Leatherworking "Nerfed" in Patch 4.0.6

If you've been looking at rogue professions at all I'm sure you know that Leatherworking trumps all by a long shot. The Draconic Embossment - Agility leatherworker-only bracer enchant grants an astonishingly high 130 agility. The second best bracer enchant is 65 haste, and considering agility's high value, the difference between these two is huge. This means that either you roll Leatherworking, or you're playing sub-optimally. Luckily this will be changing soon because of a new enchants coming in 4.0.6.

Here's the quote from the 4.0.6 patch notes:

Three new bracer enchants are available. They increase Agility by 50, Strength by 50, or Intellect by 50 respectively. Item level 300 or higher required. These new recipes are rare world drops.

With a 50 agility enchant available the bonus from the Draconic Embossment will be much less. It will provide an additional 80 agility which is on par with most of the other crafting professions. Unfortunately the 50 agility enchant is a rare world drop which means it will take some time to enter the mainstream, and the mat cost will probably be quite high as well (if the mat cost for haste is any indication). So leatherworkers will still probably get another month or two of being top dog until the price goes down enough for 50 agility to be viable for the average joe.

The one thing I don't like here is that these new enchants are world drops. For enchanters this means it either drops, or you have to buy it for an exorbitant amount, and unless Jesus is your guild leader it isn't going to drop. I just hope that some of the crazier enchanters in my guild go out of their way to get it, because I'm certainly not going to pay whatever insane price that formula is going to be posted for on day one.

I'm hoping that the new bracer enchants work a bit like some of the old BC enchants. In BC there were a couple enchant formulas that dropped only from certain mobs. I distinctly remember farming for Formula: Enchant Weapon - Major Intellect which drops exclusively from Sunfury Researchers in Netherstorm. This allows the enchant to enter the market faster and takes some of the RNG out of the equation. I doubt this is what Blizzard means when they say "world drop", but a rogue can hope.

Either way, I'm happy to see the sideways nerf to Leatherworking. I don't think that any one profession should have such a clear lead over the others. This change allows rogues to choose which profession they want based on personal preference (as long as it isn't one of the gathering professions) instead of being pigeon-holed into one because it's the best from a min/maxxing standpoint.