One of the biggest problems with crafting, other than materials, is keeping people pushing for max level and making them useful for each class. There have been many talks about class specific tradeskills, i.e. Alchemy for Shamans, poision making for rogues, etc and how we could push for other tradeskills based on other classes. I have a different idea, or atleast another take on the same idea we've all had.
What if tradeskills, atleast high end tradeskills, had some sort of crit chance or even success chance based on a certian stat. For example, anyone can be a blacksmith, mine your ore, fire up your forge and start pounding away at the steel. However if you wanted to be an elite blacksmith or have a chance for the crafted piece to have better stats or even a special trait then you would need to have a STR of 100. What this does is it makes the tradeskill more beneficial for certian classes, warrior, crusader, tank like classes who are more gear dependant but it doesn't limit that rogue that wants to make his own daggers while leveling up. You could even make it feasable to get the required STR by any class, buffs, potions, duration based quest rewards but then the primary STR classes have a leg up in this one tradeskill. Each tradeskill could have a specific stat or multiple stats that it's success rate and crit rate are based off of. Want to be an elite Jewelcrafter better make sure your CHA and INT are buffed up some or you'll need to go looking for certian items your class can wear that will give those stats.
You could even have tradeskill pieces that you get from questing or from leveling up the tradeskills. Once your cooking gets high enough you get a quest for a "copper infused spiritual pan" that gives you +10% chance to crit on your cooking and such.
Everyone knows that tradeskills are a big part of MMOs and keeping them relevant and not just for the super wealthy is a problem that every MMO has suffered from.
What stats would you like to see specific tradeskills based off of?
Blacksmith - STR
Fletching - AGI/DEX
Jewelcrafting - INT/CHA
Leatherworking - AGI
Tailoring - WIS/INT
Poisonmaking -Rogue only - DEX component
Just a thought,
Baldoluri of Vallon Zek