WoW professions

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

So I restarted my WoW gaming and I am trying to decide what professions to go with. I'm a miner now, but I need to figure my next one. I prefer something that will make money. I have thought about skinning, but seeing as it is that it is very tied to leathermaking, I'm not so sure, especially since I am already a miner. Blacksmithing may seem natural but when I last did blacksmithing a few years back, advancing up the ladder was turning very expensive and there was absolutely no guarantee of returns. So that left engineering. Is that profession extremely useful? There's also herbalism if I really wanted to go 100% gatherer and just sell it on the auction house.

[Alan Bolte]

I'm not sure about low levels, but I've heard that at high levels right now money isn't an issue at all. You can swap talent trees three times a day and not even blink at the cost.

[Civil War Man]

Blizzard hates Blacksmiths. Proven fact. If you ever doubt this, find a level 70 with blacksmithing and ask them about Imperial Plate.

Engineering is expensive, but it gives you a number of things including:

Bombs
A flying mount
Helmets comparable to Tier 5 raid gear
More bombs
Upgrades for both the flying mount and the helmets
The ability to open locks without a rogue
A devices that allows you to mine elemental motes in the high level areas, which you can then turn around and sell for lots of money (did I mention that the previously mentioned helmets allow you to quickly locate nearby sources for these motes?)
Robots that can repair gear
The most powerful gun in the game
Teleporters
And even more bombs

Alternatively, you could try jewelcrafting. Like engineering, it requires a lot of investment, but once you get trained up you will not be hard-pressed to find players willing to buy stuff from you.

[Gerald Tarrant]

So I restarted my WoW gaming and I am trying to decide what professions to go with. I'm a miner now, but I need to figure my next one. I prefer something that will make money.

I thought you could pair blacksmithing and jewel-crafting, It's been about a year since I played, but I thought jewel-crafters could prospect mined ore for jewels which usually sell for a decent amount.

I have thought about skinning, but seeing as it is that it is very tied to leathermaking, I'm not so sure, especially since I am already a miner. Blacksmithing may seem natural but when I last did blacksmithing a few years back, advancing up the ladder was turning very expensive and there was absolutely no guarantee of returns. So that left engineering. Is that profession extremely useful?

Engineers can makes some very impressive stuff. Back when I played I was a pally tank; and people only let me tank heroics in their groups because of the goggles I had. Link the problem was that the materials to level up engineering were a bit expensive.

Note: I've missed a few patches, and I'm told that pally tanks have been fixed a little, and money has been improved, so maybe engineering won't be as expensive for you to level up.

Engineers also have a few quirky items like this Link and the gnomish poultryizer is fun.

Oh and Civil War Man beat me to all of the above, so this is really just a ditto what he said, but I didn't want to erase it.

[Sriad]

Bad news: you don't make money with professions unless you have a pattern/recipe that is in high-demand, low supply; or unless you take gathering professions and farm. Except for alchemy, item producing professions are very expensive from 350-375.

Measured in terms of fun stuff no-one else gets, engineering is still the richest way to go.

What class are you playing?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Bad news: you don't make money with professions unless you have a pattern/recipe that is in high-demand, low supply; or unless you take gathering professions and farm. Except for alchemy, item producing professions are very expensive from 350-375.

Measured in terms of fun stuff no-one else gets, engineering is still the richest way to go.

What class are you playing?

I'm a dwarven Paladin. Yeah, that was what I was worried about. A lot of professions are either borderline useless (like Blacksmithing) or expensive.

[Ghost Rider]

Moved because this has more relevance then most topics, and far better read.

1. Mining serves to fuel Engineering(Partially), Blacksmithing, Jewel Crafting.

2. Big money is made dependant on server. Mining or Herbing rake in large amounts of cash because gold is at a constant high from the many many easy dailies.

Since you're a Paladin...Blacksmithing is the best option to one of the best weapons you can have(Stormherald or Lionheart Champion are both insanely good weapons for either PvP or PvE barring the Season 4 or Sunwell). Expensive...but money rains down currently and farming for the materials is not nearly as arduous as before.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Moved because this has more relevance then most topics, and far better read.

1. Mining serves to fuel Engineering(Partially), Blacksmithing, Jewel Crafting.

2. Big money is made dependant on server. Mining or Herbing rake in large amounts of cash because gold is at a constant high from the many many easy dailies.

Since you're a Paladin...Blacksmithing is the best option to one of the best weapons you can have(Stormherald or Lionheart Champion are both insanely good weapons for either PvP or PvE barring the Season 4 or Sunwell). Expensive...but money rains down currently and farming for the materials is not nearly as arduous as before.

