What to change....
Blacksmithing is the greatest waste of time, money, and effort known to mankind. (I'm currently 287) 'Smiths can create almost no items that are better than regular drops at any given level.. And NO items that better can't be bought at the Auction House for less than it costs you to make it. The polearm "Blight" is about the only thing I can make money on, and even then not much, and only if I take hours away from gameplay to mine materials. Besides that, Mithril Spurs, Shield Spikes, Weapon chains are about it. The real good stuff is absolutely INSANE to have to make: You MUST do an instance run and kill a Boss to get to the Forge to even smelt Dark Iron ore into useable bars. It is the ONLY forge in the game where you can create Dark Iron bars, so you MUST do that instance run every time you need to make these items. And if that weren't enough, it takes EIGHT pieces of ore to make ONE bar, and 18 bars to make even the smallest item I have (a Blue hammer). That's 144 pieces of a rare ore that must be mined and carried around (plus 5 Hearts of Fire), in order to make one hammer which is quite nice, but not as nice as other things that are available at that level. Same with getting Arcanite - It takes weeks and LOTS of help to accumulate enough Arcanite to create a sword. A sword which, like almost everything else a 'Smith can make, is only somewhat decent for it's level.
I just thank myself for not being dumb enough to go Armorsmith... They have it 4X as hard just to get the title, and still have the exact same issues.
So Blacksmithing needs fixed - Being able to repair your own gear, and later on to make repairs on party gear would go a long way towards making 'Smithing worthwhile. Allowing Blacksmith~able items like spurs, counterweights, spikes, and weapon chains, to stack with magical enchantments would also go a long way. That way someone doesn't have to choose between Spurs and a STA/AGI enchantment, or they can install a chain on their precious glowing weap. More recipes for items
that are actually Desirable, would complete the picture. For example - I would LOVE to be able to make some GOOD (high Green and Blue) knives. There simply aren't enough of them in the game for Rogues, and allowing a 'Smith to provide that would go a long way towards helping two classes.
My Warr took it in the shorts on 'smithing, so my Druid alt is purely a gatherer, because I've found that I always end up buying what I need anyways, unless it's a ques reward or a lucky drop. This way both my major trades (Mining and Herbalism) are pure money makers. I went Mining and Herbal because there are LOTS of people doing leather, plus good items already in the game, and so the value of it is not what the other two are. On my server Ore and Herbs still sell quickly and at a good profit.
New Warrior Skill -
"Drinking Problem" Shortens the potion timer by one second per rank. (ony half a joke...)
Warriors could really, really use better Rage generation
(supposedly being worked on), and *either* a small %~age boost to damage, *or* a small %~age boost to Hit Points, *or* a small %~age bonus to Armor Class. There's some other near-useless tricks (like Thunder Clap), I could talk about, but they'd probably be meaningless unless you've spent time with the class. And then I wouldn't need to mention them.
Anyways - IMHO, a small boost to Warr stats would let them better fill their intended Tanking role without changing Blizzard's intent for the Character or unbalancing the game.
There... A book for you guys to ridicule....
Kel