Whoever smelt it...

The times when a pair of pants prove newsworthy are tragically rare, and when they are it's usually not a good thing. Thankfully, a community discovery in World of Warcraft: Forever has remedied that.

The Smelting Pants, discovered and posted to the World of Warcraft Classic Reddit, are a groundbreaking pair of trousers that could change the game's profession-related crafting forever.

A rare drop from a currently unknown location, these leather pantaloons provide boosts in both Stamina and Spirit. More importantly, though, they reduce the smelting time of copper, tin, bronze, and silver by a whopping 25 percent.

This may not sound like a big deal, but it has major ramifications for the wider release of World of Warcraft: Forever. In Classic WoW - the unaltered vanilla WoW experience - no gear with profession boosts like this exists, signalling game-changing intent on the behalf of Blizzard, and much needed help for those focusing on professions in Forever's full release.

A somewhat similar system is in place in the modern version of World of Warcraft. In recent expansions, profession equipment has been added that provides boosts to crafting and gathering skills. However, these differ in that they are mostly crafted using the profession system, rather than being a drop from something in the wider world.

There have been items in Classic WoW that boosted skills, such as fancier fishing rods, however those only offered boosts to your overall profession level. The Smelting Pants are altogether different: the bonuses to smelting time are unrivaled in pre-existing Classic WoW equipment, garments or otherwise.

The reactions to this Reddit trouser-post are as delighted and playful as you might expect. MaleficentBank405 wrote: "Fantastic pants", while LeWigre responded: "I love this kind of stuff. Not everything has to improve your character, some things can just be fun or pretty to get!" HighWalker321 put it more simply: "I call these my hot pants."

Who knew a pair of pants could be so exciting? It's one example of the deluge of unexpected new things players are discovering in the World of Warcraft: Forever beta. Whether this sort of treasure exists later on in the game's more treacherous locales is something we'll have to find out, come Forever's full release on 4th November.

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