WoW Forever already plans to add more than 600 profession recipes, completely rethink First Aid, tie crafting into outdoor Camping and make professions matter throughout the leveling journey. Apparently that may not be enough.
Players exploring Dalaran in the current beta have found several suspicious leftovers that point toward Jewelcrafting and possibly Inscription existing somewhere in Forever’s future. Nothing has been announced by Blizzard, and there is a perfectly boring explanation for some of it. But one particular clue makes this considerably more interesting than finding an unused NPC standing behind a counter.
Dalaran Has an Apprentice Jeweler Waiting for Something
The first clue sits inside Cartier & Co. Fine Jewelry in Dalaran. Wowhead found Timothy Jones inside the shop, carrying the title Apprentice Jeweler. He does not currently train players, but he is very much present in the Forever database and even has dialogue suggesting there may eventually be more to learn.
That immediately raises eyebrows because Jewelcrafting was not part of original Vanilla WoW. It arrived with The Burning Crusade. Forever, meanwhile, has generally been very deliberate about expanding Classic rather than simply importing later expansion systems wholesale.
That distinction matters. As we covered in our breakdown of Forever’s 600-plus new recipes and Camping system, Blizzard is already creating an enormous amount of new crafting content specifically for this version of Azeroth. Adding another profession would therefore be much more significant than restoring an old trainer NPC.
Inscription Has an Even Stranger Clue
Dalaran also contains The Scribes’ Sacellum, a location associated with Inscription. Unlike the jewelry shop, it currently appears to be empty, and this is where the obvious warning label becomes important.
Forever’s Dalaran is based on a version of the city that existed after Vanilla. Buildings, NPCs and database entries associated with later professions could simply have survived while Blizzard adapted the city for Forever. Beta clients are full of this sort of archaeological debris.
Except players have found something else.
According to Icy Veins’ examination of the beta, the Forever character-statistics panel contains entries for Highest Inscription Skill and Inscriptions Learned. That is harder to dismiss as merely a shop Blizzard forgot to remove.
It still proves nothing. Beta interfaces can inherit unused statistics just as easily as cities inherit unused buildings. But when a profession has a dedicated location and the character interface is prepared to track its progression, the coincidence becomes considerably more interesting.
New Professions Would Change Forever’s Economy
Jewelcrafting or Inscription would not be small additions because Forever is already making professions unusually important. Profession tracking, recipe search and improved crafting interfaces are being added specifically because Blizzard expects players to use these systems constantly. We have also seen crafted sets tied directly to raid progression and even profession bonuses appearing on dungeon equipment.
Dropping Jewelcrafting into that economy would immediately create questions about gems, sockets, ore demand and Mining. Inscription would be even stranger. Glyphs in their later-WoW form would dramatically alter Forever’s class system, so Blizzard would presumably need to reinvent what the profession actually does.
And reinventing professions is something Forever has already shown it is perfectly willing to do. Healing Potions have already moved from Alchemy to First Aid, which is not exactly sacred-text treatment of Vanilla profession boundaries.
For Now, Treat This as a Clue, Not a Confirmation
There is no Blizzard announcement confirming Jewelcrafting or Inscription for WoW Forever. Timothy Jones could remain a decorative jeweler forever. The Inscription statistics could disappear in the next beta build.
But Forever already contains a jewelry store with an Apprentice Jeweler, an Inscription location and interface entries prepared to track Inscription progression.
That is not enough to announce two new professions.
It is more than enough to start watching very closely.
Post a Comment