Over this past weekend I got a chance to play around with the professions system in Neverwinter some. At level 11 you can start learning the professions. You don’t need to find a trainer or anything, all you do is press “N” and the menu opens right up.

This is the default menus for professions. As you can see the options are Leadership, Mailsmithing, Platesmithing, Tailoring, and Leatherworking. The first step for every profession is to hire someone who actually does the crafting for you. After you do that they will be listed in the bottom section under the “Profession Assets” Section. Also as you both level your character up and level your professions you will unlock more Task Squares. Eventually you will be able to have nine tasks going at the same time.

The next few screens show the process of hiring your first miner for Platesmithing.

The first task takes 5 seconds, but after that they start increasing durations. The longest duration I saw during the beta was two hours but I also did not get much past level 3 of crafting. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rare Tasks at higher levels had multiple day duration. You can also pay Astral Diamonds to finish any task immediately. Higher level tasks obviously cost more to finish immediately

Overall I am a big fan of this system. I really like being able to craft anywhere, and that I don’t have to stand around crafting because for me crafting is a side thing to do, not really a main aim for me in a MMO. The option to be able to go run a dungeon while crafting is a huge plus.