the other professions have.

    There are gaps where it feels useless....

     With each profession you get to make raid entry level gear.  Then you have to wait for the next raid to come out, for new gear that is insanely expensive to make.  This gear's only advantage is that it brings you up to the gear level of whatever the current raid level of gear is.  Normally by the time you can make it, you've been running the raid for a few weeks and in all likely hood a hard core raider is going to have something comparable all ready, and any one who isn't pushing hard against the raid is unlikely to care to drop tons of gold on a one gear piece boost.

     So first I think we should be able to get some simpler to make pieces with each new raid tier.  I know that Blizzard wants to gate things, but you can make equipment difficult to make without making people need to buy whatever item is dropping from the new raid to complete the items.  Daily cool downs, rarely found/picked items all this can be used to gate new equipment.

     I think there should also be more gear made purely for transmog.  Since this has become a well know used and loved feature, there should be gear that can only be used/mogged by members of said profession, and other items with some flare that can be used by everyone who would normally be able to use such armor type (Mail, Plate etc...)

     Then we come to gathering professions.

     I think player should, for a fee or quest, be able to get assistants who farm stuff for them.  I like the farms in Panderia at Sunsong Ranch, but the problem is that eventually it just feels grindy.  Give me a companion in my garrison who I can send to gather mats, knowing that sometimes he will come back with a very low yield, and occasionally he will come back with some cool stuff.  I know farming mats is part of the game, and you could still do that while using this feature to speed up your gathering ability.  You could also gain rep with different farmers you send on quests to get better yields and possible pets/mounts.

    Anyway, I would love more stuff to keep professions interesting and profitable.  Obviously some gates have to exist to keep the gear from all falling to dirt cheap prices right away, or making the professions meaningful.  I do believe however, that some of these gates could creak open a little more, or even if your looking at past Xpack gear that a way to speed through non-current/useful patterns/items could be nice.

   The real question is, how would you fix professions?

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye 

Selling the Drama.... (Raid update week of 2/20/2014)

Because that's what we do.  Sometimes.

      Tuesday was an O.K. day.  We were short a couple of major players and hopped into second wing anyway.  Galakras and Iron Juggernaut went down quickly as normal.  As I was tanking this night however, we had to pick a third tank who hadn't tanked the fight before to help finish Dark Shamans.  We got close but never got them down.

      Wednesday was not a great Raid night.  Once again a few people didn't make it leaving use with just ten peeps.  We decided to push third wing anyway and never got past Malkorak.  The biggest problem is the other times we have fought him we have had 14-15 people, and with just ten we didn't have the coverage on the room we were used to.  Mechanics just killed us when people missed the purple circles or we didn't move quickly enough.  I look forward to shrugging this week off and moving forward.

      Now, World of Warcraft is about the dramatic.  We follow story lines, and immersed in the lore whether we pay attention to it or not, and everything we do has a consequence somewhere down the line withing the the story arc.  All the characters we run into seem to be having minor emergencies which means the characters we interact with tend to be very dramatic as well.

     But you, yes you, the player.... you are not that dramatic.  Most of the scenes with your characters show them calmly watching what is going on around you.  Your not overly verbal, and you don't tend to jump around and freak out just because an angry dragon is smashing through a wall.

    So why would you fill guild chat with drama?

     The easy answer is that we are not our characters.  Guild chat is the one place where we get to be actual people who can talk to our guild mates and connect on a level that goes above a video game if we so choose to.  The obvious exception of course is a RP guild.  (RP realms don't actually equal RP all that often.)  The problem with this is sometimes people over share, or try to over connect, or flat out decide to troll everyone in sight.  This creates drama.

     Before you start talking in guild, or even in trade for that matter you should consider the impact of your words when you allow people into your life.  Are you saying something that is not going to project the image of you that you want people to see?  Is what your saying meant to stir up a fight?  Is it lewd, sweary, or in any way offensive?  When all people get of you is some typing and a virtual figure this matters.

     The best way to build guild drama is to not care about any of these things.  When you come off as abrupt or mean it can bring a guild down.  People do not want to hang out in a cesspool of negativity with a few notable exceptions.  When you create guild drama it effects everyone in the guild to at least a small degree.  I can be in how they feel to be part of the guild, to how other people treat them when they see our guild tag above their heads.  If the realm has a negative view of your guild from what one or two yahoos say in guild chat, then it effects every single person.

     People also say things to get a specific re-action in guild.  If you enter guild chat talking about causing physical harm to yourself or others sometimes people don't know how to react.  I would wager normally when someone does this it's because they want attention and for some people negative attention is better then no attention.  In this case no one is sure whether to take the speaker seriously or not, and in a MMO we are very limited on our ability to react to such things from our side of the keyboard.  If we don't know anything other then an avatar and fake name, there is no recourse your guild mates can take if they do thing you are serious.  At best we can put in a ticket to Blizzard and hope that they are willing to call people like the cops etc... to check things out.   I'm not sure Blizzard would be likely to do this as well, because they take legal responsibility for releasing someones contact information for what might just be someone crying for attention.

