ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/The Inventor

Inventor/Crafter/Blacksmith, etc
Why not have an inventor/crafter profession, who can use crafting materials and make his/her own weapons, armor, and consummables.

Crafting an item could require common or rare materials, gold, and experience points (just as EoTN consummables currently do). There could also be a percentage chance of success, and/or a varying degree of effectiveness, depending on the attribute points of the crafter.

For comparison in other games:
 * in Morrowind, it's possible to enchant items with limited-use or permanent effects; these effects correspond to spells that can be learned; for instance, you can add a levitation effect to your shoes, or a life-stealing effect to your sword;
 * in Darklands, there was an alchemist profession; different potions could be made if the recipes were learned and the materials gathered; increasing levels corresponded to an increasing chance of success in creation; the most effective potions required very rare components;
 * in WoW, there's a number of skills and a large number of possible craftable objects -- alchemy, blacksmithing, cooking, enchanting, engineering, first aid, inscription, jewelcrafting, leatherworking, mining, poisons, tailoring...

Such a profession would add enormous depth, interest, variety to gameplay, but would also raise an enormous number of balance and economy issues.

Attributes

If I was to make the attributes for these guys in GW1 they would be:

Weapons Crafting | No inherent effect. Inventor skills that deal with damage and offense, this becomes more effective with higher Weapons Crafting.

Armor Crafting | No inherent effect. Inventor skills that deal with defense, this becomes more effective with higher Armor Crafting.

Item Crafting | No inherent effect. Inventor skills that deal with support, this becomes more effective with higher Item Crafting.

and some Cost Effiency or something for the Primary. | Something like this: +2% reduced cost of Weapons, Armor, or Item crafting for every rank. Inventor skills that makes things less pricey, this becomes more effective with higher Cost Effiency.


 * Why this is a good idea
 * Gives people something creative to do, whereas currently PvE is repetitive monster-killing.
 * Adds great richness and complexity to the game, including many more possibilities for strategies. Just consider the consummables currently used in GW1: transmogrifier potions, golem summoning stones, festive items, EoTN consummables, Istani food...
 * Adds a larger role-playing element to the game.


 * Why it may not work out
 * Balance issues.
 * It's difficult to make a crafter profession into something people would take into combat.
 * Some may like it as mechanics, but a profession for it? Don't see the point in that.