A Reddit player discovered rare leather pants called Smelting Pants in the World of Warcraft: Forever beta — they cut smelting time for copper, tin, bronze and silver by 25%. Nothing like this existed in vanilla WoW, and for Forever it signals Blizzard is preparing drop items that support professions.

In the World of Warcraft: Forever beta, players found rare leather pants that speed up smelting of basic metals by a quarter. Vanilla WoW had nothing like it — the find shows Blizzard is preparing separate items that support professions in Forever.

What it's about

• A Reddit player posted screenshots of "Smelting Pants" in /r/classicwow. The exact drop source is still unknown — this is a rare find, not a recipe or reputation reward.
• The pants themselves give bonuses to Stamina and Spirit, but the main thing is they cut smelting time for copper, tin, bronze and silver by 25%.
• The original WoW had nothing similar: at best there were fishing rods and similar trinkets that raised the maximum skill level, but never the speed of the process itself.
• A similar mechanic exists in modern WoW — there, professional gear is crafted through the professions themselves. In Forever such items drop in the open world rather than being crafted through professions — the drop source is still unknown.
• Reactions in the thread were joyful and ironic. MaleficentBank405 — "Fantastic pants", LeWigre — "I love this kind of stuff — not everything has to improve your character", HighWalker321 — "hot pants".

The item itself remains a mystery: where it comes from, how often it drops and whether something similar will appear for other professions — Blizzard has not stated a position on this item as of publication.