The Addition Of Proffesions Into Quests

Ever since the 1.20 update, there has been a lot of backlash regarding profffesions into quests, as of proffesion requirements and the proffesions themselves, some asked for this addition but many believe it was implemented extremely poorly, and now no one wants it, yet it's being kept, now, im not going to make another rant about how this should be removed entirely and and why proffesions should not be forced upon us as is already the case with tomes (which are also an incredibly poor addition), or suggestion about how it could be changed and reworked, but im rather gonna talk about how they were implemented into quests right now since no one has seemed to talk about it deeply yet, as of now there are only 4 quests that truly integrate proffesions, or 5 if you count aldorei's valley pt 1, but for the sake of keeping it simple im going to only talk about the quests that have true proffesion requirements, these being underwater, rise of the quartron, crop failure, and lastly shadow of the beast, so lets begin with the least offender out of the bunch:

Spoiler: - Underwater

It having a lvl 1 fishing requirement it shouldn't really count, but im still going to talk about it, the way profs are integrated into this quest is fairly simple, you just have to gather 10 grudgeon meat for sayrr, just as much fun as completing a gathering post, however is introduced well in the quest why sayrr needs you to collect the fish, so this one gets a pass for that, and the fact that it has a pretty much unnoticable requirement doesnt take anything away from it, and its by far an improvement over its 1.19, since now you dont have to walk all the way to the pigman ravines to get pigman meat and you no longer need to go all the way to the katoa ranch for a bucket of milk if you forgot about it, overall profs dont make this quest any worse, and even somewhat make it better.

Spoiler: - Shadow of the beast

Now, shadow of the beast, this is by far the quest with the most requirements, yet i dont think is as bad as the other two because of how profs are implemented into the quest, firstly, the woodcutting section, this one im not certain, i dont really mind it, and it makes a lot more sense for this part to have profs into it, since in 1.19 you had to kill log entities which gave out the logs, yet i dont think 20 wootcutting is not really necessary, this part might as well have any sort of wood, maybe it could be lowered, since you are only getting 20 lvls of woodcutting that you are never gonna use again to collect a pitiful 10 willow logs
Now to the mining section, this section to me was surprisingly good somewhat, since before you had to kill a gazillion nagas to get half a stack of cobblestone, but now you mine it yourself, but not only that but i like the creative way the resources you get are used, since before you just gave the guy the cobblestone and moved on, but now you gotta repair his roof too, i dont quite know why i liked this section but i did, however this is the only section where mining is used, maybe it could be used later on to open the bigfoot cave, maybe you could even make it so that the small pillar parkour requires profs and you having to get resources to raise platforms to get across, lots of missed potential here
And lastly the fishing section, this one im also very uncertain against, since before you only killed a single enemy and the task was gone but now you fish for salmon oil after an amazing cutscene of the beast actually rampaging buildings to heal a villagers wounds, pretty cool concept and i like the way is implemented, however i wish there were more steps in this, we just give them the salmon oil and thats the end of it, maybe it could be like we have to find like medicinal plants or something with a fun puzzle to make it more interesting, but as of now is just, gather 10 salmon, and thats it, overall the profs dont really take much of this quest and the rest was such a massive improvement the profs are easy to look over.

Spoiler: - Crop Failure

Now, i dont quite like Crop Failure, i dont find it particularly interesting, and the way profs are integrated in this quest are increadibly boring, but to give the ct the benefit of the doubt, i cant think of a single way to make gathering crops interesting, basically all you do is gather 3 oats but oh no they are rotten! as if we needed farming 20 just to check out some boring rotten crops, definitively not the best use of profs, but yet again, i dont see a single way to make this interesting, so maybe the req could be lowered to like 10, but at least it makes sense in the context of the quest, definitively makes it kinda worse since the requirement is so high for something so meaningless and the quest itself is literally gather 3 oats, talk to guy, kill slime, talk to guy, end, meh overall.

And lastly, the quest that takes the cake for the worst ''prof quest''- actually no it takes the entire pastry is:

Spoiler: Rise of the Quartron

Finally, Rise of the Quartron, now, let me get this out of the way, this as a quest, is absolutely fenomenal, the lari cameo, the larry joke, how the caves used in the quest in 1.19 were improved, a couple cool armor stand models and the quartron itself, but, as a prof quest, is absolutely horrendous and many people know this already, even tho it only has a lvl 15 requirement, this is such a fun quest that many will be driven away from due to this, but now to the part of how profs got integrated, they are not good, at all, basically, after you have done the entire quest, dealt with popo and dado and the quartron and everything else, nasea is like:
-''umm yeah dude that quartz killer mech factory sure is worrisome! but umm can you go dig up this random-ass gravel wall for me pls? i promise i pay you afterwards''
And thats it, the only part that proffesions are used in this quest is to dig a singular gravel wall because i definitively need it in all my classes if i want to completionist even if i dont wanna do profs, as many have said there are plenty of other ways to make profs in this quest work, such as mining quartz to convince popo to let us into the base since the way we convince him right now is incredibly stupid, mining the quartrons arms and legs to weaken its armor and then attack, and many other ways that arent quite as meaningless as ''please dude mine this gravel wall for me for absolutely no reason'', now, yet again i say the quest is amazing, but in terms of adding profs into it is the absolute worse, and really takes away from it since all of this missing potential, eitherway, thats all i have to say about this quest.

