Shadowlands lets you customize crafted gear by adding optional reagents

If Battle for Azeroth promised to put the War back in Warcraft, then maybe Shadowlands will put the Craft back in Warcraft, because crafting professions are seeing some major revamps. One big change is the inclusion of optional materials, which changes the finished product being crafted, adding extra buffs or specific stats.

This is the most flexibility players have had while crafting, letting you customize what you make. Though we still have to see how this develops in the alpha, this may be the change that makes crafting professions relevant again.

How crafting will work in Shadowlands

When crafting an item, there are basic materials are required, just like crafting today. But beneath the usual materials in the crafting UI, there’s a section titled “Optional Reagents.” Here, players can select which extras they would like to add, which changes the crafted item produced.

There are three categories of changes you can make to a crafted item: Word of Power, Guaranteed Stat or Extra Socket, and Special Effects. But there are caveats to how you can use these extras:

• A crafted item may only have two categories added, never all three.
• An item may not have two of the same of the same category — for example, gear cannot have two Guaranteed Stats, nor may it have a Guaranteed Stat and an Extra Socket.

How optional reagents modify gear

Word of Power

Effect: Increases the item level of the crafted item.

Created by: Inscription, which will give the Inscription profession some boost, as Glyphs were not the most sought-after commodity in BfA.

Guaranteed Stat or Extra Socket

Effect: Ensures your stat of choice is on crafted gear or adds a socket.

Created by: Jewelcrafting, which could become a very lucrative profession in Shadowlands.

Caveats: Can only have one or the other, not both.

To add a secondary stat, the reagent added to the crafting process is the gem with the desired stat. These are already in Alpha, and include the well-known monikers Deadly Jewel Cluster for Crit, Masterful Jewel Cluster for Mastery, Quick Jewel Cluster for Haste, and Versatile Jewel Cluster for Versatility.

This change gives players control over the gear they create. No more creating twenty pairs of leather pants, hoping for one with Crit. Now, include a Deadly Jewel Cluster and be guaranteed that secondary stat. Then trash it when it also has Versatility, and try again, but know that next pair is also guaranteed to have Crit.

Special Effects

Effect: Varies

Created by: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, and Inscription are currently available in the alpha, though we expect other crafting professions will be added.

Caveats: Some can only be applied to certain slots.

The third category for the optional reagents are Special Effects. This will be the area that will require the most testing in alpha and beta, because there’s a wide range of possible effects.

While this isn’t a comprehensive list, here are of the more interesting examples:

• Blacksmithing: Slayer effects, which give bonus damage to certain types of creatures. Beast Slayer increases damage when fighting Beasts, and it can only be added to Helms and Bracers. Besides Beast Slayer, known Slayer Effects included Freak Slayer, Ghoul Slayer, and Man Slayer.
• Blacksmithing: Laestrite Spikes, which can only be added to belts. These will cause the wearer to sometimes deal additional Physical damage.
• Enchanting: Give an ability to make a Frost, Fire, or Physical attack, which can only be applied to shoulders.
• Alchemy: Occasionally increase the wearer’s primary stat, increase the duration of flasks, or increase the duration of the Well Fed buff. All of these can only be applied to cloaks.

You can check Wowhead for a list of every optional reagent effect that’s been datamined so far.

What about Legendary gear?

Another factor in all of this is Torghast and Legendary gear, which will be crafted. Blizzard has said we’ll collect Legendary reagents in Torghast, though we don’t know whether they’ll be used for crafting Legendaries or whether they’ll be optional reagents.

Either way, we may be able to choose the effects on the Legendary items we create for even more customization. With the crafting system and Torghast currently on alpha, we’ll begin to see how the Legendaries are customized.