Professions in MMOs like World of Warcraft: Dragonflight provide a slice of life experience to players, allowing them to take a breather from heavy-duty questing and instead focus on the more “fantasy living” aspects of the vast world of Azeroth. In the case of Cooking, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight players may be surprised that this Profession has become much tougher to level up because of the expansion’s revamped mechanics.
Considering how Cooking, like other Professions, now relies on exclusive recipes, players of the new World of Warcraft expansion need to be more tactical with regards to their leveling up approach. While it’s possible to casually level up Cooking during adventures, players who want access to some of the game’s best support and healing items may want a more intentional approach to their leveling up journey.
Cooking: The Basics
Cooking is one of the first Secondary Professions introduced in World of Warcraft gameplay, giving players the means to create various types of food consumables that can provide various benefits. Eating well can grant players with the Well-Fed buff that provides temporary stat boosts, making them an accessible source of game-changing buffs without having to rely on other Classes.
As with other similar games, Cooking requires not just a Recipe but also an assortment of Ingredients that range from meat, fish, and even spices. Fortunately, these Ingredients are fairly easy to acquire, provided players know where to look.
Enter Dragonflight: The Changes
As with other Professions in the game, Cooking was affected with the slate of feature changes that the Dragonflight expansion introduced. In a bid to make the Profession system more appealing and useful to players, some major changes in the feature include:
- Secondary Crafting Profession: Cooking is the only Secondary Crafting Profession in the game, meaning players can freely practice Cooking without costing them one of their main Profession slots.
- Crafting Orders: In the Dragon Isles, the Artisan’s Consortium allows players to ask others to craft (in this case, cook) things for them, provided the ones taking the job (not necessarily the players) have the right level of Cooking for the item needed. This system resembles a job board of sorts containing a Recipe request as well as the projected Commission cost. Players themselves can also create these items for other players.
- Artisan’s Mettle: An interesting reagent introduced in Dragonflight Professions is the Artisan’s Mettle, allowing players to “recraft” items for stronger stats. Cooking does not need this reagent.
- Quality Tiers: Depending on multiple factors, crafting items follow a Quality Tier system that better divides the overall functionality and benefit of these materials. Cooking does not follow this system.
- Profession Equipment: Unique to most professions are Profession Equipment that provide bonuses to crafting when worn. Since Cooking is a Secondary Profession, it has no Profession Equipment. Players can still retain bonuses by equipping one Tool and one Accessory, however.
Making Food And Making Dough With Cooking
Since Cooking offers a more casual experience for players who want a sense of “normalcy” in an adventurer’s busy life saving Azeroth, there’s a lot of temptation in the mastery of the Secondary Profession and even making money with it. Before players venture into these gameplay elements, they may want to consider what exactly they can make with Cooking and how these may affect their overall production and selling experience:
Selling Food: High Demand, High Sales
Given Cookings nature as the only Crafting Profession that doesn’t follow the revamped mechanics, there’s a lot more leeway with what players can create with the feature provided they have enough recipes. This lack of an extremely tailored progression experience can jumpstart a player’s selling journey fairly quickly. However, since commodities such as Food and Beverages are in demand for almost all kinds of raids, players who aim at making money with Cooking will likely meet al ot of competition in the Auction House. However, this also means many people will likely buy their goods for frequent raids.
Food Categories: A Buffet Of Selections
One of the most intriguing aspects of Cooking as a Secondary Profession in World of Warcraft gameplay would probably be the number of items players can create in their travels. Aside from the unique names and lore attached to dishes, even the categories of dishes players can produce from Cooking have a wide variety of effects. Here is a general overview:
- Desserts: While these don’t have practical use in terms of stats, they’re usually reserved for quests.
- Fish Dishes: Unique to Cooking are Fish Dishes made exclusively from aquatic life. Fish Dishes can be categorized as Simple Fish Dishes with one stat bonus, and Deluxe Fish Dishes that offer two stat bonuses.
- Regular Dish: Unlike Fish Dishes, various Regular Dishes available through Cooking have different benefits depending on what players decide to create. Aside from the traditional Health and Mana restoration, other dishes can provide specific stat buffs and other bonuses useful inside or outside of battle.
- Feasts: When it comes to buffing the entire group, party, or guild, Feasts are the go-to creations for chefs. These items can restore Health and Mana on top of various dishes for the entire party without having to provide a regular supply of dishes to everyone.
Leveling Up Cooking: The Gist
Fans of World of Warcraft gameplay who want to become the guild’s resident Master Chef may be interested in leveling up their Cooking as fast as possible. However, due to the revamped Professions system, players need to focus more on getting Knowledge Points and Renown in order to earn more complicated Recipes that could grant more EXP at higher rankings. In that regard, players may want to split the leveling process into two parts:
Cooking Level 1 To 50
When leveling up Cooking for the first 50 levels, players should be able to use most vendor-learned and trainer-learned Recipes available at their disposal. In that regard, players who want to fast-track their way to leveling Cooking 1 to 50 may want to acquire certain materials first and then spamming the cooking function in order to level up in one go.
Ingredients needed for these sets of levels are the following:
- Artisanal Berry Juice (17)
- Ribbed Mollusk Meat (17)
- Ohn’ahran Potato (20)
- Salt Deposit (36)
- Lava Beetle (36)
- Three-Cheese Brand (44)
- Basilisk Eggs (51)
- Conveniently Packaged Ingredients (84)
- Maybe Meat (106)
These Ingredients would then be used to create the following Recipes, which could then slowly level up the player up to 50:
- Cooking 5: Twice-Baked Potato (5)
- Cooking 23: Assorted Exotic Spices, Pebbled Rock Salts, Probably Protein (18)
- Cooking 35: Hopefully Healthy (12)
- Cooking 45: Delicious Dragon Spittle, Scrambled Basilisk Eggs (10)
- Cooking 50: Delicious Dragon Spittle, Scrambled Basilisk Eggs (7, Yellow and/or Green quality)
Cooking Level 51 to 100
Unfortunately, getting Cooking 100 from Cooking 50 can be a much trickier ordeal since players can’t easily overcook their way to EXP. Much of the higher-earning Recipes unlocked throughout these levels have unconventional Ingredients, meaning players should first prioritize acquiring recommended Recipes and then slowly building their way to getting the materials needed to cook them. It’s recommended players boost their Renown and Knowledge Points as much as possible in order to acquire these Recipes.
Here are some recommended paths to getting some useful Recipes:
- Renown 11, Iskaara Tuskarr: This unlocks “The Chieftain’s Duty” storyline, with the “Encroaching Heat” becoming one of the available quests. Completing this will allow players to earn one of four higher-level Deluxe Fish Dish recipes: Filet of Fangs, Salt-Baked Fishcake, Seamoth Surprise, and Timely Demise.
- Fishing, Draconic Recipe in a Bottle: Using this particular item also has the odds of acquiring the above four (4) Recipes. This time around, the Draconic Recipe in a Bottle can be caught repetitively, ensuring players are able to learn more than one of the above Dishes instead of just one from the quest.
- Auction House, Fated Fortune Card: Acquired from the Auction House, the Fated Fortune Card can spawn the Fated Fortune Cookie, which is a Common-rarity but tremendously-powerful healing spell.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight has been released in 2023 for the PC.