     In short if you having a rough time in your life or situation, don't pull the guild into it.  If it becomes a problem we will have to cut you loose, and I would hate to cut off the sense of community from someone who may benefit from it in a positive manner.  I would love to have a happy place for you to come, chat and interact if you life otherwise sucks, so you can have some happiness in your life.

     The guild is a place that should be kept drama free... please do your part to help make it so.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye
   

How Much Is Your Integrity Worth? Yes, I'm ranting again. (Raid update week of 02/13/2014)

It's a basic question, but first lets review the raiding this week.

      Tuesday went very well.  Kedec was taking a break for the first bit of the night so I was tanking on Lag.  (And being bitter about not being able to show off my deeps with my hunter's new cloak.  I admit it.)  Despite the fact I hadn't tanked any of the second wing before both Galakras and Iron Juggernaut went down in a one shot.  Then, thanks to Orheim guild tripping, Kedec came in and we three tanked, one shot Dark Shaman.  Nazgrim took two shot but he went down as well.  At that point there was only 13 minutes or so left, so we went ahead and called raid.  Wednesday night we would start on Malkorak.

      Wednesday turned out better then I thought it would.  We were down a couple of folks who were sick or otherwise incapacitated.  That being said, Old Malkorak went down on the third pull.  We then moved on to treasures of Pandaria.  This fight was rough due to some low deeps but we managed to get to 2% before we wiped.  I foresee a downing of this boss in the near future.  It, to me, was a very good raid week.

      I have been thinking since Monday on integrity.  We had a situation where at work one of the employees decided not to park where the designated parking was set, but instead decided to park in an area we try to keep open for customers during lunch.  When he had come in my boss had asked him where he was parked and the employee initially lied.  Then after a little bit of badgering he admitted he was in the wrong place but claimed not to know that he couldn't park there.  He went out to move his car, begrudgingly, and the day went on.

     My boss however, looked at me after the exchange and asked quietly, how much is your integrity worth? 75 feet?  He then went on to bagging the food for the customers and I've been stewing the thought in my head ever since.

     That employee was willing to lie for the sake of not walking that extra 75 feet.  That is about 30 extra second to walk into work.  It also is a small bit of walking for how much we move around the restaurant during and through out the day.  It should have been a minor thing, but to this employee it was worth evading and lying not to walk that 75 feet.

     There are people that say that everyone has their price.  I don't like parking down in the employee parking either but I do it anyway.  It cost me four hundred dollars to park down there when some kids from the neighboring elementary school threw rocks over the fence and smashed out my side window.  Even so, I still park down in the area designated for employee parking.  I even park further away then most of the employees as I don't feel the need to be extra close to the restaurant.  My price is much higher then this employees, as a matter of fact it is much higher then $400 apparently.

      That is not to say I'm not perfect.  I have told my own white lies to make people feel better or to try and spare feelings.  Should I do it? No.  But I'm not better then anyone else.  Do I do it often? Not really.  I try to avoid being dishonest, but at times I fall into the same trap as other people.  I feel the ends justify the means if it means keeping the peace or not offending people etc...

      Being back at my job at Chick-fil-A means that a lot of time when I'm raiding now, I have woken up at 5 am or earlier, and I'm tired.  Or that I've worked a ten to twelve hour day, and I come home and get ready to raid with folks on our team.  This means, that while tired I still and putting my time and effort into making sure things get together for everyone else.  I know people have different levels of tolerance, but sometimes I question it when people say "I'm too tired tonight." or "Well, I know it's fifteen minutes to raid, and I've been on petbattling for the last 2 hours, but hey I didn't have time to watch the raid encounter video."  Sometimes I want to call B.S.  It is O.K. to not feel like raiding and to take a night off here and there.  Stuff happens I get it.  I don't need smoke blown up my arse to spare my feelings.  Now if someone is consistently missing raid nights then we may need to talk.  If you are in a critical position such as heals or tanking this is twice as true.  Every time you don't show it effects everyone else on the team.

      This goes for people who just drop off the earth as well.  If you don't want to raid with us you can tell me.  I'm a big boy and I can take it.  I know we  are laid back and not pushing insanely hard content and that is fine for us.  It might not be fine for you and I understand if you want more of a challenge etc...  I get that.  However, if you don't have the courtesy to tell me and I have to hear things second hand that shows a lack of respect to me and everyone on the team.  For the record this isn't going to anyone in particular, but we have had lots of people of the years just suddenly stop with no explanation.   That bothers me more then if someone wants to PM me and tell me that they refuse to raid because I'm and a________.  Really, I do my best to show everyone some level of respect, and I feel that respect should be returned.