And that would cover all the quests with prof requirements, and once again i know there are other quests that use profs but i wanted to talk about the most meaningful to keep it simple, its already a long post, and if you have anything to add please feel free to post down below, thats all folks, see y'all next time

 

To quote myself:

 

I agree with this, however in this post im refering to the lacking way profs are being implemented into quests, there is a lot more missed potential that isnt being used at all, i like the idea of profs into quests but the execution of it we saw in this update was minimal at best, and god awful at worse as is the case with rise of the quartron, im alright if profs get eventually added into more quests, however the problem grows when they are implemented in such a terrible way, i dont want to have say a dwarves and doguns pt 1 with lvl 80 mining requirement if its only gonna be for opening one singular cave at the end of the quest after the bulk work is done to unlock a singular gathering spot, this is an exaggeration ofc but this is kinda the whole issue im presenting here, profs arent being used well in quests in the slightest

 

The only quest that has done profs well is the new aldorei’s secret. No lvl req, just use a hoe to get wheat seeds. No grinding, no hassle, makes sense, is cool to do. That’s how it should be. Not just tacked on at the end

 

Personally I'm fine with needing to get materials in quests as long as the profession requirements are removed, that way players who've done profs are rewarded by being able to quickly harvest them, while players who haven't will need to fork up some money or get them on another class. Underwater definitely does it best in this regard.

 

I think there are two separate ways to improve profs in quests:
instead of requiring a certain prof level to start the quest, just have an npc require that item. That doesnt sound different but if, for example, an NPC needs 20 koi oil, you can just buy some koi oil or gather it on another class.
or
Every quest that requires profs should have a gathering area for the appropriate prof, exactly like rise of the quartron. Even Underwater could unlock some small pond full of gungeon and trout that gives you +25% gxp while gathering. That way, it makes more sense to require prof levels.

Pretty much the only way to improve profs overall is just to make them easier to level. Because easier levelling is less grindy, and the fundamental concept of profs in this game is just grind, grind, grind. Which is deeply flawed, its both boring and takes too long.

 

I... have my own views on "profession quests". As has been stated above, the fundamental concept of professions is to grind. To sit in place and grind. So, should this mechanic, just clicking some rock for hours straight, be the core part of profession requirement quests? Would it make them better? In my opinion, no, it would not. All that matters here is the amount of boring grinding required. Previously, in Shadow of the Beast, you had to grind Nagas. Sure, grinding them is gone, but is the grind gone? No, it is not. In fact, in my opinion, it may have been made even worse and more boring. How the grind is presented doesn't matter to me, if in the end the quest experience is the same. Oh, you don't like grinding snake people? Let's turn them into trees, now everything is fine. The gameplay of these "profession quests" should most certainly not be just professions. That would only make them glorified miniquests. A crafting quest might be more interesting, but that isn't my main point now. I do not expect people to agree with me on this, but I just want to tell what I think.

Rise of the Quartron is the best profession requirement quest as a quest, it has the lowest profession level requirement (apart from level 1 reqs of course), it has the smallest amount of grinding inside the quest, and it even gives a coolant profession XP buff gathering area! I think it is the best profession requirement quest as a whole.

Then, there is another concept. Full profession quests. They still would not be glorified miniquests, but actual quests with profession requirements, profession focus and more. They would not be a part of the "main story" and could be kept separate from the non-profession quests. As can be guessed, they would have high-rewarding profession rewards, including profession XP, gathering XP buff areas, materials and ingredients. I think they are an interesting idea, and would make levelling professions far less tedious and give them more variety.

 

adding professions was probably the worst change wynn has ever made

making them required for other parts of the game should absolutely never happen

 

(ahem)
Aldorei's secret part 1

Anyway, I for one actually SUPPORT profession quests because I think it'd be a nice way to teach the player professions and help them grind in an enjoyable way. Despite this, I'm not a fan of how they have been integrated into quests thusfar.

I don't mind the integration into AS1 and UW because they are level 1 profs and there's a tool merchant closeby, and I love the changes they included in Shadow of the Beast. However, the other 2 have the profession requirements for one stage, just because they can. In the case of Crop Failure, it's a little stupid since you have to grind farming to 20 just for a thing at the start of the quest. It isn't too bad though. As for Rise of the Quartron, it's pretty much profession-locking a fun quest (WHICH FEATURES LARI BY THE WAY SO ITS IMPORTANT TO THE STORY) just because the CT member who designed the quest felt obliged to integrate mining somehow so just added a useless profession part at the end. Just make it a level 1 wall of gravel for god sake...

Profession quests, in my opinion, should be:

• In a separate page of the quest book so people don't feel obliged to grind the professions to play them
• Their own new quests, and not reworks of old ones
• Educational in things such as crafting
• Fun yet not relevant to the plot
• Made in a way where the rewards have very little combat XP and more profession XP

I think it would be great to have many profession quests because something I noticed on my Craftsman playthrough is that sometimes you need to grind every single profession up to your combat level so you can craft better things, which is incredibly tedious and boring. Profession quests are a step in the right direction, but their current integration is not.

 

I seriously think the mining wall thing could have just been a world event and not be integrated into a quest. You should get the Quartron's Eye and 768 Emeralds when you complete it, and then get the rest of the Emeralds when the World Event is completed.

 

My short take on this topic:
- professions in quests can be good
- requirements for starting the quest are always bad
- the professions in Rise of the Quartron are terrible since they are irrelevant to the quest and they just exist to open a grind area

 

the worst part about this is the trees you need to grind are across the ocean. snake people were at least nearby

 

olux literally has willow trees what

 

i believe they were referring to the oak and birch trees also required for the quest from the standpoint of a player who only does profs to do the quest

 

oh fair enough

 

Another thing to add, the proffesion requirement in RotQ is so bad that the gathering spot is actually blocked for older classes that have already done rise of the quartron (for me at least) so yeah, just remove the requirements in this quest and make the gathering spot optional so it doesnt bug out