Expansion Leatherworking

[nobbie]

I'd like to point you to my preview article about Leatherworking and its three branches (Dragonscale, Elemental, Tribal) in the upcoming expansion, which you can now read here.

The text is German, but the attached screenshots speak for themselves, and they're labeled in English;)

You can view and read the original size screenshots (1152 x 864) by clicking the hyperlink labeled "In Originalgrosse zeigen" at the bottom of each popup preview window.

[NiteFox]

Still doesn't look like Leatherworkers will get rich from their trade:(

Unless there was something I was missing in the bulk of the text.

[Zarathustra]

*sighs*

So the currently specialized items are going to everyone? Not sure I understand why they've made that change.

And while other professions are getting things like the Alchemist's Stone, leatherworkers are getting some rather lackluster BoP items. The Tribal BoP set... confuses me. "Here's your damage set! ...but we've allocated item points to healing! Oh, and if you put the right color sockets in, you get AGILITY! Oooooo!"

Perhaps more importantly, specializations aren't going to make any extra money. I see nothing there that will be in high demand, and some of the better sellers in the past (IE Devilsaur) are now free for all.

[nobbie]

Still doesn't look like Leatherworkers will get rich from their trade:(

Unless there was something I was missing in the bulk of the text.

Well, these are the items from the trainer only so far. There's certainly more that you can find or buy;)

EDIT:

--> Blacksmith BOP Epics

[Monkey]

Perhaps more importantly, specializations aren't going to make any extra money. I see nothing there that will be in high demand, and some of the better sellers in the past (IE Devilsaur) are now free for all.

I'll admit my German isn't that great (ok, it's more like 'barely functional'), but I think what Nobbie meant is that those plans are now trainable instead of drops; the specialty requirement has not been eliminated. That doesn't seem like a bad thing to me, since those pieces will now be leveling up gear instead of endgame gear.

Perhaps Nobbie could clarify whether those items still require specialty?

[nobbie]

Yep, the training aspect - instead of endless instance grinding, reputation farming, or oodles of gold for valuable crafting recipes - was my point. I think Blizzards point is that you should now view the crafting specializations as a privilege with exclusive items, and not as a branch with which you can get rich.

[Quark]

Yep, the training aspect - instead of endless instance grinding, reputation farming, or oodles of gold for valuable crafting recipes - was my point. I think Blizzards point is that you should now view the crafting specializations as a privilege with exclusive items, and not as a branch with which you can get rich.

That'd be fine if we actually saw the general "better than ZG enchants" that they promised and so far have only given to Tailoring.

[Delc]

The BoP DS stuff is a bit of a letdown. The hunter BP is barely better than tier 2 (.5% crit, and 6ap). Compared to the weaponsmiths who are getting 100+ dps two handers I'm a bit disapointed.

[Quark]

The BoP DS stuff is a bit of a letdown. The hunter BP is barely better than tier 2 (.5% crit, and 6ap). Compared to the weaponsmiths who are getting 100+ dps two handers I'm a bit disapointed.

The items are okay for Elemental, I guess. You lose crit/hit/dodge but gain a ton of AP over Tier2. If they are upgradeable like the weapons are, then they could be something.

[lemekim]

The BoP DS stuff is a bit of a letdown. The hunter BP is barely better than tier 2 (.5% crit, and 6ap). Compared to the weaponsmiths who are getting 100+ dps two handers I'm a bit disapointed.

At least they get more than Armorsmiths, who get a whole 1 piece of armor.

[Monkey]

The BoP DS stuff is a bit of a letdown. The hunter BP is barely better than tier 2 (.5% crit, and 6ap). Compared to the weaponsmiths who are getting 100+ dps two handers I'm a bit disapointed.

Those two base stats are on par with the corresponding stats on the dragonstalker BP. However, this breastplate also has 200+ more armor and three sockets. With the "endgame" of BC still largely unreleased into beta, the gems those sockets were balanced for probably aren't in the game yet. But just for example, here's one of the epic (PvP) gems from thott's beta site:

Bold Ornate Ruby
Unique
+20 Attack Power
"Matches a Red Socket."

It's a red gem, but if you don't mind missing the set bonus and want to max AP, 3 rubies can make this BP have 65 more attack power than the dragonstalker breastplate. You could also choose from many combinations of resilience/resistance/crit/etc. The sockets basically let you own a section of the item budget, and like enchants, you can always upgrade to a better gem. Here's thott's list of known gems: http://www.thottbot.com/beta?gem=All

[Concillian]

At least they get more than Armorsmiths, who get a whole 1 piece of armor.

1 piece of armor that is kind of like a lifegiving gem++, especially considering the sockets too. That piece of armor is pretty nice.

[Tuftears]

The tribal stuff so far looks very much caster-ish. I don't think the +damage/healing and +healing is that much of a problem - the way the itemization works, +100 healing is nearly the same cost (1000 points) as +75 healing (649.52) + 25 damage (353.553), roughly speaking. (these are not actual mod points, but +damage/healing is twice the value of +healing)

Which, you'll see, makes the second item more flexible - you'll heal the same, but you'll also nuke just a bit better.

+agility on the sockets can only be a mistake, though.

[Luminon]

The tribal stuff so far looks very much caster-ish. I don't think the +damage/healing and +healing is that much of a problem - the way the itemization works, +100 healing is nearly the same cost (1000 points) as +75 healing (649.52) + 25 damage (353.553), roughly speaking. (these are not actual mod points, but +damage/healing is twice the value of +healing)

Which, you'll see, makes the second item more flexible - you'll heal the same, but you'll also nuke just a bit better.

