Crafting Woes in Cataclysm.

So, apparently Blizzard decided to "improve" the crafting experience in World of Warcraft. I read about it while the beta was live and remember being sort of excited. But today I had to look it up because whatever this "improvement" was, I wasn't seeing it in the crafting that I did yesterday.

I smelted over 700 ore, then folded over 120 Obsidium Bars, crafted up to 480 skill level (maybe more), then ran out of resources. At this point the only "special" material I needed was a handful of Volatile Earth, which I seem to have a lot of. So, I was thinking afterward, what was this "improvement" that I was supposed to experience?

So today I googled it up and read that items would be crafted with random stats.

Say what?

I don't know what I was thinking when I first heard about these "improvements", but I remember being excited. Is this what I was excited about? Was I so thirsty for something new that this was all I needed? Random stats on greens?

Maybe this works out better in the blue and purple range, makes it easier to profit a little on the auction house. But on the other hand, doesn't this potentially make things worse?

First, no one cares about the green stuff. Maybe you can use some of it, but it's only going to last a few hours, a couple of days max, before you replace your crafted green item with a leveling reward. The blues might last a little longer. But really, the only people who care about greens and most blues, are enchanters who need to destroy special items for their own materials. Stats don't mean anything to them.

So, then we get to the epics, the mighty purples. Have you ever crafted an epic item? It's tedious. You need a LOT of materials that you have to grind out or buy from the auction house. If you are only in need of one of those epic, crafted items for yourself, it will still be costly. Especially if you need items that are soulbound and only found in dungeons. A few five mans might be ok, but what if your item only drops in raids?

"If you aren't raiding, then you don't need the it!", whatever.

So, let's pretend you finally get all the mats you need. You are a warrior. You want an epic crafted shield or sword or whatever. You find a forge, double check that you have everything you need for your one item, watch the bar...and your item comes out with int on it.

*sigh*

So, I'm not really looking forward to living out my own nightmare, but that's what I see coming down the line.

And what is up with this extra crafting material? Folded Obsidium? Are you kidding me? Blizzard actually wants me to work harder (waste more time) on my crafting by making me add an extra step to the process and force me to gather more low-level ores than I ever have before? Sure, it appears that we no longer need to put ten elemetal items together to form a super element, but by adding this other extra step, they haven't improved anything at all.

And by making it possible for me to waste my high-level mats on an item with random stats that I don't actually want just seems sadistic.

I don't know, maybe the random stats are just numbers and not individual things like def vs. spirit. I didn't look at any of the items that I sold yesterday, so I'll have to try and remember to look next time I blow a load of ore.

I've never really liked crafting Warcraft. Only it's promise. I wish I could quit it.