I honestly do not know what to expect with the crafting professions, but I was wondering if there will be gathering ones too instead of farming monsters for cloth or ore to make your armors. And if there are going to be professions like this, would they be class specific or would you be able to learn all of them at the same time? Or even be limited to which ones you can learn based on level or realm you choose to be in?
In WoW, when I think of professions, I think of blacksmithing, tailoring, leatherworking, and alchemy. Blacksmithing requires mining to get your materials. Tailoring only needs cloth dropped from almost any monster that is Humanoid or undead. Leatherworking is from skinning dead animals. And alchemy is from gathering herbs.
Here's what I think professions should be like if not already. (Keep in mind this is coming form someone who <3 WoW)
Blacksmithing - You will mine your materials and go to any major city with a furnace and anvil, this is where you will be doing all your basic crafting, for more advanced crafting you would need multiple items from other professions to make the "High End" gear that everyone is dying for. (Sometimes literally)
Leatherworking - You skin the pelts of dead animals and turn them into armor, this could be done anywheer or at a specific stall for leatherworking. You can even go as far to add a tanner that would tan the hides into something you can use.
Tailoring - This could be a tricky one because it doesn't REQUIRE another profession to make any of the stuff... except maybe the "High-end" gear. All the materials you would ever need can be sold by a vendor or dropped by monsters.
Alchemy - This is where the main supply of potions and other things that minorly boost your stats to aid in combat would come from. You would need herb gathering to get the materials to amke these potions and as your progress the chain, the potions get better and better, and there would be some where only the one who made the potion can use them. AND even better >.> the Alchemist whould be able to turn things into gold.... LOL It would have a 10 minute cooldown timer, and the item you choose would be doubled in price and converted into gold which would be the currency. This would give a nice benefit than just having the ability to make potions
Now for the gathering professions...
Mining - Randomly around the maps of the world, there would be nodes that you can mine and they give you the ores. In starting zones lets say the first ore is copper/tin you would smelt those together to get bronze which would be the first tier of blacksmithing. Second tier would be Iron, then Mythril, and other materials which I don't want to take 100% from WoW but yea... having these nodes spread throught the map at all times not on a timer or anything... ( theres 250 nodes but only 75 are active all the time. When one is mined, another spawns in a different location.)
Skinning - When you kill a monster that is an animal or resembles an animal, you would skin it for the pelt, possibly take it to a tanner have it tanned for a small fee then you can use it in your leatherworking profession.
Herb Gathering (Herbalism to those other WoW fans) - Same as mining there would be nodes spread all around the map but only a certain number would be up at any given time. As your knowledge of the herbs grows, the more difficult ones like a cactus or something would become available to be picked.
For ALL the gathering professions, there should be at least a monster near by so you cannot just run in there care free and take the ore/herb.