Hmm.. So I guess what I can do at the start is go do mining and selling and saving up for Blacksmithing? Actually, right now, for blacksmithing, which is a better choice? Weapon smithing or armour smithing?

[Sharp-kun]

Since you're a Paladin...Blacksmithing is the best option to one of the best weapons you can have(Stormherald or Lionheart Champion are both insanely good weapons for either PvP or PvE barring the Season 4 or Sunwell). Expensive...but money rains down currently and farming for the materials is not nearly as arduous as before.

Depends what spec you're going. As Prot I found the items from Blacksmithing to be crap compared to Engineering (and less fun in general).

Engineering gives you a decent +40 sta trinket, and around t5 level goggles (that I didn't replace till well into ZA).

[D.Turtle]

I'll add my support for Engineering: You not only get access to many intersting bombs, various fun items, an annoying Mount, but you can also make a LOT of money farming primals.

There are a few good items with Blacksmithing, however, starting at this point in the game, your main goal should be getting ready for WOTLK. Nobody knows what the various benefits of the professions will be right now, so the goal should be to take a profession that nets you a lot of money, and gives you various benefits very quickly.

Engineering fits the bill. Blacksmithing doesn't (it's just a money sink).

[Lord Revan]

my chars have, Blacksmithing (363/375 skill points), tailoring (366/375) and alchemy (375/375)

personally I'd prefer alchemy as everyone needs pots and flasks and it's easy to lvl especially if you got herbalism.

Blacksmithing doesn't do alot of money unless you got one of the few ultra rare stuff, Engineering is good cash and personal use as is Jewlcrafting (that's my personal opinion at least)

[loomer]

Real men go engineering. Goblin engineering.

Real men also play rogues. A blood elf rogue with engineering is almost unstoppable against casters with their chain of interrupts. Kick, cheapshot, mana drain, stun bombs...

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I'll add my support for Engineering: You not only get access to many intersting bombs, various fun items, an annoying Mount, but you can also make a LOT of money farming primals.

There are a few good items with Blacksmithing, however, starting at this point in the game, your main goal should be getting ready for WOTLK. Nobody knows what the various benefits of the professions will be right now, so the goal should be to take a profession that nets you a lot of money, and gives you various benefits very quickly.

Engineering fits the bill. Blacksmithing doesn't (it's just a money sink).

What's WOTLK?

[Broomstick]

I know I'm coming late to the party, but my recommendation is two gathering professions until around level 40, selling stuff on the AH to make lots of money. At 40, after you get that mount, pick up a crafting profession. As for which one - I don't really have anything to add to the above.

[Broomstick]

What's WOTLK?

Wrath of the Lich King - the next expansion.

No date announced, but they're starting beta testing.

[Ghost Rider]

Moved because this has more relevance then most topics, and far better read.

1. Mining serves to fuel Engineering(Partially), Blacksmithing, Jewel Crafting.

2. Big money is made dependant on server. Mining or Herbing rake in large amounts of cash because gold is at a constant high from the many many easy dailies.

Since you're a Paladin...Blacksmithing is the best option to one of the best weapons you can have(Stormherald or Lionheart Champion are both insanely good weapons for either PvP or PvE barring the Season 4 or Sunwell). Expensive...but money rains down currently and farming for the materials is not nearly as arduous as before.

Hmm.. So I guess what I can do at the start is go do mining and selling and saving up for Blacksmithing? Actually, right now, for blacksmithing, which is a better choice? Weapon smithing or armour smithing?

If you're going for Tanking? Armorsmithing.

If you're going for Retribution? Weaponsmithing. Preferably Sword or Mace, the Axe isn't that good.

If you're going for Holy? Neither, as the best thing to do for Holy is go for the Merciless healing weapon as it is better then anything short of Mount Hyjal/Black Temple.

Interestingly, the best thing a Blacksmither can sell is the Sharpening/Weight stones. Most raiders will go for these things, but that depends on the raid scence of you particular server.

As for why I didn't recommend endgineering?

1 Tier 5 helm(That you can acquire better from PvP), a few bombs(Which most have failures at level 60+), and a couple trinkets have really raped the profession, let alone the sheer money sink they have made it to raise to level 375.

The only good thing they've done is give you a unique flying mount as some half assed consolation gift.

As for prepartions for Wrath, only do so if you really want to. It's a bit off and personally unless you're deep into 70 and bored out your gourd, no need.

[Civil War Man]

Actually, as a paladin, you get 3 Tier 5 helms (Tankatronics, Justicebringers, and Furious Gizmatics), all of which can be upgraded at 70 by grabbing recipes from Sunwell Plateau trash mobs.