+agility on the sockets can only be a mistake, though.

All the screenshots I've seen of items with sockets had +agility as their socket bonus, I assume it's a placeholder.
Anyone else think they overdid it on the Blacksmithing weapons? 549 Top end damage is a lot even with the new amounts of stamina.

[lemekim]

1 piece of armor that is kind of like a lifegiving gem++, especially considering the sockets too. That piece of armor is pretty nice.

Except the cooldown is 30 mins instead of 5 mins:

http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=14467

Given that cooldown, this ability can't be used in Arena, and the absence of tanking stats on the chest make it unlikely to be used while tanking as a mini-last stand. But I bet it has an awesome animation!

[Concillian]

Anyone else think they overdid it on the Blacksmithing weapons? 549 Top end damage is a lot even with the new amounts of stamina.

Well... It's really hard to say what is overdoing and what is not at this point. Also, I expect the mats to be pretty difficult to collect, probably requiring rare items plus stuff from lockout dungeons... where there is likely going to be weapons of this caliber dropping from the bosses anyway.

Note that the 'middle' tier of the crafted weapons are virtually identical to the Arena rewards. I expect the top tier of the crafted weapons will require pretty significant mats and effort.

Edit:
Indeed this seems to be true, the top end blacksmithing weapons are not going to be easily craftable...
Quote from Kalgan:

The highest upgraded versions of the weaponsmithing items won't be crafted until guilds are well into tier 5. So, you're comparing tier 4 weapons to tier 5, which isn't an entirely useful comparison.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...105735&sid=1#23

I think making any judgements now about an item that isn't expecte dto be available until "guilds are well into tier 5" would be kind of like judging Ashkandi damage balance when there still were no level 60s. It's kind of pointless, given that everyone else will be in better stuff and there will be significant game mechanics changing.

[nobbie]

At least they get more than Armorsmiths, who get a whole 1 piece of armor.

I'm currently counting 2 old/known rare (blue) armors, 4 new rare (blue) armors, and 6 new (epic) armors (3 plate, 3 mail) at Armor Crafter "Zula Slagfury" in the lower portion of Shattrath City.

[lemekim]

I'm currently counting 2 old/known rare (blue) armors, 4 new rare (blue) armors, and 6 new (epic) armors (3 plate, 3 mail) at Armor Crafter "Zula Slagfury" in the lower portion of Shattrath City.

If you look at my quote, we are talking about BOP toys that only that specific specialization can use, in case you haven't noticed. That leaves us with supposed 6 new epic armors.

If you actually looked at those items a bit more carefully, you would notice that each of those armors has a place in an upgrade line, so really there are only 2 armors, with each armor having 3 iterations (much like weaponsmiths can upgrade their weapons). If you have the very best version of the plate armor, there is no reason for you to use the weaker version. Furthermore, the two items that you can make are both chestpieces, one being plate and Warrior/Paladin oriented, the other being mail and Shaman/Hunter oriented. If you use one, you either can't use the other (if you are a Shaman for example), or it would actually be a downgrade (e.g. if you are a Warrior). So for all intents and purposes, you will only use 1 armor, no matter your spec, class, etc.

Weaponsmiths, on the other hand, most of the time can use both of the items they have available to them - Warriors, Paladins, Hunters, Shamans, the only exception being rogues.

[nobbie]

class, etc.

Weaponsmiths, on the other hand, most of the time can use both of the items they have available to them - Warriors, Paladins, Hunters, Shamans, the only exception being rogues.

Yep, one item being a 1-hand axe, mace oder sword, and the other one being a 2-hand axe, mace oder sword. Thanks god we don't have 1-arm chestpieces;)

[Tuftears]

Thoughts on the tribal LW pieces:

Windhawk Bracers: (epic) +21 sta, +16 int, +6 spirit, 1 yellow socket, +14 spell crit, +15 damage/healing, +29 healing
Windhawk Belt: (epic) +16 sta, +18 int, +18 spirit, 1 blue/1 yellow sockets, +10 spell crit, +21 damage/healing, +37 healing
Windhawk Hauberk: (epic) +24 sta, +25 int, +25 spirit, 2 blue/1 yellow sockets, +16 spell crit, +28 damage/healing, +35 healing
Windfeather Leggings: (rare) +16 sta, +11 int, +12 spirit, +14 damage/healing, +26 healing

The Windhawk set bonus is 8 mana/5 sec.

Druid T4 healing set:

Malorne chest: (epic) +22 sta, +25 int, +21 spirit, 2 blue/1 yellow sockets, +77 healing
Malorne gloves: (epic) +18 sta, +22 int, +21 spirit, +55 healing, 6 mana/5 sec
Malorne head: (epic) +22 sta, +23 int, +21 spirit, 1 red/1 meta sockets, +59 healing, +8 mana/5 sec
Malorne legs: (epic) +24 sta, +34 int, +22 spirit, +75 healing, 8 mana/5 sec
Malorne shoulders: (epic) +15 sta, +20 int, +16 spirit, 2 blue sockets, +62 healing, 4 mana/5 sec

We don't know the set bonuses for the Windhawk vs Druid T4, but it looks to me like asides from the chest, you can wear 3/3 Windhawk and 4/5 Druid T4. Windhawk chest is +63 healing, vs Malorne +77 healing, other stats are comparable. If the Druid T4 5/5 set bonus is good, it will be better to wear that piece over the Windhawk chest.

The Windfeather leggings (rare) are clearly inferior to the Malorne leggings (epic), of course for healing. They might be interesting to a less-geared moonkin.