First Aid crafts Healing Potions in World of Warcraft: Forever.
If you played Classic that sentence should stop you, because First Aid in Classic was a skill you levelled to 300 in an afternoon out of guilt and then never thought about again. It made bandages. That was the profession.
In Forever it makes six potions, three debuff cures, and a campfire kit, and it is arguably the most improved thing in the entire crafting system.
The six potions
These are the Healing Potion recipes now sitting on First Aid in the beta, with the skill level each needs:
| Potion | First Aid skill |
|---|---|
| Minor Healing Potion | 55 |
| Lesser Healing Potion | 85 |
| Healing Potion | 135 |
| Greater Healing Potion | 155 |
| Superior Healing Potion | 215 |
| Major Healing Potion | 275 |
The materials changed too. Alongside the usual herbs and vials, potion crafting now wants cooking ingredients: Mild Spices and Hot Spices turn up in the recipes. That is a small thing with a large knock-on, because it quietly ties a secondary profession to another secondary profession and makes the Cooking mats you were vendoring worth keeping.
One honest caveat. Every recipe listed above is confirmed on First Aid. Whether Alchemy still has its own versions of them is not confirmed, and the coverage that has looked at it says so openly rather than guessing. Do not drop Alchemy over this yet.
Three cures, which Classic never had
First Aid also picks up debuff removal, which used to be the exclusive business of specific classes:
- Woolen Tourniquet cures Bleed effects
- Simple Poultice cures diseases
- Anti-Venom handles poisons
Read that as a group-composition change rather than a crafting change. In Classic, "we have no dispel" was a real reason a five-man failed. A profession any character can take now covers three of those gaps out of a bag.
The camping kit
First Aid's entry into Forever's new Camping system is the First Aid Kit, crafted from Linen Bandages and Refreshing Spring Water. Placed at a campsite it grants a Stamina buff equivalent to Power Word: Fortitude, and because it is a variant of that buff rather than an addition to it, the two do not stack.
Worth knowing before you build a character around it: it is the buff that a Priest makes redundant. It matters most when you are alone.
What changed everywhere else
The First Aid rework is the headline, but it is not the whole story.
Over 600 new recipes have gone in across professions and level ranges. Not concentrated at the cap, either, which is consistent with how Forever has handled everything else: the 1 to 60 stretch is the game, not the queue for it.
A lot of those new recipes come from vendors attached to a new faction, the Azeroth Commerce Authority, whose representatives turn up in places like Redridge Mountains. If you are used to Classic, where learning recipes meant grinding reputation with Thorium Brotherhood or hoping a world drop appeared on the auction house, a vendor faction that just sells you patterns is a meaningful quality of life change.
And at the top end, every crafting profession now has a certification item that unlocks a title, usable only at 300 skill. It is cosmetic. It is also the first time vanilla-style profession maxing has had anything to show for it besides the recipes, and people will chase it.
What this means if you are picking professions now
Three practical reads, while the beta is still running and none of this is final:
Take First Aid on everything. It was already free, in that it costs you nothing but a primary slot it does not occupy. Now it carries your potions, your cures and a camp buff. There is no character in Forever that is worse off for having it.
Do not panic-drop Alchemy. Flasks still run through the Alchemy Lab at campsites, and the question of whether Alchemy keeps Healing Potions is open. Wait for the beta to answer it.
Cooking got more interesting than it looks. It supplies spices to potion crafting and it owns the upgraded Campfires that take a campsite from three objects to ten. A profession that was a stat-food dispenser in Classic now sits underneath two other systems.
Still unknown
- Whether Alchemy retains Healing Potions alongside First Aid.
- The full recipe list for most professions. Beta datamining is two days old.
- The exact wording and requirements of the 300-skill certification items.
- Whether the Azeroth Commerce Authority has reputation tiers or is a flat vendor faction.
We will update this as the beta build fills in. In the meantime the Camping guide covers the system all of these objects feed into, the beta datamine covers set bonuses and talents, and Forever versus Classic versus Retail is the one to read if you are still deciding which of the three to play on November 4.
Cover art: Blizzard Entertainment, from the official World of Warcraft: Forever product page. HostedGG is not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard.
Sources: Icy Veins for the six Healing Potion recipes and their First Aid skill levels, the Mild Spices and Hot Spices material change, and the note that these were Alchemy recipes in other versions of WoW; Warcraft Tavern's First Aid profession preview for the Woolen Tourniquet, Simple Poultice and Anti-Venom cures, the First Aid Kit's Linen Bandage and Refreshing Spring Water recipe, its Power Word: Fortitude equivalence, and the open question over whether Alchemy keeps its potions; Warcraft Tavern's profession roundups for the 600-plus new recipes, the Azeroth Commerce Authority vendors, and the 300-skill certification titles; Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Forever Deep Dive panel recap for the Alchemy Lab and the campsite system.
