My Disciple of Hand classes are just now reaching the point where I can specialize in crafting disciples. However, as I am limited to three specializations, I'd like to know what the benefits are for each class before I choose.
Many of the existing guides are from the start of the expansion and there have been tweaks over the patches where some specialization items can now be crafted by anyone. It also doesn't seem like the special specialist abilities make a big difference in being able to craft HQ items.
So what remains special about each class's specialization? What benefits would specializing in a particular disciple bring?
Best Answer
There are two major reasons you'd want to specialise in specific crafts:
The 'Soul of the [Crafter Name]' item gives a bonus of 20 to both Craftsmanship and Control, making it easier to reach stat requirements for the crafts which require them, and;
All crafts have a small number of 'Specialist Recipes' which require an equipped 'Soul of the [Crafter Name]' to make even if you have the required stats for the craft.
Having the 'Soul of the [Crafter Name]' equipped also grants access to a number of exclusive skills, however these are generally not considered useful (with the occasional exception of 'Innovative Touch')
It is worth noting that specialist recipes for any craft will only require specialization for that patch cycle, so for example the new specialist recipes introduced with patch 3.3 can be expected to no longer require specialization once patch 3.4 hits the servers. However, each new major patch also introduces new crafting recipes, and inevitably a subset of these recipes will be marked as specialist recipes, so there will always be some items that are exclusively available to specialists.