How would you improve professions in WoW?

Battle for Azeroth provides the developers with the opportunity to overhaul their game systems. Few systems need as much attention as professions. I thought some of the ideas for Legion had promise — the quest chains sounded good. Dedicated crafters would have access to exclusive recipes and be able to make their items with fewer materials.

In practice, tying progression to group content with a limited shelf life (Mythic 0 dungeons) proved a barrier. The quest chain seemed design for a world with a set zone progression path, yet Legion’s scaling allows for any zone order. Blood of Sargeras remained Bind on Pickup throughout the expansion. While acquisition methods exist for non-gatherers, I still find it far easier on my gatherer/crafters than on my crafter/crafters.

As we embark on the final tier of Legion raids, Alchemy, Enchanting and to a lesser degree Jewelcrafting remain viable and desirable professions. Gathering professions remain strong to fuel those three as well as a way to make gold. The other professions lag behind and this is a pattern repeated from previous expansions. I’ve always enjoyed professions, but I’ve all but abandoned them in Legion, even on my Jewelcrafter.

How can the developers improve professions for Battle for Azeroth? Is it better to have dedicated crafters, or allow people to max out professions never leaving Ironforge? How should group content (dungeons, raids, even PVP) factor in?  How self sufficient should a player be?

I’d gate the best recipes behind reputations. This still requires a level of dedication to current content, but removes the group content barrier. I’d consider borrowing the reverse engineering idea from SWTOR. This allows crafters to deconstruct items they make. Have the Blood of Sargeras equivalent drop from that process as well as from gathering.

What would you do to improve professions? How can a profession that doesn’t provide item enhancements come closer to the power level of Enchanting and Alchemy?