What am I going to be when I grow up?

Whew! that was tiring. All those pesky wolves and troggs and such. Well Since the last article in this series which you can find Here we have pounded our way through the starting quests in Coldridge valley, making level 6 along the way. In the process we picked up the spell to summon our first pet, the imp. I noticed life got alot easier once I had help, and so far the character is playing right about the way I expected it to.

Next thing on our list of things to do is head for the inn located in the town of Kharanos in Dun Morogh. This will be my new base camp, so I set my hearth here. next on my agenda is addressing my sadly lacking ability to store things and my obvious lack of funds. Yes I know I have several 70’s on this server that could just drop cash and gear on my shiny new warlock, but I think I will do this the old way.

The next question I need to ask myself is “what do I want to be when I grow up”? There are many skills to choose from, unfortunately I can only learn two. Lets take a look at the choices availible to us and see whare we want to go from there.

First we have our production skills, these actually produce either a service like enchanting or items for use or sale.

Alchemy: makes potions, flasks, elixers, and oils using herbs and various other reagents. providing many beneficial effects. It can also be a reasonlably good money maker, especaily when combined with Herbalisim.

Blacksmithing: specalises in the creation of metallic armor, weapons, and weapon enhancing stones. has good synergy when combined with Mining: but since I cannot use most of what it provides it is not really a good fit for this character.

Engineering: is quite a fun profession with lots of interesting things to help you in your travels. It also goes well with Mining:, however I already have an engineer so I will pass on this one as well.

Leatherworking: allows a player to take skins and hides and convert them into leather armour items and armor kits. goes very well with Skinning: which can be a good money maker in its own right. However since I am limited to cloth armor here I will pass on this one as well.

Tailoring: there is a lot to be said for being able to convert all that cloth I am going to gather into useful items. It does not really require a gathering skill which leaves you free to take a second production skill. Often coupled with Enchanting: as it also requires no gathering skill. If I did not already have a tailor I would most certainly go this route.

Jewelcrafting: is next on our list. It allows you to craft rings, necklaces, and several really nice BOP trinkets. In addition you will be able to craft gems to socket into high level gear to enhance its performance. a good money maker that goes well with Mining:, it is definately a contender as one of my choices.

Enchanting: allows you to take uncommon (green) or better items and disenchant them into dusts, essences, and shards that are in turn used to provide enhancements to other items. Does not really have a gathering skill associated with it and as such generaly goes well with Tailoring:. A good choice for this character, but as I already have an enchanter I will pass this time.

Next we have our gathering skills. These will not produce anything directly but gather raw materials either for ues by your other profession or to sell to get cash.

Herbalisim: allows you to harvest herbs from the ground, or occasionaly from dead enemies. goes well with Alchemy:. However it is still a good money maker int its own right.

Mining: Allows you to gather ore from various mineral deposits, also occasionaly from dead enemies. goes well with Jewelcrafting:, Engineering:, and Blacksmithing:. It is also a good money maker in it’s own right. Requires a mining pick.

Skinning: allows a player to take hides and skins from dead beasts. goes well with Leatherworking:, while still being a strong money maker on its own. requires a skinning knife.

If this was my first character, or my only character on this server I would most certainly go with skinning and herbalisim to make money as I leveled, with plans to later drop skinning and pick up alchemy. However that is not the case so I elected to go with Herbalisim and Alchemy right away.

Another good combination for this charactar would have been either mining and jewelcrafting or tailoring and enchanting. I simply decided that the potions I could make for all my characters outweighed the benefits of the other combinations.

So there we have my rambling thouhghts on what professions I decided to take with this character and why. Taking mining and jewelcrafting was a really close second choice, however I am thinking that I may want to use this character as an inscriptionist in the next expansion. When I pick this up again I will look into how I plan to make money to support my adventuring lifestyle.