WoW Petopia Community

As posted here, on the EU WoW forums. Curious as to what my fellow pet-lovers make of this! I have had this idea banging around in my head for a long time, so today I decided to flesh it out thoroughly. I think I've covered it all, as succinctly as possible. I figured it would be nice, as Mining has both Eng and BS used from it, Herbalism has both Inscription and Alchemy, but Skinning only has Leatherworking--plus the minipet/mount concept is only covered, currently (mostly) by in-game vendors rather than players. I like the idea of adding some immersion to it.

Without any further ado:

* * * * *

[Suggestion] Trapping: New Crafting Profession


I. What is this profession all about? (Overview)
II. What is the supporting profession?
III. What and how does this profession craft?
IV. What bonuses would this profession give to its users? / What is unique about this profession?
V. Why would this profession be a good addition to the game?
VI. Concerns: (Will be kept updated)


I. What is this profession all about? (Overview)

Trapping is about capturing critters and beasts to create minipets, guardians and mounts for the player and his allies.

II. What is the supporting profession?

Skinning. Skinned leather would be used to make collars, leashes, harnesses, saddles etc, which when combined with captured critters and beasts would create the final product.

III. What and how does this profession craft?

This profession would use leather from Skinning to trap, capture and subdue critters and beasts as Guardians, minipets and mounts. Critters would now be a tracking option on the minimap for Trappers, and many of the critters could be collected as profession materials (using the bag icon rather than the kill one, although by using an offensive ability, a Trapper could still kill critters). Captured critters would stack to 20, and be used in the crafting window along with leather-made materials to create the final product.

For example, 2 Light Leather might create a Light Leather Collar. Using this on a captured Spiny Lizard would create a Spiny Lizard Collar, a tradeable white-quality minipet Warp Stalker. Many critters would be trappable in this fashion, and all would be Bind on Use. Another possible addition could be actual Traps, made with higher quantities of materials and including metal bars; when laid, and checked later, these could have a chance of containing an Uncommon or even rare-quality Trapper-created minipet.

The Guardian creatures would be Trapper-only. At low levels, they would serve as battle assistants, and at higher levels, as non-attackable buff sources for the Trapper. To create a Guardian, items could be made with the Trapping profession which, when used on certain (specified) beasts, make the wild beast disappear and the new item appear in the player's bags. These Guardians would not be controllable, would have specific buffs and/or abilities and fairly short durations. They would, at end-game, boost the player's DPS, HPS or survivability or enhance his PvP capabilities depending on which Guardian is used. Higher-quality end-game Guardians would be reusable, with a cooldown.

At various points in the profession, Saddles, Reins or Bridles could be crafted to capture unique beasts as mounts. Early on, the plainer-looking (but still unique) beasts would be useable; later, the profession would have one or two Trapper-only mounts (BoE, like the Flying Carpet) and several tradeable ones. For lower levels, Basilisk mounts would be interesting--they would be unique, not too flashy and would not be associated with either faction specifically. Later on, Devilsaur, Warp Stalker and even Thunder Lizard mounts would be possibilities--even, perhaps, Pterrodax flying mounts!

IV. What bonuses would this profession give to its users? / What is unique about this profession?

* For the Trapper only, Guardian beasts would be summonable for a short time to assist the player. Non-controllable combat guardians (think of the Scarlet Tracking Hound) available for five minutes, for example, could be summoned to protect the player in combat. Later in the game, Guardians that buff heals given or taken, damage output and so on (through any variety of mechanics) would make the profession competitive with others for endgame content, mathematically. Selling the BoE minipets and mounts would ensure a decent income for those with this profession.

Other possibilities for Guardian creature buffs:
* Black Cat: boosts the player's Stealth Detection for ten minutes.
* Gazelle: boosts the player's Run Speed by 10% for ten minutes.
* Soaring Eagle: switch to the Eagle's view to get a look at your area from above! Creature lasts 5 minutes.
* White Cobra: increases the player's Critical Strike chance by 5% for five minutes.
* Monkey Assistant: this monkey sometimes practices his nursing skills, healing the player for 10% of his maximum health. Lasts 10 minutes.

There are hundreds of possibilities; be creative!

