Blizzard Trader Stupidity

Blizzard Trader Stupidity

Yes, this is a rant. Each day a Trader is assigned to random garrisons. There are many different Traders, each one carrying different items. Not only are the garrisons that get a Trader random, the type of Trader that is sent is also random. That all by itself is a lousy way to trade.

 All of the garrisons that don't get a visit by the Trader are out of luck, and even if a Trader shows up, the odds are the Trader won't have what is needed.

A lot of the trade goods carried by Traders are routine items that can be acquired in other ways. In fact, most Traders DON'T CARRY RECIPES! Only a very few carry them, and those recipes can ONLY BE ACQUIRED from that very small sub-group of Traders.

There is a Trader rotation that changes each day - Ore based goods, then Dust based goods, then Cloth, then Leather, and then Herbs. All essential profession recipes fall into one of those categories.
Let's take a real example of just how screwed up this is. JB dutifully raised her Alchemy profession to max level 700. She still needs the recipes held hostage by the Traders. I believe it's the herb Trader that has what JB needs. Let's say the rotation is at the start. So, JB waits each day as a Trader works through ore, dust, cloth, leather, and finally to herbs (interspersed with numerous Traders who don't have any of those recipes, wasting that day), which is what she needs. Then she has to hope that on that day the right Trader actually shows up in her garrison.

What are the chances? Not good. If random chance goes against you it could take a very long time to acquire critically needed recipes. For example, no Trader has ever set foot in any of my garrisons. None. Never.

This is stupidity on a large scale. Blizzard has no plan to fix this; ie, working as advertised. The "fix" to this comes from players who had to find a better way. It's not perfect, but with a little patience it can be done. I won't go through the specific steps, which must be followed by the letter. Here is what happens in general: On the day a Trader with the recipes you need is visiting random garrisons, you go to the Group Finder, then to Pre-Made groups, and then to Custom. Find a group on that list that advertises what you need, in JB's case it would be alchemy recipes. Join that group, and JB can be invited into that garrison to buy the recipes she needs from that Trader. The main thing to remember is to carry in your bags everything you need to buy the recipes. If it calls for iron ore, make sure you bring the right amount of ore. If it requires gold, have it ready. If you are missing something, sorry, you can't buy the recipe.

Even after all that it's still not a sure thing. Maybe no one feels like opening up their garrison to other players or no one creates the custom group? Then you are out of luck. Wait however long it takes for the right Trader to appear and try again.  Sucks, don't it?