That being said I am still up in the air on Master of Anatomy, 5% crit is good, but I don’t know many class/specs that value crit as high as SP/AP/Str. I believe you get better stuff from the craftered items than 5% crit.

I think that crafting and such should become profitable. If there was actually a dynamic economy in game where one could make the gold they need by being a using crafting professions it opens up an entirely separate mini-game within the larger context of the game. Raiders are going to Raid regardless. Whether they also become craft masters or just gathers is a different matter.

I took a long break from wow, but I started playing in 2005. Back then the high end crafting was a pain and there really wasn’t a reason to be a BS if you wore plate, it was difficult to make anything decent to use while leveling.

Tailoring and Leatherworking were awesome for leveling though. As long as you fought the appropriate mobs you would get enough cloth or leather for your skillups. You may need to buy an item here or there, or farm for some item, but what you could make at level was usually pretty good (up until the 50s at least). End game there was viturally nothing that you could make that was better than the gear you got from running the instances and raids. Of course at that time the only epics you could get were from Molten Core, or ZG when that came out. They added in two cloth patterns for warlock/priests and one for warlock/mage. The Robe of the Void and the Robe of Winter’s Night(I believe the robe of winter’s night might be blue now, maybe it was then, been a long time)

Engineering had fun toys, but was used most for good bullets. The bullets you made could be turned in at IF for arrows.

The only character I routinely played at that time was an herb/alchemist. Raid buff flasks sold well, but in order to get those formulas you had to raid/run instances a lot. I still pretty much have scholomance memorized because I had to run it forever in order to get the major mana potion formula. I think the only flask I ever got was from the Grand Crusader in Stratholme. It was the resistance one, and it did not sell well at all. Oh and you had to be at an alchemy lab to make the flask(s). The only alchemy lab was in scholomance just before Ras Frostwhisper.

Now it seems that the crafts are more balanced than ever. Blacksmithing has/will have useful patterns to use. Same with leatherworking and tailoring. Engineering provides several quality of life improvements as well as an epic helm. All of the crafting professions provide something in the form of a permenant buff better than can be provided by another profession, and in most cases cheaper.

I do understand that some of your complaint is more that it is difficult to make money from certain professions, but there is plenty of money to be made from dailies. It is not hard to make money in this game at all between the dailies and one farming profession. If you want two crafting professions that’s fine, just expect to be spending money on them. If you’re upset about having to spend money on professions, well, then your complaint should be directed at the AH. Sadly unless you charge for your labor in game, you’re going to lose money (overall). Some people are ok with that. Happens in real life as well.