This update includes two new game systems called Affixes and Professions. Before we dive into the nitty-gritty details of this update, I’d like to go over some of our goals for these new systems.
The ultimate goal of introducing professions is to add replayability for veterans and an alternative path for gear progression for solo players. That said, it won’t be as fast as OADing to get gear, and you won’t be maxing out your professions in a week. They are meant to be a long-term goal that takes months to max out, and we’ll likely be adjusting them if we see things progressing too fast or too slow.
Also, gathering professions can be pretty grindy, but we’ll be looking to improve this over time so that it’s more enjoyable. Fishing is probably the closest to being a fun gathering profession. Alchemy is likely going to need balancing tweaks over time due to how unique it is compared to the other crafting professions, but I’m most excited about the possibilities of Alchemy.
On a final note, the balancing of materials per craft and drop rates is pretty complex, and it’s hard for us to fully flesh it out on build, so we’ll be watching this as things progress. This is the big reason that this release doesn’t go beyond lvl25 purple One-a-days or have set pieces yet. Okay, that’s enough of a disclaimer. Let’s get into some of the specifics.
What Professions are available?
Players can choose 1 Major and 2 Minor professions, and everyone gets a special profession called Inscription.
Minor:
- Mining
Foraging
Scavenging
Fishing
Major:
- Weaponsmithing
Armorsmithing
Jewelcrafting
Alchemy
How do you decide your Professions?
A new area has opened up in Alderra City’s northern district called Artisan Alley. There you can find a number of trainers who are willing to teach you if you’re up to the task (min. Level 16).
What can you do with each Profession?
Minor Professions:
- - Mining lets you gather ore and gems, which are needed for Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing, and Jewelcrafting.
- Foraging lets you gather herbs, which are needed for Alchemy.
- Scavenging lets you gather leather and cloth when killing NPCs, which are needed for Weaponsmithing, and Armorsmithing.
- Fishing lets you catch fish and treasure containing gems. The fish are needed for Alchemy, and the gems are needed by Jewelcrafting, Weaponsmithing, and Armorsmithing.
Weaponsmithing needs either Ore and Gems or Leather and Cloth to craft. The difference in materials is based on the type of weapons you’re looking to craft. If you want to craft every type of weapon then you need to pick Mining and Scavenging. This offers some flexibility with your minor professions such as going Mining(or Scavenging) and Fishing if you’d like to fish. The specific differences are:
- - Daggers: Ore and Gems
- Swords: Ore and Gems
- 2handers: Ore and Gems
- Staves: Leather and Cloth
- Blunt Weapons: Leather and Cloth
- Bows: Leather and Cloth
- --Weapon Crafting-- - (Click to expand)
Armorsmithing needs either Ore and Gems or Leather and Cloth to craft. The difference in materials is based on the type of armor you’re looking to craft. If you want to craft every type of armor then you need to pick Mining and Scavenging. This offers some flexibility with your minor professions such as going Mining(or Scavenging) and Fishing if you’d like to fish. The specific differences are:
- - Cloth Armor: Leather and Cloth
- Light Armor: Leather and Cloth
- Medium Armor: Leather and Cloth
- Heavy Armor: Ore and Gems
- Shields: Ore and Gems
- Heavy Helmets: Ore and Gems
- Light Helmets: Leather and Cloth
- --Armor Crafting-- - (Click to expand)
Jewelcrafting needs Ore and Gems to craft rings, necklaces, gloves, boots, instruments, and ammo. The crafted rings have randomized stats similar to affixes. You can view the possible stats by talking to Sylcyne Xyrrel in Artisan Alley.
- --Jewel Crafting-- - (Click to expand)
Alchemy needs herbs and fish to craft hp pots, mp pots, stat altering pots, and food with bonuses. They can also transmute large amounts of crafting materials into materials of a higher tier, but it isn’t very efficient. High level alchemists can also make a bag that increases a person’s inventory slots. Alchemy is our most experimental profession since we’re trying out a lot of potions that can influence balancing. We went pretty conservative this update, but it’s the profession I’m most excited about.
