Professions
Professions are an interesting progression path indeed, as they are quite similar to Classes, yet also contain some elements of Skills in the form of their Profession Actions. Their most famous aspect is that they are a predominantly non-combative progression path, with little in the way of combat potential being available to them through progression, and only a few exceptional circumstances (such as the Battle Maid profession) offering an exception, and several professions lead into classes in a way that is not like any other progression path.
Typically, professions make up for this lacking combat potential by being unrivalled masters of their out-of-combat craft, and they typically cover archetypes such as farmers, service workers (maids, butlers, waiters etc), craftsmen, merchants, and so on, and while they're not as bombastic as skills, as evenly balanced as classes or as potent as cultivation, they excel at what they do and offer some potent benefits, and some cross-support with the non-cultivation progression paths - which is good, because they are really bad at multi-path progression.
Focus (FO). Governs how well a profession-user can concentrate and perform their tasks. Plays a significant role (alongside the core attributes) in determining the speed inherent to various profession-specific mechanical outputs, such as crafting stamina and magia use, bonuses to item gathering, the rate at which a maid can clean, and so on.
Control (CO). Governs how well a profession-user can enact fine motor control, determining the quality of various profession-specific mechanical outputs, such as crafted (and gathered) item quality, the rarity of gathered items that can be found, how much of a material is expended in crafting, how well a maid can clean, and so on.
Indeed, as multi-stage professions get advanced down, the idea that professions can't fight starts to slowly get dropped in some cases, as some professions come along that completely buck this trend, and the presence of Profession Actions on all professions can aid these professions with this fact too.
It's quite common on high-tier Professions, and one of the most famous examples of this is the humble Maid; the Maid profession starts off broad, but gets increasingly specific and branches down several paths, but one of them - the Battle Maid path - ends in the eponymous Battle Maid profession, which allows for Weapon Mastery Skills and the Warrior and Guardian Classes to be obtained as though they were professions.
When a profession allows this, it's a really interesting nuance that the System permits; the Classes selected and Skills learned are completely treated as professions (following the Core Level rules appropriate to their sources, so 1 per level for Classes, and one per 2 refinement for Skills) but Classes grant all of their usual benefits (the new attributes, the essence and ability capacity and the class abilities, and so on), and where Skills are concerned, a profession-user can learn up to 20 of them, spread across their permitted options, and can have a maximum of 4 Skill Rows, but only start with 1, having to earn the other 3 as normal for Skill Rows, and because these paths are still treated as professions, they are never valid for the path-specific Perks, but they can use the Perk Points gained from these options for combat-related perks!
They can't bypass the Core Limits of the other paths (so for Skills, 4 Skill Rows is all they'll ever have, and for Classes, 40 Core Levels in Classes is the most they'll have), however, but it makes them very versatile. All of these options only start to appear after the Profession Core Limit, though, meaning most Corewalkers will never even get to try them, and Cultivation is never an option. Curiously as well, this makes Professions the only progression path able to get three progression paths at once!
For professions, like with classes, there exists two distinct ways to overcome this limitation; the first is to accept the System's reset offer at Core Level 40 and revert to Core Level 1, losing all attributes, perks and whatnot that were gained and retaining only one Profession - though it is a Profession of the Corewalker's choice that they have access to.
Another method, however, for those who don't want to reset their Core Level and start over again, is to undertake a complicated Quest allocated by the System. This Quest is designed to push the Corewalker to the limit and ensure they have what it takes to handle the higher level power inherent to the upper end of professions - and a full reset to Core Level 1 already shows this determination, which is why this is an alternative method.
Regardless of which method is chosen, upon the completion of either the Core Limit for Professions is lifted for the Corewalker, and they won't run into it again, but only for Professions (if they did a complete reset to go into Skills for example they could run into that Core Limit still).
Professions
Typically, professions make up for this lacking combat potential by being unrivalled masters of their out-of-combat craft, and they typically cover archetypes such as farmers, service workers (maids, butlers, waiters etc), craftsmen, merchants, and so on, and while they're not as bombastic as skills, as evenly balanced as classes or as potent as cultivation, they excel at what they do and offer some potent benefits, and some cross-support with the non-cultivation progression paths - which is good, because they are really bad at multi-path progression.