V. Why would this profession be a good addition to the game?

* Skinning would have another crafting profession associated with it.
* Animal lovers would be further attracted to the game.
* More variation in mounts and minipets.
* Many creatures are already modeled as mounts (for example the Warp Stalker) and all are already in the game, so minimal art work would need to be done to add the actual finished products.

VI. Concerns:
(Will be kept updated)

* Wouldn't this devalue already-existing minipets of the same model?!
Only specific minipets could be created, using the Trapping crafting window. There are enough critters in WoW that Trapping should be able to make plenty of minipets without worrying about overlapping with existing ones.

* This sounds too much like taming beasts; why not just roll a hunter?
Hunters have beasts that are controllable. Trappers will have minipets and buffing pets, as well as mounts. The concepts both include using wild beasts, but beyond that are quite different in mechanics.

* * * * *

Thoughts?

Why would a monkey have nursing skills? o.o

Well, nursing skills or "First Aid"--but I had in mind those assistant monkeys that help the disabled. It is probably rather obscure O.o

Edit: eh, stupid Phone double posted. >_<

I'd definitely love it if blizz caught up on that suggestion. That would indeed give skinning a nice option.
Yay for your creativity! <3

I'm not really that into this idea. We have more mounts and minipets already, and guardians are a mostly JC mechanic. The profession would be superfluous.

This would be an awesome profession! I'd give up Leatherworking on my main for it!

However, i doubt it would be implemented. Too many people would complain about a profession whose primary purpose was creating vanity items, saying it was "unfair" if they had access to mounts and minipets that others didn't, dispite the fact that other professions can do this already (Engineering, Tailoring, and now Alchemy and Enchanting). Armour crafters would probably complain the most, despite the fact they're already selling epic crafted items on the AH for crazy amounts of gold.

But yeah, the QQ-ing would probably prevent something like this from ever being implemented. That's too bad, IMO.

Maybe, however, some aspects of this profession could be worked into Leatherworking. That could work.

It sounds basicly like hunting in Runescpae O.o I think some of these ideas would better suit leatherworking more than a all new prof

I really don't see this being in line with current professions. Other than flooding the ah with pets I see nothing to be gained from this.

Ralanost wrote:I really don't see this being in line with current professions. Other than flooding the ah with pets I see nothing to be gained from this.

Aye, exactly my feelings.

I think it's a sweet idea, though I'm not overly keen on it. If it were implemented I'd probably get it on my alt. All professions have some sort of use (gathering or raid use), eg being able to craft or create items, give better benefits, so on and so forth. This sort of profession seems just like a "minipet" version of Arch, if you know what I mean? Perhaps if it was added in as yet another secondary profession but if they add in anything as painful to level as Arch again I'm going to die.

SO YES. Cute idea, and if added I'd probably use it, but I'm not overly keen. I'd rather mounts and minipets just be added as drops or craftables or something < 3

The "benefit" would be the buffing-guardians idea--same as the jc/lw/bs/inscription etc buffs end-game, just different cosmetically (as are they all).

One of the reasons I thought of this is that all gathering profs have 2 crafting profs that benefit, except Skinning.

The other reason is that the whole mounts/minipets things is completely underdone, imo. No, I don't mean there's not enough--I mean, there's huge potential for lore and player involvement with them, but instead, all you do is "find" them. I think it's sad that there isn't a way to capture & train mounts and sell them, as a player, and I'd still love to see this sort of thing implemented--but it's opinion, ofc.

Acherontia wrote:One of the reasons I thought of this is that all gathering profs have 2 crafting profs that benefit, except Skinning.

I have to correct you there and say Mining has 3 gathering professions: Blacksmithing, Engineering, and Jewelcrafting. I figured I'd add that because Jewelcrafing wasn't mentioned in the opening post or here.

Acherontia wrote:The other reason is that the whole mounts/minipets things is completely underdone, imo. No, I don't mean there's not enough--I mean, there's huge potential for lore and player involvement with them, but instead, all you do is "find" them. I think it's sad that there isn't a way to capture & train mounts and sell them, as a player, and I'd still love to see this sort of thing implemented--but it's opinion, ofc.