- --Alchemy-- - (Click to expand)
Inscription:
Unlike the other professions, everyone can learn Inscription because we wanted everyone to get access to affixes and to be able to disenchant their gear. Inscription lets you craft items to apply prefixes, suffixes, and hums to your gear. When you use a prefix or suffix item, it will random between a number of attributes and roll for the magnitude of the chosen attribute. Also, you can craft an item that lets you see the affix you’d get, but it costs a lot more to craft. All of the available affixes are viewable by talking to Sylcyne Xyrrel. She has a shop called Nothing is Written in Stone, which is in Alderra City’s Artisan Alley.
Disenchanting:
When you learn Inscription, you also learn Disenchanting. To disenchant, you use the command /disenchant [Item Name]. By disenchanting your gear, you will get the needed resources for crafting Inscription items. The type and amount you get are based on the level and base rarity of the item. Leveling up Disenchanting also gives a bonus chance of getting 50% more of the resource. The base amounts are:
- - Level 20 Uncommon - 2 Seeds of Terra
- Level 20 Rare - 4 Drops of Riva
- Level 20 Epic - 6 Shades of Nox
- Level 20 Legendary - 10 Cinders of Pyron
- Level 25 Uncommon - 20 Seeds of Terra
- Level 25 Rare - 40 Drops of Riva
- Level 25 Epic - 50 Shades of Nox
- Level 25 Legendary - 100 Cinders of Pyron
- 0-250 Seeds of Terra
251-500 Drops Riva
501-750 Shades of Nox
751-1000 Cinders of Pyron
- --Inscription-- - (Click to expand)
How do you use your professions?
We have a few approaches to how we made gathering professions work:
Mining and Foraging require exploring the world to find “nodes” such as a quartzite vein or a farm field. When you find one you can use the commands /mine [Name] or /forage [Name]. Also, you need to have a pickaxe or a harvest sickle equipped.
For Scavenging, you’ll get materials by killing various types of NPC as long as you have a scavenging knife equipped.
For Fishing, we’ve created a mini-game that can be started in water areas as long as you have a fishing pole equipped. You may use the following commands in conjunction with the /fish command: help, cast, bait, reel, pull, pull left, pull right.
All of the crafting professions work the same as far as commands go but the core commands are: /armor, /weapon, /jewel, /alchemy, and /inscribe. There are 3 ways to use these commands such as:
- - /[ProfName] list, such as /alchemy list, lets you see all of the items you can craft at your current skill level.
- /[ProfName] view [Item Name], such as /armor view Linen Cloak, lets you see what materials are needed to craft a Linen Cloak.
- /[ProfName] create [Item Name], such as /inscribe create Greater Sunstone, lets you create that item if you have the necessary materials.
How does leveling up a crafting profession work?
When viewing your craft list, you'll see that the items you can craft are color-coded.
- White - No chance to gain a point.
Green - Low chance to gain a point.
Yellow - Moderate chance to gain a point.
Orange - High chance to gain a point.
Where do you start gathering?
- - Mining - Patina Caverns. A new level 16 area connected to the Northern Wastelands’ Refugee Camp.
- Foraging - Kakegi Grove
- Fishing - River Road
- Scavenging - Level 16+ NPCs. Cloth materials are from Humanoids, Greenskin, Demon, and Undead races. Leather materials are from Animal, Beast, Insect, and Reptile races.
Miscellaneous changes
- - Kraken key quest no longer needs gems.
- Arkanmaw Quest to get access to the Arcane Refinery no longer needs gems.
- Drelvar Quest Requirements that involved gems and orishium were adjusted to accommodate the new changes.
- Drelvar Quests no longer award bags with gems.
- Divine Crafter quest that offers Prismatic Crown and Prismatic Helm now needs materials that align with the crafting system. This may be adjusted in the future to teach armorsmith how to craft these items.
- Gem Hoarders have been replaced by Gold Hoarders.
- Treasure Fiend no longer drops gems.
- Orishium no longer drops.
- Kraken NPCs no longer drop gems.
- BSH still drops gems, but we’ll likely remove those when we have time to improve that instance’s loot tables.