Profession-specific Attributes
Investing into Professions as a progression path - be it the primary or secondary one of a Corewalker - offers a pair of very important new secondary attributes that they gradually improve over time. These can be found below, and are absolutely vital to how Professions function over all.The Overlap With Classes
Professions have a lot in common with Classes, even down to sharing the same 10-level system that defines Classes; each profession has 10 levels to it, after which a profession user has to select a new profession to level, be it an actually new profession or a new stage of their current one. Multi-stage professions are common, which get increasingly more supernaturally specialised as you go on, but it's also very common for a Corewalker to stop after a single Profession, and remain at Core Level 10 for their entire life if they're content that way.Indeed, as multi-stage professions get advanced down, the idea that professions can't fight starts to slowly get dropped in some cases, as some professions come along that completely buck this trend, and the presence of Profession Actions on all professions can aid these professions with this fact too.
Cross-Disciplinary Professions
Multi-pathing is in general quite restricted, and professions aren't allowed to even do it in general (as noted here), but that is because of how... curious professions truly are. Depending on the profession in question, it is possible to progress directly into other progression paths while still having them count as professions for all intents and purposes.It's quite common on high-tier Professions, and one of the most famous examples of this is the humble Maid; the Maid profession starts off broad, but gets increasingly specific and branches down several paths, but one of them - the Battle Maid path - ends in the eponymous Battle Maid profession, which allows for Weapon Mastery Skills and the Warrior and Guardian Classes to be obtained as though they were professions.
When a profession allows this, it's a really interesting nuance that the System permits; the Classes selected and Skills learned are completely treated as professions (following the Core Level rules appropriate to their sources, so 1 per level for Classes, and one per 2 refinement for Skills) but Classes grant all of their usual benefits (the new attributes, the essence and ability capacity and the class abilities, and so on), and where Skills are concerned, a profession-user can learn up to 20 of them, spread across their permitted options, and can have a maximum of 4 Skill Rows, but only start with 1, having to earn the other 3 as normal for Skill Rows, and because these paths are still treated as professions, they are never valid for the path-specific Perks, but they can use the Perk Points gained from these options for combat-related perks!
They can't bypass the Core Limits of the other paths (so for Skills, 4 Skill Rows is all they'll ever have, and for Classes, 40 Core Levels in Classes is the most they'll have), however, but it makes them very versatile. All of these options only start to appear after the Profession Core Limit, though, meaning most Corewalkers will never even get to try them, and Cultivation is never an option. Curiously as well, this makes Professions the only progression path able to get three progression paths at once!
The Profession Core Limit
Each progression method has a progression limit built into it - something that completely blocks further progression until it is overcome - which is discussed in broad terms in the progression paths article. For professions, the Core Limit is the same as Classes; Core Level 40, and it acts as a hard limit on further progression, completely blocking Experience gain beyond that point.For professions, like with classes, there exists two distinct ways to overcome this limitation; the first is to accept the System's reset offer at Core Level 40 and revert to Core Level 1, losing all attributes, perks and whatnot that were gained and retaining only one Profession - though it is a Profession of the Corewalker's choice that they have access to.
Another method, however, for those who don't want to reset their Core Level and start over again, is to undertake a complicated Quest allocated by the System. This Quest is designed to push the Corewalker to the limit and ensure they have what it takes to handle the higher level power inherent to the upper end of professions - and a full reset to Core Level 1 already shows this determination, which is why this is an alternative method.
Regardless of which method is chosen, upon the completion of either the Core Limit for Professions is lifted for the Corewalker, and they won't run into it again, but only for Professions (if they did a complete reset to go into Skills for example they could run into that Core Limit still).
Profession-specific Progression
For further reading, I encourage you to look at Profession Actions, the active (and passive!) effects that each Profession has tied to it. You can find this below. Alternative, you can view the various professions below, which are - naturally - all-importing to being profession-driven. You can either refer to the category link itself, or the list of professions.Professions
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