Professions professions

Professions, Professions. What to do….

I sit this morning pondering A conversation I had yesterday with a friend of mine I can’t link to. Not because he wants to be all anonymous and stuff, or that you wouldn’t get a chuckle out of hearing him talk about the game. He just does not happen to have a blog (that I know of). His take on the Internet seems to be one more of “log in, play, log off”. Anyhow, i digress.

We were talking yesterday about what professions we intend to take in the expansion. The things that came up most was the question of which professions are “must have” and which are just fun. Which ones are money sinks *cough* Enchanting *cough* and which offer the best benefit to their crafters.

 

 

Going through my feed reader this morning I also spotted an excellent article on this topic by Shia of Bananna Shoulders. You can check it out HERE. Just remember to come back, I am not done babbling yet.

Back yet? Good. Here is what our conversation boiled down to. There are three reasons to level a profession (that I can think of). I will take a brief look at each one.

Cash 

First, I see leveling a profession as a way to make money. However depending on the skill some are simply not very good at it. In order to make money with a profession you must either have a limited source item such as a dropped pattern, a cooldown such as a transmute, or simply be a supplier to others using a gathering skill. If you don’t have one of those three things people leveling their skill and crafting for free for the skillups will forever keep prices of easy to get items down. In short, you will never make back your investment in leveling the skill.

An Edge

Second, I see a profession as a way to get the end game advantages that are only available to the practitioners of a given skill, such as Bind on pickup crafted items and stat bonuses. My own Primal Mooncloth gear comes to mind as a good example, it is the reason I leveled tailoring on my priest. I also see that coming up with the next patch even the long overlooked gathering skills will have specific buffs. Need more crit? level Skinning. Need more health? Mining might be for you.

Synergy

Third, Taking a profession because it just kind of “goes well” with another. Mining feeds Engineering, Blacksmithing, and Jewelcrafting. Herbalisim feeds Alchemy and Inscription. Skinning feeds Leatherworking. Tailoring and Enchanting often go together since neither require a specific gathering skill. Its all about making everything work together, allowing you to farm up your own materials and saving you money and aggravation.

 

So what to do? It depends on your style of play. Are you forever strapped for cash? Looking to make money without spending a ton? Find a profession that will give you a good return on your investment. Think gathering professions or perhaps Alchemy for the transmute cooldowns.

Are you spending your time in raids, arenas, battlegrounds, or anywhere else that the extra “edge” would truley matter? If so find the best combination to give you the buffs you want, regardless of cost.

You might be a person who could not conceive of leveling a production skill without having the gathering skill to support it. Perhaps even having multiple characters with all the right skills to work together. An example are the characters of the friend I was talking to. His two highest level characters are a Rogue with Mining and Engineering and a Paladin with Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting. For him its all about making everything work together.

You could even be like me, leveling more than one character trying to strike a balance between all three.