World of Warcraft Was Meant to Have Viable Levelling Gear From Professions Back in 2004, but Raid and Dungeon Designers 'Cheated a Little Bit'

Principal game designer Kris Zierhut said in a Polygon interview that vanilla World of Warcraft was designed so professions would provide viable levelling gear from the start, with clear guidelines for how powerful it could be. Instead, raid and dungeon designers quietly boosted their gear's stats, while crafting designer Eric Dodds followed the rules. Zierhut noted these mistakes could not be fixed during Classic's "no changes" era and are only now addressable in World of Warcraft: Forever.