Warlords Alpha-Mining Reveals Expansion Materials

by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Datamining efforts by Wowhead have revealed many of the raw profession materials coming in the expansion, in addition to some more specific changes to existing professions beyond what we covered from the patch notes last week. Read on to see what’s in store. First of all, however… DATAMINING DISCLAIMER: Please note that any and all information acquired through datamining is subject to change. Just because something is in the files doesn’t mean it’ll ever be implemented in the game. And anything implemented currently is not permanent until the game itself is released.

Herbalism

Herbs in Draenor seem to be much more zone-delimited than in past expansions, with each herb pointing to a particular zone.

• Starflower grows in Shadowmoon Valley.
• Frostweed and Fireweed grow in different locations within Frostfire Ridge.
• Gorgrond Flytrap, Talador Orchid, and Nagrand Arrowbloom name where they’re from.
• Chameleon Lotus is different in that it may not have a unique model on the ground; it just might turn out that a normal herb pick produces a Lotus instead.
• Essence of the Shapers may be the new Spirits of Harmony for this expansion. Note that at this stage in datamining for Mists of Pandaria, there were a bunch of different elemental spirits, and Spirits of Harmony weren’t implemented until much later.

I think it’s notable that there’s no super-common herb found in all zones (a la Green Tea Leaf or Felweed), and also that there are no herbs specific to Tanaan Jungle or Spires of Arak. In addition to the new Draenor herbs, petal versions of all the herbs from prior expansions have also been included, allowing characters to herb at any skill level and get a partial herb instead of a complete one. This is exactly how Herbalism works on Pandaria if your skill is less than 525, but now it applies to all herbs everywhere. Last bit on herbs? All of the new Draenor herbs stack to 200. This doesn’t seem to be retroactive to pre-WoD herbs, but it DOES apply to all of the petal versions of pre-WoD herbs. Given prior statements by Blizzard, it seems likely that all herbs will stack to 200, and it just hasn’t been applied to everything yet.

Mining/Blacksmithing

The common ore for Draenor is True Iron, while the uncommon ore is Blackrock Ore. There are also mentions of Draenic Steel, as well as crucibles that play a role in converting metals from one type to another. In addition, just like herb petals, ore nuggets for all prior-expansion minerals have been added. And the new ores/nuggets all stack to 200 as well. And apparently you can refine meteorites? The part where either a blacksmith OR a miner can do it is interesting.

Skinning/Leatherworking

The basic leather appears to be the wholly-uninspired Native Beast Hide, with accompanying scraps. Starglazed Leather appears to be the new Magnificent Hide, while Stitched Starglazed Leather is a refinement above that. Everything stacks to 200. I get the vivid sense that people are going to be getting a LOT of room in their banks from these changes.

Enchanting

The new dust is Draenic Dust, the new essence is Blackfire Essence, and the new shard is Rune Shard. No indication yet what the new crystal will be. It’s also interesting to note that there don’t appear to be lesser versions of the essences or shards; either they haven’t been implemented, or they’re just planning to have dust <-> essence <-> shard <-> crystal refinement be the only method in WoD. Strangely, the dust and shards both stack to 500, but the essence only stacks to 10. It’s probably just a fluke. Meanwhile, the past statements that item customization had gone a little overboard seem to have taken root; now the only item slots that can be enchanted are weapons, rings, cloaks, and necks. Ring enchants are no longer limited to the enchanter. It also appears that there are no off-hand enchants. Weapon enchants look very incomplete, but in terms of everything else, it seems like each ring/neck/cloak slot has got one weaker enchant (“Breath of…”) and one stronger enchant (“Gift of…”) for each of the secondary stats: Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, Multistrike, Readiness, Spirit, and Armor.

More Info Coming Soon

As of the current build, there doesn’t seem to be a new cloth implemented, meaning there’s nothing to report about Tailoring or First Aid. However, there is some notable information about Fishing, Alchemy, Cooking, and Archaeology, which we’ll cover in our next installment.