Is Blizzard Going in the Right Direction with World of Warcraft Tradeskills? The Examples Set by Leatherworking and Skinning

Written by: sinisterporpoise • Edited by: Benjamin Sell
Updated May 23, 2011 • Related Guides: Blizzard | Lich King | World Of Warcraft

Blizzard made a lot of changes to the game in this patch. Some trade skills saw extensive changes, but leatherworking and skinning remained largely untouched.

An Introduction

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World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 made extensive changes to trade skills. Leatherworking saw only a simple change that represented the trade skill design philosophy of the game. The patch boosted the crit rating that skinning gave players. The skinning change sends the message to some players that they should expect statistic boosts from pursuing gathering trade skills. The change of venue for the leatherworking pattern might signal future location changes for Old World and Burning Crusade trade skill recipes.

The stat boosts caused more players to take up gathering trade skills when they were first introduced. It also increased competition for resources. Trade skill purists believe that a player should pursue trade skills for reasons of roleplaying or character development.

WoW Skinning Changes

Many leatherworkers pursue skinning as the second primary trade skill. Skinning reduces the costs of raising the trade skill, and it provides many of the raw materials. The change that Patch 3.2 made to skinning increases the critical strike rating of grand master skinners. A character's skinning skill determines the highest level corpse that he can skin. Every gathering trade skill gives a small stat boost for each level of mastery a player earns.

Leatherworking Heavy Knothide Pattern Location Changed

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The only change the patch made to leatherworking involved changing the location the heavy knothide leather pattern. The higher level Outland recipes require pieces of heavy knothide leather. Players originally bought this pattern from a vendor in located in the lower city in Shattrath. All the other extremely useful patterns were found on profession trainers.

The change of the location where the person buy this pattern represents trade skill design philosophy. Required items for many recipes are often found on trainers rather than being sold on vendors. Previously, a player may have needed to conduct a Thottbot or WoWWiki search to find out where to buy the pattern.

Meaning of the Patch 3.2 Leatherworking Changes

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The price for the heavy knothide leather pattern remains the same. Moving the pattern from a vendor to a profession trainer just makes the pattern easier to find.

The skinning change increased the dps rating of characters with this skill. It also benefited to a healer by providing a boost to his healing capabilities. Characters who specialize in DPS may choose to learn this skill simply because of its in-game benefit. If the stat boosts were removed from gathering trade skills, the change would irritate power gamers.

Some Wrath of the Lich King leather working recipes could have been revamped to make the armor produced by leather workers more desirable to other players. This would in crease the profitability of trade skills. Trade skill items usually return a small profit when a player sells crafted items to NPC vendors.

The patch does not change that most players who pursue leather working do so because it benefits their character or their guild. Leatherworkers are mostly disappointed by the lack of changes patch 3.2 made to this skill.

Suggested Beneficial Trade Skill Changes in World of Warcraft

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Perhaps the World of Warcraft developers will move some of the older trade skill recipes into more accessible location. Blizzard should consider removing the faction requirements for Old World and Burning Crusade trade skill recipes. Many high level engineers do not have the schematics for the 74G and 110G repair bots.(They are at the bottom of Blackrock Depths and sold at a Burning Crusade faction vendor respectively.) The Wrath of the Lich King Jeeves recipe requires both schematics. Forcing players to go into a low-level dungeon to obtain a trade skill recipe may help lower-level players who want to run the instance. It also makes the instance less challenging for characters of the appropriate level. A lone player running alow level instance wastes server resources. The faction requirement for patterns creates unnecessary time sinks.

Cataclysm Trade Skill Changes

Cataclysm follows the path set by other expansions for trade skills, but it adds something new that allows players to advance faster. Some items provide more than one skill up each time a person makes them. This Cataclysm trade skill change allows a person to level the skill more quickly, and cut down on the cost of the skill.