A nasty exploit in the crafting of World of Warcraft has catastrophic consequences. The entire crafting system could be ruined.
Even though gold has become increasingly available in World of Warcraft over the last 20 years, it still plays a significant role. Those who possess a lot of gold can buy numerous rewards or even shape the economy of an entire realm as an “Auction House mogul”. An exploit involving professions has made some characters incredibly wealthy – at least until Blizzard intervenes.
What kind of exploit is it? The exploit concerns profession knowledge. Profession knowledge actually has a weekly maximum that can be earned, so that the professions remain interesting and attractive throughout the lifespan of Midnight. However, some in the community have found an exploit to earn additional profession knowledge beyond this maximum. We’re talking about 50, 60, or even more points. This allows players to significantly expand their professions and simultaneously specialize in several areas, up to the maximum.
Almost unlimited profession knowledge leads to a lot of gold
What is the consequence of this exploit? The impact of the exploit is quite serious. Some players have already significantly improved a good portion of their profession specializations to the maximum, allowing them to create the best weapons or best potions (often several different ones), even though that should only have been possible in several weeks.
The consequence: Those who have pushed their professions to the maximum are currently making a fortune, as they can produce the most sought-after equipment in the game, for which many others are willing to pay hundreds of thousands or even millions of gold. A financial gold advantage that is granting these players wealth that is likely to last for many years.
Should one do this? No. Even though this is clearly an error by Blizzard, exploiting such a bug is something that has been punished repeatedly in the past. Often, accounts were suspended for a period of time, sometimes for several weeks. For accounts that have shown misconduct in the past, the suspension can be even longer.
We do not explain the exact exploit here and strongly advise against attempting it if you do not want to jeopardize your WoW account. As of now, it seems that the bug was also fixed last night – but the corresponding characters still have the profession knowledge.
How great the damage to the WoW economy will be remains to be seen. However, a look into the trade channel shows that there are a number of players who are currently shamelessly profiting from this exploit and can expect soon that they won’t be able to play WoW for a while. Instead, you might as well gather gold – the honest way.