     What is your integrity worth?  Is it worth the time to make sure you are as prepared as possible when you show up for raid?  Is it worth letting the team know when and if you are going separate ways?  Is it worth the extra ten minutes it would take to look up your class on Noxxic.com or Icy-veins.com and do some work to improve your performance?  Is it worth asking for help if you can't figure out how to make your class better?

     Most of all, is it worth showing your fellow player the respect they deserve, and doing your best to be part of a team.  To me the biggest sign of integrity is just taking responsibility for what little bit of ownership you have invested in this team.  If you play like you want to be better, and help others out, that speaks more for you then any words ever can.

     Show us your integrity.

     Be part of the team.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

Like the Tide Rolling Forward. (Raid update 02/08/2014)

Things are good, and getting better.

       No, we aren't through flex yet... but we are making progress.
       Tuesday we started on the 2nd wing.  There was a little adjustment but we managed to get the first three bosses (including Dark Shaman) down before the end of the night.  While we didn't burn through at an amazing pace, we did a solid job and progress was shown on all fights.  It's good to note that progress doesn't always mean a new boss down, sometimes it means running bosses a little tighter and quicker.

      Wednesday night I didn't make it to raid until about an hour into it.  It took a little while to get stuff up and running and I made it in for the second pull on Nazgrim.  It took a couple of pulls but he went down.  We immediately jumped into the third wing of SoO and took a few swipes at Malkorak.  We didn't down him, but made progress with each pull.  I imagine there is a good chance he will go down next week and we will move forward.  We won't be seeing the first wing of flex again for a little bit, and while I plan on going back eventually right now we will continue to do wing 2 on the first night and wing 3 on the second.  Eventually it will move to wing 3 and 4.

     Other things this week, I started my job back at Chick-fil-A which has taken a small toll on me.  I am not used to working hours standing, running, etc.. anymore.  I will adjust but it might take some time.  This also means that some raid nights I'm going to have to depend on others to keep the raid moving forward.  I don't want to mess with the raid nights after they have been set for so long, and doing so would probably disrupt the team a bit.

     I also have earned my legendary cloak on my Hunter.  Lazyeye now is sprouting the pure awesomeness of added deeps and glowy wing things.  This means I now have three characters with the legendary.  Each time I have gotten a legendary done there has been a sigh of relief, followed by my eyes going looking at my other toons debating who needs a cloak next.  Probably my shammy Shimmer, but we will see.  I would kinda like a caster to be the next cloak, but my horde rogue needs some love as well.

    Because really, the more cloaks the better.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.

   

And the Deeps keeps Rolling in.... (Raid update week of 01/30/2014)

No complaints this week.  Well, maybe a couple.

      Tuesday got off to a somewhat shaky start.  One of the main tanks, and one of the main healers couldn't make it due to real life situations.  Due to that and paired with a us starting a couple of newer DPS we decided to run the first wing of flex.  We had originally planned on starting the second wing and pushing right off the bat, but with so many variables we decided that the first wing was a better fit for the night.  It was a good run though, and we finished the first wing just in time despite the set backs.

      Wednesday was much better.  We start right on the first wing and with a few guest stars managed to get all the way through.  Galakras and Iron Juggernaught were all one pulls.  Dark Shaman took three pulls and due to a couple of issues we had time was burnt there as well.  Nazgrim went down on the first shot, and we were excited to see him go.  Mynk, and a couple of her guildies popped in and helped us down the wing.  This means, next week plans get a little more awesome.

     Next week we will start on wing two, and wherever we get, wing three will be the second night.  I look forward to pushing some new stuff.  I don't want to be dependent on folks outside the guild showing up for raid, but when they do I won't complain.  It's fun to have some new voices in Vent here and there.

     This week was great, but new challenges are coming up.  I ended up having to leave my job this week, and I am going back to working at Chick-fil-A as a manager.  This means I'm going to possibly have a schedule that starts moving.  If things work out in that direction I'm going to have to start moving the raid nights with my schedule again.  Either that or I will have to find a step in raid leader who will take over when I'm not available.  The other option is to find a new raid leader all together, but I'm not sure who I would give the job to at this point.  But it is a consideration.

     I am lucky however, I have a family that supports me, and I will still have a steady paycheck.  This is work I enjoy even if it's not my dream job.  I can not talk enough about the principles of not burning bridges or having a second plan.  Physically I am going to have to adjust to being on my feet for 45 hours a week again, but in the long run this will be a good shot of stability that my family needs right now.

      Enough about me however.   Next week we will take some more stuff down.  Plan on it.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye.