Alchemy is useful. Ummm.... what else?
How to Pick a Profession:- Want to Make Money? Herbalism/Mining- Want Something Useful? Herbalism/Alchemy- Want to Have Fun? Mining/Engineering- Want to Hate Yourself? Tailoring/Enchanting- Want Something For an Alt? Other CombosSimple. XD
Not many proffessions are usefull this expansion. Only Alchemy and enchanting. Jewelcrafting.. you hardly have the luxury of gem sockets on gear. And most of the time you dont feel like geming a low ilv item. Even if you probably have many gems laying around. Blacksmithing, not much there either, only to make yourself the Normal, heroic and mythic pieces of gear and maybe the spurrs... whatever they are called. That you can collect herbs and ore without dismounting ones. Nothing else. Leatherworking, not much there.... Most proffesions are useless this expansion. Maybe its gona be diferent once 8.1 comes out. But in general... The proffessions feel very useless and underpowered. They should honestly bring back how it was in Mists of pandaria when it comes to proffessions. Every proffession having some enchant for the gear. Tailoring having the pants enchant for caster, leatherworking for agi/str users. Blacksmithing having the extra gem slot belt buckle. Inscription having shoulder enchant. And most important. Enchanting had more than RINGS and WEPON ENCHANT,..... For an expansion that pushes the wholle use of the Scrapper for some free mats. Instead of dissenchanting everything... You dont have much to use the mats on. Crafting gear feels useless. Other than just geting that 1 item to make yourself 320 for Warfronts or higher ilv gear from wq. THere is no use. At least in Legion you had the Obliterum forge. Where you could melt things, and upgrade items by 5 ilv. Nothing this expansion. They could have made something like that using Expulsom.. Since you dont have much use for that either. Other than making some handfull of things. Like a mount, the Epic pieces of gear that need Sanguicell from Uldir...But what if you have Gathering proffessions? Nothing. Hopefully they add something like with Blood of Sargeras in BFA: That you can turn them in for STUFF: Otherwise... Very useless to scrap stuff on a non proffession character. Hell. Geting Sanguicell is also pretty useless on a non proffession character. Its like they didnt think this thru when designing proffessions for legion. Or it was the LAST thing that came to their mind. As can be seen by Enchanting..... 2 enchants... Ring and wepon... Really?
Blizz gave up on First Aid but it feels like they gave up on professions in general and are just going through the motions.Alchemy is useful for flasks and potions (don't get me started on absurd # of herb requirements and scarcity of anchor weed)That's pretty much it.Enchanting you say? I can enchant my weapon and put 2 minor secondary stat enchants on my rings. Whoopy-dee-dooJewelcrafting you say? Sockets are as rare as anchor weed spawns. My JC has not one single socket on their gear set. That's.....disappointing...to say the least. Immersion, utility and fantasy? 0/10Inscription can give you Vantus runes for raid content or replacement scrolls if you lack a mage / warrior for Int/AP but these are niche usesCrafting profs can give you an item after months of work that likely you don't need unless RNG goes against you. Most people find the crafting requirements for something they are unlikely to need by the time they can make it a huge disincentive and opt to pass on the grind.Cooking gives you feasts at a fairly exorbitant materials requirement. It's worth pointing out that the class buff, 10% int / AP, gives substantially more of a power boost than a flask and top level feast and combined. Why Blizzard want to steer us to put so much effort into chasing ever diminishing returns is beyond me...
To sum up. Click bait nepotism.
I personally find that it is not fair of Blizz to basically force players to join mythic dungeons or regular raids for the Hydrocore & Sanguicell. It will take most casual players ages just to be able to craft the high end items because of the drop rate in raids. I would love to be able to create more armor for alts and my guild, but since we are not "elite" raiders (just a great fun loving group),. by the time I have the mats to make the actual gear, the gear will now become irrelevant...thanks Blizz (not)
Ok so let's stay on topic. Professions besides Cooking Jewelcrafting ( but getting close) and Alchemy are useless . First off let's start by saying that Blizzard has always gimped professions after Wrath . In BFA there is no difference but materials are easily obtainable by scrapping if you don't have any professions . If you do have professions then scrapping will give you more of what that profession needs for materials . Making not one but two main components soulbound was and is going too far . Expulsom and Sanguicell. It's quite useless to have main materials needed when raids, mythic+ , world quests and world bosses have a change to drop much higher ilvl . So what exactly is the point to this choice that Blizzard seems not understand ? No point it's just there for a time dump. Blacksmithing and Engineering are the worst. How the hell do allow people to make 340 ilvl gear and then replace it the next week by other content like Engineering Goggles . Back in BC those were the best and now it's a waste of materials and time when the traits are abysmal and you can't even upgrade them like Blacksmithing leggings. Blizzard's profession department needs a overhaul just like the art department.No one is going to spend 250 sanguicell and 30 expulsom to make a item that will be redundant in a couple of months . It's quite unfair that some professions like Alchemy are mandatory for all PvE content while the rest are more of a hobby. Professions are not relevant in BFA , they're filler content when you just don't wanna pay high prices on the AH. Just because Method says this , this and this . Doesn't make it so . But I bet they spend a lot of time testing engineering bombs dps , which enchant is best for each class and what gems benefit more . So to them some of the professions are a must have to get world first . However to those who just want to progress and have fun it's best to not read or watch what top guilds are doing because most of us won't sink our lives into a game. Now if you wanna be the best then listen to them . Personally I've spent more time in this game over 14 years than anything else. So I know if I want to raid higher content flasks , food , gemmed and enchanted properly is a must but in the end Professions take a back seat again to the abysmal structure of azerlite traits and talents for classes.In a perfect world rng would be a lot friendlier and gems would give 3x the amount instead of just 40 which u can just get from a food buff.
Profs are a joke this xpac and has disappointed me to the point of not even wanting to level alts for the profs. If you're not herbalist if you want to make gold, there's no other comparable option. If you're not Alchemy for 2-hour flasks to save gold, there's no other prof for PvE, maybe even PvP (non-rated).I thought that the crafted items upgrading in Tailoring, LW, and BS would be worth it until I realized the random 2nd stats made it a complete bust.I think Blizz has just decided to make the time-sinks in this game more important than the game itself. (Expulsiom, herbing, LW matt needed for all patterns, etc...)
Removed
I have been playing this game as a casual player since vanilla. I miss the days where a could grind dailies for a few weeks to make that awesome sword or cool gear. I have not cared about professions since WoD ended. I felt no desire to make gear in Legion, since it was subpar to my quest gear so why bother. Same with BFA, I see no point in making gear that is far inferior to what I have obtained from questing. About the only profession that I spend any time with these days would be my tailoring to make the hexweave bags for my alts. The last two expacs have convinced me that Blizz has decided to make professions useless and eventually remove them from the game.
So far, alchemy and inscription seem to be the only viable professions anymore as far as I can surmise. I have worked with all of them and most seem to be somewhat lackluster since the quest/dungeon/raid equipment seems far superior to what one can make. Just my opinion though.