World of Warcraft: Forever is apparently determined to make us look at loot before immediately asking whether the number is bigger.
The latest beta build contains several pieces of equipment with bonuses tied directly to professions, including dungeon drops that improve gathering or crafting and even a Blacksmithing tool that doubles as an actual weapon. It is a small addition compared with Forever adding more than 600 new profession recipes, but it may tell us considerably more about how Blizzard wants loot to work in this version of Azeroth.
Sometimes the interesting item will not have +8 Strength.
Sometimes it will help you cook faster.
Deadmines Loot Can Now Help Your Professions
Players have already discovered updated profession-themed items inside the Deadmines. Smelting Pants provide a useful bonus for Miners, while the latest build has added Cookie’s Stirring Rod, a wand with a bonus that increases Cooking speed.
Cookie dropping kitchen equipment is, admittedly, not Warcraft’s most astonishing piece of environmental storytelling. Still, the important thing is what Blizzard is doing with these items.
They are not simply another collection of stat sticks designed to be replaced the moment something with a slightly larger number drops. They give particular characters reasons to want particular pieces of equipment based on what they actually do outside combat.
That fits neatly with the broader profession overhaul. Forever is already adding recipe tracking, profession search tools and other quality-of-life improvements, while gathering and crafting are supposed to remain useful throughout the leveling journey rather than becoming something everyone remembers exists at level 60.
The Blacksmith Hammer Is Also a Weapon
The best example may be the Arcanite Blacksmith Hammer.
It is a throwing weapon with a chance to stun its target, but its tooltip also says that it functions as a Blacksmith Hammer. That means a Blacksmith carrying it no longer needs to dedicate another bag slot to the ordinary profession tool.
This is wonderfully mundane game design.
It does not increase your raid DPS by 14%. It does not introduce another upgrade currency. It simply means the Blacksmith can throw the hammer at something and then use the same hammer to make another hammer.
Warcraft has finally achieved technological perfection.
This Is Horizontal Progression, Classic Style
The larger idea is what makes these items interesting. WoW Forever is already changing enormous parts of original Azeroth, but Blizzard has repeatedly stressed that it wants progression to involve more than racing toward maximum player power. Professions, exploration, reputations, dungeons and the account-wide Legacy system all provide reasons to pursue things that are useful without necessarily making your Fireball larger.
Profession gear fits that philosophy almost perfectly.
It also makes old dungeons more interesting. A Miner may suddenly care about an item another player vendors immediately. A cook using a wand might keep Cookie’s Stirring Rod far longer than its combat stats would normally justify. A Blacksmith can pursue an item because it saves inventory space and happens to be useful in combat.
That creates the sort of strange personal loot stories Classic WoW was always rather good at producing.
More of This, Please
None of these items will define Forever on their own. Blizzard could remove, rebalance or change them before the beta ends, and profession bonuses are hardly as spectacular as opening an entirely new dungeon in the Wetlands.
But they are exactly the sort of detail Forever needs.
Azeroth becomes more interesting when loot can be valuable for reasons other than item level. If Blizzard keeps hiding profession tools, unusual utility and tiny conveniences inside dungeons and crafting recipes, players suddenly have reasons to chase objects rather than numbers.
And if nothing else, we now have a Blacksmith hammer specifically designed for throwing at people.
Twenty-two years of Warcraft development have not been wasted.
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