One of my highlights for Mists of Pandaria was earning the Realm First! Zen Master Blacksmith Feat of Strength.
@twitchietgw @perculia @Seerax Realm First profession achievements are also gone. They don't integrate well w/profession changes.
— Owen Landgren (@olandgren) February 27, 2014With the news that Realm Firsts for leveling are gone in Warlords, several avid tweeters got straight onto Owen Landgren to be met with the same answer about professions. Gone.
I've gotten a huge kick out of realm firsts over the years. In Cataclysm, I ruled out getting myself a realm first profession, purely because the professions were gated behind leveling to 84 before completing the journey. However, an experienced realm-firster and fellow guildy raced to 85 very quickly picking up Realm First! Illustrious Leatherworker in the process. It was a proud day for a newly formed guild, and got me excited for the possibilities in Mists.
In Mists of Pandaria, I set my sights on blacksmithing. In doing my research, I identified [Spirit of Harmony], as the bottleneck for efficient leveling, even though they were BoP. After I coerced my constant (and favourite) companions in game to help me farm a [Spirit of Harmony]... finding out that in order to use the spirit to purchase a PvP recipe, I needed to be level 87 to get to the Shrine of Seven Stars, I was completely dejected. Morose even. I let my dream float off into the mists, and continued questing (with aforementioned favourites).
Apparently I hadn't quite let it go, because I started complaining bitterly about another 'gate' in profession leveling until Whip (our previous realm first leatherworker) yelled, "Just make greens, doofus!". Renewed, my wife and I set to work pillaging the horde auction house for ghost iron ore, while my army of alts kept an eye on Alliance prices. Green, after green, after green was hammered off the production line, and suddenly... Bam! Almost 2315 in Australia on launch day, I was proclaimed realm first.
At first I was surprised, then relieved and then just overjoyed as the myriad of 'grats' came in through tells, the guild and a big hug from my wife. All in all, it cost me around 46k and some forever indebtedness to Jondy, Kal and Whip. Feat of Strength? Priceless.
So I for one, will be sad to see realm first professions going for Warlords, but I understand that given the scant information about how much professions are changing, they may not make sense at all in the new expansion.
I am absolutely still in shock, without realm firsts, why play the first day?
ReplyDelete... because you're super excited for all the new content!
DeleteHowever, there are reasons not to play the first day. I hope Blizzard doesn't screw up the starting experience this badly in Warlords.
You get a 'copter, YOU get a 'copter. EVERYBODY GETS A HELICOPTER!
Arrrrrrgggghhhhh, my eyeballs... and lagballs
I missed this tweet completely but find it very interesting indeed. To me at least, this seems to tie in a bit with Hwoo's Tweet about profession skill effecting yield and another about profession skill decreasing craft time rather than unlocking recipes. To me it seems like there are going to be some big changes in the way professions are leveled, and it will not just be the "grind out 75 skill points" that we've seen in the past. The more tweets I see the more I want to play the beta!
ReplyDeleteAll this discussion about design intent and how much will be changing... but still so lacking in details it is beyond teasing at this point! Bring on the beta already!
DeleteI'm torn, I don't usually go in for the beta... Hopefully there'll be plenty of wind traders pumping out good information. I'm tempted to have a dabble, but really not interested in leveling from 90 to 100 before it goes live.
I will probably hop on the beta. Like you I'm not sure I want to do the 90-100 thing, but it's very tempting to try out these new professions + garrisons. Might have to depending on how much they end up releasing.
Delete