I think this profession idea is a no go. The main reason for this is because Blizzard seems content to have mini-pets and mounts remain as drops, faction rewards, quest completions, and various miscellaneous sources such as profession specific pets/mounts.

The other problem is that this profession offers little in the way of adding to a character's gear progression. Essentially, that would make it purely a vanity profession, something we don't have in WoW currently.

Anyways, I don't see the need to add professions just to give Skinning something more to feed than Leatherworking. I think Skinning has plenty of demand as it stands now since Leatherworking requires so many mats per combine, especially when you factor in that you have to hunt and kill skinnable mobs (or find a hot spot where they're being killed regularly and hope they're being fully looted). Mining and Herbalism don't have the kill requirement, you just have to patrol routes for nodes and click. It may be more specialized, but that alone isn't reason enough to give it another profession to feed.

While I'd love it, I suspect Blizzard would never go for it. Mounts and minipets are a huge carrot-and-stick in this game, and they control their release fairly tightly. I think Blizzard would see this as giving up too much control over something that they can use to have huge influence for little extra effort.

This idea sounds interesting, I'm not sure that Bliz would go for it but it would be cool non the less.

It could be changed slightly to include some more "gear" related options, if people would want them, like things you trap might have a list of items that they could drop or leave in the cage. This would add a bit more chance into the mix, and present the possibility of adding items that might be like battle elixirs or enchants for the "Trapper". Triggered traps might have a small chance to contain a live animal or a larger chance of select items that critters in the area might leave behind. Like "Lucky Rabbits Paw" might be a battle elixir and could be "used" to present a buff or even a proc for a period of time. This might require a "Rabbits Paw" form a cage drop and leather for a strap. While something like "Tiger Claw" would act like a chest enchant that would add crit either permanently or on a timed duration. This would also stop some of the more... silly relations with items, like having x number of critters in a bag or stack, making a Pet "_" use more than one animal (10 squirrels to make 1 pet squirrel o.O) or a high failure chance to even things out.

I do like the idea of Guardians with "emergency" buffs. Op, no one has a crit buff? Well if you have a trapper they could bring out a Guardian with a lighter form of that buff say 3% instead of the normal 5% to help out for the instance, or if it will only last for x minutes or seconds make it the full buff. This would make them helpful in instances and give a little umf to the profession with out making them a "must have".

This could also bring about possible way to buff pet classes by making items like enchants or temporary buffs for the pet themselves. Making collars, leashes, harnesses, fetishes, or straps for differing class pets. You want your felpuppy to have a bit more crit? Give him a "Crit Fetish" and he can. Your Water elemental could use a little more health? Use a "Band of Health" for that. Your Silithid could use some more resilience? Try a collar for that. This would give a very nice crafting aspect to the profession that would be in high demand from several classes as apposed to all or just one, like ammunition was before when only hunters would need or buy it.

Anyway, just my two cents. Like the idea, but I think it could be fleshed out a little more for "end game" so it wouldn't be written off as seeming to "casual".

Rarako wrote: This could also bring about possible way to buff pet classes by making items like enchants or temporary buffs for the pet themselves. Making collars, leashes, harnesses, fetishes, or straps for differing class pets. You want your felpuppy to have a bit more crit? Give him a "Crit Fetish" and he can. Your Water elemental could use a little more health? Use a "Band of Health" for that. Your Silithid could use some more resilience? Try a collar for that. This would give a very nice crafting aspect to the profession that would be in high demand from several classes as apposed to all or just one, like ammunition was before when only hunters would need or buy it.

That is a very cool addition!

Acherontia wrote:That is a very cool addition!

Haha! Thought you might like that.

If this proposed profession did as you suggest, the game would have to be balanced around it, and would remove any possbility we might have of option to take, say Engineering as a profession to raid with. Without these buffs you'd want to add, a hunter (or any other class, really) would be considered "gimped."

There's "useful in end-game," and then there's "too useful, to the exclusion of most if not all other professions."

Furthermore, there's not much point in making a profession replicate class buffs when that's the special ability that Blizzard's given hunter pets.

Err, actually it would be the same (as stated) to all other end-game buffs. The crafting professions all have mathematically the same buffs as one another, as Blizz wanted to ensure exactly that (one profession being "necessary") didn't happen