Also, farming primals is a major cash cow for engineers, which is something that's available in the low 60s.

By the way, comparing armorsmithing to engineering

The Mithril order quest series gives you 6 recipes and a couple trinkets, and requires you to use up 40 iron bars, 30 steel bars, 342 mithril bars, 26 truesilver bars, 12 heavy grinding stones, 9 solid grinding stones, 4 citrine, 2 aquamarines, 20 thick leather, 18 mageweave cloth, and 1 heart of fire. For the plans.

Oh, and by the time you'll be able to actually craft the set for yourself, you'll probably be high enough level that you'll have better armor from other sources.

Then there's the Imperial plate set. It requires you to turn in 135 thorium bars for the plans. Just the plans. In order to actually make it you need another 114 thorium, 12 rugged leather, and a star ruby.

EDIT: My guild blacksmith made me an Imperial Plate set, because dammit I was a plate wearer and so I'm going to get one. All the pieces are in my bank account. I already had better gear than half the set. By the time I entered Outland, the only pieces I was still wearing were the helmet and boots. And those were replaced within a week or two of entering Outland.

On the other hand, becoming a gnomish engineer requires 18 mithril bars, 6 bronze bars, 6 iron bars, 1 gold bar, 1 weak flux, 1 jade, 1 citrine, 2 medium leather, 8 heavy leather, 2 wool cloth, and 4 steel bars. Becoming a goblin engineer requires 2 silver bars, 30 iron bars, 40 heavy stone, 20 solid stone, 10 silk cloth, 20 wool cloth, 20 bronze bars, and 5 medium leather. Either of these nets you access to a specialized trainer. The only potential downside is that they periodically ask for a couple gold in order to maintain this access (which can be paid at any time really), at which point they send you something (up to and including extremely rare recipes) as compensation.

Basically, my guild has one blacksmith. Multiple engineers, multiple alchemists, multiple enchanters, multiple jewelcrafters. But one blacksmith. We determined that trying to train a second one would be too much of a drain on our guild resources.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

What's the difference between a gnomish and goblin engineer? Higher levels or two different paths?

[loomer]

Different paths. Goblin = big boom. Gnome = fancy, worthless gadgets.

[Ghost Rider]

Don't have to do the Mithril Order to get through Blacksmithing. And sorry, nothing compares to the final end for Engineering's 365-375 run in terms of item needs or spent items.

Also, given the propensity of T5 items that can be gotten through PvP...the only goggles one needs are the tank items.

The problem with going Blacksmithing is worse, is the speed guides say differently across the board. Also anyone banking on getting the Sunwell upgraded goggles? You're fucking high unless you like the trash, have a guild that does nothing but trash runs, or a guild that is farming Kil.

Engineering is fun. I have a 375 because I figured what the hell, but I can make more from Blacksmithing sharpening stones, and the ONLY thing I make money via engineering is the Mana/Healing injectors.

[Ghost Rider]

What's the difference between a gnomish and goblin engineer? Higher levels or two different paths?

Different paths, but in the end, virtually nothing except you either get a poultry changer(Fun in Pvp) or you get a rocket launcher(Fun to watch in PvP).

[White Haven]

Okay, few things.

Engineering: The most powerful gun in the game.

Doesn't apply to your paladin, but this is simply wrong in all respects. The Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer is epic, but a pretty crappy one that you will replace with ease.

Armorsmithing for a tank is O.o. Almost all the BS gear is DPS gear at high level, with a little healing gear. Tanking plate, and ESPECIALLY tanking plate that a paladin will want...just about nonexistent, and what little there is is usually BoE, so you can get someone else to make it.

I took my tankadin engineering for the tanking goggles, personally, but if you don't want to go that route, don't bother with a crafting profession. BS is pointless as a tanking paladin, and unless you wanted to level enchanting for ring enchants, you'd probably be better off with a second gathering profession.

[Ghost Rider]

I will give this. Since we don't know his level, that would give a better ballpark.

If he's low(anything below 69), it's better to go full out gathering. Be it Herb/Skin or Mine/Skin (Herb/Mine has the problem of competeting radars) and just rake in the cash.

If 70, it depends on how he wants to take his Pally. If Healing....PvP offers better item until late SSC/TK even in MH/BT. If Tanking...it's painful since it's almost all drops. If DPS...Blacksmithing since the weapons are better then most drops until MH/BT.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Well, I'm just starting, and after a few hours of playing, I'm a lvl 16. So yes, I'm very low level.

Though I would hope someone would explain the acronyms, like DPS ...

[loomer]

DPS is damage per second.