Blizzard has made it clear that Professions are a big focus for them in World of Warcraft: Forever, and while we’ve seen many new recipes for crafting Professions, they’re not the only new additions. Along with these new recipes, they have also introduced new gathering materials, and some of these are labeled as “Scarce”. Let’s have a look at what that means.
All Gathering Professions Have Scarce Materials
In short, a Scarce gathering material is an item that is more rare than other materials. They don’t have their own nodes (or a specific type of mob that they are skinned from), but instead you have a chance to also loot Scarce materials when gathering from nodes or by skinning.
So far on the beta, these Scarce materials have been discovered:
- Pyrite, from Mining.
- Frilled Lichen, from Herbalism.
- Pristine Leather, from Skinning.
What Are They Used For?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, these Scarce materials are all reagents for new recipes for other professions. The most straightforward one is Frilled Lichen, which is currently only used in one Enchanting recipe called Enchant Weapon – Insight, which has a chance of increasing Spirit by 100% for 10 seconds when you cast a spell, and one Alchemy recipe called Cerulean Dye. This dye, however, is used in a LOT of Tailoring recipes (and also some Enchanting ones).
Pyrite is also used in many crafting recipes, and perhaps surprisingly in some Tailoring recipes. One example is the Shining Boots that give +4 Stamina, +3 Intellect, and increases damage done by Holy spells and effect by up to 6.
And Pristine Leather is used in, you guessed it, Leatherworking recipes. Similar to Pyrite however, it is also used in Blacksmithing and Tailoring recipes. One Leatherworking example is the Brawler’s Leather Hood, which gives +8 Agility and +10 Stamina.
The Future of Scarce Materials
While players have already found uses for Frilled Lichen in Tailoring Recipes at skill level 260, there is also the question of more Scarce materials at higher levels. Bauxite and Pitchblende are Scarce materials that have been found in the data for Mining, so there’s a good chance we will see more rare materials for both Herbalism and Skinning.
For now we will have to wait and see, and continue to farm every single node we see for a chance to gather more Frilled Lichen.
